Erin Nichols – Another woman, who is winning with franchising! Erin is the Franchise Developer for Colorado at Always Best Care Senior Services. Always Best Care provides warm, compassionate and professional care for seniors and others when they need it most. Always Best Care began awarding franchises in 2007, and is now one of the leading senior care franchise systems in the United States.
Hi Erin – clearly you’re a woman winning with franchising – tell me a little bit about your background:
Well, I’m originally from central Kansas, so I’m a Midwest girl. My father is an entrepreneur as well, so I grew up watching him work hard and give his all to his businesses. I think entrepreneurship has always been in my blood. I did my undergrad work at the University of Kansas, so I’m a jay hawk (kind of an obnoxious one I’ve heard). I moved to Colorado because I loved to ski, and wanted to stay in the Midwest and be close to my family. I had a series of jobs – lasting a year to a year and a half each, large corporations in finance and accounting… and I really didn’t like the factory setting.
One thing my dad always told me was that if I didn’t like my job, and I wasn’t passionate about what I was doing, then I should quit and find something I wanted to do. So after my last job I moved to the mountains for a season, and did some soul searching. Then I came back and got my MBA at Daniels College of Business here at DU, and they conveniently have a focus on entrepreneurship in that program. We had to keep a journal and my first entry was “I’m going to identify a business to open” when I graduate. At that time I was 26 years old.
So I graduated in 2008 and the financial markets were crashing, and it was pretty obvious that whatever job I got at that time, my income would be less than when I went in – so I never even really applied to a single job after graduate school. Right at that time I just started looking at businesses to buy.
Why franchising?
I had gone to a networking event and met a franchise consultant – and she turned me on to the senior care industry. I wanted a business where I could give back and feel good about it every day. Another goal was to be involved in my community and deal with people. And while my background was finance and accounting it wasn’t my passion. So I looked at several businesses, did my due diligence, the financials, and even wrote a business plan before buying a business. As it turned out I bought a resale, a franchise system that was already operating. I have a very good team – an attorney and a CPA. And my CPA said you can spend all of this capital investment over the course of a couple of years, or you could spend all the money up front and acquire an existing business that gives you an income from day one.
Why Always Best?
I chose Always Best because I felt their concept was the strongest in the category. I liked their combined offerings of home care and senior housing placement – I liked the whole continuum of care with the dual service lines and they were also just moving into skilled care at that time as well.
I’m a terrible employee – I have been fired from most jobs I’ve had. I have a problem following rules, but with Always Best there’s just enough freedom – there’s a model, and if you follow it, it works. But it’s not so strict that you don’t have the opportunity to be creative and make your own destiny. No one’s breathing down my neck and our franchising community is incredible. The level of communication and the best practices across the country have been amazing. The friends I’ve made and the business colleagues across the country have really been great.
What’s been the biggest surprise?
Well going back to my dad, I remember him telling me “I think your biggest problem is going to be labor”. But of course, as a 26 year old, I was like “Oh dad, what do you know… we’re going to do things differently, you know we’re going give hugs, be more supportive, etc.” So what do you know, a couple years later, dad was right – labor is always the biggest challenge – finding the right people and enough people – it remains our biggest challenge, in addition to juggling all the schedules, etc.
Anything you’d do differently?
I would consider bringing on a partner or someone with some level of ownership in addition to mine. Because it’s a 24/7 business, I was burning the candle at both ends. It was a lot to focus on. And my business suffered for a while because of it. And skilled care is a huge undertaking – if you’re going to do it right and to do it big.
What’s the best thing about owning your own business?
I’m nobody’s employee now and I love that. I love that our business can be nimble, and address problems immediately (versus going through layers of management). We’re very dynamic and flexible. Also the work / life balance – you can achieve that after a few years. I’ve taken off two months this year (not contiguously!). I have a great team that manages the business and I maintain a flexible schedule, I can come and go when I please. And now that I have a great team in place that are managing the business, I’m really not needed in this business anymore. Now I’m looking at other business opportunities – I consider myself a serial entrepreneur.
Stay tuned as we cover more women winning with franchising.