Home Helpers Franchise Scam Cincinnati Ohio
Home Helpers is a big scam franchise and its parent company Strategic Franchising. Anybody who wants to buy a franchise should stay away from buying a Home Helpers franchise or any of their franchises for that matter. They are a complete waste of time and money and they are only interested to take your money and squeeze you dry. They say that they are low cost, but they charge you for all kinds of fees. There is no national advertising but you get charged through the nose for the non-existent national branding.
Their marketing products are overpriced and any and all advertising you do as a franchisee is all out of pocket. They send you to all sorts of companies in which they have a "partnership", but they do not guarantee success and the"discount" you get is negligible. You do not get any support, unless you count calling other franchisees and asking their permission to use their own formulated flyers.
The "operations" department are composed of non-franchisees and people with NO EXPERIENCE running a business or even in Home Care. They are hardly ever there and have no idea about any questions that you might have 99.9% of the time. You are on your own...which completely defeats the purpose of buying a franchise in the first place.Your fellow franchisees are your biggest competition even if you have a set "territory". They will backstab you and ruin your business any way they can because they are all hungry and need any and all clients they can get. They are not above personal attacks either.
They are a high pressure sales franchise and call you relentlessly during the sales period even at 10PM. Even if you ask them to remove your name, they call you even more. After you buy a franchise, you can never get a hold of anybody. LITERALLY. They talk down on you on the phone literally and talk to you like you are some kind of idiot. Not surprising as the VP for Operations, Emma Dickison looks down on everybody , never provides any answers and talks condescendingly to anybody and everybody who raises a concern.
They guarantee money in 90 days. Obviously the guarantee does not work but they do not do anything about it, they just tell you that you didnt follow their "success formula" even if you did to the letter. It is just more bogus advertising to draw people into their web of half truths.
They say that they will happily buy your franchise back if you don't think the business is for you. They say that it is a "NO RISK" franchise. They don't tell you that you have to pay all the fees for the next six months while they try to sell your franchise for you for current market value and pay you for how much you originally paid for your franchise, MINUS $10,000 transfer fee to the new owners.
They are relentless and money grubbing. They are number 1 in entrepreneur magazine for 2008,2007 and 2006 because of all the lies and half truths they push down your throat during the sales period. All they are is number one in sales. Nobody keeps track of how many there really are. Home Helpers Franchising is like getting on the Highway to Financial Bankrupcy.
They say that their business model is designed for financial independence and you, as the franchisor, not to be operating the day to day. The truth of the matter is that their top franchisee do not even operate in his own territory and operates out of a run down building in a very bad area of his town. Another "successful" franchisee just recently moved out of his own home office to rent an outside office and was finally able to afford an assisstant after 6 years of operation. Do the math, it clearly shows hollow promises and misleading advertising. A lot of the newer ones are not even operational after 18 months and eventually sell or surrender.
They do not show franchisee income unlike Goddard Schools franchising. Probably because their franchisees do not make as much as they would like to portray.
They have a 5 day training class where they basically encourage franchise owners to spin stories and basically LIE just to "relate" to the people they are marketing to. A whole afternoon of workshop is dedicated to this story-telling event, anywhere from having a fictional father suffering from cancer to a fictional child with down's syndrome.
Bottomline, you are paying Home Helpers franchising $45,000 of your hard earned cash for a few books, a day of bashing its "competitors" and how to bad mouth them, a 5 day "training class" where all they do is present vendors and get you to spend more money and little else. Nothing that you can't learn at your local SCORE, nothing you can't learn from any marketing textbook and obviously, an expensive way to buy yourself some disappointment, harrassment and headaches for months to come.
This is a totally worthless franchise. Some are successful while a whole lot are not. The few that are just happen to be lucky, more power to them...but they are still a far cry financially from what they tell you during the selling period. They are more than happy to take your money, but it will be till kingdom come if you need your money back. They will find all sorts of fees to charge you just to hang on to your money. Time and time again.
Anonymous
Beverly Hills, California
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
LauraKing
Cincinnati,Ohio,
United States of America
Your Report Lacks Substance
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sun, January 01, 2012
You are obviously bitter. Apparently this was not the franchise for you. Every investment comes with a risk of losing your money. Home Helpers Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky has succeeded because they are very good at what they do, luck has very little to do with it.
There are many other agencies offering the same services in the greater Cincinnati area, and Home Helpers has been very gracious to their competitors. Home Helpers is by far the best agency I have worked for, and most other employees would agree with me. They offer one of the highest 'percentage paid to employee' programs around. Example: customer pays x$/hour, employee gets no less than half, sometimes even 60-65%. Other companies here in Cincy charge way more and pay their employees way less.
There is a lot of turnover in this industry, and every 'companion/ personal aid/ nursing' company is affected by it, not just Home Helpers. It is hard, demanding work. Many times it can be overwhelming or depressing. Lots of times a new employee just didn't realize exactly what they were getting in to, and will leave within the first week. That has less to do with the company and more to do with the actual job.
And the thing about lying? No one ever instructed me to lie, but I did have little white lies I would use when necessary. Say, a dementia client who is highly religious, I will do the rosary with them, maybe embellish on my own faith and church-going record. I will often leave out or add to stories about my own life, all in an effort to put the client at ease, because their comfort and happiness IS my job. This also helps me not get too attached and/or involved with a client, which can be detrimental to my position. You need your client to be comfortable with you, but you can not let that professional relationship become anything more than that.
I hope you've learned from your failure to run a home health care company, a demanding job indeed. But moreover, I hope you have learned by now to accept responsibility for your mistakes, and have stopped accusing Home Helpers of not spoon-feeding you a successful business. Good luck on your future endeavors, hopefully nothing related to helping those in true need. Oh, and if you want anyone to take you seriously, perhaps you should use a real name instead of hiding behind 'anonymous.'
Unidentified
In Major City,Ohio,
U.S.A.
Anonymous is right!
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, April 04, 2009
Anonymous is right about HH franchising.
Worst place I ever worked for, no substantial marketing to support to their franchisees...there is more to marketing than "referrals". What about a formal marketing plan with ROI for each medium?
Who cares about the personal lifestyles and backgrounds of the management and living their stupid dream...tell franchisees how THEY can MAKE MONEY! You can see jobs posted all the time online for this company because of the assumed high internal turnover rate. They don't care about their employees either, ask them, nor do they pay them what they are worth.