In 2003, Dr. Gail Silverstein was looking for care for her elderly father, but she couldn’t find a care solution with which she was completely comfortable. With 25 years of experience in the health industry and a doctorate in public administration, Silverstein saw this dilemma as an opportunity to provide people with the care that she wished existed for her father and the loved ones of many others. By Kelsi Trinidad
In 2003, Dr. Gail Silverstein was looking for care for her elderly father, but she couldn’t find a care solution with which she was completely comfortable. With 25 years of experience in the health industry and a doctorate in public administration, Silverstein saw this dilemma as an opportunity to provide people with the care that she wished existed for her father and the loved ones of many others.
Silverstein launched a home care business named Care Corner, which specializes in offering exceptional customer service and personalized care for the elderly. When it began franchising in 2007, the company changed its name to Assisting Hands® Home Care. In just three years, Silverstein had built the company into a $5 million gross revenue business with two offices and 200 caregivers. Today, the business has expanded even further, to over 190 franchises with over 80 offices across the U.S.
As the world enters a new era with the large and aging population of baby boomers, the need for home care is growing rapidly. Through serving the growing need for elderly care, Assisting Hands has earned a proven reputation of giving high-quality, personalized care, as well as robust marketing strategies that all make for an effective and successful franchise business.
The company strives to treat each franchisee as family, and it’s important that the franchisees it finds have a genuine passion for the business as well as compassion and understanding for the seniors they work with. The company places importance on creating a harmonious Family of Franchise Owners® (FOFO), so that owners can support each other in their successes and contribute to the Assisting Hands mission.
The FOFO is comprised of people from a variety of professional backgrounds, but they’re all working toward the same mission of providing quality care to the senior community. The company maintains an annual goal of adding only about a dozen new franchisees and 20 new territories to its roster.
“In the same way that the franchisor has built a family culture with franchisees, we’ve spread out all over the country,” explained Director of Franchise Development Dan Durney. “We are not owned by private equity, and we wear that as a badge of honor.”
Along with the support of their fellow FOFO members, franchisees have the support of the company, from pre-opening through the lifetime of the business. With a thorough 12-week onboarding program that includes in-person training and assistance with setting up a website and implementing marketing strategies, new franchisees are given all the tools they need to take the necessary steps toward success.
“I’ve been doing emerging franchise development, my whole 20-year career in franchising,” said Durney. “I really honor and respect their personal commitment to integrity and recognizing the impact that caregivers have not just on the clients, but on the family members. It’s gratifying to be a part of something like this, as opposed to other franchises that are good moneymakers, but don’t have the same social impact that caring for our elderly and aging family members has.”
Kelsi Trinidad