Meet the Franchisee: Gulraj Shahpuri

Right at Home Franchisee, Gulraj Shahpuri, opened his business almost 5 years ago because he wanted to make an impact. Located in San Francisco, Gulraj and his wife have dedicated their careers to home care. He relocated to the United States from India because he saw an opportunity to take his business to the next level.

In a discussion with Sr. VP of Franchise Development Jen Chaney, Gulraj shared advice for potential owners and his motivating factors.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Thank you for joining me for this 15-minute franchisee interview. If you would please go ahead and introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Absolutely, I'm Gulraj from Ride at Home here in the peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula. I have been an owner for about five years now. In fact, it's five years coming up in about 20, 20-something days, and I'm excited and how the time has flown. I uh if you haven't uh gotten to know me uh yet, you'll uh you'll be surprised to know that I moved here from the other side of the world, literally, uh, to take up this franchise. And uh it was a resale that my wife and I stepped into, though I'm the person who's uh the operations person and she's the person who's seen by um our um the folks that we network and market with. Uh but most of the most of uh the business is run by me and um and I and I love what I do.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Okay, and so you purchased a resale opportunity as a brand new owner, you purchased a resale opportunity. How many territories were in that resale opportunity?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yeah, there were two territories. Uh now these uh these were territories that were certainly not underperforming, but I uh and at that time I didn't know that these were these territories had great potential. So I was lucky that uh I got I got great territories, and the previous owner was doing a good job so far, but I think what got her here wasn't gonna get her much farther, and then I think fresh blood, uh fresh blood was infused at the right time so we could take off.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Awesome. Okay, so what did you do before you joined the Right at Home system?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yes, I was a business coach uh from 2014 till COVID time. In fact, I was a business coach and I was helping others get their businesses more optimized and teaching them personal leadership skills so that they could be better entrepreneurs, and and I was loving what I was doing. I I didn't know that one day I'll be part of a um uh the Right at Home franchise. This was always a dream of mine, not right at home, but home care. Right at home, uh Right at Home just happened to be uh just a stroke of luck, and um and it it was just meeting, I think it was a meeting of the right uh the right type of business with the right type of ownership group, and uh that's why it turned out to be such a success.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Okay, awesome. So I'm I'm assuming that um you you got to a point where you were looking for a business to purchase. Um and specifically in the senior care space, were there other opportunities with other companies uh that that you pursued? And I suppose what I'm getting at what was is specifically why right at home?

unknown 2:42

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Uh in fact, for many, many years I was uh contemplating getting into the senior care space. Not sp not senior care generally, but in fact home care. Uh this is what I wanted to do because I was uh I was my own parents' primary caregiver when uh when they were unwell. And this is something that was dear to me. I always felt that um even though the world would say, oh my god, we we haven't seen a son who worked so hard for his parents and is serving them so well, but I knew that um I knew there was more I could have done. I knew, I knew I as I matured, I used to look back and feel that I I could have done more, I could have done a better job, and the regret was eating at me slowly, and I didn't know uh if there was any solution until one day it just hit me that, hey, why don't I become the owner of a home care agency? I I certainly can't become a caregiver and uh you know sustain my lifestyle and family, so why don't I just do something bigger and and own a home care agency? So during COVID, uh this this thought, uh, you know, COVID gave us a lot of time to think, all of us. And and I I felt that you know, if now if I do it now, this is great because maybe later on it won't be something that uh I I I think I'm uh I'm right for. So I felt age-wise and experience-wise and opportunity-wise, I think this was the right time. And in COVID, I just told my wife that hey, this is truly what I want to do. And uh and could you please help me narrow down uh some opportunities and I think it was the right place at the right time, meeting the right franchise broker. Yeah. And um and Right At Home came along and uh and it was it was wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yes, and uh to put things into perspective for uh our viewers here. So um as you were pursuing this this franchise opportunity, uh COVID wasn't a thing. You purchased the franchise opportunity, and then COVID became a thing at the very beginning of your journey. So this next question is it's a little bit irrelevant, but also very relevant. And it is your life has drastically changed from when you first joined the right-at-home system to where you are now and kind of what that day-to-day looked like then and what the day-to-day looks like now. So kind of describe that difference of being a brand new owner with Right at Home who who purchased a resale opportunity versus now you're five years in, and what does that role look like now?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Now I'll tell you, uh Jen, you might not like this because uh uh I think I'm going to paint a grim picture for everybody.

unknown 5:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

This is a business that'll keep you busy, and I'll tell you why. Um I in fact it keeps me busy. Other owners aren't like me. You'll see that even when we go to President Circle and everybody's enjoying at the beach and doing their jet skiing and playing volleyball and things, and I'm often on the phone just checking in with my office, and and you know what I'm doing? I'm not checking in on their day-to-day activities. I keep getting them to run through the client roster with me. Okay, what are you doing with this client? What are you doing with this client? What are you because I'm so quality obsessed that I need to know that, hey, are we doing as good of a job as we can or not? And and we're not perfect. I'll be honest with you, we're not perfect. So when I first took over this business, my day today was in everything because I bought a running business. And you know, when you buy a running business, there's two things that are very important. You have to keep all the plates spinning, all of them, even the ones that you don't understand. And the second thing is you can't afford to lose any clients that you have because if the numbers start going down immediately, firstly, that's embarrassing, and plus it throws off your whole calculations and and the runway you had with the left with the money that you have and things. So so those were two uh things that I was extremely careful about, and so that kept me up day and night. And but it was a good thing because you know you have to have that nervousness, otherwise you might get relaxed, and and that's not good. Now I don't have that problem anymore. We have very stable clients. Um uh we uh bit the business is segregated into different departments. I'm I oversee operations, which basically oversees three uh important departments, and then there's three others that I don't oversee much, and I should, but I don't. Uh but I'm I'm still obsessed with quality and I'm always busy. Uh I often I often feel that, hey, I didn't work Saturday or Sunday this week, but most weeks I like working Saturday or Sunday. It's not because of like like huge paperwork this leads to or anything like that. I like to come in the office and just keep an eye on the clients, keep an eye on the clients. And I'm an empty nester, I don't have kids and family and commitments. If I did, I I would give those priority, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

But I don't. And so I can give all my time to my seniors.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yes. You know what, Goraj, I don't think that that was a grim picture at all. What I heard was is that, and and everybody who joins the right-and-home system, there isn't a single person that we say to uh who wants to join the right-and-home system, like, this is gonna be easy. You know, this is this is hard work. There are gonna be challenging times. Um, they're gonna be really rewarding times.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

And to anybody that's listening to this, I'll tell you honestly, this is a hard business, but not a complex business. Uh and here's what I mean that you know what we do is home care. And the home health business, I feel is a complex business, but an easy business. Whereas this is a hard business, but not a complex business. And I would rather have this because it's more narrow and deep rather than something that's inch deep and really wide and you have to uh know a ton of things. I would rather do this because then you can concentrate on what you do best. And it's not for everybody, I'll tell you, if if you're not obsessed with quality, if you're not obsessed with seniors, and if you if you don't have that right demeanor that you can talk uh politely and manage tough situations, then it's not for you. And if you if you're gonna lose your cool and if you're if you're uh just a surface level person who's not detailed oriented and and doesn't really care that much about seniors and is more encouraged, you know, more worried about the bottom line, it's not it's not going to work out. I'll tell you on that.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yep. Okay, so next question for you of uh I would say that uh everyone here at Ride at Home Corporate, there's a lot of support that that we provide to our franchise owners. If you had to choose what what you feel is the most valuable support that you receive from the franchise, or what would that be?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Let me answer a question you didn't know. I wanted to go with Right at Home or a or a um uh or a or or a similar brand like this, a franchising brand, because many, many, many years ago I used to be a franchisor. I used to have a franchising system in India, which we franchise life skills and leadership uh centers, and and I was a franchiser. And and I knew that uh the type of support that a good franchiser can give is hard to match. Uh and because you, you know, when you do it on your own, there's so many risks. But part of the reason why people should become franchisees is because the support you get. So I was actually counting on the support. Uh now the support that I think that was the most important, I didn't take use of it. Uh it was it was the right start coaching. The first year, the coaching that was provided was so unsurpassed, it was so incredible, but I didn't make use of it because I, you know, I I wasn't the arrogant type who felt I knew it all. But I was just so you know, so busy about everything I was doing that I I wasn't really writing down all my questions and asking them, and and they were supportive, they were incredibly supportive. Now, six, eight months into the process when I was more calm, I'd figured things out, and now uh this right uh I started taking the right the right start support, which I didn't even know was something I shouldn't have taken for granted. And then then that that period ran out, and my regular coach was with me all the time, but I think had I used my right start coach more, uh I would have been better off. I I think I was just, you know, I've always been that kid in class that was too shy to put up their hand, I'll tell you honestly. And I should have just been raising my hand all the time. And and now uh people that call me during validation calls, we we we we get a nice relationship going sometimes, and then they call me after they sign up, and they and I keep telling them I I can help with my you know uh with my confidence, I can give you an answer that might not even be right. Why don't you just call your right start coach? And I feel that maybe they'll feel I'm pawning them off to the their coach, maybe I am guarding my time, but that's not true. I think the right start coaches are are just next level, and I think people should not discount that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yes. Okay, awesome. Thank you for that. Um, all right, so uh next question for you. Um if you can think about all of the amazing things. Sorry, I'm gonna pause it, right? Is he is he from the end? No, I can't hear him right now. So once we get him back, we can just cut out this. Um my internet connection is stable. Oh, there we are.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

I I'm so sorry. I think uh the internet uh is on our side because it's raining so heavily here. Oh, yeah. The internet is all uh 5G and it was great over the last couple of days, but uh now I feel like I'm in a developing country where we're having internet.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

No, it's fine. That's that's the joy of uh recording that this this period here where we're you know, um we were just waiting for you to get you know unfrozen and we could hear you again and she'll just cut this part out. Wonderful. Okay. Um all right, so let me get back to my my next question. Okay. All right, so um my next question for you, Golra, is with you being a franchise owner for the past five years, you've done a lot of really amazing things for seniors and adults with disabilities and and their families. If you can think back to the amazing thing that things that you've done, what is something that you're incredibly proud of? So just think of a like a heartfelt moment, something that happened, an impact that you made on someone's life that really meant something to you.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

You know, there's this is going to sound um uh a little boastful uh when I say it. Uh when we are most proud, and there's a lot of opportunities when we're proud, when we are most proud is uh when a client uh tells us that, hey, I'm going to try you folks because I've tried these other agencies, because there's some pretty big names here where we are. And we are in an extremely competitive part of America right now. Uh we're uh probably the most or or in the top five most competitive regions in America in terms of uh home care. When they've gone through other agencies and they read our Yelp and Google reviews and uh they try us, and and and immediately after the uh intake, they say, you know, we have a good feeling about this. And then in a month or two, they say, you know, Gouraj, you were right, you folks may not be perfect, but we're so happy with you. We're so happy. This you have been the best part of our journey with mom or dad in the last few years. Uh and and we know we are we're going to make mistakes, sometimes big or small, but those mistakes are certainly a lot smaller than other agencies have made with them, and the buck always stops with me. And and they they feel that how come the owner always calls back or shows up to take accountability? And so uh when they address that and when they when they thank us for that, I feel happy that even though our caregivers made a mistake here or there, they still feel that we'll never leave these folks because it's them that we love to work with and caregivers will come and go, but at least we have uh an honorable agency that's doing their best and means well and and is leaving no stone unturned and giving care to my mom or dad. I think that's yeah, that makes us proud.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

That's great. That's really great. Um, okay, so a couple of things that I want to congratulate you on. So you were recently a rising star um award winner. Um, and just a brief explanation to our listeners. Uh, we we like to celebrate things here on everyone at home. So we have different um revenue levels on when editing is a franchise and our achievement revenue level, then they give a rising star on recipient. Um without giving any specific numbers go on to that's what I'm looking for here. So what I am looking for is um what are some of the things that you that that you do or some of the things that you are currently doing in your operations uh to watch them and to track them and to um achieve that continued uh growth, whether it be hours or revenue or or whatever it may be, it's important to watch and and to track. So just some insight on on how you stay on track to continue to achieve uh those different uh levels of uh awards.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

I'll tell you, firstly, goal setting is tremendously important. Um if it's it's like it's like uh you know, most people don't set goals and it's like shooting darts blindfolded. I mean, how do you how do you hit a target you can't even see? So you have to have goals, and the goals have to be reached goals. But the other the other side of it is that you need to staff accordingly. And and I think what what changed for us, and I'll tell you, Jen, after after a pause in achieving rising stars, then we started accumulating them again. Uh the pause happened because we weren't staffed for success. We weren't we weren't staffed for growth. We had goals, but we didn't have the the org chart, the organization chart to accompany our ambition. And I think that changed when um when I was in my performance group, and performance groups are amazing. So my performance group and I, we we did this exercise in which we all set targets and we had to sit and said, okay, well, whatever anybody's individual target is, let's create an organization chart for 20 or 30 percent bigger than that target. And as soon as I created that organization chart, I think we were on our way to hitting those numbers again. And then and then I created the organization chart that I need. Literally, at present, we are filling the organization chart that we need in three years. We're filling those positions now because I think that we'll be able to do it in two. We'll be able to hit those numbers in two. And uh, and you know, sometimes people say, oh, you know, it's not about the money, or money is a scorecard, or things. I think it's irresponsible for us to not do big things because if we are doing them better than others, and we are trying harder than others, and we are breaking our backs more than anybody else's, I think it's irresponsible for us to not do as much as we can because those seniors need our service and they need uh they need to have somebody who's really working hard for them and and not getting and not getting stuck with an agency that's not trying, because either way, they're going to pick up the phone and call somebody. And and if it's not us, because we are not doing a big enough job or good enough job, and if they call somebody and get uh disheartened and and that person um that senior is you know an at-risk senior if they have a fall or just get bad service, uh I think that's not fair to them. So it's better that we become strong and large enough that they find us and they are able to call us and we can do an incredible job with them.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Awesome. Okay, thank you for that. And the the other thing that I want to uh call out um speaking of celebrating things, um uh caregivers are very near and dear to us. I like to say that they are the heartbeat of of every franchise owner's business. Um the biggest award every year in our annual conference is the caregiver of the year award. Um it's an incredibly big deal and something um that we celebrate in a major way. Um, and in the past year, you had a caregiver of the year, the caregiver of the year.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

And it's been a caregiver of the year.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yes, which is a huge accomplishment. So just would love to hear your comments on why it is so important to create a really awesome culture uh in your office and to really appreciate and value uh and embrace the role of a caregiver and why that is so important to the the health of your business.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Now, I'll tell you the National Caregiver of the Year, it wasn't like she was she started her career here. She was working with many prominent agencies of the area and doing a good job. She was doing a good job, no doubt. When she started working for us, our culture is different because I myself personally know each caregiver and and why they work for us. Because they work for their reasons and not our reasons, not my reasons. So I know I know them, I know their families, I know why they work for us. And and I think when that bond starts getting made and then they go out of their way for us, meaning that they go out of their way to serve our clients, that if it means that picking up an emergency shift, or if it means leaving your own birthday party and saying that, hey, let's put this on pause, I have to go to my client. There's an emergency, and some caregiver left, and I need to go step in. When they start doing things like this, then then you know they that that's caregiver of the month, that's caregiver of the year. And and so the person who was National Caregiver of the Year, she has admitted to me so many times that Garaj, I I never went out of my way like this. Like I did, but not like this, because it's just I just love it here and I love what we do. And and I and I look back at each of the each of the unique things that she did, and I and I quietly suspect that maybe my my friendship, my relationship, uh, our way of doing things, our culture here probably had an influence on her taking those decisions that actually she could uh list down or we could list down and say that hey, this person should be. caregiver of the year. And and I think if that if in this culture she she wouldn't have thrived, she wouldn't have done those things. But I think creating that culture is so so important. And as a franchiser, I I feel I feel that if if the owner is not involved with the caregivers, I think that that's a big that's a big disservice to not just the clients but also to the caregivers. I think they'll feel connected when they feel the owner is connected to them.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Okay. So that's a good segue into my next question of a piece of advice that you can give in addition to the advice that you just gave, which is wonderful advice. A piece of advice that you can give to somebody watching this who is thinking about joining the Right at home system. So anything that they should be thinking of right now is they're considering joining Right at home or maybe a piece of advice if they decide to move forward with Right at home.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

I think Jen firstly thank you for not preparing me for these I do it on purpose. Thank you. I'm forced to speak from my heart. I think uh I think anybody that's doing this, firstly yes, you have to do it for the right reasons. Remember it's going to be exceptionally rewarding if you're doing it right. And if you're not doing it right it's going to be heartbreaking because you're going to feel guilty that hey we could have done a better job. We did we don't deserve everything that we got to hear today from a client or a caregiver. Maybe we should have been more proactive and doing a better job. But but but do remember that you have to do it for the right reasons. And if your reasons are misaligned and if you think that hey reading the numbers in home care I think it's a great opportunity. It's up and coming that's what people tell me oh you're in the right field. It's up and coming you know the your area the Bay Area is aging quickly you're you're at the right place at the right time. I I didn't plan for that. Those are not things I looked at. And I think that's what made it work that my reasons were correct I feel that I just wanted to serve seniors and uh and I do love seniors and I'm the one who loves to go and sit with them and and talk to them and listen to their stories and and fix their phone if they're locked out of it and just spend time with them. And I think if that's not in you then perhaps it won't work and and maybe there are people in the system that that that would just you know snicker and laugh at me and saying that hey Gouraj we're running a better business than you are and and that's not us. You're not describing us in any maybe maybe they just have a really good business acumen and they have hired the right people but but I I I I think it probably will work really well if you are the right type of person and and it'll work each time every time there's no guarantees in life but this I can guarantee that if you're the right person who loves seniors and likes to work hard and is going to be incredibly proud with these achievements I I think there's no way you can fail.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Okay awesome that was wonderful advice and I want to thank you for doing this uh interview with me. I know you've done one with me in the past so thank you for doing this again and congratulations on all of your achievements with Right at home in the past five years. We are so lucky to have you um here in the Right at home system. And I look forward to many more years of achievements there in your neck of the wood. So thank you so much for everything and thank you for doing this interview with me today.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Of course of course thank you