Editorial

What Recession?

Featured Franchise With the U.S. in a recession and unemployment pushing past 5 percent, industries that for years have been the stalwarts of the American economy are suffering. Particularly hard-hit have been manufacturing, services and technology companies.

Featured Franchise Not among them, however, is the $8 billion non-medical eldercare industry, which shows no signs of weakening in these uncertain economic times. Why? Because the nation’s skyrocketing elderly population and their families need help and will continue to well into the 21st century.

Consider these statistics:

According to a U.S. Census Bureau 2000 report, 35 million people in the United States are age 65 and older. That represents a 12 percent increase since 1990. By 2011, the "baby boom" generation will begin to turn 65 and by 2030, 70 million Americans will be age 65 or older.
The eldercare Web site AgeNet reports that older Americans own much of this country’s wealth. Americans 50 and older control more than 80 percent of this nation’s assets, exceeding $7 trillion.
According to the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA), nearly 54 million adults already provide care for an elderly, disabled or chronically ill relative or friend. Many of these Americans are working and raising young families while trying to care for elderly family members.

The statistics help explain why Home Instead Senior Care, founded in 1994, and other eldercare companies are growing so rapidly. The company is responding to the growing needs of the elderly and their overburdened families who want services and can afford to pay for them.

Featured Franchise Unlike many other home care companies, though, Home Instead Senior Care focuses on hiring and training CAREGivers who keep the elderly out of more expensive care facilities by helping them at home with their non-medical needs such as cooking, cleaning, transportation and companionship. In 2001, the company grew by 51 percent, increasing system-wide, customer-level revenues from $74 million to $112 million.

"By helping the elderly remain in their homes longer, we’re not only making life better for them and their families, we’re generating jobs and careers that keep America rolling," said Paul Hogan, Home Instead’s 39-year-old co-founder and president.

Featured Franchise Among the company’s 340 Franchises in the U.S., Canada and Japan, the number of million dollar businesses grew significantly in 2001. There are currently 25 Home Instead Senior Care Franchise businesses generating seven-figure revenues versus 13 such businesses in 2000.

Company start-up franchises in 2001 were also not impacted by recessionary conditions. Examples are laid-off workers Dana Hobson and Dean Price, successful professionals who had good jobs, but were working in industries impacted by the economy. The two used severance packages to start Home Instead Senior Care businesses. Hobson, 34, lost her suburban Washington, D.C., publishing job when Time-Life dissolved her division and consolidated those services into the company’s New York office.

Hobson, her husband, Linc, a former lobbyist, and their seven-month-old baby son moved back to his hometown of Peoria, Ill. to start Home Instead Senior Care. "Some say this isn’t a good time to start a business," said Hobson who opened the business with her husband this summer. "But, we’ve been getting a great reception." Since opening, the couple has hired 30 CAREGivers and provides service to 17 senior clients.

After years of working in the information technology field in New York and Colorado, Price, 43, decided the ups and downs of the business, constant relocations and the threat of layoffs were too much. He, too, decided the time was right to trade his career for a stake
in eldercare.

Price had relocated from New York to Colorado in 1991 after 15 years working for General Electric in New York. He loves the Rocky Mountain state, and bought a Home Instead Senior Care franchise in Louisville, Colo.

"I’ve had other 40-something friends in the technology field," Price said. "As a person ages, it becomes a more competitive market. For every 200 jobs there were before, there are
now 20."

Price said he could have stayed in the technology field, but would have been moving constantly. He opened his Home Instead Senior Care business less than a week after the terrorist attacks and has had a fast start with 23 CAREGivers and 10 clients. "Our service is more personalized than most. We get to know the people well. I enjoy conversing with the elderly. Basically, I love seniors."