5 Success Tips for Female Entrepreneurs to begin their Home Care Business today.
In 2021, 16.4 million women were employed in the health care and social assistance industry. This was 77.6 percent of the total 21.2 million workers in the industry. (Source: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.)
In this article we want to give these hard working Caregivers or nurses, 5 success tips to begin their home care business. These tips come from the feedback we get from conversations with some of our clients who have been in the Home Care Industry for 10 to 20 years.
1. Find a mentor in your industry to take advice and learn from.
You can be a great caregiver and you know everything about patient care, however, there is way more to take in consideration when you open your Home Care Agency. You will need to go trough the process of licensing and registration of your business. This is a process that takes a lot of time, money and effort. You will need to determine what type of Agency will you open because depending on that decision there will be an impact on how you will manage your daily operations.
Then, you will need to start thinking about payroll structure, how are you going to cover expenses during the gap period between providing the service and getting paid for the service. (Keep in mind that for some Medicaid contracts, it may take some months before you can complete the first billing).
Compliance, Billing Revenue Cycle, Recruiting and Retaining Employees, Patient Coordination and Scheduling, Marketing, Customer Service… The list can go on. If any of this doesn’t sound familiar to you, then you definitively will need help.
If you have the funds, the best route may be going with a Consultant. Consultants are Home Health Care experts with many years of experience opening and managing Home Health Care Agencies, who charge a Fee for their service. You must do a lot of research to make sure you work with reliable and professional consultants.
However, if you don’t have the funds to go with a Consultant, the best tip we can give you is to either find a partner o co-founder with experience, who is willing to take the slack on those processes (for which you are missing the knowledge or experience) in return for a portion of the shares of the company.
If you have the time and really want to learn everything about the business, then you want to find a mentor to take advice and learn from.
LinkedIn is a very good place to look for Consultants and Find the right mentor, since you can see people’s experience, interactions and comments from real clients or business associates.
2. Take advantage of networking opportunities in your industry.
There are many events and networking opportunities across the U.S focused o the Home Health Care Industry.
Check out our recent article with some of them here:
Home Care Events of interest coming soon
In Florida we have the Home Care Association of Florida offering many Educational Programs and Networking events all year round.
You can also become a member and not only get discounts on many of these events , but also have access to a Home Care Forum where members ask questions and ask for advice about important topics.
If you want to learn more about HCAF, here is the link to their page:
Our first tip was to find a mentor right? Well, these are the places where you can fid the best mentors!
3. Find other business owners that you can mastermind with.
There is a lot you can learn from other people’s journey. What worked, what didn’t worked, mistakes to avoid, recommendations and reviews about software, consultants…
This is why it’s so important to connect with as many people as possible within your industry.
Social Networks are a great place to start conversations, connect and luckily start a relationship with others.
There are Home Care groups on Facebook and you can find people on Instagram by searching by the hashtags #homecare #Homecareagency #homecareagencyowner
LinkedIn is, as we mentioned earlier, an excellent place to find people and other businesses and connect with them.
There are other spaces such as alignable.com with more than 7 million members, and millions of connections across more than 35,000 local communities.
4. Focus on your own path, and allow for growth to take some time.
There is no such a thing as “Instant Success” so beware of those Consultants or “Home Care Gurus” who promise you a Million Dollar Business in less than a year. Yes, there are many successful Agencies with 500 and more patients, but they didn’t get there in just a few months. This is why networking is so important, because you can learn about other agencies and their story. This will help you set realistic goals and expectations and plan strategically your grow.
Make some study cases, think about different possible scenarios and plan accordingly.
5. As CEO, don't be afraid to be visible and build your personal brand.
At the beginning, you are the face of your business. You need to sell yourself to your prospect employees or contractors. Why would they want to leave another Agency to go and work for you who are just starting? What can you offer as a leader? What are your values and which ones are you bringing to the Agency? These are many of the questions you need to answer when building your personal brand.
Remember! People don’t leave companies, they leave leaders and managers.
Once you have a clear vision of your personal brand, then you need to show it to the world. Social media is a great space to build your personal brand and company brand. Tell your prospect employees and clients who you are, what you stand for, what’s your vision… and you will attract the right people. Good news for you! You are already an expert on Social Media, and if you are not, your kids are probably experts on social media. The only thing you need to do, is rethink the way and purpose you use it for.
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