In order to be ranked on the list, a franchise company needs to be courting new franchisees in the U.S. or Canada. Companies that made the list also need to have had at least 10 units open and operating as of July 31, 2023, with at least one U.S.-based franchise.

Factors such as franchise cost and fees, size and growth, network support and brand strength determined each company’s evaluation.

Companies like Interim HealthCare, Home Instead and Senior Helpers ranked the highest of the home-based care franchises that managed to grab a spot on the list.

Interim HealthCare

— Rank: 59

— 2023 Rank: 55

— Units: 655

— Based in Sunrise, Florida, and a part of Caring Brands National, Interim is a franchise that provides home health, hospice, palliative care and other services across locations in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Home Instead

— Rank: 149

— 2023 Rank: 155

— Units: 1,217

— Home Instead is a Omaha, Nebraska-based personal care franchise company that has locations in over a dozen countries. In 2021, the home care technology company Honor acquired Home Instead.

Senior Helpers

— Rank: 172

— 2023 Rank: 172

— Units: 361

— Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national personal care network, as well as adult day centers. The company was acquired by Advocate Health Enterprises in 2021.

Homewatch CareGivers

— Rank: 222

— 2023 Rank: 208

— Units: 222

— Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers is a home care franchise company that operates in over 30 states and seven countries. The franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers.

Griswold Home Care

— Rank: 252

— 2023 Rank: 267

— Units: 186

— The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states.

ComForCare

— Rank: 254

— 2023 Rank: 402

— Units: 229

— ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has hundreds of territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas. ComForCare operates under parent company Best Life Brands. Another Best Life Brands company, Blue Moon Estate Sales, also ranked on the Franchise 500 list.

BrightStar Care

— Rank: 279

— 2023 Rank: 141

— Units: 373

— Chicago-based BrightStar is a provider of home care, senior living and supplemental staffing. The organization has been deliberately increasing its company-owned footprint of late.

Assisting Hands Home Care

— Rank: 280

— 2023 Rank: 229

— Units: 193

— Assisting Hands Home Care offers both medical and non-medical assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, companionship, chores and more.

HomeWell Care Services

— Rank: 283

— 2023 Rank: 347

— Units: 136

— HomeWell is a Burkburnett, Texas-based home care franchise that operates across the U.S. The company offers companion care, personal care, as well as specialty care.

Right at Home

— Rank: 318

— 2023 Rank: 260

— Units: 716

— Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with locations in the U.S. and six other countries.

Nurse Next Door

— Rank: 418

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 183

— Vancouver, Canada-based Nurse Next Door is a home care franchise system that operates in the U.S., Canada and Australia. As an organization, the company provides personal care, companionship care, homemaking services, dementia care and more.

FirstLight Home Care

— Rank: 438

— 2023 Rank: 327

— Units: 197

— Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care is a provider of non-medical home care. The company also has a specialized care program aimed at seniors with dementia.

Synergy HomeCare

— Rank: 449

— 2023 Rank: 483

— Units: 453

— Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Home Helpers

— Rank: 475

— 2023 Rank: 396

— Units: 308

— The Cincinnati-based Home Helpers is a home care franchise that provides personal care, nutrition and companionship services, among others. It serves over 1,000 communities in the U.S.

Visiting Angels

— Rank: 479

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 692

— Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Visiting Angels is an in-home senior care company that provides companion care, personal care services and more.

The post 15 Home-Based Care Providers Rank On Entrepreneur’s Annual Franchise 500 List appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The area representative approach is not unheard-of in home care — for instance, it is used by Always Best Care, which has more than 200 U.S. locations. However, it is not the norm for this industry.

“Other franchise companies do it, but very rarely do you hear of a home care or hospice company using this model,” Assisting Hands CEO Lane Kofoed told Home Health Care News.

The system relies on area representatives who own and operate a pilot business in a particular geography, and then bring local franchisees into the group, providing training and support in conjunction with the national office.

The model works well in home care because states differ in their licensure requirements and ways of doing business, and understanding local markets is crucial to generating referrals, Kofoed said. So, having an expert on the ground provides a valuable layer of support, in addition to the national office.

Restaurant and hospitality franchises more commonly follow this model, with area reps playing a crucial role in finding land for new locations, Kofoed said.

“So, you don’t think of it as a model for services companies, but we’ve really benefited from it because of the additional training and support, even though it’s not finding land,” he told HHCN.

Requirements are higher for area representatives than for standard franchisees, with net worth and liquid cash requirements being more than double what they are for a normal franchisee, Kofoed said. This is because they are buying the initial franchise as well as the area together, and can then have a multi-unit business.

The net-worth requirement for Assisting Hands is $200,000 and the liquid cash requirement is $50,000, according to Entrepreneur’s 2018 Franchise 500 list, on which Assisting Hands ranked No. 164.

Beyond the financial requirements, area representatives need to have management skills, to excel at supporting and training others, Kofoed emphasized.

There are currently eight development areas for the company. One is in and around Chicago, where Rich Ueberfluss is the area representative and owns Assisting Hands locations in the suburbs of Hinsdale and Naperville. Ueberfluss recently also began servicing the state of Wisconsin. Growth is occurring in other markets as well. The owner of Assisting Hands Fort Myers, in Florida, has teamed up with a friend to purchase the Eastern Massachusetts and Vermont territories.

Sizing up South America

Further expansion could come outside the United States, with international sales being led by Armando Morales, owner of Assisting Hands Miami.

“International has a lot of low-hanging fruit,” Kofoed said, referring specifically to South America. There, shifting laws, regulations and consumer expectations are creating opportunities for companies like Assisting Hands, he believes.

While it’s possible to hire a caregiver for a low hourly rate in South American countries on an informal basis, there is a growing appreciation of the benefits and need for professionalized care—for instance, being able to count on a backup caregiver if one gets sick, Kofoed said. People in developing nations in South America are starting to have the resources to pay for this level of service, and at the same time laws and regs are shifting to have more stringent requirements.

One possible model for the international expansion is to create a master franchise type of arrangement, in which each country would have a master franchisor similar to the area representative in the United States, Kofoed said.

While making moves to tap new markets, Assisting Hands is not planning to accelerate growth much beyond its typical rate of one to two new locations a month. Wary of growing too fast but not wanting to be sluggish, the company is looking for a steady pace.

“We’re between the tortoise and hare,” Kofoed said.

Written by Tim Mullaney

The post Assisting Hands Adapts Restaurant-Style Franchising for Home Care appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The report consists of survey responses from 28,000 franchise operators who represent 339 brands. Each franchisee responded to 33 benchmark questions ranking their franchise in categories such as financial opportunity, training and support, leadership, operations and product development, markets, demographics and more. The resulting 2016 Top Franchise Opportunities list marks the top low-cost franchises with the highest franchisee satisfaction.

Home Instead Senior Care, a family network of locally owned franchise offices providing in-home care, earned a No.1 spot in the senior care category and also ranked in the top 20 franchises overall. Franchisees completed the survey in November, noting a startup investment between $100,000 and $115,000, a cash requirement of $48,000 and 644 units.

Visiting Angels, an agency with more than 500 non-medical senior home care franchises in 48 states, snagged the second spot in the senior care category and also appeared in the top 20 overall. Its startup investment ranges from $68,935 to $89,935 and its cash requirement is between $40,950 and $48,950 among 538 units.

Franchise Business Review featured a franchisee with another top senior care franchise, Interim HealthCare, the nation’s oldest health care franchise company, in its report. Interim HealthCare provides nursing, therapy and non-medical home care, hospice and health care staffing services across its more than 300 independently owned franchise locations in 43 states.

“I felt that Interim HealthCare offered the strongest support network,” said Dan Tomlinson, a franchisee with the company since 2013. “In addition, I liked that its business model would enable me to pursue many different business lines within the home health industry.”

Other home care agencies ranked by Franchise Business Review include:

• Amada Senior Care
• Home Care Assistance
• FirstLight HomeCare
• Right at Home
• Homewatch CareGivers
• BrightStar Care
• Qualicare Family Homecare
• Assisting Hands
• Nurse Next Door

Written by Kourtney Liepelt

The post The 12 Best-Liked Home Care Franchises appeared first on Home Health Care News.