Home Delivery: New Report Documents Rise of Home Healthcare Franchising

The home care industry has rapidly become one of the most popular in franchising--with some of the most satisfied and successful franchisees, according to a new report just released by Franchise Business Review.

The report--Senior Care Franchises--looks at the fast-growing, multi-billion dollar home care industry to assess the franchise investment opportunity. Franchise Business Review took its first close look at senior care in 2010 when the industry was just emerging as a promising franchise sector. Since then, the industry has only grown in popularity and in stability.

"Senior care is a natural fit for franchising. It's a business that's highly regulated and systems- oriented, while, at the same time, highly personal," writes Franchise Business Review.

To compile the report, researchers at Franchise Business Review looked at more than 30 senior care franchise companies, interviewed CEOs at some of the leading franchise brands, and surveyed more than 1,300 franchisees.

Franchisees were asked to rank their franchise systems in the areas of financial opportunity, training and support, leadership, operations and product development, core values (e.g., honesty and integrity of franchisor), general satisfaction, and the franchisee community. Franchisees also answered questions about their market area, demographics, business lifestyle, overall enjoyment running their franchise, and role in the franchisee community.

Using this survey data, Franchise Business Review identified the top senior care companies (those with above average franchisee satisfaction). That list includes Home Instead Senior Care, Visiting Angels, Homewatch CareGivers, Synergy HomeCare, Right at Home, BrightStar, FirstLight HomeCare, and Interim HealthCare.

"Senior care is a highly competitive industry, which means franchisors need to work twice as hard to make their franchise brands stand out to prospective franchisees," says Franchise Business Review president Michelle Rowan. "We see some of the best practices in franchise operations and leadership demonstrated in our top senior care companies."

Franchise Business Review reports that, in 2014, senior care franchisees rated their satisfaction higher than the benchmark in every category of their annual survey (Training & Support, Franchise System, Leadership, Financial Opportunity, Core Values, and Franchise Community), and overall satisfaction in the senior care space was 5 points higher than FBR's benchmark.

Interestingly, senior care franchisees also ranked their "work-life balance" lower than franchisees in all sectors. According to FBR's research, franchisees in senior care work more hours (including more nights and weekends) than franchisees in other business sectors. Fifty-five percent of senior care franchisees said they work more than 50 hours a week.

From a demographic perspective, the majority (74%) of senior care franchisees are over the age of 45 and Caucasian (86%). There tend to be more female franchisees in the senior care sector than in other sectors, and they tend to be better educated (84% with at least a bachelor's degree vs. 78% in all of franchising). Sixty-three percent were in large or major metro markets. The average income of a senior care franchisee is $95,264, compared with $79,684 for all franchisees.