For greater than 14 years, Rachel Wommack labored in healthcare, primarily specializing in elder care as a registered nurse. She’d frolicked in hospitals, long-term care and case administration, seeing firsthand the strengths and shortcomings of the healthcare system. However because the years handed, the concept she might do extra started to develop. She did not simply need to assist sufferers; she needed to offer a repair for a niche within the system.
“Not all people has the little little bit of assist that they want after these expert stays to soundly go residence and achieve success in restoration,” she says.
Dustin Distefano (L), CEO and co-founder of A Place At House and Jerod Evanich (R), president and co-founder APAH with Rachel Wommack, who received Margin Grasp of the 12 months
Picture Credit score: A Place At House
Firsthand perception
The turning level got here in 2021. Her son had simply graduated from highschool, and Wommack was lastly in a spot the place starting a business felt doable. Inspired by her fiancé, she started wanting into methods to construct one thing of her personal. Fairly than launching an unbiased enterprise from scratch, she opted to discover franchising.
“I got here to the conclusion that I wanted to do that now, so I began researching,” she says. “I spoke with a number of manufacturers earlier than I discovered A Place At House, which aligned with every little thing that I needed — morals, ethics, all of that was in line. And so I went for it.”
Wommack’s choice to signal with A Place At Home (#464 on the 2025 Franchise 500) wasn’t rooted in ambition alone; it got here from a deep understanding of how typically the healthcare system fails folks as soon as they go away institutional care. Throughout her time in case administration, she noticed aged sufferers discharged from expert nursing services, assuming they’d assist ready at residence. That wasn’t at all times the case.
“You have bought a Medicare guideline that claims they’ll go residence, however perhaps they can not get themselves up off the bathroom with out assist,” she says. “If that assist isn’t accessible, they are going to should name an ambulance in the event that they’ve even bought the potential to achieve their cellphone. They are going proper again to the hospital.”
It was a niche within the system that home care might fill — if households knew the place to show. Wommack did not need to reinvent the wheel. She’d helped construct a house care company for another person early in her profession and knew how time-consuming and costly it may very well be to deal with licensing, authorized paperwork and compliance necessities on her personal. A franchise supplied construction, help and credibility — with the pliability to run the enterprise her approach.
With their help and techniques in place, she opened her first location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2021 and a second in Santa Fe in 2023 and rapidly constructed her personal tradition. “There is a sense of belonging that resonates from her crew,” says Shane Thompson, A Place At House’s franchise enterprise coach. “She has long-tenured workers who work for her, professionals who’ve been together with her from the start and have helped construct her enterprise.”
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Studying curve
Though Wommack felt assured in her scientific background, the business facet of franchising got here with a studying curve. She had to determine payroll, accounting, advertising and recruiting — abilities you do not study in nursing college. The method was difficult, however she leaned on her schooling, frequent sense and help from the franchise system to make it work.
“I had contemplated opening a enterprise from scratch, however I noticed it is rather more costly to do it by yourself,” she says. “With the entire legalities which can be round residence care, it was a greater choice to franchise, as a result of you’ve gotten your template. It was a lot simpler having every little thing accessible.”
Marketing specifically proved to be the hardest half. Though she had connections in elder care, reaching the broader group was extra sophisticated. Most individuals did not know companies like hers existed, or that they may very well be paid for by means of long-term care insurance coverage, VA advantages or Medicaid. Her target market turned out to be not the aged themselves, however their grownup youngsters, a lot of whom had been juggling careers, households and caregiving duties suddenly. That realization formed her method: educate, inform and make care accessible.
Although launching the enterprise was troublesome, Wommack says it felt like a private renewal. Nursing burnout had taken its toll, however business ownership gave her a contemporary perspective and a renewed sense of goal. She nonetheless faces powerful days, however they’re totally different. Now, she’s working for her purchasers, not for a company hospital system.
That distinction reveals up within the suggestions she receives. Her crew often will get calls from grateful households, and caregivers typically go above and past to make sure purchasers are secure. Every of these moments, she says, reaffirms her choice to take the leap into franchising. “Day-after-day, I get reassurance from our purchasers and caregivers [that] this was the proper alternative.”
Wommack has managed to do one thing most companies can not: She’s constructed an organization that continues to be caring and empathetic whereas rising it to greater than $1.3 million in annual income. Earlier this yr, she received the franchise’s Margin Grasp of the 12 months, which is awarded to the situation with the very best gross revenue after caregiver payroll.
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Recommendation for nurses
To different nurses feeling caught or underappreciated, Wommack gives a message of encouragement. Franchising, she says, gave her a option to proceed serving to folks whereas taking management of her profession and life, and so they can, too.
“Do your analysis and do not maintain your self again,” she says. “This is a vital job, whether or not it is expert or private care. Going into enterprise to assist folks isn’t a nasty choice.”
For now, Wommack is concentrated on rising her two areas, supporting her crew and persevering with to coach households concerning the care choices accessible to them. She’s not seeking to scale quickly. As a substitute, she’s constructing one thing that lasts — one caregiver, household and success story at a time.
