franchipedia
articles
blog
podcasts
newswires 
forums
calendar
toolsDick Rennick, New CEO of Assisting Hands Franchise System
Franchise entrepreneur Dick Rennick was recently appointed CEO of Assisting Hands, a franchise system that provides non-medical, in-home care to people who are elderly or have special needs.
“W
hen I came on board as CEO three months ago, my job was primarily to organize the fledgling less-than-two-year-old company into a ‘Care Giving Power House Franchise Company’ using my past 40 years in the business community and my skills over the past 30+ years in the franchise business industry,” explained Rennick. “I think we have made a very good start and investors are agreeing with that as demonstrated by the fact that we have managed to sell in excess of $600,000 worth of regional developer agreements since I have come on board with at least two to three more regional developers waiting in the queue.”
Rennick decided to leave semi-retirement after recognizing the power of the in-home healthcare franchise industry, which has grown five-fold in unit growth from 2000 to 2006, according to FRANdata, an Arlington-Virginia-based research firm that tracks franchises and their performance.
After formally retiring from the IFA and selling his franchise business 360-unit American Leak Detection, Rennick semi-retired for two years and worked with another company he founded called Team Rennick to mentor young and growing companies. Assisting Hands was one of his Team Rennick clients, and after working with the franchise expert for several months the Mesa-Arizona-based franchise asked him to come on full-time as the system’s president and CEO.
Cross Posted at: Let's Talk Franchising
Somebody let the air out of this wind bag.
In 18 months the lawsuits will be overwhelming this bozo concept. Project Reach Around is a better name for it.--
Richard Solomon, FranchiseRemedies.com, has over 45 years experience with franchise litigation and crisis management. He is a graduate of The Citadel and The University of Michigan Law School
Prediction or Inside Info?
Are you making a prediction?
If so, what are you basing your prediction on?
Do you have experience with Dick Rennick?
Do you know Assisting Hands?
Are you just negative on Home Care services for Seniors?
I have significant experience with home care for seniors -
sufficient to tell me that what he is saying is probably a lot of rot. I don;y usually rant without some reason to do so.--
Richard Solomon, FranchiseRemedies.com, has over 45 years experience with franchise litigation and crisis management. He is a graduate of The Citadel and The University of Michigan Law School
Significant Experience
Richard, ok I will bite. My recollection is that Rennick was a good franchisor. So help us out. What are you objecting to: Rennick or this business as a franchise business? And why?
Michael Webster PhD LLB
Franchise News
His pronouncements don't comport with the home care
franchising experience as I have seen it. While I acknowledge that there are many successful home care franchisees, I believe that the process of getting to break even is grossly misdescribed, and that many have simply run out of money before getting there.
I think that all the home care franchisors fail to give adequate informatioj about how long it takes to get to positive earnings in this business, not just him.
He's just too slick and glib for my tastes.
You need much more working capital than any of these companies suggest, and they know better.--
Richard Solomon, FranchiseRemedies.com, has over 45 years experience with franchise litigation and crisis management. He is a graduate of The Citadel and The University of Michigan Law School
Regionals
Then, I guess that the regional developers will bear the brunt of this expansion if you are right.
Michael Webster PhD LLB
Franchise News
I don't agree with that.
If I'm right, and if regionals tend to be more deep pocket folks that their lower rung one at a time folks, I would expect the people losing everything they own will tend - as usual - to be the lower rung one at a time folks.
I don't buy into your being a powerhouse franchisor if that is the customary experience in your industry, unlesss your company is atypical and its one at a time folks aint going broke.
From a due diligence perspective, I tell the one at a time folks - those few who actually hire me for DD - that their assumptions re working capital and break even point, as set out in their business plans, are off the mark by a wide margin. Now they got the info on those assumptions from the franchisor in every instance (one way or another).
Powerhouse franchisorss don't get to be powerhouse franchisors in my book until thier franchisees are making money over time. Sales of franchise territories don't make anybody a powerhouse franchisor.
Of course you are free to disagree.--
Richard Solomon, FranchiseRemedies.com, has over 45 years experience with franchise litigation and crisis management. He is a graduate of The Citadel and The University of Michigan Law School
Bullseye!
Richard Wrote: "Powerhouse franchisors don't get to be powerhouse franchisors in my book until thier franchisees are making money over time. Sales of franchise territories don't make anybody a powerhouse franchisor."
I couldn't agree with you more! The problem I see with "Regional Concepts" is that they are mostly money grabs. The problem is the fees are usually sucked out of the regions to line the pockets of others, most of the time they aren't even stakeholders. That money should be invested in the region. Shouldn't that be the whole purpose? Isn't it really about brand building?
I've spoken to Dick Rennick on a few occaisions, I believe he has a grip on what it takes to run a mutally advantageous franchise system.
I'm hopeful that the $600,000 he has collected in fees is invested in the system to support the regions in helping them build a successful newtwork and brand.
Jim Coen
877-469-3002
Blog: Lets Talk Franchising
Jim Coen is the Executive Director of the New England Franchise Association
I represented a mid level franchisor that did that.
The system had been acquired from the original franchisor who pooped out and had to watch some stores close.
My client (before they became my client) had sold area development agtreements, much as Rennick has done/is doing. My client was fortunate enough to sell them to rather wealthy franchisees.
The stores continues to fall short of programmed productivity, and some of the area developers asked for extensions on their store opening schedules to accomodate the performance as it was in reality rather than as predicted and agreed to.
My client's in house lawyer argued against granting extensions, and the company, rather stupidly agreed to deny the extentions.
The shyte hit the fan. Lawsuits broke out. That's when I came into the picture. That was the case where the strategy ended up having to be to lose the cases on breach of contract grounds rather than on fraud grounds so that we could run the company through bamkkruptcy and get rid of the judgment liability.--
Selling millions of dollars in regional deals don't mean shit! That's why I called Rennick a wind bag. Operations and operating profit performance that enables future expansion makes you a powerhouse franchisor. Selling area deals makes you a chump if operational success doesn't happen.
Remember last year when I put Dagwood Sandwiches on my FranWhack list? They did exactly what Rennick is doing. They sold a lot of area deals for a lot of money. Today it is all dissolved into lawsuits.
In this home care deal, it could be that we are looking at another Dagwood situation.
Richard Solomon, FranchiseRemedies.com, has over 45 years experience with franchise litigation and crisis management. He is a graduate of The Citadel and The University of Michigan Law School
Regarding 'regional development', period.
I understand full well why regional development has become such a popular strategy 'among new franchisor concepts', and we all will eventually come to the same conclusion. It's 'viewed' as quick and easy money, and usually there is a very strong sales team that makes it happen.
Today the action line seems to be the following - get hold of a decent model, sell as many 'regions' as possible with a great marketing plan, then see how the individual sales turn out, and last see how the individual unit performance turns out.
Unfortunately, most new franchisors are more interested in selling the state of Texas before they have more than one operating unit themselves. Of course, the inherent problem is this --- you can't SHOW other people how to be successful in something that you haven't DONE yourself. In other words, you want regionals to do what you have yet to prove yourself. It's a total sucker deal in ANY concept, but wide eyed investors fall for it every time.
I am death on a regional sales strategy early on in the development process.
I can't speak with any authority about the home care segment, but I do agree with Solomon that the sign of a 'quality' system is individual unit success. Otherwise you 'might' have strong company performance (Cuppy's, Q, etc.) while the risk takers are starving. Nothing new here.
Nick Bibby is a franchise consultant and principal of the Bibby Group.
I can see something like this booming
Because us baby boomers are getting old. I'm a baby boomer and not quite ready for a elderly home yet. But they say in business follow the baby boomers and you will have a greater chance of succeediing.
I know several people who have
homes for the elderly and never went through a franchise.