Angela Olea, a trained nurse, founded Assisted Living Locators in reaction to watching patients suffer from needless readmissions and a lack of community support. She designed a National Readmissions Prevention Specialized Program for community care providers to prevent hospital readmissions in an effort to elicit positive change and ease of care transfer for patients.
Angela founded the first senior placement and referral business in the United States. As a trained nurse, Angela saw directly how difficult and stressful the choice to move to senior housing can be. She realized that the answer was more involved than just relocating her loved one to a nearby facility. Angela built the Assisted Living Locators platform in reaction to watching elderly individuals experience avoidable hospital readmissions and a lack of community assistance.
The platform was first introduced as a website, with a database of individually approved senior communities in her area. She also introduced personal tours and senior placement help to the online site at the same time. This website quickly grew in popularity and was transformed into a company. Angela created a business strategy based on the demand and embarked on the franchising adventure.
Below are highlights of the interview:
What are your responsibilities as the CEO of the company? What is the happiest part of your daily routine?
As CEO, Angela Olea oversees the strategic growth plan for Assisted Living Locators. She has built the company into a nationally acclaimed premier placement and referral agency, with 140 franchises in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Assisted Living Locators is the largest organically grown senior placement business in the U.S. Under her stewardship, Assisted Living Locators is setting the standard for care transition and has received top rankings in Entrepreneur’s 2021 Franchise 500®. The company is also included in the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.
Angela’s happiest part of her daily routine is seeing posts, pictures, texts, and emails from her franchisees and their successes. It brightens her day to see their personal success, from being able to be present for their family events to making a difference in the lives of others through their placements and referrals.
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
Assisted Living Locators is the only senior placement business that was founded as a nurse-based, “hands-on” service. Its innovative franchise model and nationwide network differ from others in the senior placement industry because it provides local “boots on the ground” to assist families face-to-face. This personalized guidance challenges the status quo of today’s online senior resource databases. Under Olea’s stewardship, Assisted Living Locators is also setting the standard for care transition. Her company is the first senior placement service to have its senior care advisors achieve system-wide dementia care certification.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in and how do you build this culture?
At Assisted Living Locators, Angela fosters a culture of social responsibility and service, investing in the community, and encouraging franchisee volunteerism and philanthropy. This is a commitment that carries on with each and every franchisee that joins the company. She works with them to contribute to a variety of charitable community efforts based on inspiring support and improving the quality of life of seniors. Her company’s community involvement includes thousands of hours assisting impoverished seniors with locating care options without any compensation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Assisted Living Locators announced a national partnership with Love For The Elderly, a non-profit organization that mails handwritten letters to seniors. Angela mobilized her 140 franchisees nationwide to reach out to thousands of families in their communities, asking for handwritten letters to mail to senior facilities to help combat social isolation and depression.
Assisted Living Locators also franchisees participate in the Walk To End Alzheimer’s National Team Program, raising funds to fight Alzheimer’s. “Our senior care advisors are on the front lines, providing much-needed support services to individuals living with Alzheimer’s and educating their caregivers,” said Olea. “We see the impact this disease has on families and are dedicated to Alzheimer’s care, support and research.”
In addition, Angela is a founding board member of the National Placement and Referral Alliance (NPRA), which monitors the senior placement and referral industry. This non-profit organization created a Code of Ethics and Best Practices to govern the ethical and professional conduct of placement and referral agents. It also established a national certification process to set safeguards and standards when working with clients, the public, and healthcare professionals.
What has made you successful? What do you value?
In becoming successful, I turned frustration into inspiration. I let frustration be the catalyst for great things to come. I learned it could be a tool to consciously change my mind set in a positive way and proactively get past it. This mentality has allowed me to conquer things beyond the scope of what I even thought was possible in my career, and life in general.
I value being a passionate senior care advocate and a pioneer in setting the standards for senior care transition. As a leader in the senior care industry, I’m determined to improve the quality of life for the elderly with the dignity they deserve.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position in the franchise space for the first time?
The most important leadership lesson I’ve learned is that you need teeth-gritting tenacity that won’t quit. Be the person who never gives up—who never accepts “no” for an answer. You, as the executive, do whatever it takes to get things done and make your business work. This often involves putting in long hours, making personal sacrifices, changing directions, and keeping costs down. You can have great ideas, but putting them into action no matter what the odds is what makes a successful venture. Tenacity is the trait that means the difference between success and failure and ultimately builds a strong company.
What is your vision for the future of the company?
Our vision at Assisted Living Locators is to provide a new standard of solution-based alternatives for senior care transition. Offering the very best personal service and guidance to families is our goal. The key to our franchise’s success has certainly been our “high touch” approach. At Assisted Living locators, we foster a culture of social responsibility and giving back to the community among franchisees. I believe that a combination of high touch and high tech will surely revolutionize the industry scenario. I and my team incorporate technology into our services to enhance the lives of seniors we serve. High-tech tools enable us to quickly pivot in a changing world and move our business forward. Leveraging knowledge is equally important in our vision. Our 140 Assisted Living Locators franchisees are now dementia care certified, making us the first nationwide senior placement service to achieve system-certification.
Website: www.assistedlivinglocators.com
