Tuesday Talk: Building a Successful Franchise with Jaime Esquivel

Duration: 29m 17s

A lot of our franchisees tell us that what truly makes Right at Home a special organization is the unparalleled support you receive at every step in your ownership journey. A big part of joining the Right at Home system is the access it provides to proven strategies, information-rich resources, and human beings who really care about your success. With so much at your fingertips, it’s kind of tough to single out just one part of this support system for its incredible value.

Still, if we were forced to choose only one benefit for special mention, it would have to be the Right at Home coaching squad. From the Onboarding Coaches who guide new franchisees through startup to the Business Performance Coaches who stand alongside you for your entire journey, Right at Home franchisees are never in it alone. 

But what exactly do Business Performance Coaches do, and how does that coaching contribute to the success of our individual franchisees? We wanted to learn the answers to these questions and more, so we invited Right at Home Business Performance Coach Jaime Esquivel to join host and Sr Vice President of Franchise Development & Sales Jen Chaney for another illuminating Tuesday Talk.

The Daily Drill for Right at Home Coaches

Before coming to the world of healthcare franchising, Jaime had spent 13 years at various operational levels in the food and beverage sector. Today, Jaime works with a portfolio of roughly 35 Right at Home franchise locations. He also provides coaching, support, and oversight for three Performance Groups, which he describes as “a conglomeration of owners, usually about seven to 12, that come together, and act like a board of directors for each other.” 

Jaime spends his days covering an enormous amount of ground which includes routine phone calls with all of the individual franchisees in his portfolio, internal strategic conversation with colleagues and corporate, and knowledge-sharing with other performance coaches. Right at Home also makes it a point to send its Performance Coaches on a minimum of 18 in-person franchise visits per year, as well as two annual in-person visits with assigned Performance Groups per year.

As Jaime points out, “The typical day to day is really not that typical. It changes every day.”

Collaborating On Your Dream

With so many different responsibilities on the daily to-do list, how would Jaime sum up what he and other coaches do? Jaime says it can best be encapsulated by the first thing he asks every newly assigned franchisee.

“You’ve got a dream, right? You’ve spent your money. Maybe you’re a C-suite exec looking to do something different. Maybe you’re a farmer who’s just saying, ‘Hey, I want to change my life.’ Maybe you’re looking to create a succession plan or create a legacy,” says Jaime. 

“I’m just here to help you make those dreams come true,” he continues. “And I do that by bringing everything that I’ve learned over the previous 13 to 14 years in operations and sharing it with you.”

Developing Your Strategic Business Plan

Not only does Jaime bring this wealth of experience into the process, but he and all of Right at Home’s Business Performance Coaches are backed by a proven model and a clear roadmap to success. 

“We have what’s called a strategic business plan that we as coaches work with our individual franchisees to put together,” says Jaime. “This plan includes a guide to really help you create your core values and your mission statement, as well as understand your demographics and your market.”

This process helps franchisees identify their top goals, and plot out the path to those goals. That path combines weekly and quarterly goals with a big-picture look at where franchisees hope to be in one, two, or three years.

Measuring Your Success

A critical part of developing a strategic business plan is identifying the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that your franchise will use to gauge your progress toward your short- and long-term goals.

“Some of the things that we look at as far as individual metrics are your net caregiver growth and your net client growth,” says Jaime. “So are we getting more clients in? Are we getting more caregivers? Because that’s going to indicate if your business is headed in the right direction.”

Jaime also outlines what Right at Home calls “the model.” This is the equation for measuring your intake of revenue. 

“That model is representative of how financially healthy your business is,” says Jaime. “Is your gross profit margin where it needs to be? Are you hitting what you need to for administrative costs? Are all your other fixed expenses being covered?” 

Our Business Performance Coaches work directly alongside franchisees to help them understand this model. More broadly, you can expect your coach to work alongside you as you learn to track your KPIs, to understand what they mean for the progress of your business, and to identify any steps you can take to adjust course when needed. 

Mastering the Tools For Success

Jaime also highlights the importance of arming franchisees with the tools needed to carry out all of these ambitious plans. “Coaches have been working with our franchisees, for instance, on utilizing WellSky correctly,” says Jaime. 

WellSky is a sophisticated healthcare project management software system that Right at Home franchisees use to track administrative tasks, cultivate leads, and more. Jaime notes how important it is to guide franchisees through their system usage and to check in regularly to make sure franchisees are staying on track. Jaime also stresses the need to use the system correctly from the very beginning. 

“And what I mean by that,” says Jaime, “is that there are just so many pieces to it that you can kind of get lost in the software. So we really want to nail down good habits early. And those habits include anything from cleaning up your administrative task list that shows up on a daily basis to making sure you’re checking in on prospects and creating an inside sales pipeline.” 

Working With Your Coach To Create Success

All that business planning, goal setting, and performance tracking requires regular check-ins, at least until each new franchisee learns the ropes. And every franchisee learns at their own pace, Jaime notes. 

“We’ll meet weekly at first,” says Jaime. “It really depends on how fast our franchisees are excelling in their operation. Sometimes it’s a few months. Sometimes it’s six months. I’ve had a few for whom it’s four weeks, and then we’re on to bi-weekly, and then just monthly calls.”

Those who truly excel may even be in a position to join a Performance Group after a year in the Right at Home system. As Jaime explains, “We want to make sure you’ve got everything rocking and rolling, that there are no concerns as far as the business and where it needs to be right after that one year mark.”

At that point, Jaime suggests that the right franchisees will have a lot to gain from, and a lot to offer to, the right Performance Group. After all, says Jaime, “You’re going to be asking for advice and for that peer group mentality to help you grow your business. But you need to be in a position where you’re willing to offer that same type of insight to other individuals.”

Naturally, being able to commit and contribute to a Performance Group requires a combination of experience and confidence. But most franchisees who do make this commitment consider it well worth their time. Indeed, many of our highest performing franchise owners are members of a Performance Group. 

How to Be a High-Performing Franchise Owner

So what does it take to become a high-performing franchise owner?

“Humility is king,” says Jaime. “And what I mean by that is you need to be humble enough to know when you can learn, not only from above, but from below. You need to be able to take advice and direction, not only from somebody who is on the other side of a screen from you, such as myself, but internally from people who may be on the front lines.”

And most importantly, Jaime stresses, “if you’re going to be a great owner, you’re going to make a true commitment to living out the business the way that you would live your daily life.” 

“It’s about core values, and who you are, what you want to be, and why you’re doing this,” Jaime concludes. “And all of those pieces are embodied within your business. And if you really truly live it that way, magic things happen.”