With a business career spanning 38 years, including 35 years in franchise and entrepreneurial environments, FirstLight Home Care CEO and founder Jeff Bevis has a unique and aggressive perspective for what it takes to build successful franchise systems. FirstLight is an innovative offering for non-medical in-home care and expanded to over 250 markets in 33 states in just seven years.
Key Takeaways:
[0:22] Today’s episode of Franchise Euphoria is brought to you by IndyFranchiseLaw.com, a leading resource in the franchise space. Head over to IndyFranchiseLaw.com to learn more!
[1:00] Today’s guest is Jeff Bevis, the founder and CEO of FirstLight Home Care, a non-medical in home care franchise system.
[2:17] Josh welcomes Jeff to Franchise Euphoria.
[2:56] Jeff’s involvement with franchising goes back 35 years and has included involvement with six different franchise systems.
[4:38] After years of discussing going into business together, Jeff and his son ultimately landed on a non-medical in-home care model after being customers of businesses of those types and not being satisfied with the service they received.
[6:42] When Jeff and his son began franchising, they had no corporate team to start, which led them to be very focused on client satisfaction from day one.
[8:24] One of the unique aspects of FirstLight is their client to caregiver matching program that ensures a quality pairing is made for the care each customer receives.
[9:43] It wasn’t until a year and a half in that they decided to add in any additional corporate team members.
[10:47] Although FirstLight was developed in the Midwest, their first franchise locations were in Florida in Nebraska. They have always looked to find the right people who are a good fit for the business, and to them that was more important than having their candidates be within a certain radius.
[14:31] For FirstLight, they find the right people who are interested in becoming part of the franchise first and then check with their software that confirms whether their demographic is a good fit for their model to ensure the quality of their franchisees.
[15:33] FirstLight was the first company in the industry to become totally web-based.
[17:01] A common misconception in their industry is that to be a franchisee, you have to have background in the healthcare industry. You don’t. FirstLight looks for franchisees with strong communication, presentation, and management skills.
[18:33] One of the biggest challenges FirstLight faced as a growing franchise system is keeping up with the demand of the industry while not cutting corners to maintain quality.
[20:18] In regard to the marketing side of any franchise, Jeff suggests jumping in with both feet first from the get-go.
[21:57] If you have any questions relating to the franchisor or franchisee sides of FirstLight, feel free to email Jeff at JBevis@FirstLightHomeCare.com.
[22:20] Thanks for listening, and please, reach out to Josh anytime through email at josh@franchiseeuphoria.com. If you enjoyed this interview, please leave us a review on iTunes.
Mentioned in This Episode:
josh@franchiseeuphoria.com
www.franchiseeuphoria.com
www.indyfranchiselaw.com
www.firstlighthomecare.com
www.firstlighthomecare.com
www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbevis/#642abbd11736
