Senior Home Care – Professional Homecare

Senior Home Care – Most of us are capable of taking care of other people and we will likely do it on a personal level someday. We are of course most familiar with taking care of children. But with an ever-growing senior population comes new care services that are required. Senior home care is not a medical position, though some of the services are personal in nature. A senior home care aide does not give injections or provide any medical judgment, though there are some services that offer both regular senior home care and medical services.

A senior home care worker might help someone get in and out of the shower, get dressed, cook some meals, do light housework or laundry, help their client to get to the doctor, do grocery shopping... or sometimes just engage in conversation.

Not everyone can be or should be in a private care facility simply because they can’t take care of all their needs. Senior home care helps to provide that bridge to allow people to stay in their own home while bringing in a bit of help for certain tasks. This means the senior client saves money by staying at home, and the person providing the service can make a nice living by taking care of multiple clients.

Senior home care isn’t hard work, and you can arrange your own schedules. If you only want to take care of a couple of clients or if you really want to make a full blown business out of it and hire employees, your options are wide open to you. Some states require a license, but many other states do not because senior home care is not a medical service.

Clients are also transitional and do not stay with you for many years. In interviewing several national franchises, the average is about three years. Senior home care services are generally terminated because the client recovers and doesn’t need the service anymore, or because they get worse and have to go to a care facility with more intensive assistance. Other client losses are of a similar nature to other businesses, like client dissatisfaction or inability to pay.

One very good thing about the senior home care business is that you can decide exactly what services you will perform, you can choose the clients you will work for, and you can also decide if and when services need to be terminated because they exceed the scope of what you provide. For instance, some senior home care services exclude caring for incontinence issues. If that becomes a problem with a client, they advise the client’s family that they will have to make other arrangements.

Most states do not require a formal education to provide home care services, but differentiate between home care as a personal service and “home health care”, as a medical service. Home health care does require specific education as well as a license. For senior home care, most states require a license, but your limitation is that it may require 45-90 days. You should always check to see what the specific requirements of home care in your state are before launching a business.

How much money can I make?

Your income potential in the senior home care business runs from one extreme to the other and is only limited by how many clients you can contract with and service. If you want to run limited services by yourself, you might only make $10-$20 per hour. That could mean $200/week. However, you can probably pick up enough clients to fill your schedule. $400-$800/week is entirely possible. When you start hiring others, you obviously must pay them so it’s not a straight line increase. But you can start multiplying your income pretty quickly and there are many successful home care companies. In fact the business is so fast growing and successful that many franchises have been started and grown to national or international size in just the past 10 years.

Senior Home Care in a boom economy

Senior home care services are growing fast most of the time, but are even better when the economy is up and running hard. When the clients’ children are well-employed, they are earning more and their careers are doing well. They are willing and often must hire out services rather than provide personal care themselves. Many adult children would rather spend the quality time with their parents rather than using that time for maintenance tasks.

Careers are also a considered factor in choosing the senior home care route. Boom times mean better paychecks and more room for advancement. This means the senior's adult children aren't as likely to put their career on hold while they personally take care of maintenance tasks they will otherwise afford.

Senior Home Care in a bust economy

Senior Home Care does take a hit in a poor economy. Employers will lay off workers or cut hours immediately when the demand goes down. If clients’ adult children have become unemployed, under-employed, or very concerned about their future, they tend to cut back on paid services and become inventive with ways to help their parents.

That said, there are still many client opportunities available and well-run senior home care businesses can remain very healthy. Staffing a senior home care company often becomes easier in a bust economy. Since wages aren't very high, boom economies tend to drain the senior home care services of their better workers. In a bust economy, it becomes an employers' market and the senior home care company will often have a choice of more qualified workers.

Geographical limitations/differences

Senior home care services are very subject to cultural and economic differences by geography. Smaller more rural communities tend to not be great places to start senior home care services. And since providing services is not cheap, trying to start such a business in economically depressed areas or lower economically disadvantaged areas won’t work well either. It’s not that these people don’t need the help, but affording it becomes a problem.

There are also advantages to starting businesses in areas with higher senior populations and less so where populations tend to be younger. There are of course many older adults even in younger populations such as Salt Lake City which is considered a very youthful city. Don’t sell most areas short. If the income levels are good, you will find adequate business.

Competitors

Aside from other senior home care companies, your primary competitors are the family of your potential clients. They only need your services if and when the families are unable or unwilling to provide adequate services. There are many reasons why people can’t provide services. Many are taking care of careers and/or family. Others don’t live nearby. Others provide services but they need help. Don’t view your clients’ family as competitors, even though they are competitors in every economic sense. They are also the people who hire you.

Advertising your senior home care business

Home care businesses are a relatively recent high growth business and there didn’t use to be openings through traditional means like yellow page advertising. This however, has changed in most areas. You will need to be online however. Aside from franchise and multi-location home care businesses, local businesses still haven’t really arrived. Give your website the additional benefit of a professionally developed sales tool and more people who see your website will call.

One of the biggest tools you will need however, will be pay for click advertising like Google AdWords. Be sure to use the local advertising option though to reduce your costs and not get inquiries from people in other parts of the country where you don’t do business.

Develop local contacts so that those who might direct business your way know that you exist. Introduce yourself to hospital social workers and medical equipment companies. Some doctors offices are also now selling advertising space in their waiting rooms. Like many other businesses, you will need to diversify your advertising and test what works and what doesn’t.

License Requirements

Many if not most states now require some sort of license for some kind of home care service. Listing yourself as a companion service might get you out of it, but it’s probably not worth a lot of effort to step around. States like MA don’t require license, but instead call you a healthcare service if you touch a client. Mostly, you just need to be aware of what requirements are for your state, and keep up with it. As things change, you may or may not be grand=fathered in.

Senior home care supplies

You will need to be connected at all times. Therefore having a good cell phone plan and a nationwide plan is probably your best tool. You should also take comprehensive notes on every visit, even if there really isn’t much to write. This is primarily for your protection and to show yourself as a professional.

Financial Requirements

Your first financial requirement will most likely be a license. Depending on your state, this could take 90 days to get, so plan ahead. You will also need some money for advertising, and you may not get a return on it right away. The senior home care business also isn’t one where you can avoid transportation. You work at the clients’ home, and so you will need reliable transportation to be there when you are supposed to be there.

What to do next

Start out by checking with your state to determine what their requirements are. Each state varies and there can be a wide range. If a license is required, it may take 1-3 months to get.

Scope out your competitors. Understand what they can and cannot offer to you in a business start-up. Franchises may be less flexible, but one-location local companies are likely to have fewer resources and less visibility. The cost of that may be lower customer conversion rates and fewer calls.

Keywords: senior home care, homecare, elder, invalid, aging, healthcare,

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