When Shelly Sun and her husband J.D. co-founded BrightStar home health care in 2002, they did so with a mission to provide others with a peace of mind they were not fortunate enough to enjoy.
After her husband's grandmother died in early 2002, Sun and her husband set out to create a health care staffing agency that would provide a full continuum of care, while allowing those in need to remain in their own homes. They wanted to create a business that provided the type of care they could not find for J.D. Sun's grandmother.
Today, Sun and her husband have come a long way from when they started their business with no background in healthcare. Their Gurnee-based business has grown to include close to 140 franchisees in 31 states across the country.
Sun was recently recognized for her achievements by the International Franchise Association, which named her its Entrepreneur of the Year.
Sun credits a strong work ethic and the lessons she learned from talking with other business owners for the success of BrightStar.
Sun recently went on the record with Lake County Journal reporter Colin Selbo to discuss her business.
Selbo: What led you to stat BrightStar?
Sun: My husband and I were looking for care for his grandmother back in late 2001/early 2002. [It was] remote distance. She lived in Florida and we lived here. And we had a really hard time finding high-quality care [and] good service ... Unfortunately, we lost her to cancer the day before we got married in early 2002. So, it was a pretty emotional time in our lives. We were finally getting married, we were in our 30s, and just kind of did some soul-searching after that experience. [We] reflected on, 'Well, were we unique in needing the kind of quality services we were looking for?' We didn't think so. So, with no background in healthcare, we did a lot of research, talked to a lot of people over the next six months. And then in Oct. 2002 really started our company with kind of the memory of Grandma Pat, and trying to deliver for her what we had been for for ourselves.
Selbo: What was it exactly that you weren't able to find for her?
Sun: The full continuum of care where you could go to one company that can do the non-medical needs she might need. The personal care, the assistance with bathing she might need, as well as the hands-on skilled care. She needed prescriptions that needed to be needle-injected into her. So, [we were] trying to deal with three different companies because there wasn't one company that did everything ... Another thing that we saw on the marketplace was we couldn't get a hold of companies after hours. So, we would call at 5:30 our time, [and] it was 6:30 their time and we would get an answering machine saying, 'If this is a medical emergency hang up and dial 911, otherwise call us back between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.' ... Frequently we see adult children or adult grand-children wanting to call after business hours. They don't want to make that call during business, and nobody will talk to them after hours. It's an answering machine or an answering service after hours. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day.
Selbo: How has BrightStar grown to where you are now?
Sun: We grew servicing a lot of clients from 2002 to 2005. We grew to a multi-million dollar business in that period of time. [We found] there were a lot of clients looking for a maybe a Nordstrom's verses a Walmart experience as it relates to health care. That's kind of how we position ourselves in the marketplace ... The reason we charge a little bit more is because we pay more. We pay the highest in the marketplace. I think that's what allows us to attract and retain the best people, and I think that's what people want in their home. So, we were very successful. And then through a turn of events we were able to become franchisees in the two hotels across from Gurnee Mills. My mother-in-law owns them ... We kind of saw the franchising model as a possible way to help us expand [nationally] what we believed to be the best service in the industry. We expanded through franchising in late 2005/early 2006. Now [we] have nearly 140 franchisees across the country. We are in 31 states. So, we've grown very quickly.
Selbo: Particularly with franchises, how do you replicate the care you were giving when you were a smaller business?
Sun: We have an in-depth training program that we conduct here in Gurnee. It's nine days that they go through and their hired personnel go through it as well. We deliver additional training over the Internet. But we've got a web-based proprietary system that we've invested more than $2 million in, developing it. So, we're able to monitor the quality of care both on the client side and the employee side on all of our offices. We do a random quality-control audit on all of their records twice a year. We're trying to make sure that they are keeping up the same standards that we believe are important to deliver the right type of service.
Selbo: What was your reaction to being named Entrepreneur of the Year?
Sun: I was shocked. I found out in September, so I knew for a few months before I had to get up and give my speech in front of 2,300 people. When I found out, I had to replay the message several times because I couldn't believe that I really had won that. Usually it's for franchisors that have hundreds or thousands of franchisees. While we're on that trajectory, we're still [in a] relatively early stage – four years of franchising – from those who have been honored with that award before. It was very exciting, but very humbling because so many of the people that I call on that are my mentors and ask them questions, some of them haven't won it. To have us win it, it was kind of a mixed reaction. It felt like it wasn't quite the right time, but [we were] still very appreciative of being recognized and honored.
Selbo: How has an entrepreneurial spirit developing in you as your business has grown?
Sun: I think I'm willing to take a risk and pay it forward. Sacrificing the short-term benefits, personal benefits for my husband and I. We are in the same house that we were in when first started. We haven't really changed our lifestyle. We just continue to reinvest back in most of what we're making into the business to make it better for our franchisees [and] better opportunities for our employees. We created 18 or 19 corporate jobs here in Gurnee last year. In a time period where almost everybody was downsizing, we were adding to our infrastructure ... We like to be ahead of the curve. We like to have employees in place for three to six months before we will need them [to support] our franchisees because we don't want to send people who are sort of green out to support our franchisees. That's kind of been an intentional level of growth.
Selbo: What advice would give to those who strive to be entrepreneurs?
Sun: Going into business is hard. You're going to have your good days, and you are going to have your bad days. It becomes easier if you're really passionate about what you do. I really love that we're allowing families to stay at home. We're an alternative to a nursing home, to assisted living, to independent living. A lot of our [clients] are widows that have been married for 30 or 40 years. They don't want to leave the home they were in with their loved one, leaving all those memories. If we can help them stay safely at home, that feels really good ... It's easier to make it through the harder days [when] you're really passionate about what you're doing.
Sun lowdown:
Age: 39
Residence: Lake Forest
Family: Husband, J.D.; twin boys, 5, Mike and Luc
Education: University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and University of Colorado at Boulder
Favorite local restaurant: Gabriel's in Highwood
Best book ever read: "Good to Great" by Jim Collins
Favorite band: U2
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