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| Opportunities & Exposures: Family Business |
Rise of the Copreneurs
AnNita M. Klimecka
01/01/2006
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At The Senior’s Choice, the nation’s largest network of independent companion
care providers for seniors, we’re noticing an interesting trend. More and more
of our members are married couples diving into business together.
The husband
and wife team of Don and Sally Olin is one example. They own and operate
Partners In Care in Charlotte, N.C. For the Olins, and many of our members, the
business is allowing them to build up their financial health after a crisis, in
a way that is personally meaningful and enables them to be together in the
process.
For 30 years, Sally has been a registered nurse. Don was in the food
brokerage industry, eventually serving as president of Charlotte-based Atlas
Marketing. In 1999, Don retired. He and Sally began a one-year sabbatical,
traveling the country and talking about what they wanted to do for the rest of
their lives. Then their best-laid plans fell apart. The individuals to whom Don
sold his company declared bankruptcy within a year, and the couple’s hard-earned
retirement funds disappeared.
They also found themselves attempting to care
for their ailing mothers in upstate New York from 800 miles away. Neither parent
wanted to move to a nursing home, but Don and Sally had trouble finding
dependable in-home care for them. After falling in her home and remaining
undiscovered for five hours, Don’s mother was eventually transferred to a
nursing home where her health steadily declined until she died. This experience
led the couple to look for a way to help other seniors avoid the pain and
suffering their mothers went through.
Don and Sally investigated the senior
companion care industry, which is aimed at helping seniors age more safely in
the comfort of their own homes. They found The Senior’s Choice and became
members in order to establish their own senior care franchise.
National
statistics are difficult to find, but various academic studies put the
percentage of small businesses run by copreneurs—the marketing term for this
phenomenon—at more than 30 percent and growing. A membership survey conducted
last August by the National Association for the Self Employed found that nearly
35 percent of respondents were husband-and-wife teams. National toy franchisor
Learning Express says 87 percent of its franchisees are copreneurs.
At The
Senior’s Choice, we’ve watched the trend for several years. In January 2002,
approximately 21 percent of the network’s new members were married couples.
Today, as much as 66 percent of those attending new member training are couples.
More than 48 percent of the network’s total membership is now husband-and-wife
teams.
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