BELCHERTOWN — Lisa Byrne is one in a million — literally.
The Belchertown woman has been named a “2018-2019 Influencer of the Year,” by the International Association of Women, a global networking association for female professionals. Byrne, the owner of a Home Instead Senior Care franchise, earned the award upon being accepted into the organization. She was selected for the distinction from the association’s more than 1 million members.
“It was an honor,” Byrne said.
Byrne, 54, and her husband Frank recently returned to the Pioneer Valley after a long absence. Although she grew up in Florida, she attended college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she met her husband.
After raising their family in Andover, the couple bought a house in Belchertown about six years ago and moved there full time about 2½ years ago, following their children’s graduation from UMass Amherst.
“It’s just the best place to be,” Byrne said.
Home Instead Senior Care employs and trains people who work one-on-one with seniors to care for them in their homes.
In addition to running this business, Byrne also helps other people start and develop their own businesses.
Byrne thinks that this work may have influenced the International Association of Women to reach out to her. She said that she received a phone call earlier this year saying that she’d been nominated to be a part of the networking organization, and that she would be named as a Influencer of the Year if she was accepted into it.
“I joined because I wanted to make connections with other people in other industries,” said Byrne.
She says she really values being able to make connections with other professional women, both through the Manchester chapter and through the organization’s online presence.
Business has been an important part of Byrne’s life for quite some time. Her first business was owning a Barts Ice Cream franchise in South Hadley.
“I learned a lot,” she said.
Next, after working in sales and marketing, Byrne founded a conference and exposition management company for the high tech industry called Target Communications.
“We would develop them, and run them and manage them (conferences and expositions),” she said.
The company ended up growing to a level that Byrne was not prepared for, so she brought on partners and engineered a buyout. She then spent the next few years as a full-time mom.
“I felt really fortunate to get to do that,” she said.
It was also during this period that her father-in-law came to live with her and her family, following a series of strokes.
“We loved having him there,” she said.
However, this also exposed her to the world of home care, and she found it was difficult to find reliable people to take care of him.
“It changed our lives,” said Byrne, describing what it was like when they found good people to take care of her father-in-law.
She said that this allowed her and her husband to leave the house and know that her father-in-law was in good hands.
“It’s so much easier for everyone,” she said.
This experience piqued Byrne’s interest in the home care industry, and she purchased the Home Instead franchise for most of central New Hampshire. She said that she purchased this franchise because it was the only one nearby that was available.
The business employs and trains people who work one-on-one with seniors to care for them in their homes. It has about 150 employees.
“We’ve been doing this for 13 years,” Byrne said.
At this point Byrne drives up to the office in Manchester, New Hampshire, once a week. The rest of the time she works remotely, and her husband is also employed in the business.
Byrne said that she is looking to branch out and start a business that will help people to grow and develop their own businesses, although for the time being she will be balancing that with her home-care business.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.