Owners decide to sell their business for many reasons. It could be an unexpected health change, a desire to pursue new interests, financial diversification, lack of succession, partner conflicts, capital needs, etc. The reasons to sell are as varied as the owners themselves, but we simplistically categorize sellers that are a good fit for Pando into two groups.
In the first group are owners who are ready to retire. They typically want a clean off ramp from day-to-day management of the business, a fair price, and the confidence that the employees and clients they care about will be looked after once they step away.
In the second camp are owners who are ready for some change but are not finished yet. Sometimes there are multiple owners, and one of them is still energized to grow the business. Usually, these prospective sellers want a partner with capital and expertise to help their agency reach new heights.
We think that Pando is a differentiated partner for both groups.
Group 1: A Clean, Fair, Fast Exit That Protects Your Legacy
For an owner who is ready to move on, we offer the following:
Speed and certainty. We only buy home care businesses, and that focus means we can get to a price and structure quickly and close faster than most buyers. We have readily available capital and a clear diligence process so you don’t have to worry about us walking away at the last minute.
A fair price with a seller-friendly structure. We pay fair market value, and we structure the deal with as much upfront cash as we reasonably can. For owners who want to move on, getting the bulk of the value upfront helps them get immediate financial diversification and peace of mind. Outside of assistance with the first month or two of transition, we don’t expect a long-term commitment from the seller.
Your team lands in good hands. We seek to retain the teammates that join us with the acquisition. In our experience, roles sometimes change as a business grows, but the institutional knowledge of long-time employees is one of the most valuable things that transfers in an acquisition. While we have had to make some necessary personnel changes, we are proud of the relative lack of turnover in the four home care agencies we’ve acquired thus far.
We know home care. We are home care operators, not a private equity firm. We are still learning from our mistakes and can’t promise we will get everything right, but we know what we are getting ourselves into. We also take our responsibility as the steward of your client and caregiver relationships seriously.
Your legacy & reputation continues. Our goal is to invest in and build on what you started. You spent years earning a reputation in your community. When we buy a business, we are buying that reputation, and it is in everyone’s interest, ours included, to keep it intact.
Group 2: Keep What Makes You Great, With Added Resources
Group 2 owners are looking for a partner more than an exit. Owners in this group are often forced to decide between partnering with a PE firm that doesn’t know home care or a strategic buyer who is going to whitewash their brand and “corporatize” their local business.
We believe that in home care, local wins. The local team, the local relationships, and the reputation you have earned in your community are the things that actually drive the business. National players struggle to replicate that so we want to preserve that local touch.
But running local on your own is hard. Independent owners spend an enormous amount of time buried in work that has nothing to do with delivering quality care. Compliance is always shifting. Insurance, especially workers’ compensation, is a constant headache and expense. Caregiver recruitment is a constant battle, between no-show interviews, endless Indeed ads, and onboarding paperwork. Billing and payroll are an administrative hassle. After-hours coverage burns out the team. And unlike a franchisee, an independent owner gets none of the support of a broader network of people who have already solved these problems.
This is where Pando can help independent owners who may want to bring on a partner. Our central support team absorbs the administrative weight so the local team can focus on the things only they can do: spending time with clients, training caregivers and building real relationships with them, and being out in the community supporting referral partners. The goal is to give local employees time back so that they can focus on delivering exceptional care.
Beyond taking work off the team’s plate, we bring capital and a set of growth tools we are refining across our current brands. That includes opening new locations to expand into nearby service areas, hiring and developing business development talent, and putting operational rigor in place through simple metrics, regular meetings, and quarterly goal setting. It also includes the practical machinery of growth: a CRM, a way to prioritize target accounts, structured facility agreements, and digital marketing that generates efficient referrals.
A Differentiated Buyer and Partner
For owners in both groups 1 or 2, we try to be the kind of buyer we would want to sell to.
We seek to be transparent about our intentions and reasoning and look to structure transactions that work for everyone involved: the seller, the employees and caregivers, the clients, and us. A deal that only works for the buyer is not one we are interested in, because it does not hold up over time. Our reputation as a buyer is built one closed deal at a time, and nothing would damage it faster than treating a seller or their team poorly after the papers are signed. Our own neck is on the line every time.
Questions Owners Ask Us
Here are some of the most common questions that owners ask us.
How is Pando structured, and how do you integrate the agencies you acquire?
Pando is the parent company that owns each acquired agency / operating brand. We structure our acquisitions as an asset purchase, typically either under our existing operating company or under a new LLC created beneath the parent for that purpose. We walk through how these transactions are structured in detail in our article on the purchase agreement.
How long does your process take, and what should we expect?
Once we receive the data from our initial request, we can usually present a Letter of Intent within about a week. We then need roughly six weeks between signing the LOI and signing the purchase agreement, during which we make some additional data requests, and we target closing within about four weeks of signing the purchase agreement. We describe the diligence process and our initial data request in our article on due diligence.
Do you provide sales and marketing support to the agencies you acquire?
Yes. Since our first acquisition we have made several investments in sales and marketing. We have hired additional business development professionals across our offices, rolled out a CRM to track marketing activity and leads through intake and to better coach our teams, brought on a digital marketing partner to measure customer acquisition costs and refine our digital ads, and refined our team incentives so the whole team is energized and benefits as we grow. We have also opened brand-new offices to expand into new service areas.
How large are the agencies you have acquired?
Our acquisitions vary in annual revenue, number of employees, and client census. We are happy to share more specific ranges directly with an owner who is seriously exploring a transaction with us.
What measurable improvements have your agencies seen since joining Pando?
Our clearest example is our first acquisition. In the 20 months since the acquisition, we’ve opened three new offices to expand service areas, hired several business development professionals, invested in team performance incentives, implemented a new CRM, among other initiatives. That business has seen an eight-figure increase in revenue since our acquisition and we have added a number of administrative roles to support that growth (i.e., we’ve expanded, not reduced headcount).
Were there communication gaps or other challenges during your transitions?
Our hardest lessons have come around billing and systems changes. In one case we adjusted a billing policy without communicating it well to clients who had custom arrangements, and it caused real frustration. In another, migrating caregivers onto new scheduling software was bumpy in the first week as people learned a new app. What we are most proud of is that none of our transitions have caused a significant gap in care for clients, which we view as the single most important thing to protect. Every deal has its own challenges, and we keep getting better at managing them.
How much employee turnover do you see in the first year, and why?
We have had some turnover on our administrative teams, though it has been modest. A small number of people left because they were uncomfortable with a shift toward more structure, such as metrics, regular meetings, and goal setting. At the same time, many administrative employees have earned promotions, bonuses, and raises as they leaned into a culture that tries to balance performance with our mission of caring for clients and families. We have also let a small number of people go for performance reasons over time.
Where to Go From Here
We also know that selling your business, or bringing on a partner, is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make. It is rarely a quick yes. Most of the owners we work with talk to us for months before anything happens, and many of those conversations do not turn into deals at all. That is fine. We would rather have an honest conversation that helps you think clearly about your options than push you toward something that is not right for you.
If you are weighing what is next for your agency, whether that is a full exit or a partner to help you grow, we are always happy to have a conversation.
David Mella, Pando Home Care
Wesley Bosco, Pando Home Care