Business View - February 2015 83
model championed by Visiting Angels since the opera-
tion – based in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr,
Pa. – began in 1998.
But as the company’s incumbent vice president of
franchise development, David Ritterling, now con-
cedes, even the founding team of Larry Meigs and Jef-
frey Johnson might not have been fully aware of the
potential of what they were getting in to 17 years ago.
“Home care had just sort of taken off back at that time
and continues to grow and gain momentum,” Ritter-
ling said. “I think their goal was to maybe have 10 fran-
chises on the Eastern seaboard, and sort of whatever
kind of came along would be good for them.
“I think that they were hoping that it would grow, but
the expectations were that if they could field the team
of franchisees on the Eastern seaboard, that was sort
of what they thought it might be – with the hopes that
the industry would certainly get better.”
To say they underestimated things would be, well… an
understatement.
Ritterling first became aligned with the brand as fran-
chisee No. 48 just two years after the launch, and he’s
since deepened his allegiance by taking on the dual
roles of VP of franchise development and chief execu-
tive officer of the organization’s burgeoning interna-
tional business.
“We were just beginning to see that kind of growth that
I think has just become a crescendo over the last four
FRANCHISE
