Choosing a Territory for Your Home Care Franchise

After you decide to purchase a home care franchise, one of the critical first steps in establishing your business is to select the territory in which you will operate.  A great deal of serious consideration and considerable demographic research goes into making this decision. Consider both the short-term possibilities and the long-term potential for your new franchise within any potential territory.  Once your franchise is established in your chosen territory, you will be devoting a significant amount of time to relationship-building within that local community.

Demographic Criteria to Consider in Selecting Territories

It is natural to lean toward selecting a territory near your own home. Unfortunately, the demographics of your area may not be well-suited for business success. If you live in a community populated primarily by young urban professionals, for example, you will have little to no client base.  Some new franchise owners are drawn to areas of higher income residents, but that choice may yield no clients if the age demographic is younger adults. A well-to-do area does not guarantee clients.

Consider, instead, choosing territories populated by a significant number of older homeowners who have been in their homes for decades, more than likely raising their families there. Such territories may be further away from your residence, but the longer commute is compensated for with a successful and thriving business.  Remember that many of the individuals who will benefit from your home care services have reached the last years of their lives and are now on reduced income with little or no money. It may actually be their adult children who hire you.

Potential franchise owners who thoroughly study territory demographics must learn each one's geographic boundaries, if any rival franchises providing similar services are present, how many residents in the area's population are 65 or older, and what potential sources of client referrals exist in the territory (i.e. medical offices, social services, welfare offices).  You must also be aware that demographics can be misleading and, at times, even incorrect. Check information from multiple sources whenever possible.

Home care franchises exist to provide in-home care for the elderly with everyday tasks, meal preparation, socialization and many other types of activities. This allows seniors to remain independently living at home longer.  An elderly care franchise owner who plans to establish a flourishing home care business will choose a territory with a population large enough to need and hire the company's services.

The Importance of Maintaining Your Home Care Franchise Blog

Since most consumers go straight to the internet when they want to find a particular company offering a service, more and more businesses are establishing a presence on the internet each day. This is true for almost all industries, including the home care industry. 

It makes sense to start by creating a website, but there’s more than just setting up a website and leaving it alone. This is where blogging can make a big difference to how you come across in a competitive field.

Blogging Benefits

Here are some reasons you should add a blog to your website:

• You and your staff come across as approachable and down-to-earth
• Blogging offers an opportunity to demonstrate how experienced and knowledgeable you are
• Writing a blog is an effective SEO tactic
• A current blog post shows your company is operational

Obviously, when it comes to home care you want to be both professional and personable. Empathy and skill must go hand-in-hand. A blog allows the writer to show an emotional side while remaining professional and focused on a relevant topic is a major plus.

A blog isn’t purely informational – one can use SEO as a way for search engines to recognize home care blogs and websites, which help home care franchise owners rise in search engine results. With enough time and practice, there is the potential to rank on the first page of large search engines like Google. It’s important to keep your blog updated and relevant to your business, or else Google and other search engines may not give your blog the proper credibility

The Payoff Will Come

Writing a blog is a fantastic idea, but the results won't be instant. Patience will be rewarded over time, especially since many other companies don’t utilize the opportunity to blog. Without allowing enough time one cannot determine whether this tactic would have worked, but experts say it's important to keep writing. Consistency leads to success.

If you don’t feel like writing new, newsworthy blog posts for your home care business, you can always rely on a professional marketing and SEO company to do so for you. Make sure the company understands your business and the voice that you wish to write in before paying them the big bucks, however. 

Don’t underestimate the power of blogging as both an informational tool and SEO tactic to help grow your home care franchises. 

The Importance Of Relationship-Building with Your Client’s Families

As in-home care business owners, you are undoubtedly well-aware of the importance of building strong and trusting relationships with the clients for whom you are caring.  After all, the client is why we do what we do, and without a solid relationship, we would really have no foundation from which to build.  

In addition to our clients, it is equally important to build a strong relationship with their family members.  It is a huge---and in many instances, an extremely emotional---decision to entrust the in-home care of their loved one to someone else, and it is critical that we build an open and trusting relationship with all parties involved.  Here are some key points:

Start with the Basics: A Clear-Cut Contract  

When you meet with your new client and the family, make sure that they have a detailed understanding of your company's responsibilities.  Explaining everything---and having it in writing---at the onset will enable everyone to confirm that their needs will be met.  In addition to clarifying what they expect from your staff, be sure to advise family members of your expectations and what assistance you may need from them to successfully care for their loved one.

During discussion of your contract and expectations on both ends, it's important to set limits; i.e. not saying "yes" to something that is clearly outside of your company's guidelines.  Being honest and upfront at the onset regarding any limitations is key---you should never make a promise that you know you cannot deliver.

Get to Know Everyone

Get to know the family, in addition to the client, as they are often instrumental in the initiation of this care in the first place.  When you take the time to show sincere interest and go the extra mile to meet the family members, friends, and neighbors (where appropriate), the family will feel at ease building a relationship with you because they see that you care about their loved one and everyone around them.  

Don't be afraid to ask questions!  

Although naturally, you'll be answering many questions from your client and their family, don't hesitate to ask questions on your end.  Going beyond the standard "contract questions" is definitely a way to initiate the building of a strong relationship.  (Your client and his or her family would be pleasantly surprised if you asked them what they think you could do better---just be sure to follow through on whatever feedback you receive.)

In the senior care business, a strong relationship will not only make your clients feel comfortable and at ease, but will also inspire confidence in their families and assure them that they made the correct decision to entrust this all-important care to you.

Create Your Own Brand to Market Home Care Services

There are marketing materials and methods you can use to attract new clients for your senior care business. To build your company's business image, the most important step to take in marketing your business is to develop your company's brand.  Branding is a marketing practice. It includes the development of your company's name, logo or some design/symbol that represents it, and an identity/slogan that differentiates it from other companies that perform the same type of service.

Your brand presents your company's message to potential customers.  Your brand must appeal to clients so that they will choose and use your company over the services of another company. Your brand should be consistently used on all of your logos, business cards, brochures, ads, signs, letterheads and your website. This is what is meant by branding your home care business.

Branding can be done well even by a small company or on a small budget.  When branding your business, do your preparation work carefully.  Determine and define the mission of your company for yourself so that you can clearly express it to others.  Outline, understand and be ready to explain the features and benefits of your service. Know what your former clients thought of and your present clients think about your company. Knowing the answer to that question it is vital to gather feedback from them. Survey them to find out:

• What do they like the most about your company?
• What do they think the strengths of your company are?
• What do they think of your specific services?
• What would they say to a friend when recommending your services?

Compose a list of all the feedback you receive. Highlight what clients especially love about your company's services.  Incorporate all this information in your branding.

If your company is a part of a particular home care franchising business, you will be tapped into their company branding and much of this part of your marketing strategy will already be developed by your parent company.  Independent companies need to develop your own unique mission statement from which to create a tagline/slogan that sums up your company's best features and is your own brand message. It must be sincere, consistent, short and simple. Use it on everything from business cards to your website. Above all, make absolutely sure you and your company live up to it.

Once you choose your logo, your slogan and your message, stick with it. Use the same font, the same colors and the same pictures on all your advertising. Avoid Clip Art and photos downloaded without permission from the Internet.  Use professional looking images legally obtained from sources such as ThinkStock and iStock.  If you can afford it, work with a professional to develop your company's logo. It is the "face" of your company out in the advertising world. Successful branding often makes or breaks a business in the long run.

Using SEO to Market Your Home Care Business

One of the most successful consumer marketing tool used by owners of a leading non-medical home care businesses is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), according to Home Care Pulse.  In fact, their 2014 Benchmark Study reports that companies using SEO as their top marketing tool achieved annual 2013 revenues over 32 percent higher than the industry's yearly average.

The era of using the yellow pages to search for businesses is nearly over. Today's consumers log onto the Internet to look for service providers.  This includes senior citizens, who are becoming more computer savvy, as well as their adult children.  It is crucial for your company to have an easy-to-access, well-designed and content-loaded business website, and to concentrate on SEO in order to attract the greatest number of consumers possible to your website.

When consumers conduct a search for "home care services," your SEO goal is for your company to appear on the first results page on all the search engines such as Google.  To make this happen, you have to set your company up as an expert in the home care field. Once you achieve that, search engines will lead consumers to your website where potential clients may choose your services.  This process does not occur overnight. Your own efforts make it happen through insuring that your website remains active, up-to-date and full of valuable and useful information on home care for seniors.

To achieve SEO success, you must first understand that all search engines want to provide their consumers' inquiries with the most truly relevant websites in their search results. For your website to be one of them, you have to have the best website for the services you provide in the area in which you provide them. 

Offer a blog on your website and keep it up-to-date. Make the blog posts relevant to your field and of interest to people seeking information on home care, senior care and related topics. Use your blog posts to show that you are an expert in your field. By updating your blog posts regularly you are demonstrating that your website is actively managed and relevant with current information on it. Now that you have made sure your website is active, credible and relevant, you may work to make it popular through link building.

You need other credible non-medical home care franchise websites to link to yours in order to become popular. One appropriate way to accomplish this is by finding their blogs and participating in the comments left there. Make them informative and thought-provoking in order to demonstrate your expertise. Add something to the overall discussion that is worthwhile.  Leave a link to your site. Invite that site to leave a link on yours. Networking is all about building relationships with other experts and enhancing your company's reputation.

Using Volunteers to Help Your Home Care Franchise

According to a recent study, one of the complaints most frequently offered by elderly clients of home care services is that their care providers do not exert themselves to help those clients. They may request to have their fingernails painted, their shoulders massaged or their hair trimmed, only to be turned down.  The care giver says he or she does not have the time or is not comfortable providing that service, but the clients feel that they are not appreciated or special.

This should be taken seriously by all elderly care franchise owners.  Owners must figure out how to enhance their services to help their clients feel they are valued and their needs are being met without forcing their employees to perform services they are not comfortable doing.  One way to solve this problem is to tap into the community and seek out the help of willing volunteers. By building up a pool of trustworthy volunteers to provide some special services for your clients, you can meet everyone's needs at little expense to your company.

There are networking tips to help you recruit community volunteers. These are different networking techniques than you use for building clients involved in home care franchising. You are not seeking new clients. You are soliciting caring people with some spare time who can provide an hour or two each week to make your elderly clients feel appreciated and happy.  Your goal is to meet their emotional needs as well as you meet their physical needs.

First, reach out to other businesses in your community. Speak with hair salon and barber shop owners and see if anyone can offer an hour each week to cut seniors' hair. See if nail salon personnel can spend time offering manicures. Second, train your care givers on how to give simple hand and shoulder massages. Bedridden elderly people can particularly benefit from a hand massage. It also releases endorphins that can lift the spirits and improves circulation.

Third, ask other friends for help. See if your snow removal company will include the driveways of your elderly clients in their routes. Check with your lawn care company to see if they can solicit some volunteers to help mow lawns. Fourth, begin an Adopt-a-Grandparent Program at your local high school. This type of community service will enhance students' college applications and build strong friendships between the young and the old.  It can certainly lower depression in your clients. The teen girls can paint fingernails and style hair. The teen boys can play video games and cards, and possibly even help the gentlemen shave.  The teens and seniors can play games, work puzzles, work on scrapbooks and read. Your clients will feel happier and more valued and appreciate your services again.

Getting your Staff Excited About Caregiver Training

Aging is inevitable for all of us, and in the new millennium, it is occurring at an even more increased rate.  Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine and healthier lifestyles, we're living longer; and in many cases, we're taking care of our parents.  Baby boomers, the largest generation born in U.S. history, will be between 56 and 74 in the year 2020. Many of them will still have their parents in their lives.    

As the owner of a non-medical home care franchise, you're probably more keenly aware of many of these facts than most people.  Now more than ever, it's important to not only provide training opportunities for your caregiving staff, but also find creative ways to encourage them to be engaged in these opportunities.  Here are some ideas:

1. First, make your training opportunities of special importance in your company.  If your staff is able to see how vitally important this training is to you as well as for their individual success, they are more likely to be positively and actively engaged.  (To encourage your supervisors to support your efforts, consider offering bonuses based on their staff achieving designated training goals.) 

2. Next, once training begins, recognize your caregivers individually in creative ways: thank-you notes, in-person acknowledgements from management, and highlighting their names on your website or company newsletter.  A framed certificate of completion is also a great way to acknowledge your staff.

3. If you will be offering a series of training courses, set up a staff drawing for a prize for completion of a set number of sessions.  And your drawing prizes don't have to break the bank---think about prizes that would be appreciated: gift cards, company shirts, or even scrubs!  Additionally, reward experienced staff by allowing them to assist with training newer caregivers---you will show that you value their experience.

4. Providing lunch before or after training might sound like a simple (or even unnecessary) thing, but think again.  You'd be surprised how much your staff would appreciate the gesture.  And again, it doesn't have to be overly expensive: deli sandwiches and pizza are always crowd-pleasers.

Home care is one of the most critically important jobs around, and ongoing training will make for a more competent and engaged caregiving staff.  Acknowledging your staff for their dedication will not only increase their job satisfaction, but also result in them providing care with an enhanced knowledge and pride in their work.