These past few years have been challenging to say the least...but amidst the challenges, there is a group of entrepreneurs who are adapting, transforming, and thriving! Members have seen growth in several areas of their home care businesses despite the shutdowns because they have access to insider strategies, training, and a collaborative environment designed to help them and provide support. Home Care Evolution Daily is specifically designed to help home care businesses. Membership benefits include: • Exclusive Training Videos • Strategies designed to help build your business and get more clients • Templates (making it simple to implement and get results) • Proven Marketing Methods, tested by 100’s of home care businesses • Monthly Private Webinar – keeping you up to date on what’s working NOW • Private Facebook Discussion Group to give you support, accountability, and a direct line of access to get your questions answered • Weekly Marketing Tips direct from the best in the business You have the opportunity to gain instant access to the same level of support, training, and strategies that all our members have been using to continue evolving, growing, and generating revenue… And I want to make it so affordable and easy to access that saying ‘no’ is nearly impossible. You won’t believe how much value we are sharing! Let’s make 2022 your BEST year ever (with the right help). Home Care Evolution Daily is designed to fast track your growth, give you specific support, and help you generate sales to get more clients. www.HomeCareEvolution.com/daily Or call us with your questions at 848-444-9865 Sign up NOW for only $97 per month and start YOUR evolution!Hey everyone, thank you so much for subscribing to our Home Care Evolution Quarterly Magazine. This is our first issue of the magazine and we couldn’t be more excited. As you know, there has been an incredible amount of stress, changes, and challenges thrown your way as a Home Care Business Owner. This magazine is all about evolving your business so that you can adapt to all of the changing circumstances you are dealing with. By adapting this will allow you to transform your business so that it looks very different from what it is today. Therefore, in the future you will be able to thrive for many years to come. This magazine is a quarterly magazine, so we hope you enjoy it. We look forward to seeing you again in quarter two for the 2nd issue. Till then, be safe and God bless. Steve Weiss Steve “The Hurricane” Weiss Owner Home Care Evolution 848-444-9865 steve@homecareevolution.com www.homecareevolution.com Welcome09 12 “Client Perspective on Running an Agency” (Elite Academy Member, Client of Home Care Evolution) by Tom Najjar Your Best Ambassadors? Your Caregivers! by Anne-Lise Gere, SPHR 11 The Great Resignation Or The Great Retention? You Choose by Kelly Szwed 21 Thinking about selling your business? Take steps to maximize your price! by Holt Vaughn 16 5 Essential Steps in Creating an Operations Manual for your Business by Nicole Peretti “Home Care: A Growth Sector Opportunity Not to be Overlooked” (Elite Academy & CEO of Touching Hearts at Home) by Aaron Stromley The Road To $10 Million, Part 1 by Steve Weiss 05 14 ContentsHome Care A Growth Sector Opportunity Not to be Overlooked Aaron Stromley is the CEO of Touching Hearts at Home Corporate. Aaron has 5 years of experience running a successful home care agency. He was born and raised in Minnesota, loves golfing, traveling, and being outdoors/ camping with his wife and three daughters. Fun Facts: 1) I have completed a Triathlon 2) I own season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings 3) We decided to get a puppy last October, his name is Colt, he is a mini sheepadoodle.6 SUPPLY AND DEMAND The stats tell the story… In 2004, there were 36.3 million people 65+ in the U.S., or 12 percent of the population. By 2030, this number is expected to top 20 percent, or about 71.5 million. Every day, upwards of 10,000 Baby Boomers retire in the U.S. This ‘Silver Tsunami’ is expected to peak in 10- 15 years. Home care is the preferred care choice for 95% of seniors recently polled by AARP, so the demand for home care services is ever increasing. In my opinion, a more collaborative health care model is today evolving between hospitals and home care. In the near future it may be possible to arrange at-home doctor visits, order an in-home nursing service online, review pricing of varied health services prior to making a choice, even have basic procedures done at home that previously required an outpatient clinic visit. The pandemic has shown the risks of overburdening hospitals by viewing them as the sole fulcrum point of care. As the demand for senior care grows, more and more senior living facilities, assisted living sites, independent living communities and dedicated memory care houses are being built. But even these will not provide enough bandwidth to meet the upcoming market. Seniors will have to stay in place at home and be attended to there. ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY Technology is certainly playing a role in enhancing eldercare at home. Telehealth service management, electronic medical records, and a variety of assistive technologies can all improve service levels. For example, a nurse using telehealth equipment can potentially make up to 15 visits a day rather than the standard 5. Sensors can be placed around the home to remotely monitor a senior’s activities and movement. A.I. robots can detect movement and falls, hand household items to a semi-mobile senior and even assist in dispensing medications. LEARNING THE ROPES There are a lot of resources available to help you succeed when setting up a home care agency. Consulting firms specialize in guiding you through licensing requirements that vary from state to state. Franchises already operating in the marketplace offer a tried and true business model. State agencies keep you up to date on industry regulations and trends. You still have to do your own research and build your business one client at a time, but word-of-mouth referrals abound in home care and establishing a reputation as a reliable service provider generates organic business momentum. You don’t really need to come from a healthcare background to launch a home care agency. Instead B eing in the right place at the right time is always an advantageous underlying theme of business success. Today home care is a burgeoning service niche that lends itself well to entrepreneurs or executives looking for new start-up business opportunities. So why is 2022 an opportune time to launch a home care agency? 7 you have to have a willingness to learn, an ability in building an experienced team around you and an interest in offering a one-on-one relationshipdriven service. BREADTH OF CLIENTELE While seniors are the most prevalent home care service niche, there are many other types of customer needs. Some agencies specialize in pediatric care, others work with the individuals with physical or intellectual disabilities. Patients with Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, Cerebral Palsy or Muscular Dystrophy all benefit from care by in-home nurses and aides. As skilled nursing services such as infusions, injections and wound care become more commonplace in the home, many types of recovery from illness or injury can be accomplished in the home. Hospice care is also a growing specialty. Among its many benefits, home care saves taxpayer money by being a viable alternative to more costly care at in-patient facilities. It’s been proven to prevent unnecessary or prolonged ‘revolving door’ hospital stays and emergency room visits for those recuperating from illness or surgery. Now that hospital reimbursements are dependent on low rates of return stays, hospital administrators are working hand- inhand with home care agencies to develop tailored care plans that help patients achieve positive outcomes. PROFITABILITY Typical franchise costs to purchase a home care territory can range from $30,000 to $100,000. But because the brand is already known, the sales model already proven and best practices already modeled, it is possible to achieve a robust return on investment in a reasonable amount of time. The option of building an independent startup may entail lower initial investments. The bottom line is that growth opportunities are abundantly available, you just have to execute a high level of service with consistency and focus. To scale your business, it is also doable to set up sister locations near each other. Home care is a relatively new industry, yet in 2020 overall revenue was estimated to be $96.9 billion dollars. Currently 15 million patients are served by more than 600 million home visits. Insurance companies, such as Aetna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and HealthPartners, are covering more home care costs. Most significantly, the federal government has begun to recognize home care as a Medicare benefit. Home care is an expanding business opportunity that supports families with both acute healthcare crises and ongoing healthcare maintenance. It’s an essential serviceoffering in the current healthcare paradigm, and will play an even more dominant role in ensuing years. If you’re looking for a new business venture with assured growth potential, you may well conclude there’s no place like home. Aaron Stromley is CEO of Touching Hearts at Home, a national franchise providing Private Duty home care services for seniors and adults with varying medical conditions or disabilities. For further info, please visit www.touchinghearts.com. Client Perspective Tom graduated from Florida State University with a business degree in Hospitality Administration and spent several years working in hotels and managing various restaurants in the D.C. metro area. Using his hospitality experience, he embarked on a new career working in the elder care community. Tom saw the need for reasonably priced, quality service that adds a touch of personalized care to each of his client’s unique needs. As a result, he launched CarePlus Home Health in 1995. Tom had the opportunity to personally utilize his agency’s caregivers when his own father needed care in his last months of life, before succumbing to cancer. Tom brings to CarePlus a higher standard of customer service. on Running an Agency Haytham (Tom) Najjar Founder & President9 With the bulk of the Baby Boomer generation reaching their golden years, the homecare industry has become one of the fastest growing and most valued personal care services. By applying our loyalty and dedication for one another and our business alike, together, we passionately own and operate CarePlus, treating each client, their families, referral source, staff, and caregiver, as if they were part of our own family. We have found that operating CarePlus is, in fact, similar to managing the rest of our life together as well. Both can be incredibly challenging, while tremendously rewarding, requiring the will to observe, adapt, and continue to evolve. Some of the obstacles we have encountered at CarePlus remain the copious local, state, and federal regulations, the occasional client dissatisfaction, and most recently, the universal difficulties associated with traversing the trials of the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges have never become insurmountable, as long as we maintain our personal and business tenants of loyalty, ethics, and mutual commitment that we have incorporated into the culture of CarePlus. Without fail, this increases the valuation and esteem of our caregivers, staff, clients, and referral sources. While owning and operating CarePlus does include some difficulties, the benefits and shared joy of seeing the fruits of our labor are the most rewarding to us. With our shared principles loyalty, ethics, and fastening CarePlus into one, we are able to recognize the most valuable asset; our caregivers. Through them, we are invited into our client’s lives, oftentimes while they are experiencing tremendous adversity regarding their health and independence. We take pride by knowing that our dedicated caregivers provide excellence in service, flexibility, and warm, compassionate care. Some advice while progressing into an even more profitable and successful homecare agency includes incorporating a systemization of operations, routinely and consistently. Unparalleled training and continually leveling up our skills and knowledge is also critical for growth, through routine observation, adaptation, and evolution. It is also crucial to embed the business in local, state, and national professional associations and organizations, by encouraging caregivers, staff, and owners to represent CarePlus in each. Finally, our most sound advice, which has benefitted us both personally and professionally, during the worst and best of times, is to establish and maintain our ethos. Ours, loyalty, ethics, and commitment, are fundamental to the successes we have accomplished through compassion, teamwork, and respect. By authentically abiding by our principles, the caregivers, staff, clients, and referral sources have been woven into the fabric of CarePlus. It is our honor to author this article, in the first edition of what is destined to be among the most revered magazines, The Home Care Evolution Quarterly. Our homecare agency, CarePlus Home Health, was founded nearly 27 years ago by its CEO, Haytham Najjar. Shortly thereafter, his wife, Heather, joined Haytham’s life and CarePlus, as the Director of Clinical Services. Both partners in life and in business, Haytham and Heather have combined their individual expertise; Haytham in business/hospitality (BA in hospitality management) and Heather in medical/clinical (DNP). Together, we created a progressive and always evolving family and business. In doing so, we wove the thread of loyalty, ethics, innovation and throughout the fabric of CarePlus.Next >