Right at Home, BrightStar, FirstLight Among Best Franchises in 2018

A handful of home care companies are among the best franchise opportunities for buyers in 2018, a new ranking has found.

To help prospective franchisees weigh risk and rewards, Forbes released its annual “America’s Best & Worst Franchises to Buy” list, broken down into categories for high investments, medium investments and low investments.

Home care companies including Right at Home, BrightStar Care and FirstLight Home Care were among the best franchises to buy in 2018 for low investments, or investments under $150,000, according to Forbes.

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Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home checked in at No. 1 in Forbes’ lower-investment category. The franchisor, which has repeatedly topped similar rankings in the past, currently has 475 individual units and a five-year growth rate of about 15%.

Gurney, Illinois-based BrightStar Care came in at No. 7 overall. The franchisor currently has more than 320 individual franchise units and a five-year growth rate of about 5%. BrightStar previously announced intentions to also aggressively branch out into the senior living space, but has since scaled back those plans.

Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care, which is in the process of opening its first franchise location in Hawaii, checked in at No. 10 on the list. FirstLight currently has more than 160 individual franchise units and a five-year growth rate of about 30%.

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The Forbes’ ranking was compiled by research firm FRANdata, which looked at five years worth of data from more than 3,000 brands, focusing specifically on system sustainability, system demand value for investment, franchisor support and franchisor stability.

Franchises evaluated had at least five years of activity and at least 20 units between 2012 and 2016. Additionally, brands that ranked at the top needed to disclose financial performance and must not have recorded year-over-year declines in system size, among other requirements.

No home care franchises were included in Forbes’ ranking of worst franchises to buy. Godfather’s Pizza, Blimpie and Donut Connection were identified as the worst franchises for the high-investment, medium-investment and low-investment categories, respectively.

Written by Robert Holly

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