How Franchising Helped Chefs for Seniors Go National

The Wisconsin-based family business providing home-cooked meals for the elderly discovered a nationwide need for their services, and used franchising to expand. 

When National Public Radio featured Chefs for Seniors, a Madison, Wisconsin-based family business providing home-cooked meals for older adults, the company was inundated with phone calls and emails pleading with them to expand into more areas. 

Co-Founder Nathan Allman, who partnered with his father Barrett to launch the business, saw an opportunity for growth. After considering other strategies he determined that franchising was the best way to achieve it.  Today, eight years later, Chefs for Seniors has more than 100 franchise locations and is planning to branch into similar services for families.  As the name suggests, local chefs prepare batches of nutritious meals in the client’s home. The chefs also check on the nutritional well-being of older clients.

In this interview, Allman talks about his experiences becoming a franchiser, including putting together a franchise disclosure document and codifying the company’s processes, rules, training programs, recipes and other important information into an owner’s manual. He also shares his thoughts on the type of person who makes an ideal franchisee — someone who wants in because they want to help others — and on how AI is helping the company and its franchisees streamline the planning process.