The Franchise Insiders "Inside Scoop" Podcast
Jack and Jill Johnson are two of the most experienced franchise experts in the industry, and their podcast The Inside Scoop is a must-listen for anyone considering investing in a franchise. Here are five reasons why:1. Jack and Jill have over 20 years of experience in the franchise industry. 2. They sell franchises, so they know which ones are actually making money. 3. They're not afraid to tell it like it is - you won't find any boring interviews on this podcast. 4. Every episode is jam-packed with financials and data that you can use to make an informed decision about which franchise is right for you. 5. Their insights and observations about the franchise industry are incredibly valuable - you won't find anything else like it out there. If you're thinking about investing in a franchise, make sure to add The Inside Scoop podcast to your must-listen list.
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Text: 305-710-0050
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The Franchise Insiders "Inside Scoop" Podcast
We Bought a Home Care Franchise | How Alanna Clark Found Success in Her 1st Year
🚀 Thinking about investing in a home care franchise? Wondering what it’s like to be a first-year franchise owner? This episode is packed with insights for aspiring senior care franchise owners!
💡 Meet Alanna Clark, a first-year HomeWell Care Services franchise owner who transitioned from finance to home care entrepreneurship. She’s joined by Mike Condon, VP of Franchise Development at HomeWell, to break down what it takes to thrive in this high-demand, recession-resistant industry.
🔹 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
✅ The realities of first-year franchise ownership – How Alanna grew to 12 clients in under a year
✅ Why compassion + business acumen = success in home care franchising
✅ How franchise support systems like HomeWell help new owners navigate challenges
✅ The importance of competitive employee pay in building a thriving team
✅ Why senior care franchises like Senior Helpers franchise, HomeWell, and Visiting Angels are in such high demand
✅ How franchise flexibility & operational systems empower new business owners
✅ The role of AI & technology in senior care – innovation without losing the human touch
✅ Why working with franchise consultants can help you choose the right home care franchise
💼 Considering a Home Care Franchise? Let’s Talk!
📩 info@thefranchiseinsiders.com
Text: 305-710-0050
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the we Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson.
Speaker 2:I'm Jill Johnson.
Speaker 1:And today we have two very exciting guests from HomeWell. We have franchise owner Alana Clark, and we also have the VP of Franchise Development, Mike Condon. Hi guys, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Hello Happy to be here Good morning. So for those of you tuning in for the first time, here's the whole point of our show. Jill and I are franchise owners of a franchise called Pink's Window Services. The whole point of this is to sort of document our journey in growing our franchise, which we opened last March and which, I'm happy to say, we grew to the top performing Pink's location at the end of last year.
Speaker 1:As of now we're getting our butts kicked by Sarasota in the month of January, so we've got to get back up to speed. What we like to do, guys, is interview fellow franchise owners, fellow franchise executives. So for all of you out there who are thinking about becoming franchise owners or maybe you are franchise owners and just looking for a little bit more sort of I don't know just guidance and a kick in the butt, here we are to help you do it. And, guys, let's start off. Alana, let's talk about your journey. We hear great things about you. Maybe share who you are and what led you to franchise ownership.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. First, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to chat with you today. As a reminder, my name is Alana Clark and a little bit about me. So I graduated with a finance degree. I started my career in corporate America finance and I loved it. I learned lots of valuable skills but I just knew it wasn't wasn't the final thing for me. I didn't really enjoy sitting behind a computer all day crunching numbers. I thought there was a little bit more out there for me. So what led me to open up a franchise is a little bit twofold One I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset.
Speaker 3:I grew up in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and I watched my great-grandmother live until she was almost 102 years old and I watched my grandma be her primary caregiver.
Speaker 3:We saw the challenges, the bumps in the road, the highs, the lows and ultimately my grandma decided to hire a service which bringing in a caregiving service into the home. Again, lots of highs, lots of lows, but it just really wasn't the right fit for my family. I kind of had that in the back of my mind of like how could I bring something valuable to whatever city I end up in? And then, on the flip side, my father-in-law. He actually owns a home well as well, so I've been shadowing him for the last three years. So once I was at a breaking point with my financial career, I said you know what? I think it is the time for me to open up my own business and what I mean. This is the best world to be in, giving back to the community but also kind of thinking about my great grandmother in the back of my head throughout this entire process. So August of this year, we took our first client and we are growing fast.
Speaker 1:Wow, so you're not even a year into your business yet.
Speaker 3:No, we're not. No, but it's felt like that a little bit, but it's also gone by so fast yeah.
Speaker 1:Lana, there's so much to talk about, and, mike, I want to hear from you in one second, but sometimes, as Jill knows, I've got to say these things before.
Speaker 2:I forget he's got to get it out.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what got Jill and I started in this franchise world is that my family had a company called Home Care Assistance, which now is known as the Key, and so I kind of came on very early when we had just like one location and helped grow that to 100 plus franchises, doing something very similar to what Mike does. And along the way I got to see franchise owners like you grow these extraordinary businesses. It's such a home care is such a great business. So my question, my first question for you is how many clients do you have currently?
Speaker 3:We have about 12 clients right now and it's busy. Some of our clients are only about 12 hours a week, some are 24 hour around the clock, so we at all times have caregivers working, which is fantastic.
Speaker 2:Clients is a good number. I mean that's you know, that's amazing. It's like some people may hear that and say 12, but in the home care world that's great.
Speaker 1:So beauty of home care.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Jill, you brought up a great point. I just the opportunity you talk about. You don't need thousands of clients in this industry to start and run a very successful business, as Alana has proven, and she's done it very quickly, which I think is the that's one of the reasons why I think her story is very fascinating, how quickly you can get there. But I tell you she works her butt off and I think, yeah, as you guys know, a franchise ownership is not easy.
Speaker 1:It's hard work and she's living proof that if you do it day in and day out, you can have success, and she's showing that, yeah, I mean, and it's such great work too, and we're next week we're going to go out to Seattle to see Jill's mom and you know we battle um to see Jill's mom and you know we're going through it now and I'll let Jill kind of dive into it. But um, jill's mom is now struggling with dementia and, uh, it's, it's hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it takes a special person to do it and it's it's one of those businesses, you know, anytime my mom's in memory care, so it's very different. But she didn't have caregivers prior to that and we come from a family where both my grandparents had caregivers, so it's been in my family, you know, as a client for as long as I can remember. But you know it takes a very special person and it really is such, like I think you said, to just it's just giving back. You know it's taking care of these people, you know at the end of their life. You know it's just it's it's such a good feeling that you're part of that, because so many of these people, they just they're wonderful people and they need that extra help and to be able to give it to them, just it just feels really good to do that. So I love this business for that too, from as a daughter, you know, going through it.
Speaker 3:And I think you mentioned something very important that it does take a special individual and I'm sure we'll talk about our staffing in a little bit but really what we look for is somebody that has a caregiver heart. You can always train the skills we have a fantastic training room but you need to have that caregiver heart in order to succeed in this industry. If you don't have that it'll it'll scare you away and you just need to have that caregiver heart and that drive to help people, and that's where we found the best.
Speaker 1:Would you say Alana, I mean again to be where you are. As fast as you've gotten there, I mean again I think that's it's, it's awesome and again you've got the right people behind you. We've been working with HomeWell since 2017. So, again talking about a super solid franchise HomeWell is it? Maybe talk about how do you the transition right, because it's still pretty fresh in your mind how do you transition from the corporate career that you had into home care? Maybe talk a little bit about that and how that transition's been for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, corporate America in my mind was really a job. It was kind of nine to five, maybe a little earlier, maybe a little later, but you can close your computer and kind of walk away. When you open up a franchise it really becomes more so your lifestyle than a job and you need to love what you do in order to succeed there. So this is not by any means a traditional nine to five. This is really around the clock, but it's something that I love doing. So it doesn't feel like a job.
Speaker 3:It didn't really feel like a really hard transition because it was something I was enjoying, especially as the owner, having control over really every aspect of the business. You can run with it really however you want. You can grow exponentially quickly or if you want to take your time, you can. And the beauty about this specific franchise is that HomeWell is willing to hold your hand as much as you really need. They always say trust the process. They give you a fantastic onboarding process where they train you again really as much as you want and need. But they set you up for success and once they see fit they kind of let you go and run it as you wish. So we always sell that to our clients, that while we're backed by a fantastic franchise, we run and operate like a family owned business. So back to answer your question. The transition really wasn't tough. It really was just kind of around the clock really deciding how we want to kind of plan out our future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, following on to that, you know know, we were talking last week with another home services owner. So what our business does is we, our guys, wash windows and power wash and we clean gutters and do those types of things we don't do it.
Speaker 1:We don't know how to do it, but we've got a great team that does and we were speaking to another franchise called rolling sides, which also does power washing, and they do kind of heavy duty power washing, and so we both were kind of talking about how, as new franchise owners, when we would close bigger like commercial deals, it's like oh hey, awesome, we just landed this big contract. Okay, let's go to work. Oh, wait a second. The accounts receivable is going to be 30 to 60 days and we're fronting payroll. Maybe talk about how home care is a little different, you and we're fronting payroll. Maybe talk about how home care is a little different, you guys.
Speaker 3:I don't think struggle with that. I think you guys probably are getting paid on a weekly basis, but maybe speak to that if you would. Sure, billing and payroll are on two different schedules. Payroll we do every two weeks, billing we do weekly. So every week Mondays or Tuesdays is when I run billing. So it's kind of just a nice little buffer to have for the every two weeks that comes up with payroll, and I'm not sure if we want to talk exact financials, but it's really from a contribution margin perspective. So it's really just revenue minus labor. It's about a 50% margin. So another thing that really sets us apart is that we really try to pay our people on the higher end than some of our competitors, because money talks and you get quality folks if you pay them what they deserve. So that's a little bit about it. I'm happy to go into deeper detail as well.
Speaker 1:Well, and just for clarification, and Mike, maybe you can chime in, but we're not making this podcast is not making any type of offer or anything like that podcast is not making any type of offer or anything like that. Any of you who want to explore the HomeWell franchise opportunity will want to speak to Mike and make sure you look at the franchise disclosure document, which includes the item six, which talks about the investment, as well as the item 19, which will show average returns for franchisees. Now that that's out of the way, mike.
Speaker 4:any other yeah, just the disclosure running across the bottom of the box. No, I think to her point. It's what she said about finding people that care. I think in this industry, when you're looking at a business opportunity, as you guys are well aware, it's got to match the person and there has to be intention with that. I think a lot of people look at industries and businesses and say I could do that and I could make money at doing that. But the third component of that is will I be happy doing that? Because when you're a business owner, it doesn't stop. When you shut off your phone at five o'clock or when you're at your kid's soccer game, or when your mom calls or dad calls and you have to do some family stuff, you have to be available and you have to be okay with that.
Speaker 4:And I think to Alana's point, the differences between a corporate job and running your own business.
Speaker 4:While there's a lot of benefit of running your own business, you have to accept some of the other side of that challenge, which is it is on you to help it be successful and your team. And I think that balance of that is fantastic and that's what we really try to help people go through and when they start learning about this opportunity is, while there's a lot of upside to it, any business is going to have its challenges. Let's talk about those and how do we address those and how you feel about those, in order to find out if this is the right space for you, and I think that's a very distinctive, distinct conversation that we like to have with everybody that wants to learn about the opportunity. It was no different, and Alana had a little bit of an inside track with her father-in-law, but at the end of the day, too, he's not there running the business. She has to do it, and she has taken that on and taken the bull by the horns and has really done a fantastic job.
Speaker 1:So the fact that you were still able to nag carmel. Last year we had a client with homewell, by the way, I should just mention this. So we've helped three people become homewell franchise owners for the past three months. The most recent got del mar, california, which a lot of we know. I mean he not only he got like del mar, what else he got? La jolla, did he?
Speaker 4:Almost all the way up to Carlsbad.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a great area in Southern California. We've got enough. Yeah, I love what you said, mike, because I was thinking about Jill and I were talking about this last night when we went to bed last night. We have a nine-year-old, so that's part of this too. I I was mentally exhausted, but the work that I, that we do with franchise insiders and pinks, it's like it's so, it's all it's fun I love and we love working and it's all for you. You kind of have to shut it off right. Okay, it's time to go. We want family time, but there's so much going on and when it's your business and you're charting your future and you're leading your team, to me it's like so fulfilling, and maybe you guys can speak to that too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this business is so incredibly fulfilling for two specific reasons. One, the client's perspective. I mean, we are providing a client with that extra level of security, safety, reassurance that we are keeping their family members safe. So that's one thing that allows me to sleep easy at night. But then, two, we opened up so many jobs to the indie market. We have so many caregivers that are working for us, whether it's part-time or 40 hours plus a week, and that's helping provide financial security for our caregivers as well. So just knowing that we're giving back to two separate communities at the same time makes me really happy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you hit on it as an owner. If you look at it from that perspective, that's why people want to work for you, right? Everybody talks about in the labor market how hard it is, and I know you guys experience it at Pink's. You got to find the labor to help you execute the business model. But if you care about the people that are helping you, that's what's going to make you successful, and that's no different in home care.
Speaker 4:I think that's the secret sauce, as everybody always says is like what's the? You know getting employees and how do I, how do I keep them? I just care about them, care about their future, care about their future, care about their families, get to know them. And when you do that, the employees show up and they work really hard because they care about what they do. And that's a great example of that in practice. Jack and Jill, I'm sure you guys see that with your business right, I mean you guys have some great employees. I see you guys posting about them all the time. I mean you guys, you couldn't do it without them, and I think that that mentality goes a long way in franchising.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. I think it's the hardest thing to do. It's the key to success as a business owner is the employee side of it. We have a great GM. I always like to say I'm not perfect. We have a great GM. I always like to say I'm not perfect.
Speaker 1:Maybe, Jill's perfect. He's not perfect, but we know where each other's strengths are and it's my job and it's Jill's job to help him right If they're. As a leader, every day we're going to find challenges and, as the leaders of the franchise, we have to lead and we have to help solve the puzzle. Like it feels like every day there's a new challenge kind of thrown at us with with pinks, and we try to to lead the team and help the team and really guide them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think we've talked about this too that sometimes you also have to be willing to change a little bit. You know, because now we're working. You know we work with our GM Jackson. He's amazing, but different work styles, so kind of learning each other's styles and how to work together and then also listening to him, because he's around the guys all day and so making sure that the communication is being passed through him to us and that's. You know, it seems simple but it's not, because you know he's in front of them all day.
Speaker 2:He's working day in and day out with them and we don't have as much contact with them. So it's really important for him to make sure he communicates with us. You know what they're seeing and feeling and that we understand so we can help him and help them. So you know, it's just it's a whole different like nature, and it's something that I think we're all learning to get better. But again, it's really important to have that in 100%. We've learned. You know we need to keep the employees happy and have that in a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:We've learned.
Speaker 3:You know we need to keep the employees happy, and if they're, happy and they feel well taken care of, they'll go the extra step in the extra mile. Yeah, yeah, it's building that strong culture and I think, jill, you mentioned something that's really important is being willing to adapt and change with new perspective. We just recently hired on a care coordinator and she has absolutely fantastic, but she came in with 15 different ideas to change and grow the business and I will say that has allowed us to scale and grow. If I didn't implement and I didn't listen to her, we'd not only been beneficial to the clients but also the caregivers. So it's building the culture, but also being willing to change and adapt.
Speaker 1:I mean, it sounds like you've. Delegation is such a great, it's such a key part of building a business and it sounds like you've just you've nailed that already.
Speaker 3:I will say it was hard at first. I have a very type A personality I like to control everything, but I've learned that I need to kind of take a step back, put the right people that have the right experience in the right places. I mean, I didn't come into this field with a background in healthcare by any means, and that's why I hired the right people that have been in the healthcare industry and specifically the home care industry, that are kind of the subject matter experts and I should just trust them. Mike, I'm sure you remember when I first started with HomeWell I was like I've got to get everything done. It needs to be perfect, it needs to be on time, it needs to be early. But I've learned to take a step back and breathe and just trust that others will probably do better than me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she was great when she came in. Exactly what you look for in a candidate that's exploring a franchise opportunity. Like always, on time, had everything done right away, like step you know, drop by drop. Everything was done perfectly and while from my position that's great, but, to her credit, you can't run a business like that, especially a home care business. You just can't. It takes people and you have to delegate, so that is hard for a lot of people and some people get it faster than others and, to Alana's credit, she figured that out relatively quickly in the process and it has allowed her to be successful as fast as she's grown.
Speaker 1:You know it's interesting when I was at Home Care Assistance, when we first started awarding franchises, we targeted nurses. We felt like their experience would help to grow franchises, and what we found out is we were exactly wrong. They were too clinical, they were prescribing an hour here, an hour there, and we found our most successful franchisees came with executive sales backgrounds and they were like if your mom's got dementia, if your dad's got mobility challenges, you need as much home care as possible, and it's not doing them wrong by saying you need 24 hour care. Your mom has dementia, she needs someone with her at all times, and so our most successful franchisees they came from backgrounds that had nothing to do with home care.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would agree. Go ahead, Alana with home care.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would agree. Go ahead, alana. No, I was just going to say I agree with that and really. But the basics of this industry is customer service. I mean, if you again treating your people right but treating your clients right, being there to answer the phone, being there to show up and check in on both the clients and the caregivers, that's what really creates success and trust. Because I mean, for anyone listening, having someone external come into your home that you've maybe never met, or something new. I mean that's change and that's tough change. But if you build that trust and you build that credibility, both from the caregiver side but also the team, like our care coordinator and myself, it allows everybody to be on the same page. It provides that level of customer service and that's where things can really grow and be successful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember when my mom first had the caregiver come in and her Alzheimer's wasn't fully advanced at that point, so she was very aware that someone was there and I loved how the caregiver came in and really just felt like a companion you know, she, she and that was the doing of the franchise, right, they, they worked with them to talk to her.
Speaker 2:You know this, this lady's a little resistant. She's, you know. She's well enough that she understands why you're here and feels like she doesn't need you. So she came in and they played games. You know she just said I just want to hang. She almost made it feel like to my mom that no one was paying her. She just really loved my mom and wanted to provide that companionship and my mom warmed up to it. She didn't feel like I have someone here and that's so important. You know that's up to it. You know she didn't feel like I have someone here and that's so important. You know that's it's. It's the training of that caregiver to do that and to recognize the situation and act very differently than a nurse or an actual caregiver. And I really, really admired that. My mom did too. So you know, looking at that, that's really important. You know, from your guys' end too, is to make sure that you know you are doing the proper training and working with the caregivers to give your clients the you know, best experience possible.
Speaker 1:You know what else, like, I remember, like the caregivers, they were such cool. They're cool people Like they. So our pilot location was in Palo Alto and we had, for whatever reason, most of our caregivers wereipino I'm not saying all of them, but a large population of them were and every week they were bringing in like these filipino, like treats, do you remember? And, um, we would have free lunch for them every friday. It just what it lumped was, and this is something that, as I speak to, as jill and I speak to potential franchise owners, so many people say to us like we have people who come out of private equity and they're like dude, I'm just tired of this, I'm tired of the grind.
Speaker 4:I want to get out there.
Speaker 1:I want to do something like pink, so I want to go out there with my team. I want to do something like Hallwell, where I'm doing something, I'm giving back to the community, I'm a part of something and, with a team of caregivers, that sort of just genuine do well by doing good mentality, I think it does really good things for your for.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know what's it's interesting with the caregivers. One of the biggest questions that we get and, jack, I'm sure you got the same thing was why? Why are people? You know, people that are unfamiliar with this business model are why are caregivers in this space? Why don't they go work somewhere else? They could probably make more money, right, it always comes down to money and a lot of you said it, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a lot of different options comes down to money and a lot of you said it, you know. Yeah, there's a lot of different options. It's because they have a passion to help people, right? It's the why and I think, as both an owner and a caregiver or whoever you have working on your staff, they're not there just because it's a paycheck. They're there because of the people, and I think that is a very unique nuance to this industry is the employee side of it. They're there because they want to be there, not because they have to be there. Alana, speak to that a little bit, and you're learning about that as you've gone through hiring many caregivers now, because that's a big part of the business model.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Again back to the point of we're looking for people with that caregiver heart. So we start our process by doing an in-person interview. A lot of the questions are really just about their drive, their why behind joining this industry. Tell us about your personality, what makes you a good caregiver, and you can hear a lot about someone just basically saying hear a lot about someone just basically saying you know, my mom had Alzheimer's dementia and I took her. I took care of her for four years and I was with her day in and day out and that experience gave me the drive to want to go help others.
Speaker 3:Or maybe it's somebody that used to be a nurse and is now a retired nurse and just still loves caring for people. Or maybe it's somebody that is a nursing student, who is going through school but really sees the value in giving back to the community. You can really see people come from all different avenues, all different walks of life, but the basic of all of it is that they have that caregiver heart and they're willing to give back to people. And really those first two questions that we ask people to really get to see if they have that caregiver heart. It sets them up whether or not. They're going to succeed or not succeed with us.
Speaker 1:I mean again, you nailed this. I mean our trainer again, to keep going back to my home care days, the person who we had charged training our franchisees. She would always say you have to lead with your heart If you're going to succeed in this business. It has to be genuine. If you're going to join that local Rotary Club, if you go in looking for business, you're never going to get it. You have to go in looking to help others first. You have to have, you've got to lead with your heart especially.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think in any business you can't just be the world. It feels to me like the world has changed so much in the last four years, five years. The slick salespeople that are out there those days are done. Nobody wants to be sold anything anymore. People want transparency, they want honesty, they want, they don't want, perfection. They want to know that you're like them and they're like you, and that's why formats like this podcasts this is what people want to learn about what. What is it really like? Is it? Is it, you know? And so, alana, let's maybe go there for a second. Here you are, you're not a year in yet. What has been your hardest point in growing the business maybe talk. Talk about that just so people who are thinking about branches ownership it ain't all butterflies and rainbows.
Speaker 2:Right, it's why we actually started this podcast. We were like we're bringing you the good, bad and the ugly, we will tell you when we have backbeat. Or, like Jack said, we're getting our butt kicked right now and that's just real life and we're going through it.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, if you could share some of those maybe pain points or something, because, again, we're real, yes, absolutely Well, I will say in the beginning and I mean it's really every day scheduling is tough right, especially with people work in multiple clients, kind of all around different towns and people being reliable, showing up on time. Those are definitely some challenges. That is also part of our interview process now, just asking when is it okay to be late for work, stressing the importance that they must be on time because there's a family member behind that door waiting for you. But in the beginning there were definitely some late nights where I went and had to step in, cover some shifts. Same with our director of business development and our now care coordinator.
Speaker 3:We say that everybody on our team is a caregiver because of those scheduling hiccups that definitely occur. I mean, everybody's human Cars do truly break down Weather impacts, sicknesses happen, and you just have to be able to adapt and change and really make tough decisions in real time. I think that, honestly, was our toughest lesson learned is that, of course, we can build out an absolute perfect schedule, but there are going to be hiccups, there are going to be times where you're going to have to step in and you may have to work a four, eight, 12 hour shift. And you just got to do it because you're going to have to step in and you may have to work a four, eight, 12 hour shift, and you just got to do it because you've got to provide that consistency to the client. I would say that's probably, that was probably the toughest and probably will forever be the toughest part about this industry.
Speaker 1:We had our GM. We've had it where our GM had to step in and work a job till 10 o'clock at night because guys just full transparency we had a couple guys walk off our job site. We learned early on. So we had two big jobs in a week. We had a big, huge job that we did. It was a great job for us. And then we immediately went to another big job and we burned our guys out. We worked them too hard. Two of them just got pissed and they said in it you know, it's south florida, it's hot, and they're like we can't do this. And our GM and our lead tech, they stayed and they had to work probably five X stars. We made sure we paid them them over time to cover it. But yeah, that's exactly right. And then to your point.
Speaker 1:We had our client, matt Zastrow, who owns a another home care company, on our podcast midway through last year. He's now built a great, you know big home care agency in Coeur d'Alene, idaho, all places. He's, you know, doing multi millions of dollars. But he said the same thing as you in the first year he and his partner had to go get some shifts. And now he says his work life balance is the best it's ever been. He has more free time. So for those of you out there listening to Alana, she's what she's saying is right. But the nice thing is, when you're building a business, it's like building a house, and every brick that you lay is building the foundation towards a business that's going to give you more freedom.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that we try to stress and, again, Alana had a little bit of an inside track with her father-in-law. But for everybody coming in, the first couple of years are really, really hard. They can be hard and that's okay. It's supposed to be hard or else everybody would do it. Be prepared for that mentally. But once you get there and once you and a lot of starting to see that, I'm sure you are starting to feel it a little bit and you're never going to take the foot off the gas, because I know your personality and I know the things you want to accomplish, which is one of the reasons why we're so happy to have you. But just continue to work that process and you'll look back in two, three, four years whatever that time frame is for you and say, wow, I've done something really cool and, to your point, I'm able now to really achieve what I wanted to. And the question I always ask candidates as they go through our education process is what are your goals? What do you want it to look like eventually? With the understanding that it's not going to look like that day one or or day 100. Right, but, but let's look at what that could look like and how do we help get you there and does that align with what your goals are? And so I think that's a very important piece of understanding a business, no matter what business it is.
Speaker 4:In franchising, we use a lot of term semi-absentee. I personally hate it. I think it's very misleading because, to your point, yeah, you guys might not have to be on your job site every single day, 12 hours a day, but I guarantee you're not semi-absentee in your business. You're working your business every single day but it's on your time. And I think enfranchising the misconception of semi-absentee of I'm going to do it 10 hours a week is not realistic or 20 hours a week. So to me it's such a misleading concept in franchising, no matter what business you're in.
Speaker 1:Agreed. I actually wrote a blog post yesterday called Absentee Franchising Factor Fantasy. I stole from. We are on the board of the Palm Beach Atlantic, which has a whole franchising university and it was a topic that they had a couple months ago. So I put it on a blog post and I said in my mind and we've helped enough clients become business owners who were promised absentee franchises and it's not what they got. It's an absolute fantasy and I think that the the real term is semi-involved. But, like you said, you can't. You can't put guardrails up and say it's two hours a week or it's this or that. I can tell you, yeah, we probably each average about an hour per day in our business, but do you know why? That's Because we pay a GM $75,000 a year, right Yep.
Speaker 2:And we say average, average one, which means that there is a day with multiple disasters, that's a flooring day, and then there's maybe one or two days that are quieter. So it is, but it doesn't mean that it's, you know, from three to four, every single day is when we're focusing on paints. That it's, you know, from three to four, every single day, is when we're focusing on paints. It's whenever we can, when we can fit it in, and then we have to be reactive to quite a bit of things.
Speaker 1:So and guess what we talk about at the dinner table and at the breakfast table working hour, then it's more.
Speaker 1:But the other thing is this guess who also hears us talking about this at the dinner table and the breakfast table? So our son trained and we're driving to school, so so one of my favorite things, what I love about being an entrepreneur, is that you know, I can be there for, and Jill can be there for, car line, car pickup, car drop-off, and as we're driving to school, we're talking about things like setting goals. We're talking about how do we get to where we want to go. Why do we go to school? This is the conversation Trey and I had yesterday. Trey, why do we go to school? Why do we work hard? What's our goal? Trying to paint that picture like a good franchisor would and this is another thing too, and I'll let you guys speak to this. I think one of the best parts about becoming a franchisee is it makes you a better business person, because you get to learn from great business people.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And as a business owner, you have a little bit of ownership in every type, every part of the business. Right and back to those goals. If your goal truly is to not work that many hours a week and kind of take that step away, you have the beauty of structuring your business how you want, right? I mean, one pain point that we had was the weekend scheduling. So the way that we fix that is we put someone on call for weekends. That gives us, as salaried folks, just a little bit of a breather on the weekends. We were able to design that just because we can do what we want to do and we can fill those gaps as we see need. So there's flexibility in being a franchise owner, which is fantastic, but it allows you to really develop that roadmap of okay, my end goal is X. How do we get there in a reasonable manner?
Speaker 1:I'll pick up a quick question, mike, and this is for you, because we're adding on for Pinks an AI sort of system where when you call us or you fill out a form, it's going to be an AI agent that calls you and basically what she says is she'll say hi, it's, you know, it's Jill from PINX, and we got your inquiry and we'd like to go ahead and get you scheduled for an estimate. What were you looking for? And you can say something like, well, I want to get my windows washed. And it'll say, okay, great, how many windows do you want to get washed and where are they located? And they'll say that. And they'll say, okay, great, what else?
Speaker 1:Well, I want to get power washing, and we're training it right now so it can go deep on all this stuff. But if it can't, if it gets to a point where someone's just swearing at it or something, it will then kick it over to someone who can handle it. But I wonder for you guys, mike, is that something you guys have talked about incorporating for situations like what Alana just mentioned?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think and Alana is probably more of an expert on it than I am but I think a lot of the technology and tools we look at it's a little bit twofold, because while technology and AI is great, you can also lose that personal touch, right. So it's a balancing act, as you guys know, I think in our industry, trying to help maybe from a scheduling standpoint, I know WellSky, our platform, is really incorporating a lot of AI into what they're doing in allowing our owners, because it's about time and it's about efficiency. So how do we incorporate those tools for our owners to do that without losing that human touch? So, alana, I'd love to hear your perspective, because this is stuff that we're working on daily and you're living it. So tell us a little bit about your side of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's actually a whole part of our business that's totally AI. So that process is caregivers applying for the role that's through Indeed and then, once they apply, if they answer the right answers to the questions, ai actually prompts them to fill out an additional application and then actually schedules them for us, because, if you can imagine, I mean we have probably anywhere between 10 and 60 interviews a week. We are constantly hiring, but I am able to step away from the actual scheduling of the hiring process and people just show up at my door whenever I block off those times that I'm available for interviews. So that has reduced a lot of time, stress and labor where we can just have AI do it. I think back to Mike's point, though really, everything that's client facing, it's hard to put AI in those shoes just because you don't want to remove that personal touch. There's so much emotion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's so much emotion.
Speaker 3:Everything's really situational. You've really got to show that compassion, and maybe one day AI will be able to show that, but right now we really like the face-to-face personality of it.
Speaker 1:You're right. I mean, our business is so much more transactional right. I want to get my windows washed versus my mom fell down and I'm really freaked out. Um, yeah, you guys have to really help.
Speaker 2:Be a person that can solve a problem yeah, but on the caregiver side that makes sense, you know, for scheduling interviews and bypassing that beginning part. You know, I think that's a great use for it.
Speaker 1:Our concern has been that we get form fill outs late at night on a Saturday and we love our G. We don't want to do that to our DM. So if we can immediately call within seconds, text and email within seconds, hey, let's get you scheduled. Then that's going to help improve our close rate, which has been going up Like we saw. Our close rate right now sits at about 55%, which is for our business. It's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Okay, but we'd love to increase it anyways. Those are, those are. That's again, the fun of being a business owner, especially in this time, is that there are so many new ways to add efficiency to a business and reduce costs. So it's, it's, it's a. I think we're going to see so much advancement over the next few years. I don't know if you guys heard what larry ell was saying about. You know, trump just approved, like I don't know, 800 billion towards AI efforts. Yes, ellison was like we're going to use AI to help cancer treatments and essentially again, I'm not an expert on this, but we're going to take the genome for your specific cancer and create a vaccine to attack it. I mean, it's insane where we are right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I will say something also. We use well, I use personally every single day is chat GPT, I mean. I ask questions. I get chat GPT's opinion. I say hey, can you summarize this really really long email? Can you respond to that email for me? That gives me some free time, so I'm not actually there doing all that manual labor. Chatgpt is truly one of my best friends.
Speaker 1:Have you tried perplexity AI yet?
Speaker 3:Nope, but I'm writing it down because I love AI.
Speaker 2:I am the same thing I actually asked Jack if he still uses his brain anymore the other day, because every time, whether we're talking about work or something, he says well, chat, gbt set. I'm like, oh my god, do you just?
Speaker 1:and then then I started well, but it's, it's the user right again. It's like I was trying to describe this to a friend the other day about how you use it. He's a songwriter and he says I can't just have it write songs. I'm like, no, you don't have it write songs. You say this is what I'm trying to do, can you help me? And so, like today I was using it. I said and this is when I was in college we read a book called ogilvy on advertising, which was created in the 60s. But david ogilvy had a very distinct style of writing. And so today, for the heck of it, in perplexity, I said help me write an ad for franchise insiders in the vein of david og. And it came up with it. It pulled like all his old ads up and it came up with a headline that was like. I was like wow, so it is crazy how this can help us.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, yeah, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 4:Jill Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I was going to say even Jax mentioned to me too. You know, we're still involved in it, we, you know we're still involved in it. We still have to keep asking questions and teaching. So, yes, it's not rotting our brains yet and it's very helpful to make it smarter. But yeah, no, but it does. Well, it's like you know, I I use it for something silly, like asking about trace top schools in florida. Right, his school didn't come up. So I told jack. I was like look, his school didn't come up. He said ask it why, why did this school not show up? And then it came back with oh, actually I'm sorry, it should have been included and here's why it's a top school. But again, it's like I had to ask that question as soon as I asked that question. Hopefully the next time someone asks the top school's questions it's going to consider that because it realized it missed that. So there's still a lot of brain work and a lot of human interactions. It needs us to help it advance.
Speaker 1:It needs us to perplexity is better, for, if you want specific information, perplexity uses a different engine than chat gpt it uses I forget the name of it, but yeah so, but chat gpt is the best overall, so it will lie to you I don't know if it lies.
Speaker 2:I mean, we have to teach it the answer. So maybe how great the school is, it's not everything on the internet is true, guys.
Speaker 4:That's, I mean, that's the reality, right? That's what my kids tell me that everything on tiktok is real.
Speaker 4:And I'm like oh yeah, right, I don't know I think with with ai and when you're talking about business ownership, there's a lot of advantages and I think we're all using it in different ways to help advance. And Alana is younger and I'm okay to say it, I know she's younger than me. She's younger than probably all of us on this call. I think the adaptability of us as people to be able to use it to our advantage is where we can get ahead as business owners.
Speaker 4:Looking at it and how can I use it to help me not necessarily is it going to solve my problems it's not going to solve my problems but to Alana's point of I use it to help me be more efficient when replying to emails or summarizing data so I can make a better decision in my business is a great application of how to use AI, and I think, as franchisors, it's our responsibility to help educate our owners on the tools that are out there in order to help them use it.
Speaker 4:That's going to help them advance their business and I think finding ways to apply that way will be the key to how franchising moves forward with AI to that point. So we're looking at it in that context of it's not going to replace our owners. It's not going to replace the caregivers or how they do their work, but can it make them more efficient so they don't need to hire maybe as many people in order to get the same amount of production, which is going to lower their costs, which is going to put more money in their pocket, which is the point of owning a business. So, again, trying to look at it in a holistic type way, I think is is a great way to do it, and we're just at the cusp of what this technology is going to be able to provide in the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's why people are. I mean it's AI. There are certain jobs that, let's face it, ai is more efficient at, and that's why we're seeing a big shift in white collar jobs being lost to AI, and that's where franchising can be such a solution, because you can't have AI provide caregiving services, you can't have AI washing windows, and that's where we're seeing these simple businesses that people need every single day booming because they're heavy need businesses.
Speaker 3:Yeah, especially in these, like you said, heavy need industries, the people are going to be the ones that always execute, but it's how you leverage those tools to just streamline it. Even if you say ChatGPT, I have a goal of X, y, z by this date, give me 10 different options on how to get there. They provide different perspectives that maybe you didn't think of before, and it's pulling from all these different databases of other people that have maybe have been successful and it can completely change your mindset on how you run the business. But at the end of the day, you, as the people, are still the ones executing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, we threw it into for pinks. We know what our average job is, we know what our conversion rates are and throw it in there. Hey, help me figure out, based upon my current burn rate, what my growth rate looks like on a true and it will. So, yeah, I mean, again, I think there's lots to be excited about, okay? So, alana, here's the question for you, here's the million dollar question. Would you do it again?
Speaker 3:A million percent yes. Back to the piece of how rewarding this industry is and just owning a business in general. Again, I can go to sleep content with the work I'm doing. I'm not behind a computer crunching numbers all day. I am actually giving back to the community. So, yes, and I am still here for the ride of the challenges, the roller coaster of owning a business, but I don't ever foresee myself in the near future saying this isn't for me. I would a million times do this over again.
Speaker 1:Yes, Love it. Would you do it again?
Speaker 2:yes, it would do it again. Um, I, I would, for the learning experience. I mean, it's been fun, I'll you know, I'll say that too, but it really has kind of opened our eyes and, like jack said at the beginning, I think it makes us all better, you know, entrepreneurs and business owners because we're we're in it, we're in it and we're doing it, and we're learning and we're improving it well, you know, again, I've been accused of having the worst sales pitch of any franchise consultant out there, because when I talk to people on a first call, I say this is going to be hard.
Speaker 1:It's going to be hard before it gets easy. You're going to spend a lot of money growing your business. It's not going to get profitable as fast as you want it to. You're going to have something. Someone's going to quit at the wrong time. These things are going to happen. So buckle up and get ready and whatever you think you're going to spend, no, you're probably going to spend a little bit more.
Speaker 1:And the reason I say those things to people is that I'd much rather prepare someone. You can't sell a franchise. You can only point someone in the right direction and connect them to the right franchise, and the better prepared they are, the more successful. And this is what Jill and I really have decided we want to do in our business. We want to help people become star franchise owners, top franchise owners like you, alana. You know it's. What are the things that top franchise owners do? What are the lessons? And the lesson is this you stay with it. You have your goal in mind. You work towards it. You don't blame other people, you keep grinding and building until you build that asset to where you want it to go. And I think if you can have that mindset and you have the right amount of capital to do the business, you're in a good position to succeed.
Speaker 4:That's it, and we talk about that through our education process, whether you have an inside track, like Alana did with that or not. I mean that's the goals. How do you get there? How are we going to help you? But what are you going to bring to the table? I always tell people, especially in this industry, we can teach you everything there is to know about home care. I can't teach you to get up, put your pants on and go to work. I can't do that, and I think that is a very real statement that if you're not willing to bring that to the table, why are we talking? On our team, on our development team?
Speaker 4:Every one of us has owned a franchise or currently own a franchise. I own multiple and it's hard work every day, but it's rewarding work and we get to do this every day. And that education process to your guys' point allows you to see different perspectives. And the first time I had a conversation with Alana I was like she's going to be a rock star. We just got to get her pointed in the right direction and give her the tools to be successful. And that's what good franchisors should do Give them the tools and then help them find a way to be successful and, to her credit, she's doing everything we've ever asked, and more.
Speaker 3:Another beauty of being a part of a franchise is the people connections you can make as well. If there's ever something that you know, how could I do this better? Or I'm really struggling with X, Y, Z. From my experience, at least, Homewell does. They connect you with someone that's succeeding really great in that area, so you're able to learn from other people that have done it for years, if not longer. So that's another thing I really like about being a part of a franchise is that you have not only the tools, the education, but you also have the people to learn from as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of people who come to us say I want to be a multi-unit franchise owner, I want to own five units. And our guidance is look, we've seen people start with five, with 20, with 10. Is that? We've seen people start with five, with 20, with 10. And I think that here's the reality of it is that in franchising, not everyone's going to succeed and generally, what happens is that you don't close up shop If it's not for you. You go to Mike and you say Mike, help me sell my business. And Mike, this is something I want to transition to and I know we only have a few minutes left. But the way to grow is by you grow your franchise and become successful at it. Inevitably, someone else in your system wants to sell their franchise and you can help them by helping them get out of the business and you can acquire their location.
Speaker 1:Mike, in franchising, a big change has happened. I think a lot has had to do with Cody Sanchez. People love what she says about finding existing businesses for mom and pops who are just going to hand it to you for pennies on the dollar and seller financing with pipe dream. Be that as it may, we see a lot of people who come to us for existing businesses. My question to you is does Homewell currently have, in addition to new franchise, territories for sale? Do you guys have existing territories for sale as well?
Speaker 4:We do. Yeah, we have a few For us. We're, let's say, we've been doing this for over 20 years, but we have a young system. We have a lot. We've had explosive growth over the last two and a half years, so we're fortunate to have a lot of newer franchisees that are really just now hitting the ground running. But to it, there's always exceptions to that and absolutely we do.
Speaker 4:We have probably a handful of owners right now that are either looking at selling or contemplating selling within the next 12 months, and one of the first questions we like to talk to them about is what are your goals with selling? And then we look and say is there somebody around you that would make sense to sell to? Because I think to your point, we're looking at a franchise. Ownership. Acquisition in the space is a great way to grow because, one, you're getting that revenue but, two, you're already in the market, you already know the business and it's a great way to continue that growth. But yeah, we have a handful of them around the country that are probably either up for sale or going up for sale shortly, but not as many as you would think, just because of where we're at in our growth stage.
Speaker 1:Sure, Well, franchise owners are always going to have the inside track, like Mike said. But for those of you that are thinking about you want to buy an existing business, if you'd like our help exploring if Homewell happens to have a territory for you. You know the drill. The easiest thing to do is text Jill and me at 305-7100-50 for more information on getting connected with Homewell or new or even existing franchise opportunities for sale. Guys, this has been fabulous. I think we've gone in a million different places. Any last thoughts that you guys want to just share with the folks out there who are thinking about franchise ownership?
Speaker 3:I say, if you have the drive, you have the capital, give it a try. I mean, you can always fall back on your previous career, and that's something that I always have as a level of comfort is, I could always rejoin corporate America if I really wanted to but give it a try. You'll learn so much, You'll grow as an individual so quickly Um, and you'll set yourself up for for financial success as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a great point. I always say there's what? Over 4,000 different types of franchises out there. Please work with a professional when trying to find the right one. It is really hard and that's just not a plug for you guys. I firmly believe that Going on Google and searching for top franchises it doesn't work. Please work with a professional like Jack and Jill. They're going to steer you in the right direction. They're going to make sure that you're set for success. I'm a firm believer in that. I tell everybody please work with somebody that you know like and trust that they're going to steer you in the right direction. So that would be my advice to anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great advice.
Speaker 1:Wonderful advice? Yeah, I think. Yeah, great advice. Wonderful advice? Yes, I think. Even if it's if whether it's jill and I or it's anyone else work with a franchise consultant that has experience running a franchise, work with the franchise. Ask the questions do you have franchise attorneys? Do you have a cpa, um, do you have financing resources? You can connect me to? How long have you been working with them? Because that's part of what a good franchise consultant will do whether it's us or any of the other great ones out there is make your journey so much easier. It's like when you work with a good real estate agent they're going to connect you to the top broker in terms of getting your mortgage. You want the same thing. So, you guys, this has been fabulous. We appreciate you so much. Thank you for your time and for being on our show today.
Speaker 4:Yeah.