Meet the Family | Tony Fenno
Duration: 13m 54s
Description
Tony Fenno, franchise owner, has been with Right at Home for almost 20 years and has three Right at Home territories in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Listen to Tony as he talks with Jenna Gonser, Franchise Development Director, about his interesting journey on how he started his business and what advice he has to provide to potential franchisees.
Background and Intro
Tony Fenno had a background in pharmaceutical manufacturing and owned a business in northern New Jersey. His wife, Terri, started the franchise when she was recovering from cancer, to give her something to occupy her life while impacting others. When Tony sold his business in New Jersey, Terri asked him to help her out in the Right at Home business.
The Decision to Come to Right at Home
Tony and Terri had exchanged conversations at their dinner table for many years. So when Tony decided to sell his New Jersey business and help with the Right at Home business his wife started, he had a good familiarity with it. He felt the business needed mature people running it and added policies and procedures received from Right at Home Corporate. Tony hired a nurse, and it really set the business on the right path. It immediately improved the quality of care to their clients. They then pursued Joint Commission accreditation and put metrics in place to make everyone accountable.
Care Delivery
Tony was convinced that care was not going to be delivered in the hospital or even in the rehab clinics. It’s going to be delivered in the home. He notes that’s where it’s going and that’s where it continues to go. Where else would you rather be if you’re on this care continuum, but serving the home environment? He saw it as a great opportunity and still does.
A Typical Day
On a typical Monday all cases are reviewed, along with the activity from the last week is reviewed. We understand what we need to do, as well as following up with clients and prospects. A schedule is put together so we know what the week looks like for the salespeople and the clinical staff. There are supervisory visits, assessments for new prospects, or visits to caregivers to give counseling and/or guidance. We do know that on Tuesday through Friday, there may be lots of changes and reprioritizing. Tony adds that the top characteristic needed for staff is a positive attitude with an action-oriented outlook, and those two qualities get you a long way in our business.
Support from Right at Home
Tony stated that Right at Home has provided more support than they could ever fully utilize. It’s incumbent upon each owner to understand their knowledge. A rookie may need more policies and procedures help. In Tony’s case, Corporate has been helping with vertical landing sites for the various niches of their business, i.e., developmentally disabled, communities, as you need to be found on the internet. Right at Home Corporate has been helpful in Accreditation for Joint Commission and helping put in policies and procedures.
Advice for the Prospective Franchisee
Be ready to meet your prospective client, referral source, and caregiver employee. That is happening all the time. Referral sources, social workers, and nurses are an overworked group of professionals. They are reliant today, more than ever, on in-home care. It’s squarely on the continuum of care. We need to understand our caregivers and their prospective employees, because what one needs may not be what the other needs. Today’s challenge is understanding them, coaching them, training them, and engaging them. It takes a very mature scheduling team to understand, listen, and reply. Tony believes good caregivers want to be managed effectively. Invest in good scheduling and support staff. His office has two people recruiting and following up on the 30/60/90 day mark and that takes a lot of work.
Conclusion
Tony concluded by stating that he feels he’s got probably one of the best franchise systems going, with high integrity and level of trust between the franchise owners, and of course, the Right at Home team in Omaha.
Click here if you are interested in franchise opportunities in Kentucky or Ohio.
If you would like to listen to other franchise owners’ stories, click the links below:
Meet the Family | Walter Ochoa
Meet the Family | Erika Ackerman
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