The home care industry is booming. With $93 billion in annual revenue, over 404,000 businesses, and a yearly growth rate of 3.4 percent, there couldn’t be a better time to start a business in this industry.
But do you know what it takes to start a non-medical home care business and find success?
Whether you’re a newbie entrepreneur or a seasoned pro, you’re likely to run into challenges if you don’t take your time to study the market, craft a solid business plan, and get other basics right.
Eager to learn?
Here is the lowdown on how to break into the non-medical home care business industry.
Understand What a Non-Medical Home Care Business Does
The first step to starting any business is to research and understand the kind of problems it solves.
A non-medical home care business typically caters to adults who’re unable to take care of their own living needs. Examples of common services include:
- Bathing and grooming
- Laundry and house cleaning
- Shopping for groceries and other home supplies
- Socialization and companionship
- Reminding clients to take their medicines
- Meal planning and preparation
- Transporting/accompanying clients to their errands
- Helping clients perform physical exercise often with the instructions of a therapist.
As you can see, these services aren’t medical in nature. And to excel in providing the services, home care companies rely on family caregivers or home care aides.
Now that you know what your business will do, let’s focus on how to build it from the ground up.
Draw a Business Plan
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as an entrepreneur is to start a business without a business plan.
This is the document that describes the nature of your business, your professional background, the business’ organization structure, sales and marketing strategy, financial forecasts, and other important details. In short, it’s your blueprint to success.
If you’ve no business plan writing expertise, hire a small business consultant to help you write it.
Get Your Funding Ready
The business plan will give you an idea of how much money you’ll need to set up the business and keep it running until it’s turning a decent profit.
The question is do you have the money ready? If you don’t, it’s time to find a funding source.
One option is to get in for a business loan from a traditional bank. However, your chances of getting approved will depend on your personal credit score, strength of your business plan, and relationship with the bank. If banks play hardball, consider approaching hard money lenders, as their loans only require collateral.
You could also raise money from friends and family, seek out angel investors, or run an online crowdfunding campaign.
Regardless of your funding source, don’t make the mistake of starting the business without adequate capital at hand. You’ll likely run it cash flow problems, which is one of the leading causes of small business failure.
Identify a Suitable Location
How do you find the ideal location for your new business?
First, have a good knowledge of your target market. In this case, we’re targeting the senior population.
Next, find a location with a high senior population. The higher the population of potential clients, the more sales you’re likely to make.
Another factor to consider is competition. How many home care businesses are in your preferred location? Are there any large, dominant players in the market?
An ideal location shouldn’t be overly competitive; otherwise, your new business will struggle to attract clients.
Also, consider the general accessibility and security of the area. You want a location that enables your home caregivers to access clients’ homes easily and safely.
Register the Business
With a location in mind and armed with the startup capital, you’re ready to make it official!
Settle on a business name and then head over to the relevant agency in your state and register the business.
In addition to business registration, most states require non-medical home care businesses to obtain a license. The requirements for getting licensed vary from state to state, so be sure to know what your state needs and prepare yourself adequately before applying.
Set Up Your Office and Build a Team
Although most of the work will be happening in clients’ homes, your office plays a central role in coordinating your operations.
As such, get a space in your ideal location and create an ideal working environment. This involves installing furniture, computers, phones lines, and other .
Once that’s done, focus on building a team of workers. At the start, you only need a few caregivers, an office administrator, an accountant, and a sales representative. As the business grows, you’ll add more staff as needed.
Keep in mind, home care aides are the face of your business. After hiring, it’s important to put them through additional training to improve their skills and ensure quality service delivery.
Market Your Business and Wow Your Clients
The last (and probably the hardest) step to starting a non-medical home care business is getting your first batch of clients.
This is why you need to invest in marketing. Start by a building a business website and then go social.
Although you can do marketing in-house, you’ll get the most out of your marketing dollars if you outsource the task to a digital marketing agency.
As your marketing rolls into gear, potential clients will start making inquiries and some will sign up for your services. Be sure to wow them.
In addition to providing the home care services they need, go an extra mile recommend resources such Inogen Connect app that’ll help improve their health and make their lives more comfortable.
Build a Thriving Non-Medical Home Care Business
Starting a non-medical home care business is an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people in need of elderly care. And as the baby boomer generation ages, your target market will only keep increasing.
Use our guide to build the business and grab a share of the market before it gets too competitive.
As you do that, keep coming back to our blog for more .
