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How Electronic Deposits Help the Home Care Agency

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:59:55 +0000

Home Care Business Tips

Remote Deposit Capture is an increasingly popular service that allows small business owners to streamline their check deposit and reconciliation operations and receive faster access to funds by electronically depositing checks from the convenience of their office for same-day processing.

RDC works by scanning checks individually or by feeding several checks at a time into a scanner installed at your office. The scanner captures check images and electronically submits those images for deposit to your bank account via a web-based connection. If the deposits meet your financial institution’s electronic check deposit deadline, you may also receive same-day ledger credit for the deposits.

RDC benefits include:

Increased efficiency. Remote deposit can help increase efficiency by eliminating trips to the bank, simplifying deposit preparation, consolidating deposits from each of your business locations, eliminating the endorsement of checks and reducing check handling costs.
Increased security. The electronic transmittal of checks can reduce the possibility of checks being lost or stolen in transit.
Faster access to funds. Your business can accelerate deposits with same-day processing of your checks if the deposits are made before your financial institution’s electronic check deposit deadline.
Added convenience. RDC enables businesses to deposit checks quickly and conveniently 24 hours a day. You can scan and deposit checks from your desk at any location, at your convenience and you will no longer have to incur the expense of a courier.
Better customer service. RDC provides small businesses the ability to quickly respond to customer payment inquiries.
Streamlined processing. The service simplifies processing, posting and reconciliation of checks.
Reduced errors. The service provides automated balancing, thereby reducing errors.
Enhanced record-keeping. RDC services may provide online access to your check images after your deposit and enable you to archive the check images on your computer.
Environmentally friendly. Using RDC can help reduce paper usage and reduce gas consumption on trips to the bank.

Posted by: David Goodman, President Companion Connection Senior Care, the leading “no royalty” membership organization serving the non medical home care & licensed home health business communities. The need for home based senior care is soaring! We will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Earn an excellent income while helping others with their activities of daily living. Contact us today for your FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

Tax Tips for the Home Care Business

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:13:20 +0000

Home Care Business Tips

April 15 is only five weeks away. Getting a head start on your taxes will give you more time to find the best tax preparer. When it comes to taxes, it’s best to take your time and make sure you are filing correctly and claiming the proper deductions. Your documents and records should be organized and up-to-date.

Determine who will prepare your taxes. If you don’t plan to prepare your own tax return and you haven’t initiated your search for a tax professional, now is the time to start. Consider referrals from trusted friends and business associates or look for an accredited tax preparer who is either a certified public accountant, enrolled agent (a federally licensed tax specialist), or a tax attorney. Don’t be afraid to ask the tax preparer how long he or she has been practicing, the cost for tax preparation services and professional references.
Decipher between business and personal expenses. If you incur an expense for something that is used partly for business and partly for personal purposes, you may be able to deduct the business portion. Remember to carefully file accurate supporting documentation for any business expenses you report.
Consider e-filing. Business owners who file electronically may receive a tax refund sooner than those who file a paper return.
Utilize government resources for tips. Consider reviewing the Internal Review Service’s (IRS) Web site at www.irs.gov and your state’s taxing authority websites. Many sites offer small businesses assistance sections and list deadlines and other helpful tax and business information.

Small Business Tips: Avoiding Bankruptcy

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:19:26 +0000

Tips to help your home care business avoid bankruptcy and become more solvent

Here are several things to remember to keep the business running smoothly:

Cut unnecessary costs and free up cash
Identify the parts of the business that got the company into debt in the first place and attack them head on. Cash flow, after all, is the key to any business. If customers aren’t paying on time or your expenses are too high, consider ramping up collections efforts and ditching unnecessary expenses such as office space or costly phone systems. Another way to free up cash: Sell off unused equipment or scrap.
Revisit the budget
If the debt keeps piling up, then it probably means the company’s current budget needs to be examined more closely. Create a budget based on the business’s current financial situation. Make sure your business’s revenues can more than cover your fixed monthly costs like rent and utility bills. Then, allot a portion of the budget for variable costs, such as materials. As a rule, business owners should devote much of what’s left after expenses to paying down their debts. If you have credit-card debt, for example, make sure you pay off more than just the minimum. Otherwise, your debt will keep building and it’ll take years to pay off.
Prioritize debt payments
Tackle the business’s highest-interest rate debt first. Most likely that will mean concentrating your energies on paying down credit cards. However, if you’ve personally guaranteed any of your business’s debt – meaning if a creditor or supplier can come after your personal assets if you default –make sure paying off those debts becomes a high priority.
Speak with creditors
Tell your creditors the financial situation you’re in and the hardship the business is going through and see if they have a hardship plan that may provide better payment terms. If the creditor doesn’t offer one, request a payment plan or a reduced settlement amount. Make it clear – without being demanding – that the less they’re willing to accept or the more they’re willing to reduce your debt, the faster you will pay them (as long as you can fulfill your end of the bargain). The worst thing a business owner can do is set up a repayment plan with a creditor and default.
Consolidate your loans
Consolidating your loans into one payment allows you to reduce monthly costs without harming your credit. The best-case scenario is consolidating several shorter-term loans into one long-term package.
Seek Counsel
Negotiating with creditors can be a harrowing experience. If creditors are hounding you, enlist the help of a credit counseling organization. While these nonprofit organizations typically offer debt-management help only to consumers, some will work with small-business owners.

Submitted by: David Goodman, President Companion Connection Senior Care, the leading “no royalty” membership organization serving the non medical home care & licensed home health business communities. The need for home based senior care is soaring! We will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Earn an excellent income while helping others with their activities of daily living. Contact us today for your FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

Hiring a Spouse to Work in Your Home Care Agency

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:56:39 +0000

Home Care Business Tips

Think your spouse has certain skills that can help your business grow? Here are few ways to benefit from putting your loved one on the payroll:

A Personal Interest
Many start-up home care agencies are on a very tight budget, which might make it difficult to find capable personnel. Sometimes the individual with the best resources lives under the same roof. A spouse, even on a part-time basis, may make a better contribution than a regular employee.

Tax Savings
While not exactly an earth-shattering savings, business owners who hire their spouses can avoid paying a federal unemployment tax on their spouse’s earnings. For 2008, the 6.2% federal unemployment tax applies to the first $7,000 that you pay to each employee as wages during the year. Additionally, some states waive this tax as well.

Insuring Your Health
Hiring a spouse can also lead to health-insurance savings. In states that don’t allow “group of one” plans, sole proprietors with a spouse on the payroll can sometimes qualify for small group insurance policies. Group policies, which provide group rates, tend to be cheaper than individual policies. You’re also able to write off the full cost of coverage as a business expense rather than an adjustment to income, which is currently how sole proprietors whose spouses don’t work for them write off their medical coverage. Deducting the cost of health insurance for these business owners simply reduces their income tax only. Business owners who, instead, deduct health-care premiums as a business expense also are shielded from having to pay the 15.3% self-employment tax on those funds. However, entrepreneurs only save 15.3% if they earn $102,000 or less. Otherwise, you only get the 2.9% [Medicare tax] savings.

Health Cost Savings
Business owners who hire their spouses also can establish health reimbursement accounts, open to any business with at least one employee. Like health savings accounts, HRAs offer a tax-advantaged way to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses such as eyeglasses and prescription drugs, which typically aren’t covered by insurance. However, unlike HSAs, contributions to HRAs, which are limited to an employee’s income level, can fund health-care premiums. (HSA funds can be used toward premiums too, but only upon retirement.) Additionally, individuals don’t have to own high-deductible health-care policies, which can cost $1,800 to $2,500 a year. Reimbursement payments made to employees for qualifying expenses aren’t taxable. And sole proprietors are able to deduct those payments as business expenses.

Social Security History
Another benefit to hiring a spouse who, for example, wasn’t already working is that he or she can establish a Social Security history. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, to receive benefits an individual must earn a certain number of credits, which in 2008 are worth $1,050 each. While the number of required credits differs depending on a person’s age and type of benefit, individuals can earn a maximum of four credits each year. This means that a person’s total annual income could potentially need to reach roughly $34,000 to trigger a $4,200 Social Security tax. Keep in mind that most people need to earn about 40 credits to qualify for retirement benefits. With two spouses paying into the system, you could end up with more net Social Security benefits at retirement rather than a single wage earner.

Small Business Blogging & Social Media Marketing

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:39:01 +0000

Your home care agency’s blog is more important than your Facebook page

You want to take advantage of the latest in social media, but aren’t sure how to prioritize. Here are reasons why including a blog should take precedence over starting a Facebook page:

Branding: Facebook doesn’t allow you to brand the entire Fan Page experience to the extent that you can and should brand your agency’s blog. While you can customize up to 10 Facebook tabs (using the Static FBML application), that doesn’t compare to the unlimited branding options on your own blog using company colors, messaging, logos, and more.

Blog entries are better than Facebook Notes: Blogs allow you to categorize posts, thread comments, optimize content for search engine optimization, and so much more. Facebook Notes, aside from barely being read, fail to stack up against even your run-of-the-mill blog post from the most basic of blogging platforms.

You can run third-party analytic tools on your blog: You need to know what’s working and what’s not, where website visitors are coming from, what they view, how long they stay, and why some wander off. You need to know which campaigns are driving the most traffic to your content and how effective you are in converting that traffic into targeted behaviors. Facebook offers you only limited visibility into these and other key areas, whereas the vast array of web analytics software and services available for your blog provide a deep view into the types of metrics that actually matter to you and your homecare agency.

Here are some other things to consider:

Business-to-business decision makers (i.e. referral sources) aren’t likely to look for and connect with your business on Facebook.
While Facebook Fan Pages are available to the public, registration is required to fully participate. (You can make registration optional on your own agency blog).
On your agency blog, you can turn commenting on or off or have comments moderated on a post-by-post basis. Not so on Facebook.
Your blog is far less distracting than Facebook, which means no one else’s advertisements, applications, pages, notes, videos, photos, etc. can pull focus away from your content.
Plug-ins and widgets allow you to scale your blog based on your business goals. Facebook doesn’t offer the same type of scalability.

Setup Your Office for Maximum Productivity

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:31:06 +0000

5 Tips for Setting Up the Ultimate Office for a Home Care Agency

Little things can make you and your staff more efficient at work. Here are some things to consider:

Don’t start your office organizing by shopping for containers. Survey what files and books you need to store, measure them, then go to the store.
File, act or toss papers and emails instead of letting them pile high on your desk. You should be able to make a decision immediately as papers cross your desk.
Take advantage of electronic devices such as email, PDAs and database file management to categorize work.
Choose the calendar system that’s best for your organizational style, and stick with it. If it is computer-based, back it up.
Manage your time ruthlessly. In a sense, it is what you are selling.

Small Business New Year’s Resolutions for the Home Care Owner

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:51:13 +0000

Home Care Business Tips

Now is as good a time as any to make resolutions for the New Year. Here are some to consider:

Above all else, a small-business owner’s top 2010 resolution should be to invest in continued education, and making a point of setting aside the needed time to research and better take advantage of available resources. At the pace the commercial world moves in 2010, and given the flurry of information startups are now hit with 24/7, it’s easy to get overwhelmed in day-to-day dealings and not see the forest for the trees. But failing to periodically pause, take a step back and look at how to best take advantage of all the resources available to you and optimize processes around them, and you are ultimately costing yourself more in the end.

Become more comfortable with social media and social networking. Commit to improving your use and knowledge of social media by 5 percent each month. Sign up for a free webinar, take a class, hire someone to coach you. If you do this each month, at the end of the year, you’ll know 60 percent more than you did at the beginning of the year.

Monitor and guard the cash position of your home care business like it was your first-born son. Question all expenditures by using the golden rule – are you absolutely certain that this expense will produce more gold. Once you are certain, jump on opportunities passed over by your competitors. Live your life in a spirit of gratitude for all the blessings that come to you as the owner of a business in America.

Resolve to make 2010 a year of full self-expression, and take a series of actions that will increase your likeability factor. The one-way sales pitch is long gone. Corporate speak will only isolate you. People do business with people they like. And, when people like the source of a message, they tend to trust the message or, at least, try to find a way to believe it. Thus, your likeability and full self-expression has an enormous impact on your bottom line. Strive to be your best, most authentic and likeable self and you will be well on your way to becoming the obvious choice for your potential clients.

Home care businesses designing a website for the first time, or those who are altering their existing site, should resolve to build it to the lowest common denominator. Just because your office has a dedicated T1 line, which makes surfing the Web and loading your graphically intense website a snap, doesn’t mean your customers can do the same. Know your audience well enough to know if Flash and video get in the way of your pages loading in an acceptable amount of time, and be reasonable enough to know if anyone but you really cares about a slick presentation. While you’re at it, resolve to never allow video on your website to play without someone first clicking the play button!

Advertising Questions to Ask Before You Advertise

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:09:35 +0000

Home Care Business Tips & Strategies

The business owner knows what the business is selling, but how will anyone else know if the business doesn’t advertise. Yet, having said this, what do you need to ask yourself before you take the plunge and invest in advertising your products or services. Here are some things to consider:

What do you have to say that matters to your customer?

Most ads are written under the assumption that the reader, listener or viewer has a basic level of interest and is paying close attention to the ad. But customers tend to ignore all ads that do not speak directly to them. Your first task is not media selection; it’s message selection.

Can you say it persuasively?

Most ads are ineffective because the writer tried to say too much, include too much and be too much. Fearful of leaving someone out, these writers write vague, all-encompassing ads that speak specifically to no one. “We provide homecare services” is a terrible headline for an ad. Be specific.

How long is your time horizon?

Some ads build traffic, some build relationships and others build your reputation. If you don’t have the financial resources to launch a true branding campaign focused on building relationships and reputation among potential customers, you’re going to have to settle for traffic-building ads until you can afford to begin developing your brand. To what degree do you have financial staying power?

What is the urgency of your message?

If you need an ad to produce immediate results, your offer must have a time limit. This technique will simultaneously work for and against you. On one hand, customers tend to delay what can be delayed, so limited-time offers generate traffic more quickly since the threat of “losing the opportunity” is real. On the other hand, customers have no memory of messages that have expired; short-term messages are erased from our brains immediately. Therefore, it’s extremely difficult to create long-term awareness with a series of limited-time-offer, short-term ads.

How long is the purchase cycle?

How long it will take your advertising to pay off is tied to the purchase cycle of your services. Remember, a customer first has to be exposed to your ad often enough to remember it, then you have to wait for that customer to need what you sell. How soon will he or she likely need it?

Home Care Business Strategy for 2010

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:49:37 +0000

Home Care Agency Business Tips

It’s a new year, and so it’s time to put into place a new set of steps that you plan to enforce. For example, here are some things that your home care agency should be doing…

Set a clear, attainable vision with concrete measurable goals. Share these with all employees. When people know exactly where you are leading the agency and how they can support that journey, they become more productive and responsive to your initiatives.

Require employees to create goals of their own. Encourage them to generate goals to help them reach for new heights and achieve more than they think they can. In general, the higher the standards and the greater the effort, the better the outcome. Schedule time to discuss both sets of goals. You can review and modify objectives to ensure the employees’ goals and aspirations align with those of the agency.

Tell people what your individual expectations are. Provide specific and measurable feedback about their ongoing job performance. It’s helpful to do this periodically during the year, too. Identify the employees who could benefit from more training or supervision. Also, identify the ones who need less input. There may also be some who simply will not succeed given the resources you can provide to them. With this latter group, you will need to consider ending their employment.

Listen to your employees. Invite employees into your office and get to know them better on an informal basis that goes beyond the typical boss-subordinate relationship. The goal is to reveal your human side. Discuss news about the job, hobbies, special interests, family information, etc. Ideally, this can be accomplished in a small group setting. Consider doing this for breakfast or lunch.

Tell people that you care about them. When they know you care, they will be more motivated, dedicated and productive. Show and tell them why you care and why they are important to you. Demonstrate that you want to help them grow and develop on the job. Help them become more skilled and better qualified so they will be able to assume more responsibilities. When employees feel confident about their skills, they will be more productive, motivated, satisfied and successful. Let them know that you are there to support them and are willing to back them up during difficult times.

Be open to new ideas. Great thoughts and creative ideas can come from places other than the executive offices. That’s an important reason to nurture a climate that encourages employees to share their ideas about how to improve their organization. The results can often lead to increased productivity and an endless well of ideas once you open the gates for employee input.

Make time to have fun. An occasional break from the sobering day-to-day functioning is not only possible, it’s strongly encouraged and highly prized. Periodically setting aside an hour or so says that, while you believe in and value hard work, you also realize the importance of “taking a break.”

How to Sell Your Home Care Services to Prospective Clients

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:30:46 +0000

Home Care Business Tips

How succinctly can you sell your services to a prospect? In most cases, people want to hear what sets your agency apart quickly and effectively without a lot of blather. Here are some things to consider:

Describe yourself in five words or less. Use a phrase that makes people think, “This sounds right for me” or “This is what I’m looking for.” Consider the difference between “We take care of the non-medical needs of patients in their homes” and “We treat patients like we’d want our own parents treated.”

Explain what you do in one sentence. After introducing yourself, introduce your offerings.

Define your target audience. Be focused on your target audience, which is a key to your agency’s success in today’s crowded services-to-seniors industry.

Communicate your vision. What does your homecare agency stand for? What attracts your customers and their loyalty? Your answers can serve as a magnet for growth.

Practice, practice, practice. Create a script that conveys who you are, what you offer, your market, and the distinctive benefits you provide. Edit until you can introduce yourself and your business in less than a minute, which is how long most prospects will give you to win their interest.

Shrink your introduction even further so you can tell your story in 20 words or less. That’s how much space you have in most marketing materials and online presentations, whether on your website, on social media sites, or on sites that link to your home page.

Posted by: David Goodman, President of Companion Connection Senior Care, the premier No Royalty Membership Organization serving the non medical home care and licensed home health business communities. Demand for home based elder care is soaring! CCSC will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Contact us today for a FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949