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PDT
#151 - Location, Location, Location ... Choosing Office Space
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Also: Build Rapport using Online
Resources September
9, 2009
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Private Duty Today
Welcome to Private Duty Today,
the bi-weekly electronic newsletter for Private Duty Home Care Leaders
from Leading Home Care ...a Tweed Jeffries company.
I'm Jason Tweed, Director of Business Development for
Leading Home Care, and Editor of Private
Duty Today.
Private Duty Today is published every
other Wednesday, and currently goes to over 7000 subscribers.
Private Duty Today is
a permission-based newsletter.
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 Your company is growing. You're adding new
staff. Profits are growing... and then.
Suddenly your staff feel like sardines. Your economy
style office has become a cluttered maze of desks and cubicle
dividers. Now, when the printer goes down eight people become
less effective rather than one.
Office space is important, but can be expensive.
Find ways you can grow your business but keep your office space scaled
effectively.
- Can some of your
employees telecommute? Is it cheaper to purchase laptops and
cell phones, or rent additional space?
- Can some of your
tasks be outsourced to postpone new office space?
- Is there more space
in your building you can rent? It's usually cheaper to
expand than move.
When choosing new
office space, look not only to improve the size, but also the location
of your space. I'm frequently asked by growing companies about
the importance of location. Here
are their most common questions, and my responses.
Is
it important to be located near wealthy neighborhoods to attract
private pay clients? Generally,
no. Most sales are made in clients' homes. The only reason
they know the location of your office at all is because that's where
they mail the check. In this case a P.O. Box works just as well
as a prominent location, and the rent is much cheaper.
Is
it important to be located near potential employees? Yes, absolutely. One of
my clients created an office space in a Wal-Mart plaza. While the
rent was high they realized that they attracted so many walk-ins that
it substantially reduced the necessity to advertise for potential
caregivers. Non-medical caregivers shop in commercial districts
daily. Locating your office here may not have the prestige
associated with an office building, but prestige generally doesn't
attract potential caregivers.
What
about medical office buildings? The benefit of a medical
office building is logistics. Typically medical facilities have
ample parking and are located in nice neighborhoods with access to
public transportation. The office spaces themselves can be
conducive to your work environment. From a marketing perspective,
however, there is no substantial benefit. I battle constantly to
convince CEOs that their businesses are personal services businesses
not health care companies. The best companies will get most of
their private pay clients from outside the medical establishment.
What
about a virtual office and running my business from home? I've seen several examples of
successful companies running their businesses from the home of the
CEO. With today's technology this is going to get easier.
Currently I feel that your growth may be limited by not having a
physical office space, but I'm open to the idea of a virtual office
being a long-term solution in the not too distant future. Ask me
this question again next year, and the year after that.
When
examining office space don't forget to look for additional benefits or
pitfalls.
- Is parking
convenient?
- Is public transit
available?
- Will your business
be located in a well trafficked area, or off the beaten
path?
- Is the office space
conducive to growth?
- Does the space have
access to broadband Internet, multiple phone ports, etc.
In the
next issue we will take a look at technology and how that can influence
productivity.
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Building Rapport Using
Third-Party Resources
One of the most important steps in our Seven Step
Relationship Selling Process is step #3, Building Rapport.
Creating a sense of goodwill and credibility with your prospects and
their families is critical. In fact, it's one of the most
critical aspects of selling, because without rapport it's impossible to
progress through the sales process.
A great way of enhancing your credibility is by providing
information from third parties. Your critical focus is to
transition your potential customer from Prospect into Shopper.
 There are lots of resources on the Web
that help seniors and their families make decisions about hiring
caregivers. One of the best is www.caregiverlist.com. The
website acts as both a resource for seniors and a recruiting tool for
home care companies. The concept is to connect caregiver recruits
to home care companies to customers.
The website has
resources for seniors in every state. They help answer some of
the questions that seniors and their families face. Printing
pages from this website or others, or sending e-mails to the
families of potential clients with links to quality information,
demonstrate that your company is a source of information.
You don't have to
know all the answers to build rapport. Connecting people to
information can sometimes enhance your credibility even more than
providing that information directly.
Caregiverlist,
created by senior care industry professionals, provides the only
complete resource for senior care costs, options and services "by
state". By combining interactive tools with unbiased
information, Caregiverlist delivers senior care answers to consumers,
senior care jobs to caregivers and senior care recruitment and
marketing solutions to senior care companies.
To learn more about recruiting caregivers through caregiverlist.com, contact
Julie Northcutt at 1-877-773-0255.
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Home Health and Hospice
Business Builders Workshop
 What are you doing next
week?
I
can tell you what dozens of home health and hospice executives will be
doing. They will be getting
smarter!
Wednesday through
Friday (September 16, 17 and 18) of next week is the Fall 2009 Home
Health and Hospice Business Builders Workshop. Stephen Tweed,
Elizabeth Jeffries and Dr. Tray Dunaway will be working with CEOs and
other executive team members of certified home health agencies from
across the country.
This powerful
three-day workshop is more than just an educational experience. It's a hands-on sales and
marketing workshop for team selling home health care, hospice service,
HME or home infusion therapy.
There is still
time to register, and just a handful of slots still available.
Round up your sales team and hop a plane, train or automobile to
Louisville, Kentucky.
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