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 may do extra started to develop. She did not simply wish to assist sufferers; she wished to supply a repair for a spot within the system.
“Not all people has the little little bit of assist that they want after these expert stays to securely 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
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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 beginning a enterprise felt potential. Inspired by her fiancé, she started trying into methods to construct one thing of her personal. Reasonably than launching an unbiased enterprise from scratch, she opted to discover franchising.
“I got here to the belief 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 the whole lot that I wished — morals, ethics, all of that was in line. And so I went for it.”
Wommack’s determination to signal with A Place At House (#464 on the 2025 Franchise 500) wasn’t rooted in ambition alone; it got here from a deep understanding of how usually the healthcare system fails folks as soon as they depart institutional care. Throughout her time in case administration, she noticed aged sufferers discharged from expert nursing services, assuming that they had assist ready at residence. That wasn’t all the time the case.
“You’ve got bought a Medicare guideline that claims they’ll go residence, however perhaps they cannot get themselves up off the bathroom with out assist,” she says. “If that assist shouldn’t be out there, they will should name an ambulance in the event that they’ve even bought the potential to succeed in their telephone. They are going proper again to the hospital.”
It was a spot within the system that residence care may fill — if households knew the place to show. Wommack did not wish 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 could possibly be to deal with licensing, authorized paperwork and compliance necessities on her personal. A franchise provided construction, help and credibility — with the flexibleness to run the enterprise her manner.
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 group,” says Shane Thompson, A Place At House’s franchise enterprise coach. “She has long-tenured staff 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 enterprise aspect of franchising got here with a studying curve. She had to determine payroll, accounting, advertising and recruiting — expertise you do not be taught in nursing faculty. The method was difficult, however she leaned on her training, widespread sense and help from the franchise system to make it work.
“I had contemplated opening a enterprise from scratch, however I spotted it is far more costly to do it by yourself,” she says. “With all the legalities which can be round residence care, it was a greater choice to franchise, as a result of you’ve your template. It was a lot simpler having the whole lot out there.”
Advertising and marketing particularly proved to be the hardest half. Though she had connections in elder care, reaching the broader group was extra difficult. Most individuals did not know providers like hers existed, or that they could possibly be paid for by long-term care insurance coverage, VA advantages or Medicaid. Her target market turned out to be not the aged themselves, however their grownup kids, a lot of whom have been juggling careers, households and caregiving obligations all of sudden. 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 enterprise possession gave her a contemporary perspective and a renewed sense of function. She nonetheless faces robust days, however they’re totally different. Now, she’s working for her shoppers, not for a company hospital system.
That distinction exhibits up within the suggestions she receives. Her group often will get calls from grateful households, and caregivers usually go above and past to make sure shoppers are secure. Every of these moments, she says, reaffirms her determination to take the leap into franchising. “Daily, I get reassurance from our shoppers and caregivers [that] this was the proper selection.”
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 12 months, she received the franchise’s Margin Grasp of the 12 months, which is awarded to the placement with the very best gross revenue after caregiver payroll.
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Recommendation for nurses
To different nurses feeling caught or underappreciated, Wommack presents a message of encouragement. Franchising, she says, gave her a technique to proceed serving to folks whereas taking management of her profession and life, they usually 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 determination.”
For now, Wommack is concentrated on rising her two places, supporting her group and persevering with to coach households in regards to the care choices out there to them. She’s not seeking to scale quickly. As an alternative, she’s constructing one thing that lasts — one caregiver, household and success story at a time.
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