than 74 million seniors
needing home healthcare
and other services.
“The demographic part of
this is huge,” says Peter Ross,
cofounder and CEO of Senior
Helpers, which offers
services that range from light
housekeeping to personal
care. “You have all these
trends happening—people
aging at record levels, people
living longer, people wanting
to live at home, parents
working two jobs.”
These social shifts are also
creating a surge of business
for home-services franchises.
“It’s not the traditional family
where one parent worked
and the other stayed home
and the father was a very
handy guy,” says Mike
Bidwell, president and CEO
of Dwyer Group, which owns
Mr. Handyman in the U.S.
and 12 other home-services
franchises, nearly half of
which it acquired since 2010.
Now his customers are often
affluent parents who need
hired help around their
house. “Whether they can do
it or not, they don’t have
time. And many younger
people can’t do it. Many don’t
even own a hammer.”
Which, of course, is good
news for him.
SOCIAL SHIFTS may be
creating new business
opportunities, but those
opportunities aren’t seized on
their own. The most
forward-thinking franchisors
are heavily investing in data-
tracking age, household
income, education, profes-
sional status, and other
characteristics of potential
customers on an almost
house-by-house basis, to
gauge demand to a degree
that wasn’t possible before.
Senior Helpers, for
instance, uses data about age
and earnings to pinpoint
where that silver tsunami
most needs services—creat-
ing maps of territories with
at least 20,000 people 75
and older (clients are, on
average, in their early
eighties) who have collective
household incomes of
110 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / January-February 2018
PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSE CHEHAK“ You have all these
trends happening:
people aging at record
levels, people living
longer, people wanting
to live at home, parents
working two jobs...”
→ LITTLE DIPPERSA Goldfish
Swim Schoolfranchise.