Home care business is a very lucrative business to get into, you can make good money when you know what you are doing and love doing it. There are many different home care businesses you can start with small money, but for this post, I will only discuss how to start a home care business.
14 Steps On How To Start A Home Care Business
- Knowledge About Home Care Services: The first step you need to know before starting a home care agency or business is that you need to have a proper understanding of what a home care business is, when it comes to taking care of seniors most people did not know that this type of business is in two ways; we have the medical aspect of home care services and also the non-medical aspect. The medical aspect is the skilled services for example; nurses, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social worker, etc, these are the home care services that are provided by different types of home care organizations/agencies, and these type of services are paid for by the governmental sources (Medicaid, Medicare). The non-medical home care services are usually paid for by the clients and in some cases by third-party payers. Private duty home care services (non-medical home care services) provide care for seniors in the comfort of their homes, they may provide highly skilled nursing services and/or non-medical support services. The segment for the home care market is very wide because everyday people get old and they need care.
- Mission, Vision, and Goals: It is important that you know what you want in this home care business and you also know what you are doing, starting any business at all is very exciting and at the same time challenging. As you are starting your business you have to have a clear written business mission, vision, and goals, you should possess entrepreneur flair, and be willing to take a calculated risk. Set up your goals, objectives, missions, visions, values, and belief statements. Let everything be well written down, then you can move to the next step in starting your business.
You can read more here Why Become An Entrepreneur.
- Feasibility Study: The purpose of conducting a feasibility study is to help you determine if starting a home care business in your local area will succeed, you don’t want to venture into a business without considering feasibility study first, this study will let you know whether investing into this business or any business at all makes sense. A thorough feasibility study will help you to learn more about your prospective client’s needs, wants, and desires. You will have an idea of market opportunity and growth potential of the business you are starting.
- Business Plan: Writing a business plan for your business help you to create an organized view of your business ideas, a roadmap to follow. When you express your ideas in a paper, you will be able to identify weaknesses to be considered and anticipated, it will help to guide your business future, and lend focus and direction to your ideas.
- Financing Your Business: Money is like water for your business, without it your business will not grow. There are two types of capitals you need for your business; startup capital and operating capital. Startup capital is the total amount of money you need to open your doors for business and to keep them open until sufficient revenue can be relied on. Operating capital is the amount of money you need to keep your business going after startup, which includes; salaries, rent, expenses, etc. It is very important you do your math very well before venturing into business, the reason is that it will save you a lot of stress in the future.
- Business Law: You have to determine the business structure you want to create, the business structure is the legal form of the business you want to set up. For example; Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation, Limited Liability Company, etc.
- File Your Business Name: You can search and file your business name with your state, you will need to conduct a name search to make sure no other company is using the name, after that, you can register the name with your state.
- Apply for Employer Identification Number (EIN): This is a federal identification number that is issued by the IRS to identify a business entity, it is also known as Federal Tax ID. As a home care business owner, you will need an EIN because you will hire employees, apart from that if you want to open a business bank account your bank will require it.
- Open a Business Bank Account: You must open a separate account from your personal account, a business account will provide a record of all your revenues and expenses in one convenient place and make your bookkeeping easy to maintain.
- Obtain a State Home Care Agency License: The license requirements for non-medical home care services vary from states to states, and there are some states that did not require you to have a license before you can start a non-medical home care business. You have to check with your state to know if a license is required or not.
- Business Liability Insurance: As a home care business owner you need to care insurance if your agency will be providing personal or hands-on care such as bathing or assisting clients to the bathroom you should consider professional liability insurance. It is important to be covered should a client have an accident due to your negligence. Talk to an experienced insurance carrier and explain the types of services you plan to provide in order that you have the proper coverage.
- Employees Versus Independent Contractors: You have to determine whether you will be hiring employees or independent contractors, both of them have their advantages and disadvantages. Consider which one of them will benefit your agency.
- Set Up Your Record Keeping System: No matter the size of your business, you must keep records of all transaction for example payroll, service invoices, purchase receipts, etc.
- Look for New Clients: You have to get new clients for your new business, getting new clients for your home care business will help to keep the business going because where there are no clients there is no business and that also means no money. You have to know where to look for clients for your startup business, getting new clients is not very hard because on a daily basis people need care.
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