Drum Roll: For Mom

Not liking the home health care her mother was receiving, Debra Reis decided she could do it better.

by Lucy Soto

September 5, 2008

N ecessity is the mother of invention, according to the adage. But for Debra Reis, necessity - and then dissatisfaction - became the mother of reinvention.

Reis didn't create a new service or break new ground with an invention. She took the sometimes competitive business of nonmedical home care - helping the aging or infirm with daily needs - and re-created it as a kind of personalized service in which every caregiver thinks about the client as if he or she were family.

Today, Reis' company, AmeriCare Alliance, has franchises in 11 states and is slowly and steadily growing.

But it all began a little more than six years ago, when she was trying to fulfill her mother's needs. After months of being the caregiver after her mother's emphysema caused her health to decline, Reis decided to hire help with things like medicine reminders and transportation.

She quickly discovered the companies she hired required customers to buy four-hour blocks of time, whether or not they needed that amount of time, and that families didn't have input into who was sent to their home.

Then, there was the time the service forgot to pick up her mother from a doctor's appointment. It was 5:30 p.m. by the time Reis got the call, and her mother had been waiting for two hours outside.

 "It made me realize I could do this better. I could be flexible. I could make this a business that really focuses on family," she said. "I would hire people. I would personally meet them and think 'would I put this person in my mom's home.' If I said no, then it didn't matter how educated or licensed that person was.
 
Initial and continual background checks. Up-to-date licenses. References. Face-to-face interviews. These all sound basic, but Reis believes they aren't exactly standard in her business. AmeriCare lets clients choose their caregiver and create a customized set of services.

It was that focus on personal service, as well as the company's small size and nimbleness that lured Doug Lueder to the AmeriCare Alliance franchise business. He owns the Atlanta territory and runs a franchise. He also was recently hired to be the company's trainer.
 
What makes Reis successful, Lueder says, is her passion and determination.
 
"I think she is who she is. She comes across as an honest, sincere person who got into this business to do it well and make a difference."
 
Lueder has his own personal connection with the business through his late brother, Dan, who was paralyzed from the chest down after a car accident. He remembers receiving calls from Tennessee, where his brother was in college, because the home-care worker didn't show up to get his brother out of bed. Lueder says he learned how to be his brother's caregiver.

"A lot of people look at it and say, 'Look, it's a home-care company, and there's an aging population. Let's get in there.' ... But you don't get into it just to make a buck and succeed; you have to have that passionate connection."
 
Reis says it was a natural decision to make AmeriCare into a franchise business. She's comfortable in that world. When she and her husband first moved to Atlanta from Connecticut 15 years ago, her husband ran a golf franchise, and they had owned and sold a printing franchise as well. In both cases, she had attended company training seminars and helped get the businesses off the ground. 
 
"I never would have thought then this would be my direction," she says. "I just walked into it. Mom had this situation. I was just being basic. I wasn't asking for the moon. I just wanted it to be good. So, I just stepped into it literally thinking 'I could do this.'"

She and co-founder Vicktoria Baylor, vice president of franchise development, set about selling more franchises and training new owners.

They begin by interviewing interested entrepreneurs. To take the plunge, an investor begins with a $30,000 franchise fee and can spend at least $40,000 more on software, training and other expenses. Franchisees receive start-up materials and pre-training, and then come to Atlanta for three days for classes. Then, they receive 12 to 15 weeks of weekly conference calls with Reis and Baylor for more support.

"We want them to do well. We're not going to leave you on the island," Reis says. "Opening a business is difficult. And it's scary, putting so many dollars into something. We are small and young. We can listen. There's no red tape or going through layers."
 
With her husband, a teenage daughter, two dogs and a growing company, Reis says she wouldn't trade the full life she has created. 
 
For others who might be thinking of taking a leap into owning their own business or franchise - or making any life-changing, career move - Reis says it's always important to ask, "Are we making a difference in life?"

"I don't want to go through this life, I'm in my 40s, and think, that's not enough," she says. "Is this life good enough for you, are you making a difference. ... For me at that point in time [when deciding to start AmeriCare], I thought I could do it better. I thought, damn it, I could try. I never really looked back. There were days I was overwhelmed. ... [But] it's slow and steady and consistent. Not losing focus of what's important."

Reis looks with pride at her company's progress. "It's not an easy business, it's a feel-good business," she says. "You can do very well, but it's not about the money. ... If someone says that, it's going to raise a red flag for me. I don't think that should be the focus. It's caused us to slow down our sales, but the people we bring in and continue to bring in, are part of our team. ... It's a little slower but I think more effective in the big scheme."

She believes the company will open at least six franchises this year. "It's realistic. We feel we can be successful with that."
 
Her mother died four years ago, but the legacy she helped spark continues. "I keep thinking I'm doing this for people like my mom."