My brother-in-law is having financial problems, like many Americans.  He works as a foreman for a lumber company, organizing a team of men who load tractor-trailers being shipped to housing contractors.  He's a hard worker and his company was successful, so he was frequently able to work 15 extra hours of overtime each week.

Unfortunately, the normal slowing of the construction industry during winter, coupled with a crippled housing market, means that Jonathan is not getting the overtime on which he has come to depend.

I've been sitting down with him to help them create a plan to live within their new budget. I told Jonathan, and his wife, that successful personal financial planning has three distinct points.

To be successful you must:

1. Make good decisions
2. Develop a good process
3. Stick to the process diligently

I'm helping them develop a budget process, and make better decisions, and so far they've been implementing our plan diligently.  I'm happy to report that in the past six weeks they've come to realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train.

So how does this apply to Private Duty Home Care?  Obviously, the points above make sense, and for most business owners it's common sense.  How do we take them a step further?

Over the past few months my father and I have been working together to develop a comprehensive model of the ideal private duty company.  The first issue of this year examined the Pillars of Private Duty.  If you haven't read that article I encourage you to go back to our archive and read it first.

Today we're going to discuss the Three Functional Levels of a successful organization.  They are:

• Strategic
• Managerial
• Operational

The pillars of private duty home care are vertical organizational structure.  The disciplines, People, Promotion and Profitability, have to be managed by specialists, yet they also have to maintain balance.  If any of the three pillars grows faster than the others, the very foundation of your business is at risk.

We must maintain vertical growth in all three pillars.  To do this, we add horizontal supports in the form of organizational levels.  Here's how this works.

The Strategy Level -- Strategic thinking is all about making good decisions.  Strategic thinking should be your chief executive's prime objective.  In the past we've called it "Seeing the Bigger Picture". 

Strategic decision topics include:

• Branding
• Corporate Culture
• Competitive Advantage
• Critical Measures of Success
• Exit Strategy
• and more...

The Management Level -- Successful management is about good processes.  Management is not about implementing processes, it's about the processes themselves.  Creation of systems, policies, procedures, and most importantly evaluating the success of the processes.

Managers should focus heavily within their own pillar, however they should also communicate with other managers to integrate processes wherever possible.

Important processes include:

• Budgeting
• Customer Relationship Management
• Marketing Planning
• Staff Structure
• Intraoffice Communications
• and more...

The Operations Level -- This level is about getting things done!  Operations is about implementation, and perspiration.  The key for successful operations is to stay within the processes defined.  If your company develops a marketing plan, then the salespeople don't stick to the plan, how will you know if the plan works.

Individuals focused on the operations level will focus their time on the individual pillars.

Critical operations include:

• Sales
• Scheduling
• Billing & Collections
• Caregiver Recruitment and Selection
• Supervision and Record-Keeping
• and more...

Is the majority of your work focused at one functional level?  Should it be?  CEOs should be focused heavily on the strategic level.  Executive team members will spend much of their day in the managerial level.  Salespeople, schedulers, field supervisors and intake personnel will focus much on the operational level.

Many of you are running a small organization where there are more job descriptions than people to fill them.  The key is that when you are performing a certain job, to make sure you're focused on the correct functional level for that position.

Try this exercise:

1) Make a list of every task you do.  Obviously, daily, weekly, and monthly tasks are important, but don't forget about quarterly reports and annual budgets.  Don't forget about organizing your company holiday party, and holding the hand of a co-worker who recently had a death in the family.  If you've had a task, write it down.

2) Identify each task as strategic, managerial, or operational.  From the point of view of your business, what function did this task perform?  Was it big picture thinking such as strategic planning?  Was it creating a process such as implementing a new scheduling software?  Was it implementing a process such as making collection calls to delinquent accounts?

3) Where are you spending your time?  Are you the CEO who spends 40 hours a week in the operations level, and only gets around to strategic functions at home on weekends?  Are you a busy scheduler who spends too much time trying to refine your process?  Are you the salesperson who spends more time in the office on managerial tasks than on the road selling?

4) What would you change if you could?  You'll find that few of us are operating at the correct functional levels 100% of the time.  What would you change this year?  Would you block out more time for strategic functions?  Should you be in operations mode more hours each week?  Are you spending enough time examining your internal processes?

Finding the correct functional level for each task will give you a much clearer understanding of your specific roles with the company.

• The Seven Step Private Duty Sales Process
• Sitting on the Sofa with the Customer
• Selling Your Uniqueness
• Relationship Selling and Persuasion Skills
• Making Powerful Sales Presentations

• Two or more years of experience in private duty sales
• Complete 12 hours of training
• Pass a written test
• Demonstrate proficiency in generating admissions by completing our sales tracking tool.