Meet the Family | Bill Love
Duration: 26m 46s
Description: Bill Love is a franchise owner with Right at Home in Memphis, Tennessee, with over 13 years in the network. He bought his franchise in 2010, and owns two territories. Prior to buying his Right at Home franchise, Bill did not have any healthcare experience. He was in the fashion business as a buyer, VP of merchandising, and then moved to the manufacturing side for several well-known kid brands. Interestingly, Bill also ran Sean Puffy Combs kids’ brand and Master P and Little Romeo’s kids’ and men’s brands. Jessica Cornelius, Franchise Development Director at Right at Home discusses with Bill his experiences as being a Right at Home franchisee.
Bill and his wife had a brand new baby in New York City, but didn’t want to raise the baby in New York City. So, with roots from the South, they decided to move to Memphis, near family. Bill commuted back and forth to NYC for over 4 years. It worked well until his daughter got a little older and he needed to be there for more things. So they decided to look for a business to buy.
They did some demographic studies on Memphis and identified the senior market was a great one in that market, and found an existing Right at Home that was actually fairly good size. They bought it. They had an interest in home care because they both had already gone through it with their grandmothers. Bill said, “Eventually you need help so you can stay at home safely.” They went to discovery day in Omaha and met with everybody. Then did their due diligence with six to eight Franchisee validation calls.
Bill notes that he was the first million dollar sale Right at Home had. It was not easy to put together the financing package in what was called the Great Recession. He is very proud of what they have accomplished and proud of the people he works with to get it done.
After looking at other businesses, they decided on home care as it was based on a strong belief that people should be able to remain at home for as long as possible and to live safely and with dignity. Bill also said, “Every interaction I’ve had with whoever is running Right at Home, they always think about what’s best for their franchisees, the business and the people we take care of.”
Bill bought the business in November and by February made the decision to learn every single job that was done in the office. His fourth day as owner, he had to work a caregiver shift. He wanted to understand all the billing and the accounting processes, noting it creates credibility when you’re talking to people that you understand what the job is.
The business has now doubled from when they bought it. It is much more complicated from a regulations and employee/employer relationship standpoint. His focus today is on being a true chief executive, ensuring they are going in the right direction and staying compliant.
Bill said he believes in treating everybody who works there as a big family. He also said he builds his business on dependability. They show up.
Going through the Profit Mastery system and becoming part of a performance group really help contribute to his success. The performance group opens its books to each other, talk about their problems and opportunity, giving true feedback. Profit Master helps you understand your business, the P&L, and the balance sheet. The Homecare Pulse program is fantastic. Bill added that you get all kinds of support from corporate. But the more engaged you are, the more you will get out of it. So that’s why he served on the Franchise Advisory Council, Strategic Leadership Council and Marketing Promotional Council.
Bill states, “The most important thing for a person looking to become a franchisee is to know your marketplace. Know who your competitors are, know what price they are charging for their services, know what the top people in the market do. Research what competitors are paying their employees.” He adds, “It’s a business where you go home at night and feel really good about what you did. Because in most cases, we’ve improved the lives of 120 people every single day. Their lives are better. They are living in a place where they want to live and doing it safely… maintaining dignity…”
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