In 1997, the founders of Comfort Keepers discovered first-hand the need for someone to assist their patients with non-medical needs, and made Comfort Keepers their solution. Since then over 700 offices have adopted the Comfort Keepers mission, and now provide quality in-home care in their own communities.
Among these are Gequeta Ferrell and Bryant Shorter, who just opened their own Comfort Keepers office in Elkridge Maryland, a suburb community right outside of Baltimore City, in May 2013.
Gequeta’s first glimpse into the world of in-home care was while she cared for her grandmother who suffered from dementia and required dialysis four days a week for kidney disease. Accompanying her grandmother to those sessions and witnessing the assistance needed after treatments was a constant reminder of the gap in care.
After her grandmother’s passing, in 2000, Gequeta realized just how much of a shortage of providers there was for such a vast need. Making the decision however to open up her own in-home care provider – a Comfort Keepers office would come several years later when she partnered with Bryant Shorter who shared the same vision which was to provide quality in-home care that could be readily available to the elders in their community.
Although neither Gequeta nor Bryant have an extensive amount of experience in the healthcare industry prior to Comfort Keepers, Gequeta does have past experience with franchise systems, and knew right away that investing in a franchise was the best route to take. “I wanted to be skilled and well trained before opening my own in-home care office,” Gequeta explained, “I knew that a franchise system would provide me with the necessary tools for success.”
Gequeta and Bryant carefully considered a number of in-home care franchises, but Comfort Keepers rose to the top with its training and business structure, and they were blown away by their experience during Meet the Team Day and new franchisee training at the Comfort Keepers headquarters in Dayton, Ohio. “We didn’t feel like we were just another sale made by the franchisor. We felt like we were forming a partnership and knew that they truly believed in us and would take great efforts to help us succeed.”
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