Meet the Owner | Greg Self

Listen to the full interview on our YouTube channel.

Greg and Crystal Self purchased their Right at Home franchise in 2010. In the years since, they have built a truly flourishing operation. Presiding over two territories in the Oklahoma City Northwest region, Greg and Crystal serve more than 100 clients with the support of roughly 125 caregivers.

“We have a great team,” Greg tells us. “Everything is running along very smoothly.”

Still, Greg and Crystal remain extremely active in the business. As Greg notes, “We were in the office this morning. Actually, we're in the office every day.”

The business may be running smoothly today, but for Greg, moving into the home care space was a pretty dramatic change from the way he’d spent the previous 30 years of his career.

Going Local

Today, Greg and Crystal are deeply embedded in their local community. But before settling into his role with Right at Home, Greg spent many of his days far away from his Oklahoma City home.

“I'm a marketing and sales guy by training for the last 30 years,” says Greg. “I have traveled all over the US and other continents in sales and marketing. I was in industrial sales and technical sales in the printed circuit board industry, so I met with engineers and owners of companies. ”

Meanwhile, Crystal worked as an educator, first teaching journalism to middle schoolers and then, for a decade, teaching Phys Ed at the grade school level. She loved it, but by 2010, the whole family was ready for a change. They just weren’t exactly sure what that change would look like.

“My industry was dying,” says Greg. “The circuit board industry was all going to Southeast Asia and other places. It was getting really tiresome.”

Stumbling On Opportunity

So how did that lead Greg and Crystal to Right at Home? Practically on a whim, actually.

“One night after a conference call at about 10:30 in the evening, I searched ‘franchise opportunities’ on my computer,” Greg explained. “Right at Home was one of those ones that jumped up, and we started talking with them.”

Obviously, those conversations went well. Crystal made the leap first, leaving her teaching job to get the new franchise off the ground. Greg spent the next several years seeing his tech sales career to its logical conclusion.

Learning Real Fast

“My job kind of ended,” said Greg. “So I joined Crystal in 2019, and I was in marketing and sales. Then of course, COVID hit, and none of that was happening, so I learned real fast.”

Naturally, moving from circuit board sales to home care required some adjustment, especially during the pandemic. But for Greg, the change was truly a positive one.

“It is quite a shift from doing what I was doing,” Greg told us. “I like helping people. We like getting people help and making sure they can stay where they are, making sure they're healthy and warm and safe and dry and happy. So that's a really big plus for us.”

Another big plus, Greg says, is the support that he and Crystal have received from Right at Home corporate since Day 1.

Being Welcomed With Open Arms

This was not Greg’s first experience with franchising. As a marketing and sales professional, he worked with all kinds of franchises. Some were welcoming, engaging, and familiar. Others were short-staffed, impersonal, and prone to making you wait. So he knew what he was looking for in a franchise system.

He and Crystal found it immediately with Right at Home.

“On Discovery Day, when we walked into Right at Home, it was one of those ‘Type A’ personalities where they greeted you, they knew who you were, and why you were there,” said Greg.

Greg and Crystal immediately felt seen, recognized, and welcomed. They also found comfort in just how much support they received right from the start. As Greg told us, “they made you really feel like, ‘Ok. This is going to work. We're going to help you make it work, and here's what you need to do.”

Taking the First Steps Together

Both Greg and Crystal were deeply impressed with the way Right at Home sets up new franchisees for success. As he told us, “Everything was pretty much laid out, and the success rate was very high, so that gave us a lot of confidence.”

Greg noted that he already viewed home care as a great business opportunity. He pointed to the aging Baby Boomer generation and acknowledged that home care is a rapidly growing industry. Still, there is a lot to learn about home care, and there’s a lot to learn about running a home care franchise. Fortunately, Greg says, Right at Home really does provide you with comprehensive support as you find your way around your business, your territory, and the broader home care sector.

“Once you open the doors, there is a lot of information to keep you busy, keep you moving, keep you growing, keep you informed on what to do day to day,” says Greg. “So they don't leave you alone. And our coaches were great. They came out to see us. We made sales calls together. They really helped us the whole way.”

Sharing the Responsibilities

Today, Crystal and Greg are both seasoned veterans of the home care industry. They’ve both settled into well-defined roles in their business. Crystal runs the office, oversees day-to-day operations, and handles administrative responsibilities. Greg explains that "Crystal is working with our care coordinators, working with our schedulers, working with our HR, working with our recruiters. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and she really runs that part all by herself, but she's got a great staff that helps her.”

Naturally, Greg channels his decades of experience in sales and marketing into growing the franchise. This means building relationships. As he tells us, “I'm in the office two days a week, and that's it. I'm out the rest of the time. We're doing lunches. We're beating the streets. We're playing bingo, having VA meetings, just doing those things that keep our name out there in the market.”

Greg and Crystal are also deeply involved in their local community and the broader national caregiver community through their work with the VA, as well as with both the Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's Associations. In fact, with so many responsibilities and such a rapidly growing franchise, Greg recently called in an outside consultant to help with marketing activities.

“We brought her in to start hitting the street in other places that we hadn't gotten to. So we have a nine o'clock meeting with her, go over the week, and look at my schedule,” Greg explains. “Every now and then, something pops up that I didn't know about. So she keeps me busy.”

Growing the Business

Greg and Crystal may be busy, but as he explains, they never feel like they’re in it alone.

As Greg says, “We know what to do. But we still have questions for our Performance Group people. Our coaches are still helping us every day to get things to where we want to be. So you're never alone.”

Greg admits that “there were some scary times, obviously, because you leave your comfort zone of income, and then you say, ‘Okay, we're going to do this and tighten the belt.’”

So what would Greg say to somebody who’s considering making the leap into franchise ownership?

“Do it,” Greg says. “It is rewarding. It's hard work. But if you're like me, and you’re in a sales and marketing position, and you’re a good customer service salesman, you're working 24/7. So you might as well work for yourself. And with Right at Home, the support is there. The name is there. And the innovation is there.”