Which Model Will Help You Scale?
Thinking about starting a home care business, but you have questions about whether to go independent or join a non-medical home care franchise?
Maybe you have a franchise disclosure document on the kitchen table and a spreadsheet of independent startup costs open on your laptop. A non-medical home care franchise can give you a recognizable brand name, training, help with marketing, and launch support, but it also comes with a monthly royalty.
Starting an independent agency gives you more freedom to shape the business from the ground up, and allows you to be your own boss without having to report to a franchise manager. 
Both paths can lead to successful agencies, and both can end in closure.
Dan Story, founder of Michigan-based HomeJoy, told us he has seen franchise locations open nearby with strong support from their franchisor and still close a few years later. There’s a lot that goes into running an agency, and having the name recognition of a franchise is not enough to guarantee success.
Your choice will shape your costs and how much say you have in everyday decisions. Start by thinking about how you want to run the business, then work backwards from there.
How Franchise and Independent Agencies Differ
The biggest differences between franchise and independent agencies come down to cost and control.
Starting an independent home care agency usually costs less upfront because you immediately eliminate the franchise fees. The Business of Senior Care estimates a typical independent non-medical launch at $40,000 to $80,000.
A franchise requires more cash to start up. The franchise fee alone can often run $50,000 or more before you rent an office or hire your first caregiver. The costs keep adding up after opening day. Franchisees typically pay a monthly royalty of 3.5% to 7% of gross revenue, along with a contribution to the brand’s marketing fund.
Independent owners avoid those fees, but they cover their own marketing, software, and training.
You’ll feel the difference in control week after week. A franchise agreement may set the services you offer, the ZIP codes you are allowed to cover, how your ads look, and which suppliers you use.
Those terms can change, too. The FTC’s consumer guide to buying a franchise warns that renewal terms don’t have to match your original agreement, which could mean higher fees or a smaller territory when it’s time to renew. Independent owners get to create their own playbook from the start. The only geographical boundaries are those they set themselves, and they can choose the software vendors that best fit their needs.
Dan considered both options before opening his agency. He explored several franchises, then decided against them because their policies limited services he felt his clients needed. As a nurse, he knew from personal experience that some of the services he wanted to provide were crucial to the quality of care his clients received.
Benefits of Opening a Non-Medical Home Care Franchise
For many owners, the biggest appeal of franchising is getting a head start. Families choosing care for a parent may feel more comfortable with a name they recognize, and referral sources often direct clients to agency brands with which they are already familiar.
You also get training, policy templates, and launch support the franchisor has refined over the years, along with a network of owners who have already faced the staffing and referral challenges that lie ahead.
Financing may be easier to secure, too. Banks and SBA lenders often view a franchise’s track record as less risky than a brand-new independent agency.
That head start comes with a tradeoff of less flexibility, though. Consistency across the brand is part of what you’re paying for. If families in your market need a service the brand doesn’t offer, or you want to adjust pricing quickly, waiting for corporate approval can be frustrating. And you can be told “no” because it doesn’t match the brand image.
What You Gain Going Independent
Going independent means the decisions are yours: pricing, services, hiring standards, branding, and where to grow next. You keep every dollar of revenue in the business and can respond to a local opportunity as soon as you spot it, without waiting for franchisor approval.
HomeJoy’s growth offers a real-world look at that freedom. Dan chose expansion sites by studying the reach of regional hospital systems. When he saw demand beyond one system’s footprint and an opportunity to build relationships with another hospital, he opened a new office.
He put his Marshall, Michigan location two blocks from Oaklawn Hospital so his team could walk over, get to know the staff, and meet future clients. Years later, it became his most profitable office.
Dan also spaces his offices far enough apart to avoid overlap, while keeping them close enough for each manager to visit caregivers and clients in person.
That freedom also means building the business from scratch, including recruiting, caregiver training, compliance documentation, marketing, and referral relationships. It takes time and money. Dan’s Marshall office took months to bring in enough to cover its manager’s salary, while he continued paying rent and setup costs. Just something to keep in mind if you go the independent route.
The Question Neither Model Answers: Systems
Whichever path you choose, growth brings familiar pressures. More clients to care for means more shifts to fill, more caregivers to onboard, and more timesheets to reconcile.
Each added step creates another chance for a missed visit or payroll correction. A recognized brand name can’t prevent caregivers from leaving, and independence doesn’t make scheduling easier.
Owners with more than one location often feel this the most. If each office follows its own scheduling habits and keeps separate spreadsheets, it’s harder to create the consistency a second or third location needs. For franchisees, that inconsistency can also weaken the promise families count on when seeking the same standard of care at every location.
Dan saw this firsthand. When his son Justin joined HomeJoy, the added support helped them build the behind-the-scenes systems needed to repeat what worked in one office across several.
Later, Dan added a full corporate leadership team to support the offices. He says that overhead strained the business and made it harder to pay himself. His income recovered only after he scaled back.
“It wasn’t until I reeled it back in and started to provide good services with necessary staff, not lots of overhead, when I actually started seeing income from the business,” Dan told us. In his words, “growth is expensive.”
Industry data points to the value of those systems. Activated Insights found that agencies with structured caregiver orientation and ongoing training brought in $346,000 more revenue on average than agencies without it.
Consistent training takes repeatable processes, so put standards in place for scheduling, training, and paying caregivers before opening a second office.
Build the Systems Before You Need Them
The model you choose shapes your brand and fee structure. But the systems behind the scenes have a big impact on how smoothly each day runs. With software like Rosemark, your agency will have tools to make scheduling easier, keep caregiver records and certifications in one place with annual reminders of when renewals are due, base payroll based on verified visits instead of paper timesheets, and generate reports to help you spot growth opportunities.
Ready to grow? Give us a call today to see how Rosemark works.