For greater than 14 years, Rachel Wommack labored in healthcare, primarily specializing in elder care as a registered nurse. She’d hung out 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 might do extra started to develop. She did not simply wish to assist sufferers; she wished to offer 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 soundly go dwelling 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 gained Margin Grasp of the 12 months
Picture Credit score: A Place At House
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 wanting into methods to construct one thing of her personal. Fairly than launching an impartial 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 every part 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 individuals as soon as they depart institutional care. Throughout her time in case administration, she noticed aged sufferers discharged from expert nursing services, assuming they’d assist ready at dwelling. That wasn’t at all times the case.
“You’ve got received a Medicare guideline that claims they’ll go dwelling, however possibly they can not get themselves up off the bathroom with out assist,” she says. “If that assist shouldn’t be obtainable, they are going to need to name an ambulance in the event that they’ve even received the aptitude to achieve their telephone. They are going proper again to the hospital.”
It was a spot within the system that dwelling 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 may very well be to deal with licensing, authorized paperwork and compliance necessities on her personal. A franchise provided construction, assist and credibility — with the pliability to run the enterprise her means.
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 House’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 marketing and recruiting — abilities you do not study in nursing faculty. The method was difficult, however she leaned on her schooling, widespread sense and assist from the franchise system to make it work.
“I had contemplated opening a enterprise from scratch, however I spotted it is rather more costly to do it by yourself,” she says. “With all the legalities which are round dwelling care, it was a greater choice to franchise, as a result of you might have your template. It was a lot simpler having every part obtainable.”
Advertising specifically proved to be the hardest half. Though she had connections in elder care, reaching the broader group was extra sophisticated. Most individuals did not know providers like hers existed, or that they may very well be paid for via long-term care insurance coverage, VA advantages or Medicaid. Her audience turned out to be not the aged themselves, however their grownup youngsters, a lot of whom have been juggling careers, households and caregiving duties all of sudden. That realization formed her strategy: educate, inform and make care accessible.
Although launching the enterprise was tough, 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 goal. She nonetheless faces robust days, however they’re totally different. Now, she’s working for her purchasers, not for a company hospital system.
That distinction reveals up within the suggestions she receives. Her group recurrently will get calls from grateful households, and caregivers usually go above and past to make sure purchasers are secure. Every of these moments, she says, reaffirms her determination to take the leap into franchising. “Day-after-day, I get reassurance from our purchasers and caregivers [that] this was the best selection.”
Wommack has managed to do one thing most companies can’t: 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 gained the franchise’s Margin Grasp of the 12 months, which is awarded to the situation with the best gross revenue after caregiver payroll.
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Recommendation for nurses
To different nurses feeling caught or underappreciated, Wommack gives a message of encouragement. Franchising, she says, gave her a method to proceed serving to individuals 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 crucial job, whether or not it is expert or private care. Going into enterprise to assist individuals is rarely a foul 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 obtainable to them. She’s not trying to scale quickly. As a substitute, she’s constructing one thing that lasts — one caregiver, household and success story at a time.
