Franchise Entrepreneur
September/October 2008
A prescription for success
Nurse Next Door has brought efficient, compassionate home care to its clients’ doorsteps since 2001. When it began franchising in 2007, after building a highly successful and highly profitable initial operation, the company aimed to treat its franchisees the same way. Why not? A thorough, measured approach always produces the best results.
“When we announced plans to franchise, we got more than 100 applications,” remembers co-founder, John DeHart. “We could have signed 10 or 20 franchise locations immediately. Instead, we spent months approving our first 11.”
Both DeHart and his business partner, Ken Sim, have seen what happens when corners are cut in the homecare industry. DeHart struggled for months to find adequate homecare services for his grandmother, an Alzheimer’s sufferer. Sim’s wife also faced medical challenges, having been confined to her bed during a difficult pregnancy. Shocked at how difficult it was to find certified, properly insured caregivers in Vancouver, DeHart and Sim decided they could do better. They bought two phones and interviewed caregivers over coffee at their local Starbucks, eventually hiring six. Seven years later, Nurse Next Door boasts 11 franchise locations in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, with new opportunities available in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and other major markets across Canada. As Sim puts it, “we award franchises; we don’t sell them.”
DeHart is just as confident. He points to revenue growth of 3,400 per cent in the last seven years and predicts global sales of $1 billion by 2021. By then, seniors are expected to account for almost 20 per cent of Canada’s population. Seniors also happen to be the majority of Nurse Next Door’s clientele. With this seemingly lucrative future ahead, all Nurse Next Door needs is talented franchisees—or as the company calls them, ‘franchise partners.’
“We’re looking for people who not only want to build a profitable business, but also want to make a difference in peoples’ lives,” DeHart explains. Franchise partners begin with a two-week training course that covers not only caregiving, but also the ins and outs of customer service, business related technology, marketing, public relations, human resources and techniques for efficient management. These skills are crucial, since many franchise partners must spend more time marketing in their communities or overseeing teams of caregivers than they do visiting clients personally.
When franchise partners do visit a new client’s home, Nurse Next Door’s technological investments make that trip more efficient and rewarding for everyone. Traditionally, franchise partners visited a new client, took extensive notes, returned to their offices, transcribed those notes on an office computer, then booked a return-visit to deliver the completed care plan. Nurse Next Door has now streamlined this process to a single step. Franchise partners use a tablet computer, pre-loaded with questionnaires that clients can fill out right away. When the assessment is finished, a care plan is printed on the spot and the franchise partner can move on—having provided the same level of care in a fraction of the time.
The franchisor takes over from there. Once a new client’s information has been inputted, those same tablet computers automatically send the data to Nurse Next Door’s client services centre, staffed with friendly operators who can handle all of the client’s ongoing scheduling needs. This allows franchise partners (and their teams) to focus on growing their client base even further.
With training finished and support thus assured, success is simply a matter of preventative medicine. Nurse Next Door achieves this by assigning each partner a coach who can help him or her through the crucial first months of business. Once the operation is established, the franchise partner and coach schedule weekly phonecalls to keep both parties aware of what is working and what is not. Should emergencies arise, Nurse Next Door encourages its franchise partners to be upfront, reasoning that if one is struggling, others likely are, too. Honesty is the best cure for everyone.
“To build a national brand, we have to put our franchise partners first,” concludes Sim. “Our support systems enable us to do just that.”
