CLINTON, N.Y. — Since it launched more than a decade ago, the companion-care business Daughter for Hire has moved into a local office in Clinton, opened an Albany–area location in Latham, and is now looking ahead to franchising its services.

“I am loving what we do,” says Kathleen Rutishauser, who started the business in 2012. “We’ve got good news stories every day that we hear from our clients, our caregivers, family members of our clients. It’s good work.”

Rutishauser spoke with CNYBJ from Clinton on June 23. She remains co-owner of Daughter for Hire with Denise Flihan and they’ve co-owned the business since 2014.

The company’s mission, values, and culture have helped it to not only remain in business but also to continue to successfully grow throughout the Albany area and in the Mohawk Valley, Flihan told CNYBJ in a July 13 email message. 

“We believe in our mission and we live it every day. We truly believe that our clients are no different than our own families and we want to make sure that we are doing all that we can to help them age with dignity,” Flihan said. 

Daughter for Hire has between 70 and 75 employees, including office staff and part-time care companions, as they’re called. The business is serving between 75 and 100 clients in the Mohawk Valley, as of June 23. It has an estimated total of about 200 between both regions, according to Rutishauser. 

Franchising

Rutishauser and Flihan started thinking about franchising in the fall of 2022, Rutishauser tells CNYBJ. 

“We had been discussing it for so long. We decided the time is right … for us to kick off 2023 with franchising,” she says. 

They signed an agreement with an Atlanta firm, Franchise Marketing Systems (FMS), in late December and in early January started working on all the paperwork necessary to file with New York State to sell franchises throughout the nation. 

“Because we feel … what we do is different from what a lot of companies out there do that are also companion-care services,” she says. “And we feel as though we can replicate what we do because there’s such a need.”

Flihan says she sees a big market opportunity because the U.S. Census Bureau projects the number of Americans aged 65 and older to nearly double from 52 million in 2018 to 83.9 million in 2050. By 2030, when all baby boomers will be age 65 or older, seniors will account for about 21 percent of the U.S. population. 

“Seniors are choosing to stay in their homes for as long as possible. As the number of older Americans increases, so does the need for resources to help them age with dignity. This leads to a rise in the demand for in-home care as seniors look to age in place,” Flihan says. “Companion care services, like the services Daughter for Hire provides, will help support the demand to age in place.” 

The company is working with FMS for all of the marketing. The process will include a website that is separate from the Daughter for Hire webpage that provides information on buying a franchise, including costs and other details. 

The marketing process is still to come, but she says the company gets occasional inquiries wondering about providing a similar services in areas outside the Mohawk Valley. 

“Probably over the last five years, we’ve been asked at least a few times a year,” Rutishauser notes. 

Services provided

Daughter for Hire falls under the category of companion care, which includes non-medical care and non-personal care. 

“We are not able to do anything medical at all … giving drugs, doing any kind of an injection, helping with a catheter, anything like that … In terms of non-personal, it means we don’t do bathing and toileting,” says Rutishauser 

As care companions (renamed from care givers which Rutishauser believes has a “clinical tone to it.”) they go into clients’ homes 24-7, and they can handle activities that include making a meal, grocery shopping, light housekeeping, assisting clients around their home, and planting flowers. 

Care companions can also take clients to medical appointment. They’ll take notes during the appointment so they can share details both in writing and verbally with the client’s family, if need be. 

“We’ve actually got a portal that backs up everything that we do in case a client or a client’s family wanted to know — how did the visit go today,” says Rutishauser. 

Daughter for Hire accepts private pay, long-term care insurance (a small percentage of clients), or through a grant, such as through the Alzheimer’s Association administered through the Oneida County Office for the Aging. 

Latham office

Daughter for Hire opened a second office in Latham in 2016. 

Rutishauser says she had been involved in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Emerging Leaders program. During her time with the program, she credited the assistance of John Liddy and Dan Rickman who reviewed the business to make sure Rutishauser was operating it the proper way. 

“I’ve always felt like we run a good business but that gave us additional insight. The end results of being in that program is that you need to come up with a business plan for the next five years.”

The plan included expansion. Rutishauser grew up in the Capital Region, so expanding there was a “no brainer” for the business.

The Latham office has a director and an office administrator, as well as 35 companion-care givers working from the office.