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This article was originally published in Franchise Dictionary Magazine on December 31, 2025. Ryan Bethay started his nursing career in the ICU and then transitioned to pediatric care and worked in the NICU. Bethay has always been ambitious and began his career thinking he’d work his way up the corporate ladder at the hospital.
“I loved it, but I wanted to start doing more of the administrative side of health care, so I started looking into different routes on how to accelerate my nursing career outside of the clinical side of things,” Bethay said.
He eventually found an MBA program with a health care focus and earned his master’s degree in health care leadership. One day, while researching ways to grow in health care, he discovered a franchise opportunity with BrightStar Care®. Within an hour of submitting an interest form, the company responded, setting his new career in motion.
“I’m a man of faith, and I was just kind of like, ‘You know what? Let’s just see where this goes,’” Bethay said. “So I just kept saying ‘yes’ until I heard ‘no,’ and I never heard ‘no.’ So here we are, two and a half years later.”
Bethay opened his BrightStar Care in northern Lexington, Kentucky, in January 2024.
He was attracted to the franchise model because it allowed him to be as ambitious as he wanted, and the potential for growing his career and business was endless.
“What enticed me about owning a franchise is that you can make it what you want,” he said. “If you just want a moderately sized business that’s making some good revenue and everything is running smoothly, then great. Or you can wake up, hustle and try to grow it as big as your mind can imagine.”
Since opening its doors, Bethay and his team have met each of their quarterly goals, and he plans to open his second location in southern Lexington this year. He also hopes to expand into the Medicaid space and become a Medicaid waiver provider.
“At the end of the day, my biggest joy in doing this is being able to help people, not just clients,” he said.
Kelsi Trinidad
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