When it comes to expanding franchises in the health care space, this isn’t Jason Wiedder’s first rodeo.

Wiedder has nearly two decades of experience in building brands, most of those years being in home care. He spent 10 years with Senior Helpers, helping the nationwide home care agency grow from zero to 300 franchises around the country.

In December, Wiedder was brought on alongside CEO Tim Hadley to Executive Home Care, a home care provider with 20 locations spread across the Northeast and Florida. Now, the company is planning to grow nationally through franchising, it announced this week.

“We do expect to have some pretty big growth plans, because a lot of the big players in our industry are basically sold out nationwide,” Wiedder told Home Health Care News. “At the same time, we have almost every major metro market in the United States wide open. That’s the exciting part for me. I’ve been with brands that I basically sold out, almost. Having all this white space out there gives us the opportunity to start fresh and build a fresh brand.”

Specifically, Executive Home Care operates in New Jersey, Connecticut. Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The company plans to have 28 locations by the end of 2022 and hopes to double that number by the end of 2023, Wiedder said.

In order to do that, he said Executive Home Care has to find the right franchise partners with the right intentions.

“We’re just looking for good people,” he said. “People with empathy, compassion and a heart for helping people. We’re going to grow with the quality of people that we get.”

Executive Home Care isn’t pinpointing where exactly it wants to grow first. The leadership team — with new members such as Hadley, Wiedder, CFO Greg Esgar and Senior VP of Franchise Operations Kevin Porter — will focus on main metropolitan areas first, but will listen to any solid franchise hopefuls in the coming months.

As for why the desire to expand now, Wiedder said he personally believes this is as good of a time as any to branch out, given the momentum in the industry.

Even though the country’s economic picture is murky, leaders at Executive Home Care see an opportunity for growth.

“The economy has the same type of feel that it had back in ‘07 and ‘08 when we were about to go into a recession,” Wiedder said. “Our industry is fairly recession-resistant. When people are trying to save money, they’re going to stop going to restaurants, the gym, but they’re not going to stop paying for their mom and dad for in-home care.”

The caregiver shortage is at the front of everyone’s mind in the industry, including Wiedder’s, but he’s not giving up hope on a turnaround.

“You look at the demographics and where we’re going, the upward trajectory of growth [in home care] goes up to 2050,” he said. “The caregiver shortage is a big deal for everybody in the industry, but take a look at the last time there was a recession. There were tons of people ready to be put to work, so that could be changing here, you never know.”

As it’s set up now, Executive Home Care will charge future franchise hopefuls $49,900 for one territory and $39,900 if they are approved for a second territory at the same time.

Including the franchise fee, the initial investment for an Executive Home Care franchise is between $99,000 to $175,000, Wiedder said, depending on what part of the country the franchise is located in.

Long term, Executive Home Care hopes to build out into the rest of the U.S. in three to five years. It’s tough predicting these lofty growth goals, but Wiedder feels confident in the mission.

“When I came into the industry in 2005, it was like the industry was a kid in preschool,” he said. “There was really no awareness of in-home care. We’re 17 years later now and businesses are bigger. I’ve seen it go from preschool to high school and maybe now into college. It’s grown up a lot. I’m excited about where it’s going in the future.”