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

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

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!

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

Tags: 2010 resolutions for business, Home Care Business Tips, homecare business, Small Business New Years Resolutions, startup business
Posted in Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Agency Operations, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Benefits of Email for a Home Care Agency

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Home Care Agency Operations Management

Email can play a role in making your home care agency business more immediate, more accessible and, in many cases, more profitable. Here are some things to consider:

Email creates a quiet, dedicated moment with your home care customers. Consumers are pickier about which email lists they subscribe to. When your customer opens your email, you have their attention for one precious moment. In internet time, that moment is priceless.
The Direct Marketing Association recently reported that “commercial e-mail” returned a whopping $43.62 for every dollar spent in 2009.” That’s because e-mail enables you to inexpensively and effectively create a quality over quantity mailing list of loyal customers and qualified prospects.
Email is the primary form of professional business communication. Business people use e-mail to communicate with each other, not Tweets or Facebook wall posts. Email is personal and professional.
Your email newsletter is a solid piece of quality content that you can archive on your website. You can boost your agency’s image and credibility by publishing and archiving a body of expertise through e-mail newsletter articles, and inviting reader participation. Ask customers for input in your e-mail communications. Create a dialogue and relationships.
According to a recent Nielsen report, frequent users of Facebook and Twitter use e-mail more than casual users. That means your audience is probably in multiple places – using e-mail and visiting social networking websites. Quality content trumps frequency of postings. Your e-mail newsletter should remain the centerpiece of your online communications, offering practical advice and meaningful insights that resonate with your audience. Social media is used to spot customer trends, mine ideas for future newsletter articles, respond to customer concerns, and find new mailing list subscribers.

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

Tags: business benefits of email, email communication, home care business, home care business email, homecare business, small business email
Posted in Client Retention, Computer & Internet Technology, Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Agency Operations, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Senior Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Local Schools Can Help Your Home Care Business

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Home Care Business Tips

Some small businesses have benefited by coordinating activities with local schools and colleges. Here are some examples:

Volunteer your company to be a business school case study. You’ll learn much about your company in the process and get good ideas for the future.
Obtain management and technical assistance from one of more than 50 Small Business Development Centers. Check the U.S. Small Business Administration web site at www.sba.gov for locations.
Participate in special programs. Many colleges and universities sponsor venture capital forums, entrepreneurship centers and family business programs.
Work with the business school to offer internships to undergraduate or graduate students.
Find out what expertise is on a business school’s staff. You may find just the right person to hire as a consultant or to serve on your board.

Tags: home care business, home care internship, homecare business, Small Business Administration, small business tips
Posted in Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Senior Business, Start Up Business | No Comments »

Home Care Business Branding – 5 Tips

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Home Care Agency Business Tips

You’ve started a home care business, but how do you brand it properly? Here are some things to consider:

The design of your logo really doesn’t matter. Having a nice professional logo is great, but it very rarely increases sales. You don’t need to spend a fortune on it. It’s more important to have a consistent look and include it on every piece of communication. Put it on business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, yellow page ads, building signage, newsletters, etc…

Have a professional website. It’s not just good enough to have a website, it must reflect your brand image. If you are known as a top notch photographer, the last thing you want is a website that looks like it was designed 10 years ago. That won’t reflect well on you. Everyone uses the web today to check references. If someone recommends your homecare agency, you can almost guarantee that they will go online to look for you. Your website design should be updated at least every two years to stay current.

Blogs help your business on multiple levels. Valuable content on a consistent basis will make you look like an expert, which is what consumers want. The software that powers blogs has multiple advantages. It’s very easy to publish. It’s a database-driven environment where style is separate from content so you will not need to go back to your web design agency for every little change. And use of tags and sitemaps make basic search engine optimization easy. But the real reason blogs are great is that they enable conversation. Two-way dialog is much more valuable than a company that just dumps messaging and collateral on their customers.

A blog should not be your sole marketing strategy. You should have a comprehensive multi-touch marketing plan to get your value proposition in front of your target audience. You can launch a direct mail campaign, email campaign, host a webinar, sponsor a local event, attend a trade show, attend networking events, cold call prospects, win awards, etc. There are a thousand different ways for you to be noticed.

Participate in local business events. Just showing up at events is great, but you are just a face in the crowd. Ask to be on one of the committees. Believe it or not, it’s as simple as just asking most of time. Groups are looking for volunteer help and it’s a great way to elevate your status and visibility among the entire organization.

Tags: branding tips for small business, home care agency branding, home care business, homecare business, small business blog, small business logo tips, small business marketing strategy, small business website
Posted in Computer & Internet Technology, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Public Relations, Senior Business, Start Up Business | No Comments »

7 Home Care Business Marketing Tips

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion

Here are several tips to help market your home care agency:

Don’t Advertise Like a Big Business
Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. As a small business, your home care agency can’t afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales…now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising – and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

Offer a More Affordable Version
Some prospective customers may not be willing to pay the asking price for your home care services. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to your competitors by offering a smaller or stripped down version of the services your agency offers at a lower price.

Offer a Premium Version
Not all home care customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive service…or by combining several services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods
Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

Trim Your Ads
Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that greater frequency and smaller ads generate a better response.

Set up Joint Promotions with Other Small Businesses
Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This can range from hair salons to restaurants to hardware stores.

Maximize Your Customers

Convert your customers into publicity agents for your homecare business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising – and far more affordable.

Tags: home care advertising, home care agency marketing, home care business, Home care business start up, home care customers, home care marketing, home care sales tips, homecare business, small business promotion
Posted in Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Public Relations, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

4 Critical Rules For Advertising Your Home Care Agency

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Home Care Agency Marketing Tips

Leads are more important than branding. No matter what the media or ad agency experts tell you, generating leads for a home care business is more important than building a brand at this point, especially if you recently opened your homecare business.

A strong identity can help, and a simple logo can accomplish that less expensively than ever before. But don’t waste your dollars buying weeks of ads. Building your brand starts at delivering outstanding services under your home care agency’s name to happy customers.

So it’s important that your ads generate a response by including a call to action. Prospects should feel compelled to do something, be it calling in on an offer or visiting a website. This will enable you to track the effectiveness of your ads. Remember the formula: target, offer, copy.

The most critical component of your campaign will be drilling down to find media that deliver your message to people actively looking to buy your product or service, as well as those looking for a new, lower-cost or better service provider. To truly build your brand, you need to be that provider.

Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Since it is a buyer’s market right now, you’re in a good position to push for as much value as possible. In TV, this may mean additional mentions into or out of commercial breaks. For radio, it may mean more frequency or co-sponsorship of a local promotion or event. And for print, it may mean a bigger ad or additional placements, or even space for an advertorial.

You won’t get what you don’t ask for, so, consider any packages you are presented and see how you can leverage that package to get as many leads as possible.

Remember PR. Use your own story to your advantage by incorporating it into your pitch to local business publications or TV/radio morning shows. You will have a better chance of being mentioned if you make your home care business sound unique. Make sure your press releases are not overly self serving, or the media outlet won’t run it.

E-mail is a necessity, but don’t forget direct mail. E-mail marketing has taken off in the past few years, but there are limitations. Double opt-ins – where people have to confirm twice that they want to receive your email – are the norm these days. Even so, click-through rates average less than half of 1 percent.

That means there is opportunity to leverage your budget the old-fashioned way: through direct mail. You may consider this counterintuitive, but there are some definite advantages to a highly targeted direct-mail program right now: Due to higher paper and postage rates, a good deal of direct-mail competition has fallen by the wayside. That means a compelling letter or postcard has a better chance than ever of getting your prospect’s attention.

Direct mail can also yield one of the best returns on investment if you have a great offer and a good list, the latter being most important. That said, take care in building your list. If done correctly, over time your list/database will be your homecare business’s most valuable asset.

Tags: home care advertising tips, home care agency marketing, home care agency PR, home care branding, home care business, home care direct mail, home care email marketing, home care leads, home care press release, home care public relations, homecare business
Posted in Computer & Internet Technology, Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Public Relations, Radio Advertising, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Selling Your Home Care Services – 5 Important Rules

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Home Care Business Tips

They may seem obvious, but many home care agency business owners still somehow ignore the obvious things that can make or break a balance. For example:

Respect Time.
When meeting a potential home care client, it’s better to show up early than late, but not too early because that makes it look like you have a lot of free time. Don’t exceed the amount of time you agreed to meet, unless you tell the prospect that you understand your time is up and he or she agrees to speak with you for additional time.

Don’t tell your prospect their business.
Don’t insult your prospect by announcing how your homecare business will change his or her life. You want them to come to the conclusion that your services are special, but patting yourself too much on the back just puts off prospects.

Give your prospect the facts.
“How do you stack up against other area home care agencies?” This is what prospects want to know and the answer will say volumes about you. If you feed them that line about not wanting to bad-mouth competitors, you just erased any chance of them hiring your home care agency. This is an excuse salespeople hide behind when they either don’t know their competitors, or they are worse than their competitors and don’t want to say so.

Your prospect is not asking you to bad-mouth other home care agencies. He/she expects you to know your own services as well as the services (and costs) provided by your competition. The winning answer will provide him/her with specific details on your agency’s strengths vs. your competitors. These details show that you are a pro.

Take notes.
Unless you have a photographic memory, be prepared to take notes on pertinent information or advice given. Don’t make your prospect repeat all the names of the different medications their parent takes or foods they are allergic to. If hired, your staff member will have to know that information inside and out. Write it all down.

Anticipate his needs.
Don’t make him/her take notes to remember what you just told them. When your presentation is finished, leave a concise, factual, well-organized document summarizing the information you presented.

Tags: home care agency, Home Care Business Tips, home care sales, homecare business, selling home care services, small business sales
Posted in Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Home Care Client Retention – 4 Tips for Building Long Term Relationships & Revenue

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

How to keep your home care clients

Getting home care clients is always tough, but losing them for reasons that could have been prevented, is even tougher. Consider the following:

Get their opinion. Make the effort to invest clients in your home care business. At least once a year, send out a survey with your newsletter or have clients fill one out on site. Ask their opinion about the quality of the services you offer and get their thoughts about your staff. Ask for suggestions to improve your agency and its services. And make sure you actually implement some of the suggestions; don’t just conduct a survey for surveys’ sake. When customers feel valued and heard, they are bound to keep coming back.

Follow up. Call your clients on a regular basis to find out if they are pleased with the job you and your staff are doing. If they are pleased, ask them if they can refer you to a friend or family member.

Don’t let problems lie. If there are any problems, perceived or otherwise, make sure you get quickly to the bottom of them. Don’t let them fester, or wait until a family member calls you. Take the initiative!

Reward them for referrals. If a current client recommends your homecare agency to someone else who ends up hiring your agency, give them a reward or discount on services. Make sure to send a thank-you note.

Tags: home care agency planning, home care business, Home Care Business Tips, home care clients, homecare business
Posted in Client Retention, Home Care Agency Operations, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Senior Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Get More Home Care Clients – 6 Sales Call Tips

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Home Care Business Tips

Do you ever make cold calls, in which you try to sell the services of your home care business to a potential client?

Have you had trouble making that sale? It’s one of the most difficult aspects of selling, but here are some homecare sales tips to help you:

• Develop a professional greeting. Don’t just say hello and jump into your telephone presentation without taking a breath or allowing the other party to participate. Your greeting should be formal. Begin with “Good morning, Mr. Jones.” Everyone else says, “Hello.” Be different. Be professional.

• Introduce yourself and your company. “My name is Lisa Jones and I am with ABC Home Care. We’re a local firm that specializes in….” Don’t get too specific yet. Don’t mention your services right off the bat. If you do, that allows the other party an immediate way out of the conversation and they hang up. By keeping your introduction general, yet mentioning a benefit, you will peak your prospect’s curiosity and keep them on the line longer.

• Express gratitude. Always thank the potential client for allowing you a few moments in their busy day. Tell them that you won’t waste a second of their time. “I want to thank you for taking my call. This will only involve a moment of your time so you can get back to your busy schedule.” Don’t say that you will “just take a moment.”

• State the purpose of your call. If it’s a referral source, see if they work with other home care agencies and if there is an opportunity for you to discuss the opportunities for your agency. For an end user, it may be best if you can provide the purpose within a question. For example, “If we can help you or your senior out around the house with daily chores at a low cost or if our services are even covered under insurance, would you be interested to know more?” This may get the desired response. At this point, you’re ready to start selling an opportunity to meet this person or to get their permission to provide them with more information.

• Schedule a meeting. It’s highly unlikely that you will get business via a phone call, so it’s incumbent to try to set up a meeting. Get a confirmation to meet (their address), hopefully in person, or at least to speak more in depth about your homecare services by phone.

• Follow up. If your meeting is more than a few days in the future, send a letter of confirmation immediately. If the meeting is tomorrow, send an e-mail confirmation. Keep it short and upbeat.

Tags: business opportunities, getting home care clients, Home Care Business Tips, home care sales, homecare business, sales call tips
Posted in Business Opportunity, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Owning a Home Care Business – What You Need to Know!

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Dealing with the Everyday Business of Home Care

Here is a list of things you should consider to enhance your business:

Remember happiness is your end game. Treat your homecare business like a journey of discovery. Instead of stopping when you become frustrated, simply decide on the best action you can take, and take it. Your willingness to deal with all obstacles gives you the confidence and strength you need to achieve success.
Create specific short-term goals. So much changes so quickly in today’s world that your long-term goals will have to be modified as you learn what works and what doesn’t. Break your larger goals into realistic short-term goals. The analogy is that when you start out you can’t expect to write a book about your experiences in the home care industry, but instead need to start by writing articles. The industry is a dynamic one, and you need to be prepared to change directions regularly.
Develop a nightly to-do list. Keep yourself on track by breaking short-term goals into realistic steps you can take immediately. In a to-do notebook, focus your intentions by writing down the tasks you want to achieve the next day. Limit your list.
Prioritize your to-do list. Order each item on your list from most to least important according to how each one helps you accomplish your goal. You may or may not complete all the tasks in a single day, but at least you can recognize that you’re accomplishing the most important ones.
Evaluate and learn from your actions. At the end of the day, review what you have learned, and decide on the next best action to take to reach your short-term goals. Develop a new to-do list every night by transferring your unfinished items and prioritizing the new list.
Realize you don’t have to do this alone. As you grow your home care business, many tasks will become routine and can be accomplished by someone else. Develop a list of these tasks, and delegate them so you can concentrate more on the key elements of growing your business.

Tags: home care business, home care business goals, Home care business start up, home care industry, homecare business, running a home care business
Posted in Home Care Agency Operations, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | 1 Comment »

Own Senior Care – Home Care Franchise Alternative