When a territory is unowned by anyone, a neighboring franchise owner may provide care and service clients who reside within that territory. This allows us to serve families who need care even when a local franchise has not yet been established.

However, certain business development and recruiting activities must remain within the geographic territory that you have purchased.

Specifically:

• Referral Relationships: Referral marketing and relationship-building activities must be limited to your owned territory. Franchise owners should not actively develop referral sources, market to referral partners, or conduct outreach within an unowned territory. You can accept referrals from accounts located outside of your owned territory, but these accounts should not be in your Golden Accounts and you should not work on developing those relationships. The only exception to this is VA referrals, as those typically come from a regional office and require a provider to list zip codes served when registering for VA credentials.
• Caregiver Recruiting: You may hire a caregiver regardless of where that caregiver lives. However, job advertisements and caregiver recruiting campaigns must be geographically targeted only to your owned territory. You should not place or target caregiver advertisements specifically within an unowned territory.

The key distinction is between servicing an opportunity that comes to you and actively marketing or recruiting outside your purchased territory. While unowned territories may be serviced, they remain available for future franchise development and therefore should not be treated as an extension of a neighboring franchise owner's marketing or recruiting territory.

Please make sure your referral development efforts and caregiver advertising are appropriately targeted to the territory assigned to your franchise. If you have questions about whether a particular activity falls within these guidelines, please contact the Support Office before proceeding.