by Aaron Marcum

A few years ago, I took my daughter to see “Wicked” in London’s West End.

From the moment the lights dimmed, we were transported. The performances were flawless, the choreography mesmerizing, and the vocals spine-tingling. For two and a half hours, we sat captivated by what appeared to be theatrical magic.

But here’s what struck me as I watched: what we were experiencing wasn’t magic at all. It was the result of an incredibly sophisticated operation happening behind that curtain—an operation most audience members never think about.

Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, calls this the “Front Stage” and “Back Stage” of your business. And it’s a framework that every home care owner needs to understand.

When you pay for a West End ticket, you’re not just paying for talented actors. You’re paying for a lighting crew coordinating hundreds of cues per show, costume designers managing dozens of quick changes, sound engineers balancing multiple wireless microphones in real-time, stage managers calling hundreds of technical cues with split-second precision, and a production team that rehearsed for months before opening night.

The Front Stage—what the audience sees—only shines because of an exceptional Back Stage.

In our industry, the Front Stage is your care professional arriving at Mrs. Johnson’s home at 9 AM. It’s the smile, the gentle assistance with morning medication, the conversation during breakfast, and the compassionate help with bathing and dressing.

That’s what your clients see. That’s what their families remember. That’s how your business gets judged.

But we all know that caregiver showing up prepared, on time, and trained isn’t an accident.

Your Back Stage makes it possible: 

Here’s the reality: the home care industry’s turnover rate reached 79.2% in 2023 Home Health Care News—the highest it’s been in five years. Think about that. In an agency with 100 caregivers, you’re replacing nearly 80 of them every single year.

But it gets worse. Nearly four out of five caregivers leave their job within the first 100 days of employment. That means the caregivers you just spent weeks recruiting, screening, and training? Most of them won’t even make it through their first three months.

When your Back Stage is weak, these statistics become your reality.

We’ve all attended shows where you could tell the Back Stage was struggling.
Maybe you’ve seen a local production where an actor missed their entrance, the lighting was off, a scene change took too long, or the sound cut out.

You couldn’t see the Back Stage problems, but you absolutely felt them.
The same thing happens in home care.

• Caregivers show up late (or not at all) because scheduling is chaotic
• Families receive incorrect bills because systems are disconnected
• Care quality suffers because training is inconsistent
• Your reputation erodes one Front Stage failure at a time

Your clients might not know your payroll system crashed or that your care coordinator called in sick for the 4th time this month, but they experience the consequences.

Is your business operating at Broadway standards, or community theater? Be honest.

• Can your care coordinators instantly access complete client information?
• Do your caregivers have clear protocols for every situation they might encounter?
• Is your billing accurate enough that families rarely question an invoice?
• Do you have documented processes, or is everything “in someone’s head”?
• Could your business run smoothly if your top coordinator was suddenly unavailable?

The best home care agencies—the ones with waiting lists and stellar reputations—aren’t just lucky. They’ve built Broadway-quality Back Stage operations.

They’ve invested in systems, training, and processes. They’ve documented their playbook. They’ve made the Back Stage so strong that the Front Stage can shine consistently, every single day.

Because here’s what I learned watching “Wicked”: excellence isn’t about one amazing moment. It’s about a thousand excellent decisions that happen when no one is watching. 

Stay in the know with strategies, insights, and practical resources designed specifically for home care owners. Subscribe to receive updates, newsletters like this, and tools that will help you elevate both your Front Stage performance and Back Stage excellence. Because your caregivers—and your clients—deserve a five-star experience every single time.

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Aaron Marcum is an entrepreneur and thought leader who has dedicated his career to transforming the home care industry and nurturing business leaders.

As the founder of Home Care Pulse (now Activated Insights), he pioneered the Best of Home Care® program, revolutionizing quality standards in senior care across North America. His expertise as a Certified Blue Ocean Strategy practitioner and former Certified EOS Implementer has helped shape some of home care’s most respected brands.

© 2026 This article originally appeared in Aaron Marcum’s newsletter and is reprinted here with permission. For more information or for permission to use this material, please contact Aaron Marcum.