From Caregiver to Franchisee: One Woman's Journey to Ownership

As a former employee of BrightStar Care, Anne Politica knows the importance of maintaining family connections and helping others achieve the highest quality of life possible.

Anne always had a passion for helping others, which led her to work for BrightStar Care in North Bucks County, Pa.

"I went into the healthcare industry and immediately fell in love. It's easy to fall in love with," Anne said. "Getting to help people every day gives me a purpose to wake up every morning."

Anne's motivation to help others contributed to her work ethic and quickly led to her promotion as director of operations at her home health agency.

The BrightStar Care Difference

While she was passionate about her work, Anne later grew burnt out from her role as director and was ready for a change. She initially set out to explore other paths outside of healthcare, but it wasn't long before she went back.

"I missed the personal satisfaction you get from working in health care," she explained.

Eager to go back, Anne went on to work at another home health agency. However, it was at the other agency where she realized the level of care BrightStar provides was unmatched.

"The other agencies didn't meet the standards I was used to at BrightStar Care," Anne explained. "I knew I wanted to go back to BrightStar Care after realizing how different it was from the other agencies," Anne said.

Outside of the quality of care, the main differences she noticed between our home health franchise and the others was our level of support, innovative technology and computer systems.

This realization not only led Anne to go back to BrightStar Care, but to buy her own franchise.

From Employee to Franchise Owner

Anne's father inspired her to own a franchise. Her father was a business owner for over 36 years, and Anne grew up watching her dad successfully run his businesses.

With an associate's degree in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in business management, her experience growing up in a business-oriented family and her background as a BrightStar Care employee, Anne felt well-prepared to take on the role of a franchisee.

When Anne called to inquire about owning a franchise, she expressed her worries and experience with burnout as an employee to our support team, which helped our corporate team to reassess our strengths and weaknesses as a business.

"I wanted to communicate with the BrightStar Care team and feel confident in my decision before owning a franchise," Anne expressed.

The team reaffirmed Anne's decision to come back as a franchise owner and continued to support her throughout the onboarding and training processes.

High-Quality Care and High-Quality Support

After her father retired last year, Anne was eager to keep the family business going, so she asked her dad and husband to join in buying a BrightStar Care agency. Anne’s husband, Tom, a former veteran, came in as majority owner, making their home health agency a veteran-owned company.

Shortly after the trio opened their home health agency on November 8, 2021, Tom was named Director of Sales and together, they get to make a difference in their community.

Although Anne had previous experience working at BrightStar Care, there were several things she had to navigate for the first time, but thankfully, our support team was with her every step of the way.

"I'm really grateful for all of the support that Shelly and the BrightStar Care team have offered me. They helped to ensure I had a smooth and safe opening during the pandemic," she said. "I'm grateful I was able to open safely and continue doing my job through it all. The systems that they have in place are irreplaceable, from the computer systems to the national accounts to the sales elements, having a team behind you makes all of the difference."

As a new owner, Anne looks forward to building new relationships with clients and helping them attain a better quality of life.

"I love the one-on-one interactions and getting to know my clients," she added.

Family Is the Driving Force

Through her BrightStar Care agency, Anne gets to play a role in giving families their time back and restore the family connection by taking the burden of caregiving off the loved ones and giving it to the skilled professionals.

"When family members are playing the caretaker role, they aren't getting enough time with their loved ones as a family," Anne explained. "I love that I get to make a difference in someone's life."

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