Yes I Can Franchise, an Escondido-based enterprise with a presence in San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties, will expand into Arizona and Nevada in the future.
Ten years after the first store started in 1991, the success of this company seems not to have any boundaries. The Yes I Can Franchise operates in the fastest-growing market in the United States , the elderly.
According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, the American population is rapidly aging. While the number of people 65 years or older is currently close to 35 million, by 2010 the figures will have increased by 6 million; by 2030, the nation will have more than 70 million people in the population segment.
“Our business is on the threshold of the most expandable market , the senior market,” said Franchise Development Associate George Mosher.
Not only does Yes I Can Franchise provide services to the elderly, but also to people with physical challenges and unique needs. This idea marked the beginning of the company founded by Lois Jackman in 1991.
By that time, the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., reported more than 33 percent of persons older than 65 had a significant disability and required use of an assistant mobility device. Ten years later, the idea to enhance the lives of individuals who were experiencing physical problems due to age, illness, or an accident has turned into a successful and prosperous business.
“It’s the irony of Yes I Can Franchise,” Mosher said. “We couldn’t expect such a success because our first concept was to help people with any kind of physical challenge and not to do business.”
Yes I Can retail stores nationwide compete with local, regional and national providers of durable medical equipment, as well as other suppliers of specialized equipment and the drug store chains.
However, most durable medical equipment supply companies provide a somewhat limited range of products, typically including hospital beds, bedpans, canes, respiratory monitors and equipment. Unlike those companies, Yes I Can has chosen to provide the broadest possible selection of home medical products and services.
Thanks to a program called Operation Butterfly, people who want to own a store receive the necessary training to professionally satisfy customers’ needs.
A person enters the program as a “chrysalis” and is grown into a “butterfly” with all the freedom to run a store. The program is offered at Yes I Can University. The curriculum concentrates on every discipline people need to be knowledgeable to run the business.
Based on the principle that education brings new researches as well as new services offered to consumers, an employee-training program is a basic element of the Yes I Can program.
Customers are seen as fundamental in the close relationship between the stores and them.
“We listen, react, and respond to what customers are looking for,” Mosher said. “As a reason to be, people who want to run a store like this have to be linked with the matter in a sense, by having either a medical or clinical point of view or a family member with some of the recognized medical problems. This makes possible a better connection with customers.”
As long as research continues in this field, helping to provide potential consumers the adequate services they need, “we don’t feel our business is boundless, but with unlimited boundaries,” Mosher said.
