Franchisee sells Home Instead Senior Care after 12-year run

Neil and Yvonne Marshall bought the franchise for an undisclosed amount from Dallas and Trudy Johnson, who owned the business for nearly 12 years. Chuck Crosby of The Kingsley Group brokered the transaction, which closed May 1.

Home Instead Senior Care franchises primarily provide in-home services for senior citizens in the form of companionship, running errands, cooking meals, housekeeping and assisting clients with persistent medical conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

In February, The Wall Street Journal named Omaha, Neb.-based Home Instead Senior Care one of its Top 25 high-performing franchises. The newspaper noted that Home Instead, which had the highest average net-income growth of the franchises on the list, is poised to serve the growing number of baby boomers. Net income for the company’s 705 franchises was up 331 percent during the past three years, according to the report. Home Instead now has 800 franchise offices in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the United Kingdom, according to www.homeinstead.com.

The estimated minimum investment in a Home Instead franchise is $39,050, and the average investment is $45,800, according to data compiled by the Wall Street Journal.

Home Instead’s business model attracted the Johnsons’ interest shortly after the company began franchising in 1995.

“I became aware of it through an article that appeared in one of the magazines I read,” said Dallas Johnson, a pathologist who owns Midwest Cancer Screening with his wife. “Nonmedical assisted living … was a fairly new concept then. I just thought the concept itself had a lot of promise.”

After traveling to Nebraska to meet with Home Instead founders Lori and Paul Hogan, the Johnsons agreed to buy the company’s fourth franchise. From an office at 242 S. National Ave., Trudy Johnson grew the business and eventually hired Office Manager Becky Lamar, an eight-year employee who retained her position under the new ownership. Dallas Johnson said business peaked in 2002 and 2003, when annual revenues exceeded $550,000.

The Marshalls have relocated Home Instead to the Spring Valley Shopping Center, 1675 E. Seminole St., Ste. G-200, behind Red Lobster on South Glenstone Avenue. The first order of business: Hire a part-time office assistant.

Neil and Yvonne Marshall are Missouri State University graduates who have been involved in a handful of small-business ventures.

In the late 1990s, the couple became part owners of a nightly log cabin rental business in northern Arkansas, where they lived for three years before returning to southwest Missouri. The Marshalls also own Passgo Properties, which operates JJ Apartments – a Mount Vernon apartment complex for seniors and disabled individuals.

Neil Marshall also owns a custom cabinetry business that has subcontracted with numerous area home builders, but he said a decline in new housing prompted him to start exploring other business opportunities last fall. The Home Instead franchise was a perfect fit for Marshall, who said he has a strong relationship with his grandmother and enjoys the company of seniors.

Marshall said the local franchise has a regional network of 35 caregivers who tend to 23 seniors in Barry, Christian, Dade, Greene, Lawrence and Ozark counties. Almost two-thirds of the clients are outside Greene County, he said.

Caregivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured, Marshall said, and Home Instead offers an Alzheimer’s program designed to educate them about the disease and related home-care techniques. Most Home Instead clients still live at home, but caregivers also serve seniors in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.

“We’re able to keep them home longer and that’s a huge benefit to them,” Marshall said. “That’s what they want. I’d say 90 percent would want to stay home.”

Caregiver rates range from $15.50 an hour for companionship and simple tasks to $18 an hour for personal-care services tied to a specific medical condition, said Marshall, who hopes to double the number of caregivers and clients in the coming year.

“We’re here for the long term,” he added. “We want people to know they can put their faith in us to care for the elderly.”