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 that she might do extra started to develop. She did not simply wish to assist sufferers; she needed to supply a repair for a niche within the system.
“Not everyone has the little little bit of assist that they want after these expert stays to soundly go house and achieve success in restoration,” she says.
Dustin Distefano (L), CEO and co-founder of A Place At Residence and Jerod Evanich (R), president and co-founder APAH with Rachel Wommack, who received Margin Grasp of the Yr
Picture Credit score: A Place At Residence
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 doable. Inspired by her fiancé, she started trying into methods to construct one thing of her personal. Quite than launching an impartial 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 Residence, which aligned with every part that I needed — morals, ethics, all of that was in line. And so I went for it.”
Wommack’s resolution to signal with A Place At Residence (#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 individuals as soon as they go away institutional care. Throughout her time in case administration, she noticed aged sufferers discharged from expert nursing services, assuming that they had assist ready at house. That wasn’t all the time the case.
“You have received a Medicare guideline that claims they’ll go house, however perhaps they cannot get themselves up off the bathroom with out assist,” she says. “If that assist just isn’t obtainable, they will need to name an ambulance in the event that they’ve even received the aptitude to achieve their cellphone. They are going proper again to the hospital.”
It was a niche within the system that house care might 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 might be to deal with licensing, authorized paperwork and compliance necessities on her personal. A franchise supplied construction, assist and credibility — with the pliability to run the enterprise her approach.
With their assist and methods 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 Residence’s franchise enterprise coach. “She has long-tenured staff who work for her, professionals who’ve been along with her from the start and have helped construct her enterprise.”
Studying curve
Though Wommack felt assured in her medical background, the enterprise aspect of franchising got here with a studying curve. She had to determine payroll, accounting, advertising and recruiting — abilities you do not study in nursing faculty. The method was difficult, however she leaned on her training, widespread sense and assist from the franchise system to make it work.
“I had contemplated opening a enterprise from scratch, however I noticed it is way more costly to do it by yourself,” she says. “With all the legalities which might be round house care, it was a greater choice to franchise, as a result of you’ve got your template. It was a lot simpler having every part obtainable.”
Advertising and marketing particularly proved to be the hardest half. Though she had connections in elder care, reaching the broader neighborhood was extra sophisticated. Most individuals did not know providers like hers existed, or that they might 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 kids, a lot of whom have been juggling careers, households and caregiving tasks 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 enterprise possession gave her a contemporary perspective and a renewed sense of function. She nonetheless faces robust days, however they’re completely different. Now, she’s working for her purchasers, not for a company hospital system.
That distinction exhibits up within the suggestions she receives. Her group usually will get calls from grateful households, and caregivers typically go above and past to make sure purchasers are protected. Every of these moments, she says, reaffirms her resolution to take the leap into franchising. “Day by day, I get reassurance from our purchasers and caregivers [that] this was the correct alternative.”
Wommack has managed to do one thing most companies can not: She’s constructed an organization that is still 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 Yr, 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 individuals 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 crucial job, whether or not it is expert or private care. Going into enterprise to assist individuals is rarely a foul resolution.”
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 obtainable to them. She’s not trying to scale quickly. As an alternative, she’s constructing one thing that lasts — one caregiver, household and success story at a time.
