Coaching with Kiley Drog

Right at Home's Business Financial Coach, Kiley Drog, spoke with Sr. VP of Franchise Development, Jen Chaney, about the steps she takes to support franchisees. She discussed her role at Right at Home, engaging with owners, and visiting franchisee offices.

Our coaching team provides immense value to the Right at Home system by ensuring they have the tools for success. Because of individuals like Kiley, we are able to continue to expand our network and support seniors who want to age in place. 

Thank you for listening to Franchising with Right at Home. 

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Questions? Email franchising@rightathome.net

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello and welcome to this Tuesday talk. I have my friend Kylie that I'm visiting with uh on this glorious Tuesday afternoon. Kylie, if you would please introduce yourself to our listeners.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Sure. I'm Kylie Drog. I'm one of the business performance coaches here at Write at Home. I've been here, it was two years, beginning of May, so been with the team a little over two years. Prior to that, I worked for another home care franchiseur for about six years. So love the franchise or space, love working with home care owners. My life prior to that, which is kind of how I got into home care, was I was in banking and had specialized in small business loan financing and learned about home care by underwriting some franchisee purchases. So love the story behind the numbers and love that I get to impact owners on a regular basis instead of just when they want to buy a business.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

So okay. Thank you. And can you, for our audience, describe what a business performance coach does for Right at Home?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Oh, it's a little bit of everything. We are kind of a resource finder at times. We have regular support calls. They look a little different depending upon where the owner is in their journey with Right at Home. Some new owners I might be meeting with every other week and getting text messages where some very veteran owners I might be meeting with on a quarterly basis. Along with that, I would say sometimes you're therapist, cheerleader, sometimes you're the enforcer of the rules, but really we just try to help walk alongside you and support you as you run your home care business.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Thank you for that. And I have interviewed, I believe, a few coaches. You and I have never visited before on a Tuesday talk. So I'll ask a lot of the same questions that I've asked the others as I've interviewed some of the other coaches. So keep in mind that the audience that's watching this are people who are interested in potentially joining the ride-at-home system as a ride-at-home franchise owner. So I don't believe I have ever awarded a franchise to someone who says, I just want to be average. I just want to do the bare minimum. I just want to do just, you know, standard, what everybody else is doing. Most people who join the ride-at-home system want to go above and beyond and excel and thrive and build an awesome business. So, in your opinion, what separates a thriving franchise owner uh from a franchise owner who uh is an average performer, let's say. So, what it just in your own opinion, what are some of the differences that you see between the two?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Um, so yes, I work with the gamut of owners from newbies to very long seasoned veterans and those that are engaged or not engaged. I would say engagement with the system, with their peers, with the corporate team makes a big difference. Um, participating in a performance group is a big difference maker too, I believe, because you get in touch with other like-minded people that are very driven to grow.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Okay, so you said uh engagement with their peers. What did you mean by that?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Um, so participating in our takeoff Tuesdays, right, where you can engage and hear from other people across the system, um, engaging in performance groups. Uh, we have other opportunities. I know, like our sales series, you can collaborate with others, not necessarily owners, but there might be some salespeople, but also we have owners that join those calls, and then getting involved with our strategic leadership council too. I think, you know, running for a spot and helping kind of mold and shape what the corporate office does as far as strategic initiatives, I think is really big.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Okay, awesome. And uh um kind of the shifting gears just a little bit, going back to uh the very beginning, a franchise owner who has just signed their franchise agreement, they've been open for a year or two. From what you have seen, what are some of the common challenges that a franchise owner uh might face in their first year or two of having their business open and operating? Um and how do those thriving franchise owners overcome those challenges?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Um, I think some challenges are when you first start out, there's a few people doing all the things, right? Like you haven't had time to scale it to have the exact positions to handle each facet of the business. So I think the multitasking and juggling can really um become a source of frustration, or you miss doing something because you're such a small shop that you're busy putting out the fire. Um that's one thing I've seen. And I think helping kind of overcome that is having regular coaching calls because we will help you prioritize, look at, hey, where's your business financially for what's your next goal to get so you can hire that outside salesperson or you can hire that client care manager to help kind of divvy out the work so you can lead and manage and not do.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Okay, awesome. I'm so glad that you said that because quite often, uh, between myself and our our two development directors that are working with prospective franchise owners, quite often we tell them when you join Ride and Home, we're gonna teach you, we're gonna train you, we're gonna coach you how to do almost every area of this business, which there's lots of different things to learn, right? But you as a franchise owner are one person. Of course, you need to know every area of this business, but you can't do all of those things because you're one person, you'll go crazy. So the the the coaching staff are wonderful partners to our franchise owners to help them with, okay, yep, you need to know how to do all those things. But let's work together on how to best manage um each area of the business. Uh, with you being the franchise owner and hiring those of the first key employees, what are they gonna do? What are you gonna do? Strengths and weaknesses, what is the best role for a franchise owner? And then something else that you said, as the business grows, your role as a franchise owner and what you were doing when you first started your business is gonna look very different a year later, two years later, three years later. So another thing that the coaching staff does is help you with your business as it scales, as it grows, as your role as a franchise owner changes, as the different roles of the staff members evolve over time. Um, that's something that you and and the coaching staff are all really wonderful with, with our franchise owners, to help them as they grow in their business. And things don't just stay the same, stay the same once you open your business. That's not you're gonna be not gonna be doing the same thing a year later, two years later, five years later, most definitely not 10 years later, right? Wouldn't you agree?

SPEAKER_00 7:18

That's a goal, right? Yes, that's a goal.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Okay, so um when people join the right-of-home system, well, when people are wanting to purchase a business, they have a choice to go with a franchise concept or non-franchised concept. So, of course, you and I we're partial because we work for a franchise system. It's it's um a little terrifying to me to think about starting up a business like this from scratch, right? But can you provide some insight to our listeners on how much, because when you sign a uh write-and-home franchise agreement, it's your business. You are officially a business owner, but under a franchise agreement. So some people have concerns about like, oh gosh, they're gonna tell me what to do. I'm not gonna be able to make any choices, you know, uh make any decisions or have choices on things. So can you describe kind of that aspect of a new franchise owner joining right at home and who new to franchising? Um, how much say do they have in and how their business is run versus kind of that fear that people have that, like, oh gosh, when I join a franchise system, they're just gonna tell me what to do and I'm just gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah. Um, I think, I mean, I know home care specifically. So, I mean, you think about what it would be like to be a part of a franchise. I mean, the only vendor we require is our operational system, right? Otherwise, you have choice. You have choice who your bookkeeper is. You have choice if you want to, you know, have a recruiter come help you hire. You have choice if you want to have um like an offshore person come help do admin stuff. Like we don't have a lot of requirements. Um, you do get to, I mean, we'll lead you to the best practices and develop a lot of good tools. Um, but really it's up to you to take advantage and follow the plan, follow the model, which we find that those that are most successful are following that model. But I even think about um the daunting task of like HR and hiring and all of the rules and regulations, like we have a great resource that costs nothing for owners to utilize, and they can utilize it as much as they want. So, I mean, there are a lot of benefits to partnering with someone like us.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yes. Okay, awesome. Thank you for that. All right, so uh, you as a coach, how often do you meet with your franchise owners? And if you could, because I know every time that you meet with a franchise owner, you've got regular coaching sessions, so just describe kind of that frequency of how often you you meet with our franchise owners. Now, if you can, what does a typical coaching call or coaching visit look like?

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Yeah. Um, so we are tasked with being with franchise owners, whether it's at a performance group meeting or in their office or maybe at a state, state level meeting or regional meeting. Um, we are tasked with traveling and having 24 touch points a year. Um, so that might look like a performance group with eight or nine of your peers for almost two days somewhere in the country twice a year, right? And having that quarterly touch point. Um, a site visit would probably be about a full day in an office where we have an agenda that basically goes from the beginning, you know, the caregiver side of the business all the way down to your financials and marketing and everything in between maybe succession planning. Um, we would spend time in your office going through the things that are most important to you. Sometimes I would go in and I would interview just office staff, right? And kind of help guide them and see what resources maybe they're missing. Um, but that can be one facet of what it would look like to engage with your coach. Um, otherwise, I do, like I said, newer owners I'll meet with every other week via Zoom, always available via cell phone or text, but also as they grow in their journey with Right at Home, it might be a monthly call or an every other month call where we set aside 45 minutes to be very intentional and work on hey, how are things going in your business? What are the numbers trending? How are we looking compared to the goals you've set for the year? And then kind of whatever other things they need to talk about or other big initiatives that we need to educate owners about that's coming from the corporate office.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Okay, so that's a great segue into my next question. Okay, brand new owners and the strategic business plan. So if you would describe to our listeners what I mean by a strategic business plan, when is that established? How often do you look at that? You know, is it something that, like, okay, we just documented it, we would never look at it again. So, how do you use that plan? How is it formed? How do you work with franchise owners on um putting that together? Um, everything that's in there, and how often you use that and measure against it.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Yep. So I would say with a new owner, one of the first tabs we look at is the break-even analysis tab to kind of see, hey, what are your fixed expenses? How much are you paying? How much are you charging? And kind of get it in line to see, okay, what's the hourly, like the weekly number you need in hours to break even? And then we'll go back and reference that every time we have a big expense we want to add. I want to add a salesperson. Okay, let's plug in what that number looks like and see what your hours need to grow to to cover that cost. So that is a tab that we would go back to. I mean, depending on what it is, it could be quite quite often. Um, also, is the there are a lot of tabs in this workbook. Um, it can be a little daunting, so I always say let's just focus on a few. Um, the other one would be like your quarterly KPIs. What's your goal for revenue? What's your goal for hours? And then that will tell us what you need to grow in like net caregivers and net clients to achieve those goals. So we'll work on that and then reflect back on it every quarter and make an adjustment if needed. And then also we use the financials in that KPI report as well and look at like, hey, are you hitting your target? Are you following like the home care model for how much you're spending in each segment of your business? And we'll track that on a quarterly basis as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

I love it. That's that's an awesome, what an awesome tool that we provide to to franchise owners, new franchise owners. And just in case somebody asks the question, because we get it quite often on the franchise development team, how long does it take a franchise owner to break even? And my answer always is it varies, or it depends, right? And you know, and I'm not saying that just to be you know cheeky, it's because it's the actual truth. You know, it's it's really tough for us to say it's X amount of time because every franchise owner is different, every business is different, every plan is different. Um, there's so many variables that it's it just varies so much from one owner to the next, it's tough to nail down a specific average time frame. So I did want to mention that because once you become a ride-at-home franchise owner, you put together this strategic business plan with your coach, you're gonna put together this, you know, workbook and this specific tab sheet, if you will, um, that gives you an idea of when that may be based off of all of the different criteria that you're gonna put in there. So that's something that we certainly work on with you when you become a new franchise owner and and and watch it and track it and measure it um along with a lot of other metrics in your business. Okay. Thank you for that. What would you say? Um, I know that you said um a franchise owner who is highly engaged is is a threat, a franchise owner that really thrives. What other qualities or traits do you see in a franchise owner? And think try to think about brand new franchise owners, somebody who's been open for a year. In addition to being highly engaged with a franchise or what are some other things that you see franchise owners like that do that really thrive in their first year of business?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Um, I think people being curious, right? Like asking questions is a key to success. I think those that are open to feedback and um like trying to do better, right, versus like this is the way I'm gonna do it. And I think again, following that model, like making sure that they follow the best practices we have out there. We've got 30 years of home care experience, right? Like we we know what we're talking about, and we create these great guides for people to use. So I think being open to using those and just sticking with the plan um helps make them successful.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Okay, got it. Thank you for that. And I had another question here. Uh, let's see here. Okay, let's talk about performance groups again because you've mentioned performance groups a couple of times. Can somebody who just signed a franchise agreement last week and they join a performance group this week?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Not yet. So when can they, Kylie? Uh so kind of the hard rule is one year, and we do have a prerequisite that they go through kind of a financial um learning that can take. I think when I did it, it was kind of on the side of my desk. It took about a week. Um, but you have to be really be ready to financially be able to travel somewhere for a meeting, because we do travel twice a year, and also be able to leave your office and know that your team can handle it for a few days. Like, I think that's just as important as that one year mark. Like, but if if you can't stay in a meeting for eight hours a day without like some breaks to check in, like you're really your team is not ready for you to leave to to participate in a performance group.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Got it. Okay, so what other what is some of the people who are in a performance group, what is some of the homework that they have to do or things that they have to provide to their performance group facilitator before they can attend their meeting? So that's relevant to also being in the system for at least a year before uh you can join a performance group.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yeah, go ahead. The pre-work. Um so each facilitator will work with for me anyway. I work with two people in the respective group to help set the agenda for our meeting. And with that, we have um a PowerPoint. So then owners will have to, you know, report on their goals, report on um, hey, these were the four things I said in my last meeting I'm going to work on. Here's the status of those now at the next meeting. So we do a lot of so it's it's not hard work, right? Like it's uh preparing that template, it's reporting your numbers right now. Um we have it set up where you go in and verify that what we've pulled on the back end matches your records, and you can make and we have a few numbers they have to put in. Um, but really it's not a ton of work. And it's also thinking about hey, we're gonna have time to talk about a bright idea. What's something that I've implemented in my office that's going really well? And we also take time for each owner to separately um talk about what's keeping you up at night, what's a threat to your business or a burning issue. And so we take time during that meeting to problem solve, listen, give suggestions, um, but some of that takes some preparation too, right? To get ready and really because you want to bring something that's very you know meaningful that will help you in your business be prepared and ready to speak on that topic.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Yes, and um in my um my experience, at just attending performance groups and uh watching and learning uh that they the franchise owners hold each other accountable. So for for you as a new franchise owner, you've been in the system for at least a year, you do your pre-work, you go there, and um you are about to basically open up your books to these fellow franchise owners who are part of your performance group, and they're doing the same. So you'll have insight into their books and the the status of their business, uh, and they will uh do the same with with your business. So it's it's meaningful for you to have at least a year's worth of uh financials to report on to the group instead of like, hey, I just signed my franchise agreement um, you know, six months ago and we've been open for two weeks, so I really don't have much to much to offer here. So the intent being when you join a performance group, you are ready to be held accountable to here's some challenges that I'm facing. Hey guys, what do you think? And then it's rapid fire from the the franchise owners in the room to say that's happened to me before, and this is what I did, and here's my recommendation, and that's not something that you can just sit on. You need to act on it right away. And we're looking forward to you reporting next quarter on how it went. So really, really holding each other accountable uh to those action items and following up and and and really kind of putting it all out there. Um, and franchise owners who are in performance groups versus franchise owners that are not in performance groups, and Kylie, you said this this earlier, um, tend to outperform um the franchise owners that are not in a performance group. So we always, always recommend that you join a performance group. And it's not as simple as like, okay, I want to be in a performance group, okay, we put you in this one. Um, it's uh uh a bit of a selection process. Can you kind of describe what that process looks like, Kylie?

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, um, it's a little bit like matchmaking, but not quite to the extent of finding a new boyfriend or girlfriend. Um, but really it is like looking at what kind of business do you have? Like, are you multi-territory? Are you single territory? Um, sometimes like revenue size, like it doesn't always have to match up perfectly, but you want to be in a group of peers, right? Where you're all kind of working on the same things, you have similar challenges. Um, so it is a little and also like personality fit too, right? So we kind of try to assess what would be the best group for you and have you kind of interview, if you would, with that prospective group. And the owner, you know, the group has an extended invitation, and the owner has to say, Yes, I want to join this group. So there is choice involved in it for sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Okay, okay, perfect. Um, kind of gonna shift gears. Just a little bit something that I said earlier that I do, or that you said earlier that I do want to clarify. So you mentioned that you work with, you know, new franchise owners, you know, you know, franchise owners that are five years, 10 years, you know, tenured, you know, 20, 25 years in our system. When somebody joins, um, when somebody opens their business, so they've signed their franchise agreements, um, they've just opened their office, they've been uh open just uh a couple weeks, couple of months. Would you be their coach or they they start with somebody else and they would transition to you?

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Yeah, great question. Um, so we have a program called the Right Start program, and we have um two right start managers who really are a part of the coaching team that will work with those that start a brand new from scratch or those that might be a resale purchase. Um, but the coach they will end up getting, which we all um are assigned different states, which is kind of how it, if you're a newbie, how you would end up being with me or one of the other coaches. Um, but we would start to come on those calls that the new owner would have with our right start managers so they can get used to us, we can get used to them and help create a smoother like transition from the right start program to to your just your regular old coach.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yes, okay, and it's it the time frame b varies. So uh somebody who uh just opened their business, um, that right start manager stays with you from the moment you sign your franchise agreement to then now your office is open, and then that right start manager will stay with you after your business has opened. Just so there is that seamless transition from okay, my right start manager has helped me since I have signed my franchise agreement. Now my business is open is open, now it's gonna be in operations. Um, but we want you to get to a certain point, um, whether that's hours or revenue, whatever KPIs we put in place. We want you to get to a certain point before you transition to your full-time coach, like Kylie. Um, so it will vary. There isn't a specific like, yep, you stay with your right start manager for exactly six weeks and then you transition to a coach. Each franchise owner is different based off of um um several different uh factors, um, which we will uh make very clear to you once you become a franchise owner and and when that transition from the right start manager to the coach would take place. Would you say that's an accurate statement?

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Yep, yep. But coaches will get involved probably, you know, two months before that transition happens, and we'll start hopping on calls with the right start manager and the owner.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Okay. Kylie, what would you say is the uh your the favorite, the the most favorite thing about your job? Like what what makes you love what you do and and working with franchise owners?

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Ooh, uh that's a tough one. I I guess I love when I see them achieve their goals, right? Like they uh I think about an office that I work with that they will they hit 3,000 hours before the pandemic and had not been able to get back up to it. So they took time, they really educated their team and just kind of watching and helping and guide them along the way to see them now hitting over 3,600 hours a week. Like that to me is very rewarding. Or um, I love one of the newer owners I've been working with. You know, when we talk about sales visits and getting out in the market, she actually smiles now, where before, you know, that was not her thing she wanted to do. So seeing the progress that she's made um just really is very rewarding for me and just makes me smile too. So yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

And I've done I asked, sorry, I kind of that was kind of a curveball question. I've told you, I'm like, hey, Kylie, I'm not gonna ask you any curveball questions, but I you were like, oh geez, that's a hard one. Um not hard to answer. I'm sure you were just thinking of like, well, there's lots of things about about my job that I love. Um, but I asked that for a reason because our mission is to improve the quality of life for those we serve. That is our our franchise owners improving quality of life of the clients that are providing services to, the caregivers that they employ, the family members of the of the clients um that they're providing services to, um, uh as well as lots of different um audiences and and and people that that they influence. Us here at Ride of Home Corporate, it's it's the same applies. Um, so I ask you that for a reason because um, very similar to the other coaches that I've interviewed, um it brings joy uh uh in your life to watch our franchise owners really thrive. And that's what you do on a day-to-day basis. So um we are very fortunate to have you and the other um coaches that we have because you guys work so hard with our franchise owners to help them build those sustainable, profitable businesses. That's what you do every single day. So it's very rewarding uh to see um when things work and and franchise owners are happy and when you can put a smile on someone's face. So thank you uh for all that you do to help and support our franchisees and um especially the new ones uh that that we work with that are that are listening right now and kind of what to expect uh in their journey as a ride at home franchise owner. So we only have a couple minutes left. I always ask this question is there anything that we have not discussed uh in the past 30 minutes uh that you would like to bring up to our audience?

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Great question.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Um piece of advice you want to give to somebody who's thinking about joining Ride at Home.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah, um, I guess I would say like I've seen a franchise where the franchise over franchisee relationship isn't that great. Um and I think here we have a very healthy back and forth relationship. So I would say if you're looking for somewhere where your thoughts and opinions are valued, um we are a good partner for you.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Yes. Okay, great. And I'm gonna add on top of that, we are not the type of franchise or and especially the coaching staff that's just gonna tell you what you want to hear. Right? You are a new business owner. We're gonna tell you exactly what we feel. If you said earlier, um, you know, we've been in business for 30 years, we've been franchising for 25 years, we've seen it all before. Um, sometimes we get new things that are thrown our way. Um, but most of the time we've we've seen it before, we've dealt with it before. And so we've got all of this experience uh and all of this historical knowledge that that we're ready to share with you. So when you're facing a challenge as a franchise owner, you want uh our opinion or our guidance, that's that's exactly what we're going to do. So we're not the type of franchise or that's just gonna tell you what you want to hear, and hey, everything is great. Hey, here are several things that you can do to improve your business. Um that's definitely the type of franchise or that we are. So uh perfect. Thank you so much, Callie, for taking the time to visit you today. It was awesome. Let's do it again sometime soon. Uh, I appreciate you, and I know that our listeners do as well. So thank you. Okay, have a great day. Bye. Bye.