What Is the Happier At Home Franchise Opportunity?
Company Overview and Industry
Happier At Home is a senior care franchise specializing in geriatric care management and non-medical in-home care for seniors. The company was founded in 2007 by Deborah “Debbie” Marcello (now Deborah Bernacki) after her own experience caring for an aging parent. It began franchising in the early 2010s (around 2015, according to Entrepreneur). Today, it remains a relatively small but growing network – as of 2025 it has under 20 total locations across the United States. This makes Happier At Home an “emerging franchisor” with many territories still available. The corporate headquarters was originally in New York, reflecting its Rochester roots according to entrepreneur.com, though the brand now serves multiple states.
Happier At Home operates in the senior home care industry, a massive and expanding sector driven by America’s aging population. In fact, one in five Americans will be 65 or older by 2030. As of 2023, the U.S. home care services market (including senior care) was valued around $250 billion, with projections to reach roughly $380+ billion by 2028. This demographic “silver tsunami” means demand for quality in-home elder care is on the rise. The franchise positions itself as a local “authority in home care” – offering solutions that help seniors remain independent at home (where 87% of older adults prefer to stay over moving to facilities). In other words, Happier At Home franchisees tap into a large, essential services market that is both financially significant and personally meaningful.
What Franchisees Get
A Happier At Home franchisee provides a range of services to seniors and their families. These include personal caregiving (help with daily activities, meal prep, transportation, companionship, etc.), non-medical home care, and care advocacy or geriatric care management (guiding families through care decisions and coordinating services). The company is known for its unique medication management program – helping clients stay 98% compliant with taking prescriptions (versus ~67% without support). By offering multiple care services, franchise owners benefit from diverse revenue streams (e.g. hourly caregiving fees, care management consulting, medication setup). This means you aren’t limited to one line of business; you can meet various needs of your senior clients and generate several income sources as a result.
Training & Support: From day one, Happier At Home provides extensive training and ongoing support to its franchisees. New owners receive a comprehensive training program (roughly two weeks long) combining online modules, hands-on instruction, and in-person guidance. In fact, initial training includes about 8 days at the corporate office in Rochester, NY plus a week on-site in your territory to help launch the business. You’ll be assigned a franchise business coach who works one-on-one with you to set up software systems and get operations running even before you open. During training, you’ll learn all facets of the business – from caregiver hiring and scheduling, to client intake and assessments, to marketing in your community. Happier At Home also provides a full business playbook and an online learning management system for reference.
After launch, franchisees benefit from ongoing support for the life of the business. The corporate team conducts 24/7 support calls, periodic on-site visits, and coaching to help you grow. There is a collaborative network of other franchise owners you can lean on as well. On the tools side, Happier At Home equips franchisees with proprietary scheduling and billing software to manage operations efficiently. They also set up your fully developed website and provide professionally designed marketing materials and presentations – you just customize and use them. Notably, the franchisor even handles social media marketing on your behalf: their team plans, creates, and posts content across platforms for your local market, and can help manage online ad campaigns. This level of marketing support (including SEO-optimized content and a dedicated social media manager) is a standout benefit and helps franchisees generate leads without starting from scratch.
Territory and Customer Base: Happier At Home grants large protected territories to its franchisees. Each territory includes a minimum of 40,000 seniors (age 65+) in the area, which is roughly three times larger than what many competitors offer (some competitors’ territories have only ~14,000 seniors). A robust territory ensures there is plenty of market demand to grow a sizable client base. Your customers are primarily private pay clients – elderly individuals or their families who pay out-of-pocket for home care services (as opposed to billing Medicare or Medicaid). Happier At Home deliberately focuses on this private-pay niche to avoid the heavy regulations and red tape tied to government-funded home health care. That means franchisees do not have to deal with complex insurance billing, Medicaid paperwork, or the requirement to hire medical personnel like RNs or certified nursing assistants. By “staying away from highly regulated healthcare” and sticking to non-medical services, Happier At Home keeps operations simpler and more profitable for owners. (For example, you won’t need expensive medical malpractice insurance or to comply with volumes of hospital-like regulations.) In practical terms, your role as franchise owner is to market services, build relationships in the community, recruit and manage caregivers, and ensure quality care for clients. The day-to-day caregiving is done by your team of trained caregivers (Happier At Home franchisees typically recruit dozens of part-time caregivers as they grow – one source notes ~60 employees at full scale on average). Your clients range from active seniors who need just a bit of help at home, to more frail elderly who require daily personal care or dementia supervision. Some franchisees also partner with local pharmacies, hospitals, or senior facilities for referrals, given the brand’s reputation (the model can integrate well with an existing pharmacy business, for instance). Overall, franchisees get a business model built to deliver compassionate, reliable service to an ever-growing senior population – with the franchisor’s support every step of the way.
Startup Costs and Ongoing Fees
Getting a Happier At Home franchise off the ground requires a moderate initial investment relative to many franchises. According to the Franchise Disclosure Document, the total investment to open ranges from roughly $92,000 up to $137,000. This range includes the franchise fee of $49,000 upfront, as well as your initial training, basic office equipment, licensing, insurance, initial marketing, and three months of working capital. The franchisor notes that because this business can start small (even home-based for the first year to save costs), your overhead is low – you don’t need a retail storefront or expensive equipment. In fact, some franchisees operate from a small office (as little as 400 sq. ft.) once they ramp up, mainly for administrative work and caregiver interviews. You also only incur caregiver labor costs when you have clients (caregivers are scheduled as needed and paid per hour of service), so you’re not carrying payroll until you have revenue coming in. This makes for a lean cost structure.
In terms of financial requirements, prospective franchisees should have a net worth around $150,000 (with about $50,000 in liquid cash) available. Happier At Home does offer financing assistance via third-party lenders to help cover the franchise fee or startup costs if needed. For ongoing fees: the royalty fee is 5% of gross sales, paid to the franchisor for ongoing support and use of the system. There is also a marketing/brand fund fee of 1% of gross sales, which the franchisor uses to fund nationwide branding, advertising materials, and digital marketing campaigns that benefit all franchise owners. These percentages are relatively low – for comparison, many franchises charge 6–8% royalties and 2%+ advertising fees, so Happier At Home’s 5%/1% fee structure is quite franchisee-friendly. The initial franchise agreement term is 10 years with renewal options. Additionally, Happier At Home offers a 5% discount on the franchise fee for military veterans as a thank-you incentive.
Aside from these, plan for standard business expenses like general liability insurance, caregiver bonding insurance, and local licensing fees. The FDD Item 7 provides a breakdown – for example, budgeting a few thousand for office furniture and supplies, $6,000–$8,000 for your grand opening marketing blitz, and $20,000–$35,000 in extra operating funds to cover expenses until the business becomes cash-flow positive according to sharpsheets.io. Importantly, no specialized vehicles or heavy equipment are required – just a computer, a phone, and perhaps a modest office space. Recruiting and training caregivers will be one of the main early expenses (e.g. background checks, onboarding), but again, you incur those costs as you grow your clientele. Overall, Happier At Home’s franchise model is considered a lower-cost, service-based investment with a relatively quick startup time. The company touts that it offers “low investment with potential to build a high-income business” – a claim backed by its Item 19 earnings figures. According to the latest FDD, the average annual revenue per franchise unit is around $528,000 to $583,000 (based on 2022–2023 results). This suggests that a well-run location can ramp up to half a million dollars in gross sales, with top performers possibly exceeding that. Keep in mind, as an owner your actual profit would be after paying caregivers’ wages and local expenses – but this revenue potential indicates a healthy market demand when the franchisee executes the model effectively. In summary, for an initial investment in the low six figures, Happier At Home offers a chance to build a meaningful business in a booming sector, backed by systems and support, and without the operational baggage of a brick-and-mortar or inventory-heavy franchise.
How the Industry Itself Compares
Now that we’ve outlined the Happier At Home opportunity, let’s zoom out and compare its industry – senior home care – to the commercial cleaning industry. This kind of comparison is important if you’re evaluating different franchise paths. Both senior care and commercial cleaning are service industries with large markets, but they differ greatly in practical, financial, and operational terms. Below, we’ll look at what the senior care sector offers versus what the commercial cleaning industry offers, especially for an owner aiming for long-term stability, scalability, and profitability. The goal is an honest comparison: senior care can be rewarding and lucrative, but we’ll see that commercial cleaning has some built-in advantages that often make it a better opportunity for many first-time franchise owners.
Happier At Home’s Industry Advantages
The in-home senior care industry does have several attractive advantages:
- Booming Demand: With the aging U.S. population, the need for senior care is continually growing. Families are seeking help to keep aging loved ones safe and cared for at home. We noted earlier the market size is enormous (around $250B and growing). This means a franchisee in this sector has a huge pool of potential clients. As societies age, services like companionship, personal care, and dementia care are increasingly essential – making the business feel recession-resistant in its own right (people need care in any economy). In fact, home care is often called an “essential service” since it supports a vulnerable population, much like healthcare. There’s also a strong emotional drive behind this demand: most seniors desperately want to remain at home, and their adult children will prioritize finding quality care. A Happier At Home franchise meets a heartfelt need in the community, which can translate to a steady flow of referrals and inquiries if you establish a good reputation.
- Mission-Driven and Fulfilling: Many entrepreneurs are drawn to senior care because it offers a sense of purpose. You’re not just selling a product; you’re making a positive impact on people’s lives every day. For the right owner, this mission-driven aspect is a big advantage – it can be highly motivating to know your work helps seniors live with dignity and families find peace of mind. Franchisees often form personal bonds with clients and become trusted figures in their local community. This can lead to very strong client loyalty and word-of-mouth business. If you’re someone who wants a business that “does well by doing good,” senior care checks that box in a big way.
- High Revenue per Client: Compared to some service businesses, senior care clients can generate substantial recurring revenue. For example, a single client who needs 40 hours of care per week could easily bring in $4,000+ per month in billings. It’s not unusual for a full-time care client to be worth $30k–$50k per year in revenue. Happier At Home’s own Item 19 shows an average unit volume over $500k, which might come from serving, say, 15–20 clients at a time. Top franchisees (in any senior care brand) can even scale to seven-figure revenues by adding more clients and caregivers. In other words, the model is scalable – you’re selling hours of service, and as long as you can staff more caregivers, you can take on more clients. There’s no hard cap on growth besides the labor supply (and your territory size). Moreover, Happier At Home’s multi-service approach (care management, medication services in addition to caregiving) means you can capture additional revenue from each client beyond just basic companion care. This multiple revenue streams strategy can boost your profitability and set the business apart from one-dimensional competitors.
- Lower Overhead & Flexible Setup: Running a senior care agency doesn’t require expensive facilities or equipment. As mentioned, you can start from a home office and gradually move into a small rented office when needed. You don’t have retail build-out costs, inventory, or large utility bills. The biggest expenses – caregiver wages – are variable costs that scale with revenue (you pay caregivers for the hours clients are paying you for). This creates a relatively lean cost structure. If client demand dips, your labor costs dip correspondingly. Also, scheduling can be flexible: care visits can be scheduled based on client needs and your staff availability; you’re not locked into store hours or a fixed production schedule. For an owner, this can mean more control over work-life balance once a reliable team is in place. Some franchisees even run operations remotely or with a small staff because so much can be handled via phone and computer.
- Strong Training and Franchisor Support: While not an industry trait per se, it’s worth noting that senior care franchises like Happier At Home provide extensive training in a field that many newcomers might find intimidating. You don’t need a medical background to own a senior care franchise according to ifpg.org – the franchisor teaches you the care protocols, regulatory compliance, and how to recruit qualified caregivers. The ongoing need for quality control and compliance (background checks, caregiving best practices, etc.) is supported by Happier At Home’s systems and coaching. So the franchise model helps turn a complex service into a manageable business for first-timers. Additionally, because the service is personal, delivering great care can help you develop deep community relationships with referral sources like hospital social workers, senior center directors, and hospice organizations. Once those referral networks trust you, they can become a sustained engine for client leads that cost you very little to maintain (an advantage that grows over time).
That said, it’s important to also acknowledge challenges in the senior care industry that a prospective owner should weigh. The flip side of an emotionally charged, consumer-driven business is that it can be unpredictable. Client turnover is a reality – eventually your clients may get better, move to nursing facilities, or pass away, meaning you’ll need to continuously bring in new clients (it’s recurring revenue but not permanent contracts). There’s also a high degree of competition. Senior care is a crowded field; in any decent-sized city, there are numerous franchise brands (Home Instead, Right at Home, Visiting Angels, etc.) and independent agencies vying for clients. Differentiating your services and marketing smartly is crucial. Moreover, the labor challenge looms large: caregivers (home health aides, CNAs, etc.) are in great demand nationwide, and turnover among care staff is notoriously high. As an owner, you must be prepared to recruit, screen, and retain dozens of employees – essentially a constant HR effort. This can be time-consuming and can limit growth if you can’t find enough reliable caregivers to staff new cases. Lastly, providing care involves on-call responsibility. Emergencies happen – a caregiver might call off a shift last minute or a client might need urgent attention – and as the owner, the buck stops with you. Many senior care franchisees end up being on-call 24/7 to solve scheduling crises or client issues. The work can be emotionally taxing too, as you interact with clients who may be very ill or families under stress. In summary, the senior care industry offers a huge market and meaningful work, but it demands an owner who is ready for a hands-on, labor-intensive, and competitive business environment.
Compared to Commercial Cleaning Industry
In contrast, let’s look at the commercial cleaning industry – the space that Assett Franchise operates in. Commercial cleaning (janitorial services for offices, schools, medical buildings, etc.) shares some surface similarities with senior care (both are essential services, both involve managing hourly workers), but the differences are significant. Here are the key advantages of a cleaning business franchise model like Assett, especially when compared side-by-side with senior care:
- Enormous Market Serving Businesses: The U.S. commercial cleaning services industry is massive – estimated over $100 billion per year in revenue by recent measures. Every commercial building needs cleaning, from corporate offices and schools to hospitals, retail stores, and factories. Unlike senior care which targets individual consumers (homeowners), commercial cleaning caters to business clients (B2B). This market tends to be more stable because it’s driven by ongoing operational needs of businesses, not individual family situations. A single B2B cleaning contract can be worth tens of thousands annually and businesses often stick with a good cleaning provider for many years. Simply put, every facility gets dirty and must be cleaned regularly, no matter the economic climate. This vast and steady demand means opportunity everywhere – Assett Franchise notes that U.S. cleaning revenue remained robust even during downturns like COVID lockdowns. Cleaning is widely regarded as essential and recession-resistant – even in recessions or pandemics, offices and public buildings must maintain cleanliness and sanitation standards.
- Predictable Recurring Revenue: Commercial cleaning is typically set up on recurring contracts. Clients usually sign agreements for cleaning services at a set frequency (e.g. five nights a week janitorial service, or weekly deep cleaning, etc.), and these contracts auto-renew or continue indefinitely until canceled. This creates a very steady, predictable revenue stream for the franchise owner. You can forecast your monthly income with confidence based on active contracts, which makes financial planning and scaling much easier. In senior home care, revenue is also recurring in a sense (clients use services weekly), but it’s not under long-term contract – a family can stop service at any time. With cleaning, you often have formal B2B contracts that provide “sticky” revenue – as long as you keep the client happy, they will likely stay with you for years. This recurring revenue model is one of the strongest advantages of commercial cleaning franchises like Assett. It allows you to build a large base of contracted clients that collectively could bring in $1M+ in annual revenue, and that revenue is highly predictable. Essentially, you’re not constantly reselling your service to new customers each month; you’re simply maintaining and expanding contracts.
- Low Operational Complexity: Running a cleaning franchise is operationally simpler and more routinized than running a senior care agency. In commercial cleaning, the services are straightforward – trash removal, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, restroom sanitation, etc. – guided by cleaning checklists. They don’t usually require specialized licenses or medical training. The equipment needed is minimal: basic cleaning supplies, maybe a floor buffer or a carpet cleaner for special jobs. You’re not investing in expensive medical devices or dealing with sensitive healthcare issues. There are also fewer regulatory hoops – no healthcare regulations, no patient privacy laws like HIPAA, etc. Compliance in cleaning mostly involves safety (OSHA) and perhaps green cleaning standards, which are much easier to manage. The business model scales by adding more cleaning crews and clients, without fundamentally changing processes. Compare this to senior care, where each new client could have very different care needs or emergency situations that require careful management. Cleaning jobs are more uniform. Moreover, the service delivery in cleaning often happens after-hours (e.g. your crews clean office buildings at night when they’re empty). This means as an owner you’re not typically dealing with urgent “daytime” crises. You’re also not dealing with emotional family dynamics. Clients (business managers) are generally concerned with reliability and quality of cleaning, not personal or life-and-death matters. This more impersonal, B2B nature can actually make operations smoother and less stressful for the owner. It’s business, not personal – you perform a contracted task to a set standard. And if a cleaner calls out sick, while inconvenient, it’s easier to reschedule a janitorial shift than to find last-minute coverage for a frail senior who can’t be left unattended. Overall, the day-to-day management of a cleaning franchise tends to involve logistical scheduling and quality checks, rather than complex care coordination.
- Semi-Absentee Potential: Commercial cleaning franchises like Assett are often designed so that the owner can operate in a semi-absentee capacity if desired. That means once you secure contracts and build a small team of trustworthy cleaners and maybe a supervisor, you could oversee the business in as little as a few hours a week. Assett Franchise is explicitly built for owners who want to work on the business, not in it, so much so that some owners run it as a side venture while keeping a day job or focusing on sales/strategy only a few hours weekly. The cleaning itself is done entirely by hourly employees or subcontractors – the owner does not need to be on-site cleaning (and in fact Assett trains you not to). Because cleaning tasks are easily delegated and do not require your presence, you can scale by hiring more cleaners and step back to a management role. In contrast, Happier At Home (and most senior care franchises) expect the owner to be fully involved, full-time in the business – it is not a passive or absentee investment. Senior care often demands quick decision-making and hands-on oversight, making it hard to step away. But in commercial cleaning, many franchisees successfully adopt a semi-absentee model, focusing on client relationships and business growth while a small office staff handles daily scheduling. This flexibility can be a major draw if your goal is to eventually have a business that provides income with limited time commitment (truly building an asset that works for you). Assett even touts that its owners can run the business with as little as 5 hours per week once established, thanks in part to its unique systems (more on that below).
- Labor Advantages: Both senior care and cleaning rely on entry-level service workers, but hiring for cleaning can be easier in some respects. The pool of candidates for cleaning jobs is broad, and the training required is minimal compared to caregiving or medical knowledge. Cleaning staff typically don’t need certifications – you can train a new janitor in a day or two on the required tasks. Turnover happens in cleaning too, but losing a cleaner doesn’t put a client in immediate jeopardy (whereas a caregiver quitting can leave a vulnerable senior without help). Additionally, Assett Franchise has innovated an automated hiring system that continuously recruits and filters applicants for cleaning positions. This means as an owner you spend far less time on hiring – the system delivers a pipeline of pre-qualified candidates, saving an estimated 20–30 hours per week or the cost of a dedicated hiring manager. (By comparison, a senior care franchise owner might spend a huge chunk of their week recruiting caregivers and still struggle with staffing.) Assett’s approach ensures you always have a bench of trained cleaners ready, which removes one of the biggest growth bottlenecks in service businesses. It also helps maintain quality – only vetted, reliable workers are dispatched to client sites, and the system can scale your workforce rapidly when you sign new contracts. In short, cleaning leverages technology and simpler job roles to ease the burden of staffing, whereas senior care’s labor challenge is more complex and human-intensive.
- Scalability Without Heavy Investment: Scaling up a commercial cleaning business is primarily about adding contracts – which often doesn’t require significant new capital. You don’t need to open new facilities or buy pricey equipment to take on more cleaning contracts; you just hire a few more cleaners (incremental cost) and maybe buy some extra mops and uniforms. The model can scale into multiple seven figures in revenue with a fairly lean operation (some of the largest cleaning franchisees operate hundreds of contracts with just an admin team and a fleet of cleaners). There’s also no need for expensive real estate – many cleaning franchisees run their business from a small office or even virtually, since most work happens at the client’s location. Assett emphasizes that it can be scaled without large fixed costs like warehouses or retail storefronts. This contrasts with industries like fitness or food where every incremental location requires a big capital outlay. It also contrasts with senior care in that adding significantly more clients in senior care might eventually require additional office staff like care coordinators or nurses and heightened oversight for quality of care. Cleaning has a more linear growth curve – it’s relatively straightforward to go from 5 contracts to 50 contracts by layering in more staff and maybe a supervisor or two, without dramatically changing your model.
- Stable, Non-Seasonal Demand: Commercial cleaning is needed year-round and typically does not suffer from seasonal slowdowns. Offices and facilities require cleaning 12 months a year (often with even more demand during flu seasons or post-holiday). Some industries, like landscaping or mosquito control, have off-seasons – but cleaning is steady. Senior care is also fairly year-round (people need care consistently), so both industries share this non-seasonality. However, one could argue that cleaning demand is even more constant and predictable – businesses rarely pause cleaning services unless they shut down entirely, whereas a senior care client might suddenly cancel service if a family member steps in or the client moves to assisted living. The predictability of cleaning means you as the owner can plan staffing and cash flow with high confidence.
- Less Emotional Sales Cycle: Selling commercial cleaning contracts is generally a straightforward B2B sales process – you target facility managers or business owners, pitch your service quality and price, maybe do a walk-through and provide a quote. The decision is typically made on practical factors (cost, reliability, references). This can be refreshing compared to the emotionally charged sales in senior care. In senior care, you’re often dealing with family caregivers who are stressed, anxious about a loved one’s condition, and shopping for care in a moment of crisis. The sales process there involves a lot of trust-building and delicate handling of personal matters. By contrast, selling cleaning is business-minded: clients want a vendor who will show up and keep their building clean at a reasonable price. It’s a commodity to some degree, but a well-run franchise can differentiate on consistency and professionalism. The point is, the client relationships in cleaning are professional and long-term, whereas in senior care they can be more short-term and emotionally driven. Many entrepreneurs find the B2B dynamic easier to navigate and scale – it’s about delivering on service-level agreements, not coping with life-or-death issues.
In summary, the commercial cleaning industry offers some clear-cut advantages for someone focused on long-term stability, scalability, and simpler operations. You’re tapping into a gigantic, essential market with recurring B2B revenue, lower regulatory hurdles, and a model that can be systematized and even run semi-absentee. While the senior care industry has strong demand and rewarding work, it also comes with more operational headaches (constant hiring, 24/7 responsibilities, heavy competition and emotional sales). Commercial cleaning, especially with a modern franchise like Assett, can be seen as a “cleaner” alternative – pun intended – where the business fundamentals are arguably more favorable for building a large, stable enterprise over time.
How the Assett Franchise Compares
Simpler Systems, Bigger Potential
Assett Franchise is, by design, a simpler and high-potential model in the commercial cleaning industry. Since Assett is already operating in the advantageous space we described above, it benefits from the $100B+ market and recurring B2B client base from day one. More importantly, Assett’s system is engineered for ease of ownership. The franchise was built specifically for owners who want to work on the business, not in it – meaning you won’t be the one emptying trash cans or pushing a mop. Instead, you focus on executive-level activities: building client relationships, overseeing quality, and scaling the business. Assett provides a fully developed playbook that shows you how to do this without prior industry experience. In fact, no cleaning industry experience is required at all – the training covers everything from operations to sales. This makes it ideal for first-time entrepreneurs or corporate escapees. You’re not learning a complex medical or technical trade; you’re mastering a straightforward service business with the guidance of a proven model.
The income potential with Assett is significant. Thanks to the recurring revenue nature of cleaning contracts, franchisees have a realistic path to build a $1M+ annual recurring revenue business over time. Assett’s model has documented cases of franchise owners achieving seven-figure revenues by landing a portfolio of stable contracts (and doing so without the owner working full-time on site). The scalability of the system – using employees to perform all the work – means your growth is not constrained by your personal labor, only by how quickly you can add new accounts. Assett emphasizes “bigger potential” not just in revenue, but also in eventual equity value: a business with $1M+ in recurring sales and a strong client roster can be a very valuable asset if you ever choose to sell or step back. Contrast this with Happier At Home, where while $1M revenue is possible, it likely requires a more hands-on effort and a larger staff to manage the sensitive nature of care operations. With Assett, the business scales cleanly – add more contracts, plug more cleaners into the system, and repeat. It’s a simpler equation, supported by the franchise’s refined processes.
Automated Hiring = Time and Money Saved
One of Assett Franchise’s most powerful differentiators is its automated hiring system. This proprietary system essentially automates the recruitment and onboarding of cleaning staff, solving what is often the biggest headache in service businesses: finding and keeping good employees. For a franchise owner, this delivers immediate savings in time and labor cost. How so? Traditionally, if you run a cleaning business (or any service business like senior care), you’d spend countless hours posting job ads, sifting through applications, scheduling interviews, and training new hires – or you’d pay a manager or recruiter to do it. Assett eliminates much of that grind. The system continuously advertises for cleaning position applicants, filters them through assessments, and even initiates the onboarding steps automatically. By the time you need a new cleaner for a contract, you have a pipeline of pre-vetted candidates ready to go. Franchisees report that this can save 20–30 hours per week of administrative work that they would otherwise have to do (or pay someone ~$40k+ a year to handle).
Not only does this system save time and money, it also ensures you maintain a high-quality workforce at scale. Automated filtering means only serious and qualified applicants make it through, improving your hire success rate. And because hiring is always “on” in the background, your business can grow without hitting the common wall of “I can’t find enough staff.” If you sign a big new cleaning contract, Assett’s system can quickly ramp up your staffing to fulfill it – thus, your growth isn’t bottlenecked by recruitment. This contrasts sharply with Happier At Home’s model, where hiring caregivers is a very manual, local process and often cited as the toughest part of the business. Senior care owners might spend an enormous part of their week interviewing caregivers or dealing with call-outs. Assett’s automated approach flips that script: the franchise technology does the heavy lifting of sourcing and screening cleaners, so you, as the owner, can spend your time on higher-value activities (like signing more clients or ensuring quality service). Ultimately, Assett’s automated hiring is a modern solution that saves franchisees from the biggest pain point of scaling a service business – it’s like having an HR team working 24/7 for you, but built into the franchise system. This not only saves you time and expense, but also gives you peace of mind that you can reliably meet client needs without scrambling, which is priceless when growing a company.
Personalized and Founder-Led
Another area where Assett Franchise stands out is in its personalized, founder-led approach to franchising stated in bizbuysell.com. Assett is a family-owned franchise company led by its founder, Matt Pencarinha, who remains actively involved in the business and the success of each franchisee. This is a different vibe from many franchise brands (including some in senior care) that might be owned by private equity firms or large conglomerates. In those systems, franchisees can sometimes feel like just another number, far removed from the decision-makers. In contrast, Assett offers a close-knit community feel. Franchisees have direct access to leadership – you can pick up the phone and talk to Matt or the executive team when you need guidance. The company’s size and ethos allow for more personal mentoring and agile support. Decisions are made with franchisee input and with long-term mutual success in mind, rather than just satisfying corporate investors.
This founder-led culture tends to foster a strong sense of community and mission among Assett owners. Everyone knows the core mission and values because they come straight from the founding family, not a faceless board. Assett prides itself on being community-focused – not only in serving local communities through cleaning, but also in building a community of franchisees who support each other. New franchisees often join because they resonate with Matt Pencarinha’s vision of a modern, life-friendly business model (providing flexibility and income without the corporate grind). As a family-owned brand, Assett can also be more adaptive and innovative; they implement improvements quickly based on franchisee feedback. For example, the automated hiring system or certain marketing strategies can be traced to direct collaboration with franchise owners. This agility and personal touch is harder to come by in older, larger franchises that might be set in their ways.
In practical terms, choosing a franchise like Assett means you’re joining a franchise “family” where leadership genuinely cares about your individual success and knows you by name – including the founder himself. That can translate into more customized support, quicker responses to issues, and a business relationship built on trust and shared values. Assett isn’t chasing rapid sell-out of territories just to collect fees; because it’s not private-equity controlled, the growth strategy is measured and franchisees are carefully selected and supported. Many franchise buyers underestimate the importance of this cultural fit and support style, but it can make a world of difference, especially for first-time business owners. In Assett’s case, you get the advantage of a proven commercial cleaning franchise system plus the benefit of being part of a family-like network led by the people who started the business (not some distant shareholders). It’s a refreshing approach in franchising that aligns well with entrepreneurs who want not just a profitable venture, but also a supportive partnership on their journey.
Final Thoughts
When comparing Happier At Home and Assett Franchise, it’s clear that each opportunity has its own strengths. Happier At Home offers a chance to make a direct difference in people’s lives through senior care, and for the right type of owner – someone passionate about elder care and prepared for a very hands-on, caregiving-focused role – it can be a fulfilling business. The senior care industry will always have heartfelt demand, and a franchise like Happier At Home provides the training and structure to tap into that market effectively. If you are driven by a mission to help seniors and don’t mind managing the complexities that come with healthcare-related services, Happier At Home could be a rewarding path.
However, for many would-be franchise owners (especially those coming from corporate careers or those seeking a more streamlined business), the Assett Franchise model offers more advantages and fewer headaches. Commercial cleaning as an industry shines in long-term stability, scalability, and simplicity of operations. Assett then amplifies those advantages with its modern systems (like automated hiring), recurring executive-level income potential, and a supportive, founder-led culture. In short, Assett is a great fit for someone who wants:
- A scalable, stable business with a huge market and repeat clientele
- Low operational complexity, without the regulatory or emotional challenges
- Predictable recurring revenue month after month from B2B contracts
- Minimal risk and faster ROI due to lower startup costs and essential demand
- A modern business model built for executive ownership, where you can focus on growth strategy and let systems handle the grunt work
Happier At Home may appeal to those with a calling for caregiving, but if you’re primarily looking for a high-income, low-complexity franchise that can adapt to your life (rather than the other way around), Assett Franchise is arguably the cleaner alternative in more ways than one. It leverages all the upsides of the cleaning industry while eliminating many downsides that often plague service businesses.
If you’re exploring franchise opportunities and want a model that can deliver long-term income, flexibility, and control — we’d love to show you how Assett Franchise can help you build a business that works for your life. Visit https://assettfranchise.com to connect with our team and learn more.
