These signs to look for and questions to ask are adapted from Scott’s recommendations.

Why Now is the Perfect Time to Enter the Booming Senior Care Industry

(Extracted from Everhart’s 10/29/12 webinar presentation to potential Franchise Partners)

The business itself, first of all, the timing, in my opinion, couldn’t be any better. Now, I’ve been in this industry since 1998. And a lot of people that are candidates to Hallmark Homecare say “Gee Steve, I wish I would’ve gotten this business when you did.” You know, to be honest with you, the timing is much better now than it was. I was almost an early adopter into the senior care, private duty, non-medical in-home care industry.

Times are much better now and I’m going to get into why that is in just a little bit. But mostly, it’s because the demand for our service has continued to grow because of the aging population. Now, we’re not aging more healthy than we used to, we’re aging less healthy than we used to. It’s just that medical breakthroughs are saving everybody.

So, what that’s done is it’s created this huge population of folks over 80 years old. 30 years ago very few people lived into their 80′s. Now many of them do. And the vast majority of folks that are 80 plus that are living independently in their own homes, need help. And it happens to be the fasting growing cohort group in the United States because, again, medical breakthroughs, people are living a lot, lot longer but they’re living less healthy and that bodes well for this industry.

So, as I see it, the maturation of the baby boomers, folks my age, has really accelerated the growth of this industry because it’s not the baby boomers that we’re taking care of, it’s the elderly parents of the baby boomers, the 80 plus something like my parents in the mid 80′s. And so that’s why demand for this business is going to continue to escalate.

Folks are living a lot longer and then eventually, the baby boomers are going to need help too. And there’s soon going to be 80 million baby boomers, aged 65 and older eventually they are going to need help if they continue with the health problems we’re experiencing today.

“Dad’s driving skills are getting worse,” she said. “I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself or someone else. I don’t think he should be driving anymore, but he simply won’t listen to me.”

Truth is, this is a very real issue that families with aging loved ones are dealing with all the time.

So, in these difficult situations, what’s the rule of thumb? We want our seniors to remain independent, and they should be able to continue driving as long as they can do so safely. However, for many Baby Boomers, the time may come when we must intervene with our parents’ driving.

Consider the following warning signs, which may suggest that it’s time for your loved one to limit (or stop) driving and hand over the keys: feeling less comfortable and more nervous or fearful while driving; difficulty staying in the lane of travel; more frequent “close calls,” or more frequent dents and scrapes on the car, fences and mailboxes; trouble judging gaps in traffic at intersections; other drivers honking at you more often; more instances when you are angry at other drivers; friends or relatives not wanting to drive with you; getting lost more often; difficulty seeing the sides of the road when looking straight; violating signals, road signs and pavement markings; slower response to unexpected situations; confusing brake and gas pedals; difficulty concentrating while driving; difficulty checking over shoulder while backing up or changing lanes; medical conditions or medications that may be affecting your safety while driving; more traffic tickets or “warnings” by law enforcement recently.

Often, people fail to recognize declining abilities, or they fear stopping driving will make them permanently dependent on others or reduce their social and leisure activities. Conditions such as dementia or early Alzheimer’s disease may make some drivers unable to evaluate their driving properly.

I know from personal experience with my own Mom that this is a tricky situation, especially with aging parents. If you think that you may need to intervene with your loved one’s driving, begin having conversations with the driver. As people age, they tend to look first to family members for candid advice concerning their well-being and health issues. Suggest various options, depending on the degree of impairment. One size does not fit all, and while stopping driving may be the only answer in some cases, stopping driving too early can cause a person’s overall health to decline prematurely. Options may include taking a refresher course (such as the AARP Driver Safety Program), limiting driving to certain times of day or familiar areas, and encouraging the driver to gradually begin using other methods of transportation such as rides from family and friends, caregivers, or public transportation.

 What do you get from us? Again, no traveling required, all of the training is in the comfort of your own home. We have very, very professional training materials. There’s a sales and marketing manual that you receive, both in hard copy form and electronically. There’s a lot of companion DVD and CD’s that you’ll receive, there’s a lot of webinars that you’ll be involved in. All with the aim of really, really educating you on the best practices in terms of you promoting and operating your franchise partner role in the most effective and profitable way for you.

And there’s always one on one coaching early on, and constant, again, training, webinars, group sessions, monthly conference calls, these are all important parts. And then, we don’t limit, most of the time when you join a franchise, they limit you territorially, they say hey you can go into this zip code or this city and that’s it. That’s not what we do.

Your referrals for clients, your referrals to us is in your client referrals are going to come from all over the place in your region, in your area and we don’t limit you to any territorially limitation. So that’s a good thing.

And then of course, ongoing support. There’s a support team that supports not only seniors choice members but will also support you in your role as franchise partner with us.

Now, from an investment point of view, I can’t make it any more affordable now than this: it’s $9900 cash. You won’t find a world class franchise for $9900 where you can make a significant income. You can as a Hallmark franchise partner. And for those of you where $9900 is a challenge, I’ve made it even easier. For $3900 down, I’ll finance it over a year and payments just a little over $500 a month when you consider the interest. I can’t make it more affordable than that.

Now, before we touch on what the next steps are, you know that oftentimes I’m asked about licensing issues. The agency model of care and the registry model of care that I talked about at the outset, in about half the states in the United States, there’s a license required to be involved in the assistance of the activities of daily living. The ADL’s. There’s a license required and in some cases it’s a very protracted exercise and some states there’s a more touring right now.

It’s not overly difficult to get that license but in the case of a Hallmark franchise partner, there’s no licensing required. There is bonding that will require to get it for Hallmark as a domestic referral agency in each one of the states that we operate in. But that’s a real advantage. Your startup time is literally just a week or two of training and there’s absolutely no licensing required for any of our franchise partners.

So let’s review what your next steps are. The first thing you are going to do if you’re interested in taking the next step with us is to go www.hhcopportunity.com and fill out the request for consideration form at the end of that tour. This is an online tour that we’ve created that essentially allows you to learn more about us and this great opportunity. Also, it gives us an opportunity to learn more about you too and see if we’re a good match. After that, one of our franchise developers will contact you and conduct an initial interview and get the ball rolling.

You can reach out to us at any time, 888-519-2500. I always welcome emails directly to me, Steve@hallmarkhomecare.com and of course you can also check out our corporate site at www.hallmarkhomecare.com.

Thanks again for your interest in the Hallmark Homecare franchise partner opportunity and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

What You Get as a Hallmark Homecare Franchise Partner,

Required Investment and Next Steps

(Extracted from Everhart’s 10/29/12 webinar presentation to potential Franchise Partners)

What do you get from us? Again, no traveling required, all of the training is in the comfort of your own home. We have very, very professional training materials. There’s a sales and marketing manual that you receive, both in hard copy form and electronically. There’s a lot of companion DVD and CD’s that you’ll receive, there’s a lot of webinars that you’ll be involved in. All with the aim of really, really educating you on the best practices in terms of you promoting and operating your franchise partner role in the most effective and profitable way for you.

And there’s always one on one coaching early on, and constant, again, training, webinars, group sessions, monthly conference calls, these are all important parts. And then, we don’t limit, most of the time when you join a franchise, they limit you territorially, they say hey you can go into this zip code or this city and that’s it. That’s not what we do.

Your referrals for clients, your referrals to us is in your client referrals are going to come from all over the place in your region, in your area and we don’t limit you to any territorially limitation. So that’s a good thing.

And then of course, ongoing support. There’s a support team that supports not only seniors choice members but will also support you in your role as franchise partner with us.

Now, from an investment point of view, I can’t make it any more affordable now than this: it’s $9900 cash. You won’t find a world class franchise for $9900 where you can make a significant income. You can as a Hallmark franchise partner. And for those of you where $9900 is a challenge, I’ve made it even easier. For $3900 down, I’ll finance it over a year and payments just a little over $500 a month when you consider the interest. I can’t make it more affordable than that.

Now, before we touch on what the next steps are, you know that oftentimes I’m asked about licensing issues. The agency model of care and the registry model of care that I talked about at the outset, in about half the states in the United States, there’s a license required to be involved in the assistance of the activities of daily living. The ADL’s. There’s a license required and in some cases it’s a very protracted exercise and some states there’s a more touring right now.

It’s not overly difficult to get that license but in the case of a Hallmark franchise partner, there’s no licensing required. There is bonding that will require to get it for Hallmark as a domestic referral agency in each one of the states that we operate in. But that’s a real advantage. Your startup time is literally just a week or two of training and there’s absolutely no licensing required for any of our franchise partners.

So let’s review what your next steps are. The first thing you are going to do if you’re interested in taking the next step with us is to go www.hhcopportunity.com and fill out the request for consideration form at the end of that tour. This is an online tour that we’ve created that essentially allows you to learn more about us and this great opportunity. Also, it gives us an opportunity to learn more about you too and see if we’re a good match. After that, one of our franchise developers will contact you and conduct an initial interview and get the ball rolling.

You can reach out to us at any time, 888-519-2500. I always welcome emails directly to me, Steve@hallmarkhomecare.com and of course you can also check out our corporate site at www.hallmarkhomecare.com.

Thanks again for your interest in the Hallmark Homecare franchise partner opportunity and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

As a Hallmark Homecare Franchise Partner, you’re in a great partnership. We help you and you help us. Your role is really to refer clients or referral sources to us. We do the rest. Unlike the traditional franchise that you would look at, the typical franchise, the franchisor would teach you how to do all of it. And then, after the teaching is over, you do all of it and they collect an override, they collect a royalty. So they get rich off of your work but you essentially do all of the work and they collect a little bit of the money.

That’s not what we do at Hallmark Homecare. And I’ll get into what we do and you do in just a little bit. But largely, your role is marketing, it’s connecting with people. So if you’re not, if you don’t like people, if you don’t like being involved in the community, and you’d rather stay at home and not be around people, this is not the right opportunity for you. Your role essentially with us, is going to be a marketing role. And I’ll get more into that in just a little bit.

What you can see here on this graph, these are major areas of responsibility, things you need to get good at, over time, in order to run the senior’s care model of choice for example or any other agency out there.  The home instead, the other franchises. You’ve got to be good at sales and marketing, after all sales and marketing in every business that I’m aware of, is the only focus, the only area of responsibility that makes you money. Everything below that costs you money. It’s the fulfillment part of the customer or client relationship.

The selling and the marketing, the communication, the networking with folks, that’s where the fun is. That’s where the money is. That’s what you’ll do at Hallmark Homecare for us. We literally, at Hallmark Homecare Corporate, both in Southern California and our regional locations, we do everything else, meaning we recruit the caregiver, we screen the caregiver, we make sure they have the appropriate training and credentials, we manage all the office personnel, we do all of the payroll of our corporate staff that finds those caregivers for you, we manage the payroll of our clients. You get involved in none of that. Those are the X boxes.

Your sole focus is to be our face of Hallmark Homecare in your community. You represent us. Once you find this client or referral sources, all you do is send preliminary pre-qualification, which we teach you how to do, you turn that client or referral source over to us, and Hallmark Homecare does the rest. It’s that simple.

But I know that, of late, say in the last 5 years or so, there’s been a lot of pressure on pricing. Agency model of care is very, very expensive. The average nationally is $20 an hour. The range is anywhere from $16.50 to as high as $28 in my northern California practice. So average is about $20 an hour. The Hallmark value proposition is that it is significantly less. At least 30% less.

So, what it’s doing is attracting clientele that either doesn’t have $20 an hour, they only have $12 an hour or maybe $14 on the high end. So they’re going to be keenly interested in the direct hire model because they can hire a care giver cheaper. And still it’s going to capture a lot of lost income opportunities that we’ve experienced in the agency model over time. So that’s an important consideration in terms of the value proposition.

Hallmark Homecare, when we place, again, place, the important word, we place that care giver into the home of our clients who are interested in a lower cost alternative for in home care. We do it in a legal way. Our caregivers are all equipped with professional liability insurance that we pay for. That’s a cost of service, a cost of doing business.

And then we make sure that the client is fully aware their obligation as an employer, they truly are an employer. This is not an under the table situation which you see a lot of in this senior care sector as well. We admonish them and we help them make arrangements to provide for the worker’s compensation policy and to pay over their applicable share of the employment related taxes. Which are not significant, it’s not a cumbersome protractive sort of difficult exercise for an individual, like it is for a corporation. It’s just a form they file at the end of the year with their tax return.

We make sure that that’s a legal caregiver in the home as opposed to a illegal caregiver, which is typically the case, not all the time, but typically the case in the registry model of care. We fill a void, again I mention, we fill a void in the market not currently being served.

There are clients right now that we cannot serve simply because they do not or cannot afford, they do not want to pay the $20 an hour or they simply cannot afford to pay the $20 an hour, for the scope of care that they need. So that’s an important thing.

And then also, and I’m going to get into just a little bit, there’s other reasons why we’re filling this void, and one of those other reasons is the continuity control of care. You see, I’m harking back to the agency model of care where I was describing that employer/employee relationship. Those caregivers, they work for us and we assigned them, we engaged them into the homes or assisted living facilities or wherever the folks are. We’ve put these caregivers into the home, they work for us. Sometimes we have to pull that caregiver out, in many cases we do because the care giver needs more hours, needs a different shift, the shift that they are on simply doesn’t work.

So a lot of our clients, especially our elderly clients, they like the creatures of habit, they like the continuity of care in their life, the control of care. See, we tell that care giver what to do, not necessarily the client. In this case here there’s a Hallmark value proposition, the Hallmark Model of Care. That client has total discretion in terms of control over the caregiver. In terms of what they do and don’t do and then there’s continuity of care. That client doesn’t have to worry about pulling that caregiver in favor of going to another client. That’s an important value proposition.

Now here’s really a big one in terms of how we’re able to attract, in many cases, a more qualified caregiver to Hallmark Homecare to be placed, and that is, we pay more money. Now, in a typical agency model of care, again nationally it’s $20 an hour is what we charge our clients.

We necessarily have to pay our caregivers $10 an hour less. In many parts of the country, it’s $8.50. This is a low paid profession, care giving. Most of our caregivers are part-time. We offer at Hallmark Homecare, we offer $12. That’s basically the bottom and in some cases as high as $14 an hour. That $2 to $4 an hour for a caregiver is a significant factor in terms of who they decide to go to work for.

So that is a huge value proposition for Hallmark Homecare in terms of, not only the quality of the caregivers that we attract to Hallmark Homecare or placement but the quantity of them. The pool of potential caregivers is just that much greater.

And, of course, this is true too with respect the agency model of care and in most cases I think too, the registry models of care and that is we respect the commitment to the rights of the client for affordable, honest and trustworthy care. So, we’re not in any way, shape or form, a body brokerage business, like a registry model would be. We’re really committed to affordable, in-home, honest and trustworthy care.

And what we do too, and this often comes up, and that is there is a 90 day unconditional guarantee of satisfaction. In other words, we don’t place the caregiver into the home of the client without them interviewing that caregiver. They select the caregivers that we believe to be qualified. We send those caregivers to their home to be interviewed by the client, most of the time the family members are the responsible party for the elderly person, which is typically the case. But they go in and they interview that caregiver.

Should that caregiver not work out for whatever reason, during this 90 day window of time, we have a unconditional commitment to them, to find another appropriate, quality caregiver. This could be either a voluntary termination or an involuntary termination. And so we stand behind or work essentially. We don’t just leave people in the lurch.

And then eventually too, we’re integrating in a caregiver, not a caregiver, but a care manager hotline, so during this window of time the family members or the elderly client they have an opportunity to discuss with professional care managers the scope care and how it’s all going. So while we can’t manage that caregiver, we placed that caregiver, that caregiver works directly for the employer, they still have some voice, not only in terms of the control of the caregiver, but input from us.

(Extracted from Everhart’s 10/29/12 webinar presentation to potential Franchise Partners)

Let’s talk about you now. Let’s talk about you helping others and making a powerful impact on their lives. This is a huge, intangible thing that of being involved in the senior care business that, frankly, I did not fully appreciate when I got involved in the late 90′s, I really didn’t. I knew, that this was a service that was going to be providing a social good. I knew that. I knew we’d be helping people stay at home which is where they want to stay home. People want to age in place.

The vast majority, AARP did a survey, almost 90% prefer to stay at home. We’re not the panacea. There’s a time when folks just need to leave home, oftentimes, they’re running out of money. So, what we do know is that folks want to stay at home, they want to lead a life of dignity in their own home with their possessions and their memories, a place where their relatives and friends can come visit them in a venue that’s comfortable for them as opposed to being in a nursing home or assisted living facility or some state facility.

So, this is been a huge intangible for me. I knew that it was a business that I could feel good about at the end of the day and that I could make a powerful impact on the lives of others. I knew I could do that with respect to the clients but what I did know was the huge help that we’re offering the family members. And the burden, I hate to use that word, but the burden that the elderly have on, caring for seniors today. People don’t realize it, they don’t read about it, but truly, caring for the elderly is an upcoming crisis. It’s a crisis in the making.

And when we’re able to help family members, these baby boomers, people like me where I’m a caregiver for my parents who’re in their mid 80′s among others. I mean, this is a lot of work. The typical baby boomer today is spending an average of 20 hours a week or more caring for an elderly loved one. So, this is, there’s a huge intangible in this business and that is you’re helping people. You feel like you’re leaving a legacy in the world.

I can tell you right now, that this is probably the most affordable thing, and I’m going to get into the numbers in this sort of investment that is required of you. But I have made the Hallmark franchise partner opportunity enormously affordable. I’ll talk about the numbers in just a little bit. This is a business with low overhead. A lot of our franchise partners fully contemplate working right from their homes, not only at beginning, at the outset, but for long term as well. There’s absolutely no reason for employees, there’s no reason for a lot of overhead.

Here’s a key factor. Flexibility. There’s a lot of folks that want to be involved in senior care, they’ve approached us over the years, countless thousands of them, but for whatever reason they just don’t have the flexibility to maybe quit their day job, they don’t have the requisite amount of money to be involved in the agency model of care, which is $50,000-$100,000.

For whatever reason, whether it’s financial, or other, they have a mortgage, they have three kids, they can’t just quit their day job. They need a business that provides some flexibility, where in many cases, they can keep their day job and a lot of our franchise partners do. So it’s that flexibility to have a business, it’s a business that can make you a substantial amount of money but at the same time it does afford you a lot of flexibility in terms of the hours that you work, to a limited degree, and the employees and the overhead involved.

There’s no experience necessary. A lot of you might be shaking your head saying boy, I really want to do this but I don’t have a home health care background. 90% of the members of The Senior’s Choice come to us from all walks of life, non-health care related. You don’t need any experience at all in health care. If you do, trust me it’s a decided advantage. It may not be a long-term advantage, but it’s certainly a short-term advantage. So there’s no experience required. There are certain qualifications, which I’ll talk about in just a little bit, but there is no experience required.

This is an opportunity for you to keep your day job, if that’s something that you need to do or want to do. I’m not suggesting you do that, I think for the most part a full time investment, a full time commitment will yield you a full time return, but at the same time this is a business that gives you that flexibility, to start it while you are still gainfully employed in another job, with the idea of increasing your income. And then, over time maybe replacing that income, quitting your day job, doing this full time, and building a nest egg in security.

And I say security because it wasn’t that many years ago when I got involved in business which was in the 70′s, security meant landing with a fortune 500 company and staying there for 35 years and getting their watch and retiring and it was all good. That’s not true anymore for corporate America. We have countless, hundreds of people every week that are victimized by corporate America and then laid off 2 or more times. And if you’ve been laid off 2 or times and you’re over 50 years old the likelihood of getting another job near term is not good, in any event.

So, I think owning your own business and a lot of my colleagues agree with me, owning your own business, a great business, a powerful business like this one, is really the only way where you can provide some financial security for you and your family. What we offer you at Hallmark Homecare is mentorship and coaching. You’re not doing this all on your own. And I’ll tell you the scope of your services in just a little bit. But we truly are partners with you.

I don’t call our franchise partners “franchisees.” I call you franchise partners because this truly is a partnership. Without you, we will not be successful in your area. And without us you won’t be successful either. So you have that consistent and constant mentorship and coaching as a franchise partner with Hallmark Homecare.

And what you’ll realize too is that there’s just endless marketing and selling opportunities. You’re not going to ever, ever talk to anybody that doesn’t have either directly or indirectly a relationship with an elderly person that truly wants to remain independently there in their own home for as long as possible. And so the selling possibilities are just endless. What we’re going to do is direct you to those opportunities where it’ll drive the most client activity. And I’ll get into that in just a little bit.

Survival for “The Sandwich Generation”

On the very day that you are reading this, many Americans called in sick to work – not to care for themselves or their children, but to care for their aging parents. Baby Boomers are suddenly finding themselves with three jobs: employee, parent, and caregiver. People caring for both their growing children and their elderly parents are members of a demographic phenomenon called “The Sandwich Generation,” and it’s becoming a hot topic as Boomers approach their retirement years.

Just how widespread are these “sandwich generation warriors” within the nation’s workforce? Consider the numbers: nearly 25% of U.S. households are now involved in caring for a senior family member, spending an average of 20 hours a week in caregiving services. Nearly 65% of those individuals providing the caregiving are also employed outside of the home. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving, approximately 15 million days of work per year are lost due to these circumstances. Women tend to be the primary caregivers for their parents, continuing to work full time in order to support their family, pay their children’s college tuition, or save for their own retirement. These situations are further compounded if Baby Boomers have relocated away from their senior family members to pursue job opportunities.

When faced with these issues, it is always best to have a plan in place.  Do not wait until Mom or Dad is in the critical care bed or is being discharged from the hospital.  Here are a few suggestions for the potential or current “family caregiver” to contemplate:

1. Talk to your parents and/or family members before a crisis. This will help you and all those involved to truly understand their wishes.  Discuss with them the topics of Medicare/Medicaid and long-term care insurance, and if they have other important legal documents regarding medical treatment (i.e., Living Will, Durable Medical Power of Attorney, etc.).
2. Locate any community resources that may be available to you and your family.
3. Ask friends and family for help. Ask them what experiences they have had with some of the community services. Many of these people may have already gone through this and can be of assistance.
4. Talk to your local clergy. Many local churches and synagogues have family assistance programs or have access via their denominations. If these services are not available, most clergy are familiar with what can be obtained by you or your family.

Because of the physically and emotionally exhausting reality of balancing your own day job and family life with the demands of caring for your parents, many families hire a professional caregiver to help with a variety of care needs. The biggest thing to remember is that you don’t have to do it alone. Caring for our aging parents may be one of the most challenging roles we undertake in our adult lives. But by exercising foresight, consideration and a little planning, Baby Boomers have the power to create a positive outcome.