--- title: "Home Helpers: Home Care Franchise Success, Tech & Culture for 2026" url: https://burnaze.com/article/1caeb0b8-52fd-42cc-b266-2dd7eee76c1e source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/home-helpers-franchise-tech-culture-2026-2731155 category: "Home care" industry: "Senior Care" segment: "Home care" topics: ["Technology"] published: 2026-01-12T14:09:02.000Z modified: 2026-10-31T20:21:43.763Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/7323496a08a9d68eec69e8e63389a8377175.jpg --- # Home Helpers: Home Care Franchise Success, Tech & Culture for 2026 **TL;DR:** Home Helpers Home Care has grown year-over-year for 28 straight years and is poised to award more locations in 2025, with over 370 locations currently. The brand's senior director of brand marketing, Nick Way, highlights the importance of differentiation in the crowded senior care landscape, citing the brand's business model and support culture as key differentiators. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2026-01-12. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/home-helpers-franchise-tech-culture-2026-2731155).* ## Story Home care demand isn’t slowing down — and Home Helpers Home Care is positioning its franchisees to win in a category where the need still outpaces supply. Nick Way , senior director of brand marketing for Home Helpers Home Care, broke down what’s driving the brand’s momentum and what will matter most for franchise buyers heading into 2026. “We’ve grown year-over-year for 28 straight years,” Way said, noting the brand continued to grow through major disruptions like the Great Recession and COVID. “We’re poised to have another record-breaking year this year.” That stability is showing up in unit growth. Way said Home Helpers has “a little over 370 currently,” and is poised in 2025 to “award 40 new units” and “open about 30 new offices.” The brand, which has been recognized by Franchise Business Review and VetFran, has a national footprint with hundreds of locations serving communities across the United States. A major theme of the conversation: in a crowded senior care landscape, differentiation still matters — but it’s often found in the operational “nitty-gritty,” not the slogans. “There’s no way to unpack that as somebody looking at opening a business unless you get down to the nitty-gritty and actually do some due diligence,” Way said. For Home Helpers, he pointed to two key differentiator buckets: the business model (including service breadth) and the support culture behind franchisees. Way highlighted the brand’s tenure as a competitive edge that should translate into confidence for new owners. “Our average tenure at Home Helpers is seven years. I’ve been here 11 years myself,” he said. He added that the franchise services bench brings deep, practical experience: “We have 60 years of franchise experience on our new franchise services team. They’ve either owned franchises, owned home care franchises, and they’re the ones guiding the new franchises through their onboarding process.” On the service side, Way emphasized Home Helpers’ holistic CareFor approach and the brand’s Direct Link technology suite — tools designed to expand the conversation beyond “hours of care.” “No one else has that in the industry,” he said, describing a model that incorporates wellness, safety and daily living support. He pointed to capabilities like wellness checks, sleep monitoring and medication reminders, and framed it as shifting care from a commodity transaction to a fuller, more proactive plan. Way also named his biggest marketing challenge right now: the rise of generative search. “The new SEO is called GEO — generative engine optimization,” he said. “What worked today doesn’t work tomorrow.” He described how quickly the expectations changed across franchising: “Within 12 months it went from ‘you should start looking at this’ to ‘okay, if you haven’t, you’re behind.’” And he shared how Home Helpers is already applying AI operationally, including an AI-driven recap capability inside its CRM to surface trends and prompt better client-family conversations. “It makes it so much quicker to say, ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity,’” he said. To close, Way offered advice he’s learned from years of speaking with prospective owners: franchise fit starts with self-awareness. “Franchising is not for everybody,” he said. “Franchises are good for people who have the goal of owning their own business [and] can follow a system.” His second point: choose your franchisor like a long-term partnership. “Look at the culture,” he said. “Nobody wants to be in a bad marriage.” Way joined 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills on a recent episode of the “Meet the Franchise” podcas t. A transcript of the interview has been provided below. It has been edited for brevity, clarity and style. Nick Powills: What’s better than two Nicks? I guess three in two days. Saint Nick will come, too. So there’s three. What a great way to close the last podcast of the year — with you, Nick. Thanks for doing this. Powills: I always start off with a scripted question, then we go unscripted. How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What’s your franchise backstory? Way: It’s very interesting. Prior to my time with Home Helpers, I was living in Southern California as a transplant. I’m originally from Ohio and was part of a startup company that helped small business owners find financing, bookkeeping services and different things to help them get off the ground. I made the decision to move back to Ohio — aging family, and I wanted to be a little bit closer to them, and to some old friends. I was looking at opportunities after relocating back home and came across the opportunity with Home Helpers. It was very interesting to me as someone who was very close to my grandparents growing up. They were a big part of my life. I really liked what the mission was all about. So I went through the interview process and, apparently, they liked me — 11 years later, I’m still here with the organization. I love it. Powills: That’s awesome. Give me a state of what’s going on with the business. What is the good and the challenging as you head into 2026? Way: Sure. The good is, I feel very, very blessed to be part of Home Helpers. We’ve grown year-over-year for 28 straight years, and I think that’s very interesting. When you look at all the things that we’ve been through — the Great Recession, COVID — we grew right through those things. I think that’s a testament both to the industry we are in and also our leadership and who we are as an organization. It’s been really neat to watch. I’ve learned a ton. You learn the most during the hard times. It was really neat to see how successful we’ve grown through that time period and beyond, and we’re poised to have another record-breaking year this year. Powills: I want to say a comment, and then I want you to unpack it. I still think the demand for senior care is greater than the supply. So if I took every brand that exists in the franchise category and said, “All right, what are the true points of differentiation,” it ends up being a little bit more challenging to find points of differentiation because the demand is so high that it’s almost not necessary. It’s like everybody — whether the brands want to admit it or not — everybody is kind of working together to service this growing need. We go back 30, probably 35 years ago, and it was assumed that if your health goes poor, you go to the old people’s home. That’s what life did. Now it’s transformed. But because the supply can’t meet the demand still today, there’s not a lot of pressure to make a point of differentiation. So twofold: I would love for you to unpack this. Is there a ton of differentiation between you and someone else? And second, is it even necessary to have a point of differentiation in this category with how much demand there is? Way: Yeah. There’s quite a bit to unpack there. First off, you highlighted something that’s very important. The need is so great for the services that we provide that, from a legislative positioning for the industry, we are friends with our competitors at that level. There are some great organizations out there that we collaborate with to work on advocacy for the industry, as well as for franchising as a whole. Then we’re competitors in the everyday. To that extent, I think there are some really important differentiators. For folks looking at opening a business in franchising — whether it be in home care or not — I think it’s important to look at. There’s no way to unpack that as somebody looking at opening a business unless you get down to the nitty-gritty and actually do some due diligence, talking with folks, because a lot of the key differentiators are the people who are leading the organization and supporting the organization, and those nuanced approaches. For example, we provide both skilled and unskilled personal care services, and companion care services. So unpacking that and getting it down into that nuance is really going to help folks identify which is the right organization to partner with. Powills: I love that statement. If I were you — and if you’re in control of this — I would go back to the 3:30 mark of this and play it back, and here’s why. You just talked about two very important things. One is the business model — how you’re different. And two, the support, or the culture model, on why you’re different. If I take all the franchises that we’ve ever spoken with — and now there’s, we’ll call it roughly 5,000 — there’s only two things and reasons they buy: the culture and the business model. That’s it. That’s the only thing that pushes it over the edge. I say that because when I land on your development website, your “why now” is, “Where compassion meets care. Shape the future of caregiving with a home care franchise.” I could take any logo in the space and put it on there. So what I don’t get on there is the point of differentiation that you just said with the service offerings, nor do I get the point of differentiation that you said with your leadership and the support. It’s buried. And I say that because I think, from a positioning standpoint, that ends up being such a huge opportunity for you because if you truly see that as the point of differentiation, then calling that out to the buyer that is confused — franchising is tough to understand from the get-go — helps solve that. Any comments on that? Way: At the top, we have the lead form fill because we want to make it easy for people to make inquiries. This is a new website, and from actual candidates, they’ve said it’s the best that they’ve seen in their due diligence. If you scroll down a little bit further, we do highlight our CareFor and our Direct Link, and it’s right below the form fill. We also have our moment segments with Emma and some other — and a lot of our Thrive podcasts as well. So it’s really trying to fit a lot of information — 20 years of brand equity — in as much space on that front, very, very important page as we can. But I definitely appreciate the feedback. As it relates to the people aspect, I’d like to highlight: Emma, our CEO, has been with the organization for 18 years. One of our vice presidents of franchise development, Bobby Kelly, 20 years. Our average tenure at Home Helpers is seven years. I’ve been here 11 years myself. I think that really speaks to it. If somebody’s looking at the importance of the folks to support you, that’s huge. Mercedes Morgan’s our new franchise services — she’s been here 19 years — and we have 60 years of franchise experience on our new franchise services team. They’ve either owned franchises, owned home care franchises, and they’re the ones guiding the new franchises through their onboarding process and beyond to open their business. That’s huge. They’re people who have successfully done it before. Powills: That message — because you obviously have an opportunity when someone fills out a form — you’ve got an opportunity to talk to them if they react. Powills: It’s all these ghost candidates out there. A few things that I heard — and part of what I do on these discussions is unpack what is the “why you, why now.” So what I heard on the sales team, purely: 60 years of experience, they’ve owned franchises, look at the depth of our team, the average person’s been with our company for eight-plus years, our CEO has been here this long. You have something that’s greater than an image of a caregiver with a senior, which is the first thing that you’re — and every brand in the space defaults to. I say this because everything you just said is so beautiful, but to a ghost candidate that lands on a site — and goes back to the day before they were in franchising — do they understand it? No. To this ghost candidate that lands on the site: I can understand having an infrastructure behind me when I leave my corporate career that doesn’t make me feel like I’m by myself. You just addressed that so beautifully. So the reason I say that is because I think your credit is greater than your positioning. The website looks beautiful. The colors and pictures and functionality are great. But that first message I see — caregiver with a senior — and a message that is so broad-stroke, and what you just said is so magical that, if it were me, if I bought your business tomorrow, I would take what you just said and put that at the top. All your elements are there. I would just move them all the way to the top. Move them to the top, above the fold. Make me fill out that form. Way: Sure. I appreciate the feedback. One of the things we look at in building this — because this is our third run — is we do an analysis of the top-visited pages and where people are spending their time, too. I’ll also say this: I actually sold franchises with Home Helpers. I was a franchise development consultant myself. I’ve done it. I awarded over 30 franchises myself in the three years I did it. One of the things that stood out, as we unpack it, is the first thing people ask: “OK, how are you different from everyone else?” The conversation that I’m getting to the nitty-gritty that I would get into with a candidate probably in a second or third call — the first call is really what’s on that front page, which is our CareFor, for example. No one else has that in the industry: a comprehensive care program that looks at physical, mental and spiritual well-being in a holistic approach to home care — meal preparation, looking at all these things — and packaging it in a smorgasbord that people can pick based on their family’s needs. Right now, the conversation even today is typically: “How many hours of care are going to be provided?” That’s the question. That takes us and flips it on its head and says, “Hey, not only is it hours of care, but, by the way, we’re going to provide three meals a day. We’re going to do wellness checks with our proprietary Direct Link technology suite of services — sleep monitoring, meal preparation, medication reminders.” A Home Helpers franchisee also gets access to that Direct Link technology, too, which is a big differentiator. It’s one of the first things that we end up talking about, even in phone conversations. Powills: Everything you’re saying would sell me to have that discussion. And it can come from other areas: LinkedIn messaging, PR. It doesn’t only have to be your website. But you’ve clearly worked so diligently to solve the issues of the senior, to solve the issues of the child whose aging parent needs the care, and to solve the issues of the franchisee. Take credit for it. Celebrate it in a bigger way. That’s what I see there. Way: The new SEO called GEO — generative engine optimization. And it’s fun. I love the challenge of it. I love deciphering it. I love how it changes every day. What worked today doesn’t work tomorrow. SEO was getting to the point where it was kind of like clockwork. You know what works. You make adjustments on a quarterly basis. This is different. We’re analyzing every 15 to 30 days what’s going on. I appreciate your feedback today on the website. It’s knowing — and it’s amazing — how quickly things are changing, and the ideas from the industry. That’s another thing unique to franchising: how supportive the community is. I was at the Franchise Leadership and Development Conference this fall, in October, and the collaboration as we embrace this behemoth called generative engine optimization, and AI — all things AI — I learned some really neat things. I think it’s brought the community even closer together. Franchising has always been a close community, but it’s even closer now as we navigate these waters together. Powills: Yeah, I love that answer. A few comments. I’m going to start on the consumer side. My wife and I do a thing called Prenuvo, which is predictive screening. It’s a full-body MRI. There was something in hers that didn’t get called out as something to pay attention to that she was curious about. So she uploaded her images from the MRI into ChatGPT and said, “Do you see anything?” It identified it, which then created a process to take it back to health care. I say that because I think on the senior care side, where it’s really going to go is it’s going to be the WebMD of tomorrow, where it’s going to set up the ability to ask questions and get answers. So for a business like yours to be on the forefront of that is going to allow you to position yourself to be part of that discussion on the franchise. Yeah, go ahead. Way: We actually have, as part of our CRM system that helps our franchises navigate with their clients, we’re introducing an AI recap function that takes information from the client history and the caregivers and makes things together for recommended conversations to have with the client and their families. So it’s leveraging, to your point, AI to go through that data and use information. Now, obviously, this has to be vetted by human beings — just like anything you plug into ChatGPT. But it makes it so much quicker to say, “Hey, there’s an opportunity.” Mom fell five times last month — that might be a great time to remind the family that we have fall sensors through our Direct Link technology. At the end of the day, what I don’t think ChatGPT can do — or AI can do — is I don’t think it solves loneliness. It’s a mask for it. So the value of companionship, with it as a tool, is going to be part of where the future goes. I don’t think any brand’s going to have this figured out tomorrow, but a brand… Way: Yeah. I think education of franchises is important. I can time-table it almost. In 2024, the conversation at the franchise conferences I went to was: “Hey, it’s coming. Get on the boat now.” In 2025, it’s here. If you’ve not embraced it yet, you’re behind. Within 12 months, it went from “you should start looking at this” to “if you haven’t, you’re behind.” I think that’s quite telling. Nobody knows where this is going, but it’s fun. It’s fun to learn. It’s fun to be back in school again and learn and grow from it. But you said it shifts so fast that we need to make sure PR, content, storytelling, answers, FAQs — we need to make sure that we are keeping our clients at the forefront of that, or else you could get trumped in two seconds. Think back to when SEO came into play. SEO is still a longer play. You might want to be No. 1 in search, but it’s going to take time. AI could be a 24-hour thing that can trump everything. That’s where diligence and content and authority are going to be so essential. Last week, I had a week-long break and had some really great downtime with family and friends. Toward the end, it caught up with me because of what I do every day. I said, “This week, I’ve done so many searches on my phone for gifts and different things. I either clicked on an ad that popped up in front of my face first because it had 4.7 stars and it was so easy to access — because who has the time to do an extensive search — or I used the generative section of Google. I didn’t click on any links below that, I don’t think, once.” It’s quite telling. Through a company that we work with, they estimated that click-through rate for traditional SEO has decreased by 30%, and that was back last summer. Who knows what it is now. I think that’s huge, and I think that informs folks who are in our position and deal with these questions. You have to adapt and start thinking about content because it’s so important to search these days. Way: I think so. If we take a traditional newspaper, it used to be circulation was the number they used. Circulation is distribution. You take a total number of people that use AI — that’s your circulation. What it didn’t do is say, OK, the way that Nick or Nick reads the newspaper: We see a headline — which I would say is the AI at the top of Google — and if we’re intrigued and want to learn more, then we’re going to read down. I think it’s going to right-size data. It’s hard because franchising — every franchisor goes, “Where are my leads?” It’s going to pull these numbers down, but it’s going to make it realistic on what can actually be the reality, on consumer or B2B. Even back to the AOL example — you and I had to go to the library. If I say “library” to my 10-year-old, he probably has some idea, but he doesn’t have any idea that he’s got to go through a process to find the book, go find the book, read the book, copy the book, put it on a projector — whatever it was. This is almost the same thing. It’s giving us a faster pathway to the answer. If we want deeper information, that’s where that click comes. Clicks are going to go down, but I think the value of the click is going to go up. Way: I would say, go with your gut. Franchise agreements have a term, and this is my biggest piece of advice: Franchising is not for everybody. There are successful entrepreneurs who are not franchises. Franchises are good for people who have the goal of owning their own business and can follow a system. Some people don’t like systems. If you can see yourself following a system, and executing against a plan, you might want to consider franchising. That’s point one. That’s my biggest piece of advice working with thousands of people I’ve talked to over these past 11 years. The second thing is: Look at the culture. You’re going to be with these folks for a long time. There’s a term of typically 10 years, 15 years in some states. Make sure that that’s the right fit. Nobody wants to be in a bad marriage. Culture is important. Fortunately, I work with a company with a great culture and I know how important it is. It’s why I’m still here. For a franchisee, that could be a tough moment because that change means more money invested into marketing the new thing that’s out. If we go back to the beginning of this, you talked about longevity, the stickiness of the staff, the commitment to excellence that is built around a culture that can go back many, many years. To a franchise buyer, that’s not often advised, but I would advise the same thing: Look at the stickiness of the team. That’s going to be the stickiness of your investment. Powills: Nick, I appreciate this conversation. Who knows where it’s going to go, and it went in a great direction. Grateful for it. Happy holidays. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it. Powills: Happy New Year to you. For Nick, I’m Nick. This is another episode of “Meet the Franchise.” ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - franchise growth (topic) - Senior Care (sector) - senior care (topic) - Nick Powills (person) - franchise marketing (topic) - brand differentiation (topic) - Home Helpers (company) - home care demand (topic) - Nick Way (person) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/home-helpers-franchise-tech-culture-2026-2731155). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/1caeb0b8-52fd-42cc-b266-2dd7eee76c1e).