We are Amada

We are Amada

By Marcos MouraBusinessEntrepreneurshipCareers
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We are Amada episodes

  • 07. VP of Training Matt Smith shares how Amada trains and prepares its franchise partners to meet the challenges of starting a world class senior care business

    Matt Smith, Amada’s VP of Training and Support, admits that Amada’s training wasn’t always what it is today - the system has evolved.  

    Back in 2012 when Robert Christensen, the first franchisee of Amada, signed his franchise agreement, we didn’t have a training and support system.  We just knew Robert HAD to be successful and we were willing to do anything to ensure his success.  Truth is, we lucked out with Robert.   He took the bull by the horns and built an amazing senior care company in Washington and Oregon that continues to thrive and grow to this day!  

    Today, we’re just as passionate about our franchise partners success and, in this episode, Matt shares how 5 years ago, he and his team completely revamped how we support, train, and coach our franchise partners. 

    28 min
  • We Are Amada: Ken Jenson #6
    Franchise Partner Ken Jenson, on how he became the 2nd franchise partner in the history of Amada and how that happened.

     



    Marcos Moura: 00:28 So I've probably told this story a million times, but it never gets old. Today. I'm here with Ken Jenson, who is our very second franchisee ever. So the story goes that we had a one franchise partner, Robert Christianson, who really was one of the main reasons why we started franchising Amada Senior Care and after Robert we had one franchisee and we all looked at each other going, what the heck do we do now? How do we go and find our second franchisee? So Ken Jenson, welcome to the show.

    Ken Jenson: 00:56 Hi, how are you Marcos?

    Marcos Moura: 00:57 Doing good. So I, I wanted you to share how the heck do we go from having one franchise partner we're brand spanking new and you somehow found us. Can you tell us how that happened?

    Ken Jenson: 01:10 Yes. So I knew I wanted to get into the home care industry. I had done some research, I'd actually gone to the, uh, what do you call it, the days where, you know, the day where they teach you all about their franchises.

    Marcos Moura: 01:20 Oh, discovery day discovery, yeah discovery days

    Ken Jenson: 01:23 I went to discovery day for Right at Home, Home Instead, and Visiting Angels. And I sat there and listened to those guys talk for between six and eight hours.

    Marcos Moura: 01:32 All great, wonderful companies by the way

    Ken Jenson: 01:34 Yeah, they're awesome, but I owned my own business for 20 years. So I knew what I was looking for and what they were offering me was not what I was looking for. I wanted an opportunity to grow a company and make a big difference in where I lived. So I decided that that wasn't what I was going to do. I actually bought an agency in a box and was going to do this on my own.

    Marcos Moura: 01:57 And how much was that? Do you remember how much you spent on it?

    Ken Jenson: 01:59 It was $999. So if you wanna buy it, it's for sale my friend.

    Marcos Moura: 02:03 You'll sell it?

    Ken Jenson: 02:04 Yes. But anyway, um, so I went and I was, I was going to start my own business and some guy came up to me one day and said, hey, I hear there's a new company franchising out of southern California. And so I said, okay, I'm, I'm always willing to listen. So I called up Amada Senior Care and I said, hey, this is Ken Jenson. I live in Colorado. I'd like to talk to somebody about maybe franchising with you guys. And the girl that answered the phone said, yeah, I'll let you talk to Chad. So all of a sudden I hear this voice is this Ken Jenson from Newhall, California, and I'm going, what? I had moved from Newhall about 15 years ago.

    Ken Jenson: 02:40 And so after the big earthquake in southern California. And then I said, yes. He says, this is Chad Fotheringham. And I said, oh my gosh. I had been Chad Fotheringham's scout master when he was 16 years old. And so I knew him instantly. In fact, we almost named one of our kids after him. We thought so highly of him. And so I said, Chad, tell me about what you're doing. And he started talking to me about Amada and the difference between what I had heard before and what I was listening to was incredible. I said, Chad, I'm going to fly down tomorrow. I'd like to meet with you and talk to you about becoming a franchisee. And he said, alright. So I flew to Orange County the very next day. I stayed with Chad for three days and we talked about everything. And when I left I said I want to buy. And it was the greatest decision of my whole life. I absolutely love Amada and I love what I do and what I do is so unique and so different from every other home care company. I get people in the industry walk up to me all the time, say, how in the world are you doing what you do?
    21 min
  • We Are Amada 05 – Chris Fowler




    Marcos Moura: 00:28 Hey everyone! Marcos here with Amada Senior Care. Welcome to the podcast. Today I am with Chris Fowler of St Louis, Missouri. It's a really cool podcast today because Chris is at the time of this recording, smack in the middle of his first year, his first year anniversary is any day. Now we're going to talk about that. So he is in the middle, in the throes of building that business. And what we want to talk about today is this idea that entrepreneurs make decisions all the time and yet what they need to do is they make a decision and then they have to go make it right. There's no amount of due diligence that will ever take away the fact that you have to go work your tail off to make the decision you make right. So that is the topic of today. So Chris Fowler, welcome to the show.

    Chris Fowler: 01:08 Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

    Marcos Moura: 01:09 And Chris. So before we talk about the crazy decision you made about a year ago, just tell us a little bit about your background. What were you doing before Amada Senior Care?

    Chris Fowler: 01:19 Sure, thank you. Well, I spent the last 10 years as an executive with Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager here in the United States and based out of St Louis. I did a variety of roles with them in those 10 years. I lead client facing teams as well as product management teams. And my last role with them was really looking at the home delivery pharmacy and how to try to use the member experience and the website to become sort of the Amazon, if you will, of pharmacy. But then, like you said, made the crazy decision about a year and a half ago to part ways and started looking at alternatives, whether it be another corporate job with a healthcare organization or even not healthcare or go venture on our own and started researching some entrepreneurial opportunities and Amada was at the top of that list and we met you and others there at the Amada office and just really, really impressed. And here we are 18 months later and like you said, just in the throes of celebrating our year anniversary.

    Marcos Moura: 02:19 Wow. So a year anniversary. So we talked about due diligence. Right. How long did it take you from the time you're like, oh, Amada. And the date that you signed a franchise agreement. Do you remember roughly how long that took?

    Chris Fowler: 02:30 I think I first started talking to some of the folks at Amada in March and then I signed the paperwork and the agreement at the end of July. So a few months, a few months, few months of conversations, webinars. We didn't have podcasts then, but no, doing due diligence and then coming out and visiting. And here we are.

    Marcos Moura: 02:50 And by the way, we find that on average it's about three months at most entrepreneurs, it's a conversation about three months, even if they inquired about Amada back in 2014 and kind of left it once we start engaging, it's about a three month process. And I don't know if it's not to put judgment on is that long or short. But you and I, before the taping of this, we were talking about this whole idea that no matter how much due diligence you do, you're still going to have to go make it. Right. Talk a little bit about that. What does that mean to you about making a decision as an entrepreneur and then having to make it right?

    Chris Fowler: 03:21 So as you said, hundreds of decisions a day, some obviously taking more priority and having larger ramifications than others and some of them on the fly, some of them doing more due diligence. I think the best example I have, and I sometimes tell the stories to other potential franchisees when they call and we're talking about how my journey went and any recommendations I may have. I will always remember the day I actually signed the paperwork to purchase my franchise here in St Louis.
    15 min
  • We are Amada 04 – Ryan Hart
    Marcos: 00:27 Hey everyone. Marcos here with Amada senior care. Thank you so much for joining us for another podcast episode of We are Amada. Today we Have Ryan Hart, our franchise partner in Reno, Nevada. You could say that Ryan is Reno, Nevada. Amada. He owns the entire market there. Not only just that he owns a franchise, but he really owns that market. He's local to the Reno market and he's going to talk to you a little bit more about when he found this opportunity, would it meant to him to be in his hometown and I think there'll be some things that will really surprise you about Ryan and what he's doing there in Reno. I can tell you right now, if you look at our franchise disclosure document, one thing we just closed there is that Ryan billed a $114,000 in gross billings in March of this year and Ryan started as franchise in, I believe it was June of 2016, so that is pretty fast. I'm excited to introduce you guys to Ryan Hart. Ryan, welcome to the show.
    Ryan Hart: 01:21 Thanks Marcos. How's it going out there?
    Marcos: 01:23 Going great. Thank you for taking the time. I know you've had a busy day today as every day, right?
    Ryan Hart: 01:28 Indeed, yeah. It's been quite the whirlwind lately.
    Marcos: 01:31 Yeah, so I really thank you for taking the time and for those of you guys who are listening, there's a lot of you who may be in a pharmaceutical job or medical device job, so this will be good for you. Ryan. You spent a large amount of your career at Stryker and other companies like that. Would you give us just a quick introduction on who you are and what were you doing before Amada senior care?
    Ryan Hart: 01:51 Yes, absolutely. So most of my life I've been in sales since I got out of high school and college and most recently I had about a 10 year stint in medical device sales were I sold prosthetic knees and hips. I was in the reconstructive business, worked for Zimmer and Stryker, multiple time president's award club, and just had a wonderful career with them.
    Marcos: 02:10 How many years were you there for?
    Ryan Hart: 02:12 Yeah, it was Stryker for about five and Zimmer for about five. So a total of about 10 years.
    Marcos: 02:16 Okay. So you're 10 years in. Can you share just what got you interested in entrepreneurialship? Why did you decide it was time
    Ryan Hart: 02:25 More than anything I just wanted to be my own boss. I was very sick of going to the operating room, waiting on a case that was supposed to start at 7:00 at night and being there till midnight, you know, this whole time being away from my family and just having to be at other people's mercy, you know, going to coach my kids' soccer team, getting pulled away to go do a hip fracture. It was just, it was getting really tough on the family life and you know, all the money's really good in that, in that industry. It's getting really commoditized and I thought the writing was on the wall, so I chose to get into this and you know, it wasn't an easy decision. My wife and I made it together and I looked back since it's just been the best choice I've ever made.
    Marcos: 03:01 That's really cool and I think most people that hear this podcast, I don't think anyone has gotten into becoming an entrepreneur or whether they just woke up one morning and they're like, you know what? I really want to run a business. I find most of the times people have had that feeling maybe even since college. I really like, I really wanted to be an entrepreneur. Is that true of you or was it later in your career or was it always their kind of nagging at you?
    Ryan Hart: 03:23 No, actually not at all. It was something that I started thinking about as the medical device field started getting harder and harder and contractually we were getting pushed out of the hospitals and stuff. And I just really wanted to get into something where I could control my own schedule, I have my own staff and really build it up to a p...
    22 min

About We are Amada

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With a rapidly expanding senior population, non-medical in-home care franchises are perfectly positioned for huge growth. And, an Amada Senior Care business has benefits you won’t find anywhere else.