[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of All Things considered franchising. I am your host, founder of the podcast All Things considered franchising. Scott. Scotty Miles. I am also the founder and owner of scottmylasfranchisecoach.com. All things considered franchising is a podcast dedicated to the entrepreneur, focusing in on emerging brands, solidified brands, people who are interested in learning about business ownership, independent. We do run some podcasts on independent business owners, but it really focuses on the entrepreneurial spirit. People who are focused on potentially researching and exploring business ownership. Scottmylasfranchisecoach.com is an organization I started many, many years ago that helps people, a consulting organization that helps people research and explore business ownership, helping you map it out, map a roadmap, so to speak, and business model, and then introduce you to opportunities that potentially fit the services, guidance, education and research. That all that Scott Milo's franchise coach provides is absolutely at no cost to you.
Great segment today. Great guest. An industry that continually is booming because of people like myself are continuing to age. Our guest today is director of franchise, director of franchise development for caring senior services, Del Salinas. Del, welcome to the show.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Hey, thanks, Scotty. Appreciate you having me on today.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, you and I were chitchatting before we started to record. And, you know, one of the things that we were talking about is that the senior market, the senior industry, I think, is broken down into two categories. There's the medical side, the medical need, and then there's the companionship side. There's the non medical, the companionship, seniors needing help with daily activities, whether it's transportation, food, shopping, taking someone to the doctors.
But it's a growing market because the population continues to age. So tell us a little bit about caring senior service, the brand itself. You're starting to make a name for yourself in the industry. You're up over 55 or close to 60 territories awarded at this point. So tell us a little bit about the brand and then maybe we'll get into a little bit more about you and how you got into franchising, because you and I have kind of a similar background, which caught my attention.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. So caring senior services, been around over 30 years.
So you mentioned the territories we've awarded. We're not huge, you know, we're a good size and home care space, but what we do have is tons of experience.
Our CEO and founder began in 1991, and I did ten years as a single owner with multiple offices and then started franchising in zero one. And we've been growing since then, and he still owns and operates locations, and so does our vice president, Ian Clay's. And we bring that to the table. We bring that experience of you as an owner, which you would do every day, managing the team. And then the kind of blueprint to do that, you know, not being present, how you can do other businesses and other hobbies or other parts of your life. So we bring that unique hands on experience to all of our owners and have a great team at our headquarters here in San Antonio to provide that support and structure. So our big differentiators is that experience that we bring and then leaning into technology. We have our own software that we created for the home care space. And being able to pivot and grow as the home care space grows allows us to do a lot of really cool things.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: That's interesting. So let's take a side check. You have an interesting background. You come out of the food restaurant business, a lot of experience and expertise on the operational side, the support side, which is good because franchisees need support. I mean, that's one of the things that we coach our clients on, is taking a deep dive into the marketing operational support that franchisors give to franchisees that are coming in. I mean, obviously you're part of an organization, you own the business, but you have a partner. So talk a little bit about what caught your attention about caring senior service and your expertise, as far as background, how it fits into the senior market.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Sure. Now, starting in with people, it's a people business. We're working with our clients and our staff and our team. And my success in the past was building teams in the restaurant business, working with franchises and corporate level, and then my own business as well. It was all about the people. And when I was looking into the home care space, some personal situations and in growth, ran into Jeff, known Jeff for quite a while, Jeff Salter, who's the CEO and founder. And we started talking about a department that he was trying to grow within caring. That's called our hub department. And he was looking for someone to lead that department who would be working with our owners directly to acquire clients and acquire staff and caregivers. And so my expertise coming in was how to work with clients and work with teams and onboarding training. So I had a lot of experience moving into that role here within caring. And my first few years was doing that, specifically working with our owners in our offices on firing clients and working with building their teams. So I had day to day interactions with our owners and offices that led me to have more expertise into development side that I'm doing now.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: You know, one of the things that I like to talk about in my experience is being in the food industry and now of course as a consultant, running a successful podcast and helping build a franchisor, a food brand and being part of the management team, upper management team is that you use the word relationships and that how that plays a key role in the franchisor franchisee. Relationship, not relationship, in the success of the franchisee. The relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee.
I'm a firm believer that franchising is a relationship business that you may love the product or the service that the franchise is offering, but you're just not getting. There's not a lot of love between the marketing, the operations team. There's this kind of this edgy side to the relationship. I always tell my clients that if there is that edgy side and you feel that edgy side, that's okay, that's normal. That's what relationships. That's how relationships end. That you should probably walk away and find something that isn't edgy or have that wall between you before you sign on the dotted line. How important is your relationship with your franchisees as you build the brand? I mean, talk to us a little bit about what you're looking for as the relationship builder or the key points as the relationship builder as you're bringing people on board as franchisees.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: Sure, sure. Yeah. It's a partnership. Like any relationship, there's equal give and take. And not all of us have great relationships that start fantastic, but they can become fantastic with listening and providing accurate real time feedback. And that's what we look for. We look for understanding the hurdles that are coming up and then providing the information back to our franchisees. And on one aspect, it's more of a coaching aspect where we're coaching them to be successful and to follow our model. On the same note, it's providing that support, that that backbone, so to speak, to where they can be successful without us. Also give them the autonomy to be their own business persons. But knowing that whenever something happens, we're right there in their back pocket to pull us out and provide that support. So it is a huge balance of providing the access, the leadership, the coaching, and then letting them run with it and be very successful.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: We're talking to Del Salinas, who's director of franchise development for caring senior services.
The organization focuses on some different aspects of senior Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer, arthritis.
All part of aging, I guess. And all part of becoming a senior where, you know, one of the questions I think our listening audiences has probably kind of got in the back of their head right now is that, you know, there are a lot of companies that do this, or where do I find labor? Or one of the things I thought I saw was is that, you know, you provide support on helping people find the labor or the service people that are taking care of the seniors. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, the services that you provide and the labor side of this? I mean, let's face it, the labor market is tight right now.
What assistance do you provide your franchisees and people coming in to help build that labor side?
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Sure. So it's kind of multi levels. First it's that coaching piece and giving that blueprint, knowing what to do, knowing what to expect.
Then it's providing the actual hands on support. So our hub team here within our headquarters department does just that on a virtual level. So anything that the owner and office need from a virtual level, we can do. And because we lean into our technology so much, we're able to take a candidate from, apply and source that candidate and take them to scheduling. We can take that off of the plate from the franchisees level and provide kind of a virtual assistant to their scheduler or their manager for staffing.
On top of that, we also can handle those first inquiries. We allow the owner and the office to focus on their people, their current clients, their current team. Everything that we do is focused on building and developing the relationships, really, with your people, with your staff, with your caregivers, understanding their needs, understanding their lifestyle, understanding how we can help them, because without them, we wouldn't be in business.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Talk to us a little bit about your franchisees, backgrounds, people that you see coming into the business model, the success, the characteristics of success. I mean, one of the things that comes to the top of my head is that there needs to be this sales aptitude to this side of the business. I'm not talking about being a willy Loman where you're knocking on doors and dialing for dollars, but there is a networking side to this. If you're not doing it, you got to be able to hire somebody to be able to do it. Networking throughout the community, your territory. Tell us a little bit about your franchisees, the backgrounds, and, you know, any surprise stories. Anybody that, you know, you just said, wow, this is, you know, we rolled the dice and we came up with a, you know, we came up with that home run franchisee.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah.
The one attribute that's always in common is a passion for providing home care, whether it was from a personal experience or just seeing the need or wanting to be successful with providing back in their community. That's consistent. But as far as backgrounds, we have a very diverse owner group, from sales and marketing to being in the home care space and different capacities. Directors, nurses, we have lawyers, teachers. So a very diverse group of owners. But we do find is that one passion to provide this back in the home care space has been consistent. And with that, we hit home runs, making sure the right person comes in. We can provide you everything else. You come in with that desire and that passion, and then we're rocking and rolling.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: It's interesting you mentioned that again. We're talking to Del Salinas, who's director of franchise development with caring senior service. I'm your host, Scott. Scotty Milos, of all things considered, franchising. It's interesting because I hear that a lot about the senior market, senior business models, that a lot of people, the majority of people are getting into it are based on past experience or experience with their own family, whether it's a mother or father or grandparent or something, being able to care and just kind of seeing a need and putting their own kind of touches on the business model. I mean, again, it's a relationship business. We talked about that. But a lot of this comes from past experiences, correct? I mean, that seems to be a common thread here.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: Yes, we see that quite a bit. You know, someone had a mother or father who they were learning in the moment.
This is something most folks don't learn about until it happens to them. So a lot of times this is something that's new and it's really new for everybody. You know, the clients also, they don't know what to do when mom or dad need that support. What do I turn to? People understand that they're going to pay for their childcare for five to seven years when a child's born, and there's going to be a car payment or house payment for that. But no one thinks about when mom or dad get owed. I might go back to that and plan for that and that cost and what that's going to look like. So it can be quite stressful. It can be very difficult. So to your point about the marketing piece and going out and speaking to people, learning about what to do next, it's providing that passion for them, letting them know I went through that. Let me tell you what happened with me. And give you options. And this way they feel in control. They feel more educated and they can make some better decisions.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Right. Right. Now, a couple of things about the brand itself.
Your item seven, your investment level is ranging somewhere between 117,170, 7000.
Any average number of territories you're seeing your franchisees come in with. Are they starting with one building from there or are they investing in two or three? I mean, obviously everybody's a little bit different, but kind of give us a profile on what you can expect on territories, maybe size of territories, what you should really consider in the market.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So most of our franchise owners come with one territory with plans to expand by years, three or five. We have five year agreements for our franchise owners. And the territory space ends up being very competitive, very aggressive. We do look at your territory as far as staffing. Keep in mind that you as the owner, if you're hands on in the business, are going to be in that territory. And what is your travel capacity look like, what is your caregiver capacity look like? And being realistic, you know, we all have, I think, you know, bigger eyes than our stomachs, so to speak. And we want to make sure that we're being, you know, smart and being able to manage the business successfully. So we review that with all of our owner candidates.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Right?
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: We want to keep ego out of this.
You don't have to tell people that you own so many territories. You want to tell people that you've been successful in the business. As a business owner, one of the things that you mentioned, you are looking for owners to be actively involved in the business. I would think at least for the first twelve to 18 months, build it up, maybe kind of build that little management team you are looking. This is not a passive tibet. This is not a passive business model. You're not looking for somebody to come in and be a kind of a semi absentee owner. You really want somebody involved. And the other part of this is that while this is not a retail environment where you're going out and building, it's more of, you probably need a shared office, that type of where you can conduct interviews, keep records of employees, confidential interviews. Is that correct? So again, it's not a retail where you're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a build out, but going into a shared offer space or a small office environment, renting an office, not working from home.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: Correct? Sure, sure. You brought up a number of good points there. First for the initial investment, that range is to give you options. If you're going to be hands on in the business, it's probably going to be a little bit less for that initial investment. If you are going to be an absentee owner, you need to hire somebody to be you and be that role full time. So that's gonna be a little bit higher to the office space. Nothing real big, you know, something that's easily accessible, where your caregivers can come and interview comfortably and train and big enough for three working areas for you and your office team.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Awesome. And I do see that you offer a veteran discount for veterans that are interested in coming in. People have served in the armed forces. Discount off of the franchise fee.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: That's right. It's a 20% discount for veterans.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Awesome. Awesome. And on just about a $50,000 franchise fee, that's a $10,000 discount. So that's really nice being able to offer that to veterans for people who have served.
Dell, any closing comments, any thoughts about anything I might have asked missed? Obviously, we'll get your contact information in a minute, but anything else you want to share about the brand, you know, the potential candidate or franchisee you're looking for, anything I might have missed asking that you want to share with us?
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Sure. Sure. I think we covered a lot. Just to reiterate, we're a down to earth blue collar company. We're looking for folks who we would want to spend 8 hours in a car with. We're looking for people that are the same mindset that want to come in and have that passion for the business and that they want to work with us. We want to work with you. So, you know, people that want to learn more always available for little chat and to share information with anybody.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Right, right. Well, great, great. Dell, what is the best way for someone to reach out to you or find out more about carrying caring services?
I mean, is there a webpage someone can go to or obviously they can reach out to me. I can make the intro on their behalf. But if somebody wanted to find out more information directly, what would be the best way to do that?
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Caringseniorservice.com or caringfranchise.com dot. So best way to get a hold of us, you come directly to me. You can also find
[email protected]. Dot. I'm sure you'll have that on notes as well, but. Caringseniorservice.com or caringfranchise.com dot.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Wow, that's awesome. Okay, great.
Well, Del, you know, I really appreciate your time. I mean, it's hard to believe how fast 20 minutes go by. I mean, it's flew by.
It does.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: It does.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: But I really appreciate you being on the show. We've been talking to Del Salinas, who's director of franchise development for caring senior service. A real up and coming solidified brand, strong validation, strong upper management team. A lot of experience in this industry, the management team, but even more uniquely, they're not part of an FSO. I mean, so they are managing the development and the infrastructure as a team, as a private organization. So that's a lot to be said. So high five to that and to everybody over there and the management. Del, I hope we can get you back on six months from now just to get an update on how things are.
I am your host, Scott. Scotty Miles. We've been talking to Del Salinas, as I mentioned, who's director of franchise development.
I'm Scott. Scotty Milos. If you'd like to learn more about all things, consider franchising or have questions about business ownership through Scott Milos, franchise coach, visit our
[email protected]. Or scottmylasfranchisecoach.com dot. I can also be reached at email scottmylasfranchisecoach.com dot. Del, it's been great. I wish you all the best, and I look forward to having you back on.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Hey, thanks, guys. Been a pleasure.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: This is Scott. Scotty miles. Until next time, another episode of all things considered, franchising.
