Taking a Qualitative Approach to Your Franchise System with Jeff Bevis

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 [email protected]. [22:20] Thanks for listening, and please, reach out to Josh anytime through email at [email protected]. If you enjoyed this interview, please leave us a review on iTunes.   Mentioned in This Episode: [email protected] www.franchiseeuphoria.com www.indyfranchiselaw.com www.firstlighthomecare.com www.firstlighthomecare.com www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbevis/#642abbd11736