elderly care franchise - Senior Home Care Franchise

Opening Your First Franchise: The Initial 90 Days

Small businesses are at the core of America’s economy, accounting for the vast majority of new jobs and sales. Yet the market is a volatile; new businesses are always at risk of failure, it’s the hard truth of business. However, in recent studies that track small business success (and failure), franchises frequently performed well, much owed to how franchises come with resource materials and other benefit typical start-ups do not have access to. For entrepreneurs seeking an entry into the senior care business, franchising is an exciting opportunity.

The State of Small Business

Small businesses provide entrepreneurs with a chance to take control of their career and economic destinies. For many of us, we’ve simply been born to be entrepreneurs, taking joy in the hardships of new business and in watching it flourish.

There are more than 28 million small businesses in the U.S. The vast majority of them —an estimated 22 million— are one-person operations with no other employees.

The remaining six million are the linchpin of the U.S. economy, as more than half the U.S. workforce is employed by a small business.

While there is great opportunity in small business entrepreneurship, there is also great risk. About seven of 10 small businesses that employ workers survive their first year, but only half make it for three years. After 10 years, only a third remain in business.

Owning a franchise helps better the odds that your business will succeed. The franchise company you buy into will have done much of the trial and error for your business at other sites, allowing you to benefit from their established—and successful—business model. Instead of spending years building up a reputation for your business, you can trade on the goodwill generated by your franchise’s brand. Franchise companies also typically offer their franchisees help with finding a location, construction, training and other needs. Members of a franchise company also often get breaks on materials the company buys in bulk.

What To Expect In The First 90 Days

When you open a senior care business franchise, there are some things you’ll need to do in the first 90 days to ensure your company’s success. These include:

Finding your first customers. Whether you’re starting a fast food joint or working with Always Best Care to provide senior care for families, you have to have to find and establish loyal consumers. Before launching your business, identify who your customers are likely to be and target them with your marketing efforts.
Honing your selling skills. Once your business gets started, it’s time to master closing the deal. Work on your selling skills and find out what works and what doesn’t. For franchise members, much of this may be provided to you, and with access to other franchisees, you can find from their experience what has and has not worked.
Take advantage of programs offered by your franchise. If they’re offering training, take it. If they provide accesses to financial, customer service or other advice, listen. Your franchise company is invested in seeing you succeed. Use the tools they provide you to prosper. As an entrepreneur, you have to wear the shoes of every role at your business; the greater your understanding of each role, the better you can hire in the future and better you’ll be able to manage those roles on the fly.
Start hitting financial goals. Before you bought your franchise, you should have created some financial goals for your business as part of your business plan. When your franchise is up and running, keep a close eye on revenue and expenses and start finding ways to help meet financial goals.
Re-evaluate pricing. Within 90 days of opening, look at your business’ pricing for services and goods and determine whether you need to lower prices to attract more business or increase them to earn more profit. As your business progresses, you’ll get a better insight into whether the prices you set at the beginning are an accurate reflection of the market.
Work With Your Franchise. Your franchise company has a big stake in wanting you to succeed. Failed franchises reflect poorly on franchise companies. Listen to your franchise company’s advice and take advantage of any programs they have to give you access to inexpensive supplies or services.

Why Senior Care Franchises?

Senior care provides an excellent opportunity for a small business franchise. There is a rising demand for elder care in America, fueled by a growing elderly population. Over the next few years, people over the age of 65 will account for about one-fifth of the U.S. population. This demographic will require health and personal care services, and as their numbers grow, the demand for these services will too.

This demand allows easy entry into the field reduces the cost of starting an in-home care franchise. With the support of a strong senior care franchise company, entrepreneurs can quickly be on their way to a lucrative career in providing quality in-home care services to older Americans.

Franchise with Always Best Care provides an easy way for entrepreneurs to enter the lucrative and rewarding field of working in the senior care business. Always Best Care provides critical advice and training to new franchisees and connects them with invaluable resources to help them get their new business on solid footing from the start.

If you’re ready to make a difference in your community, download our FREE franchising eBook today to learn why Always Best Care’s training, marketing, and support have grown our franchisee revenue so dramatically.

Please refer to our most recent Franchise Disclosure Document for important details.

Understanding the Growing Senior Population

The senior population is one of the fastest growing age groups in the United States, accounting for 40 million of the population, or 1 in 7 people. With so many people in the United States living longer, it’s important that senior health take a priority, from diet to physical fitness. For many this presents a challenge in elder years. Luckily, many options exist for seniors, with in-home care provided by home care franchises remaining a popular trend among seniors who wish to maintain a high level of independence. The following infographic provides a glimpse at the senior demographic and provides ideas to help seniors maintain their health.

Please refer to our most recent Franchise Disclosure Document for important details.

A Comprehensive Look at Alzheimer’s: An Infographic

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that affects millions of Americans. This condition is more common in older adults, but has been known to appear in younger adults, as well. This disease has both mental and physical implications that can impact a senior’s independence. As Alzheimer’s progresses, it can also impair basic bodily functions.

Since Alzheimer’s is such a widespread disease in the United States, it’s important for home care franchise owners to understand the intricacies of it, its prevalence and cost. Let’s take a look at Alzheimer’s in the following infographic.

If you’re ready to make a difference in your community, download a FREE copy of our franchising eBook to learn why Always Best Care’s training, marketing, and support have grown our franchisee revenue so dramatically.

Please refer to our most recent Franchise Disclosure Document for important details.

Starting Your Home Care Business for Seniors

Entrepreneurship is a major pillar in the US economy. Many people believe that there is no greater situation than to be your own boss. Whether you’re an experienced entrepreneur or a budding business owner, there are many great opportunities in the senior home care industry to achieve such heights. Aging is a natural process that everyone must experience and thus there is always a demand for home care for seniors. It’s been estimated that at any given time there is approximately 7 million people in need of healthcare. As our population continues to grow and the life span of the average American grows longer, there’s always room for business in the home care industry.

In this article we will take a quick yet informative look at the first few steps to take when starting your own senior care business.

Business Structure

As is true with most business opportunities, you will have to decide whether you are going to:

Start your own company
Purchase an already existing company
Participate in a membership network
Buy a franchise

At Always Best Care we believe that buying small business franchises is always going to be the best and safest road to pursue. By purchasing a franchise, you are given the consultation, guidance, and guidelines that are necessary to run a successful senior home care operation. In addition, by using an established name finding business will be easier due to the already existing reputation of a successful organization that many are already familiar and comfortable with.

Legal Business

Any legal business needs to be registered properly, and while requirements may vary from state-to-state there are generally only three main options to choose from when describing to the government what kind of business you intend to operate. You can choose to either incorporate, register as a limited liability company (LLC), or sole proprietor. Each has their own set of pros and cons including tax benefits and more. Since requirements for business registration and operations do vary from state to state, we strongly suggest seeking out the help of a lawyer, business consultant, or the Small Business Administration (SBA) for assistance.

When it comes to home care companies, a great deal of states require a number of very specific licenses that you must obtain before being legally able to perform business within that given state. Be sure to contact your local/state home care association for information regarding proper licensing and requirements as relative to your business.

Operational Policy & Procedure

Every business can benefit from the use of a well-defined policy and procedures guideline. In the home care business this is a very important element to have. When you are responsible for the well-being of others it is highly important that you and your employees know how to operate properly, efficiently, and fairly. Having a manual that outlines the rules and regulations of your business will create uniformity amongst your organization so that everyone is treated well and fairly, both employees and clients alike.

This can become quite extensive and if you’re creating this on your own it may be an ongoing, ever evolving process that needs to be constantly updated. Because it needs to be clear and fool-proof, it will take a while to thoroughly hash out, articulate, and implement. A major benefit to a franchise is that all of the policies and procedures are already in existence and follow a tried-and-true standard that will help to ensure the success of your new business venture and its day-to-day operations.

Financial Setup

Every business needs to make money. So, of course, you’ll need to set up the many ways of which money comes and goes through your business. This includes everything from how you accept payment to how you pay your employees. Including but not limited to setting up a business checking account, business savings account, raising at least a three month operational fund that covers you as you get the gears rolling on your business, credit card merchant accounts, pre-paid deposit accounts for new clients, as well as a computerized system that can maintain all of your accounts payable and receivable needs.

Aside from these, and more, there are other important factors to determine such as billing rates, billing cycles, figuring out your monthly expenses, gross margins, and payroll methods. Again, buying a business or starting a franchise can help you to have a system that already works and helps you to avoid the pitfalls made by many unsuccessful businesses.

Staffing

After the prior steps have been taken and completed, you can move onto finding the proper staff that will help to run and grow your business. Finding the right employees isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, and having a strict minimum criteria that needs to be met is very important. This means that you’ll have to be vigilant in where you are going to recruit your staff. There are job posting sites such as Monster, Hot Jobs, Craigslist, and many more to go to, however, there are also recruiters who can take on this duty for you as well. Nonetheless, it is important to be clear in what you are looking for in your employees. It’s also important to understand that your employees will also determine the level of success that your elderly care franchise reaches. Not only having a hiring criteria but also sharing with them the benefits of working with your business is important as well. Be sure to have defined lines in terms of each employee’s job duties and what is expected of them as this will help add to efficiency, moral, and retention.

Setting Up Your Facilities

Finding the perfect location for your business is also integral to its success. A great location can make all the difference toward the success of any business. Having a building that can meet all the needs of a senior care business will ensure that you can operate at satisfactory levels. You’ll need space for your clients as well as all the furniture and operational materials such as computers, desks, printers, etc.

In Closing

There are many things to consider when starting up your very own home care business for seniors. These first few steps can get you well on your way to a bright and fulfilling future as a successful entrepreneur and franchise owner.

If you’re ready to make a difference in your community, download our FREE eBook to learn why Always Best Care’s training, marketing, and support have grown our franchisee revenue so dramatically.

Please refer to our most recent Franchise Disclosure Document for important details.

Raising Business Start-Up Capital through Crowd Funding

Most of us are familiar with the traditional methods of obtaining funding to start a business—personal savings, angel investors, bank loans, even friends and family. Today a popular new means of helping people fund projects and start new businesses has emerged: crowd funding.

What Is Crowd Funding and How Does It Work?

Crowd funding brings donors/investors together with people seeking funding for their project or senior care business. This can include filmmakers, musicians, and business start-ups, as well as established businesses and people fundraising for social and political causes, among others.

The two main models of crowd funding are donation-based funding and investment-based funding. Let’s further break these down into specific kinds of funding.

Donation-based –– In donation-based funding, the donor doesn’t receive anything in return for their contribution, but simply contributes because they believe in the project or venture.

Reward-based –– Also known as “perk-based” funding, in reward-based funding the donor receives some type of reward, often a copy of the product they donated to help create, or sometimes a discount for services.

Lending or debt-based –– In this model investors lend money with the expectation of future repayment with interest. This type of crowd funding may be more likely to attract funders since it generates a return for the investor.

Equity investment –– Until the JOBS Act was passed, this type of crowd funding wasn’t possible, due to SEC regulations. With this model, funders receive an ownership interest or a portion of the profits from their investment.

Royalty-based –– Once the project or venture is generating capital, this type of funding gives investors a percentage of that revenue.

Crowd funding and lending have exploded in recent years, and will likely increase in popularity. While crowd funding can present a viable means of obtaining needed start-up capital, it’s important to read the fine print carefully and understand the fee structures, which can typically be found in the FAQs section of crowd funding websites.

Always Best Care has over 200 senior care facilities nationwide and has established itself as one of the best home care franchises in the nation.

If you’re ready to make a difference in your community, download your FREE copy of our senior franchising eBook to learn why Always Best Care’s training, marketing, and support have grown our franchisee revenue so dramatically.

Please refer to our most recent Franchise Disclosure Document for important details.

When Your Loved One Is Unaware of Their Dementia

Working with individuals who have dementia or Alzheimer’s can be challenging. A puzzling and frustrating part of these conditions is the lack of self-awareness that most patients exhibit about their condition. It is not about denial, however. Up to 81 percent of those with Alzheimer’s do not know they are ill. The medical term for this lack of self-awareness of illness is anosognosia.

Causes of Anosognosia

It has been difficult for the medical community to pin down exactly what causes anosognosia. Researchers believe the condition results from anatomical changes or damage in the brain. Working with those who don’t recognize they are ill can be difficult and frustrating for caregivers, especially because an anosognosic person with dementia may insist they don’t need help despite their difficulties with routine tasks. They may also refuse medical treatments, some of which may help them realize they have a mental impairment.

Signs of dementia with anosognosia include:

Becoming angry when confronted about forgetfulness, lack of personal care or problems with decision making
Neglecting personal hygiene and other daily tasks
Difficulty managing bills and money
Insistence on driving or operating machinery when it is unsafe to do so

One of the biggest mistakes a caretaker can make is trying to make a person suffering from dementia with anosognosia recognize their condition. The best thing a caretaker can do is to mitigate the effects of the condition. Here are some tips for effective communication:

Use positive, gentle communication, and be encouraging and empathic.
Devise a structured plan with specific times for bathing and personal care, shopping and other daily chores.
Avoid attempts at making the person understand his or her condition, and never say things to shame the person for their forgetfulness.
Hire an aide from a home care business for help with everyday tasks and care.

Assisting those with dementia can be a real challenge, but it can also be a rewarding experience for home caregivers and elderly care franchise owners alike. By exercising empathy, patience and good will, caretakers often learn and grow in the process, and provide much needed care to the elder generations that once cared for us.

Alzheimer’s disease affects 5.4 million Americans and, by the year 2050, researchers predict that 1 in every 45 people will have this debilitating disease. At Always Best Care, we know that extra attention and tender, compassionate care must accompany every service we provide.

If you’re ready to make a difference in your community, download your own copy of our FREE senior care franchise eBook to learn why Always Best Care’s training, marketing, and support have grown our franchisee revenue so dramatically.

Please refer to our most recent Franchise Disclosure Document for important details.