Duration: 19m 45s
Bill Love purchased his Memphis, Tennessee Right at Home franchise back in 2010 in order to spend more time with his family. That move turned out to be a great one. Bill took on a rapidly growing business without missing a minute of time with his young daughter.
But Bill could hardly have predicted the kind of extended family he would also gain as part of the Right at Home network. Today, he speaks about this network as a source of support, collaboration, and lifelong friendship. He is especially passionate about the value of Right at Home’s Performance Group program.
“The Performance Group is the greatest thing that the franchisor ever came up with,” Bill tells us.
Why? Well, we’ll get to that. But first, let’s find out what brought Bill into the Right at Home family in the first place.
Fashioning a Career In Care
As the General Merchandise Manager for a large apparel manufacturer in New York, Bill lived a big city life and handled big time brands like Nautica and Calvin Klein. But when Bill and his wife had a baby, everything changed.
“Having a new baby in New York City is not an easy thing,” he recalls. “So we moved to Memphis to be closer to my wife’s family.”
Of course, commuting back and forth from Memphis to New York wasn’t exactly easy either.
“I left every Sunday and came home every Thursday night,” says Bill. That went on for more than four years!
“But as my daughter began to go into kindergarten – that’s when you start to miss things if you’re not home for five days,” says Bill. “So we began to look for a business to buy or start.”
After doing a bit of research, Bill and his wife decided they wanted to do something to help seniors. That’s when the Love family discovered Right at Home.
“I went to Discovery Day in Omaha and really fell in love with all the people that were there,” Bill remembers. “I think that overall, the franchisor operates with honesty and integrity, and that’s really all you can ask of somebody.”
As it happens, Bill’s decision to purchase an existing franchise in Memphis wasn’t just a landmark moment for the Love family. As the first franchise to be purchased for more than $1 million, it was also a landmark moment for Right at Home.
Your Very Own Board of Directors
Naturally, learning the ropes of the new business took some time. Bill acknowledges that the stakes are much higher in home health care than they were in the apparel business.
“What we do, it’s a very intimate and personal business, and it affects a lot of people, and you have to address it that way,” says Bill. “You have to be ready to talk with the family and with the client and that type of thing. And it’s really, really very important to people’s lives.”
Bill took this responsibility very seriously, which is why he became an active participant in one of Right at Home’s Performance Groups almost from the very beginning of his ownership tenure.
“I’m in a group that was formed in 2012 and I’m still an original member,” says Bill.
“This Performance Group is 10 owners who have similar businesses,” he explains, “and they act as your board of directors.”
As fellow franchise owners, members of your Performance Group come with shared experiences, unique insights, and their own wisdom for navigating challenges. Bill describes it as an amazing forum for sharing and receiving knowledge and support.
Getting Real With Your Performance Group
In fact, Bill points to his Performance Group as one of the keys to his own growth as a franchisee.
“The one thing I’ve learned as an owner,” he notes, “you always play to your strengths and forget that you have weaknesses.”
Members of your Performance Group can help remind you of those weaknesses, in a good way. Bill describes this type of perspective as absolutely critical. After all, you have to be able to look at weak areas of your business honestly in order to make meaningful improvements.
Performance Groups offer a space where this type of openness, honesty, and transparency can be nurtured with candor and comfort. Bill speaks highly of the relationships he’s formed as part of his Performance Group.
“But,” he warns, “they also don’t take any bull from you. They’ll call you on this stuff. We open up our books, we show them what’s going on, and they help guide and direct us. And that’s a wonderful thing.”
Growing Together
In fact, that type of honesty is at the root of some meaningful lifelong relationships.
“They know me really well,” says Bill of his fellow Performance Group members. “They’ve all become tremendous friends of mine and my wife.”
In fact, says Bill, “I talk to somebody in my performance group every day, whether it’s by text, email or phone. We talk constantly, and we socialize outside of Right at Home, which is a terrific thing.”
Like we said, Right at Home is one big extended family. Performance Groups can be a great way to spend more quality time with that family. And as Bill points out, that quality time has an amazing way of paying off for most Right at Home franchisees.
Bill reiterates, “performance groups are the best thing, and it shows in the numbers, because if you’re in a performance group, you’re a higher performing office than if you’re not.”