December 8, 2021
Fifteen years ago, nurse Chris Sansom met an elderly couple in need of help at the end of her evening shift. Her experience led to start her own HomeWell Care Services franchise in 2006. Since then, she’s never looked back.
“I almost bought a hot dog franchise,” says Chris Sansom, who owns HomeWell Care Services in Cincinnati. “Then I thought: why am I going to buy a hot dog franchise? I’m a nurse.”
“One night, I was working in the Cath lab. It was pouring down rain, and there was a little gentleman crying on the stretcher with his wife sitting next to him. I asked him what the matter was and he said: They tell me I have to spend the night. My wife has dementia. I have no family and no way to get her home and she’s going to be going home alone to an empty house.”
“My heart just went out to the gentleman,” Chris recalls. “I asked where she lived, which happened to be the neighborhood next to mine. I took her home that night and made sure she was as safe as she could be. And I immediately thought: there has to be some kind of business out there help people like this.”
Opening our agency was scary and exciting all at once.
“I started researching and found HomeWell, where I felt an immediate connection. We were on the same page with the same philosophy. I took a leap of faith with my dad, who packed up his house in Toledo and moved back to Cincinnati, and we opened our HomeWell in 2006.”
“Opening our agency was scary and exciting all at once. I’d been in management and had plenty of management experience, but this was different. People were really counting on me to take care of their loved one. And I was counting on me to make an income. There was some pressure at first, but each step was a learning process and a growing process.”
“With each little success, I felt more confident in my skills, while our clients’ families were so appreciative that we were able to help them problem-solve and take care of their loved ones. It became a feel-good job that didn’t feel like a job anymore. I was really helping.”
Every area of the business has a HomeWell expert who can help.
“When I was first starting my business, I wasn’t a marketer. I’m a nurse, so I didn’t know what I was doing. When I started doing my referral marketing calls, the HomeWell team would give me pep talks and talk me through them. They’d give me helpful ideas, prompts and cues. I know to this day that if I still needed help figuring out how to do a marketing call, all I’d do is pick up the phone and talk to anybody at HomeWell.”
“They’re so knowledgeable. Every area of the business has an expert inside HomeWell who can really help you. If you’re needing help on the marketing side, they’ve got somebody for you. If you’re strong at marketing but you have no idea how to do billing and payroll, they’ve got somebody. It’s comprehensive.”
Do you have the conviction and passion to build an impactful business that makes a difference in the lives of others? A HomeWell Care Services franchise could be your path to life-changing success. Take the first step and download our franchising kit today.