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 8000 subscribers. Private Duty Today is a permission-based newsletter. In This Issue - Not Enough Cooks In The Kitchen?
- Private Duty Today - Upcoming Academies
- The Advanced Academy
- How Profitable Is Your Private pay Home Care Business
- Generate Referrals with Trusted Hands
- Marketing to Die For... Without Killing Your Budget
|
Not Enough Cooks In The Kitchen?
Anyone who's ever spent Thanksgiving with a big family (mine had over 60 at Thanksgiving last year), knows the value of having just one cook in the kitchen. My dad's cousin, Cindy, is the master of her domain. Her husband cooks the turkeys, one deep-fried and one baked. Each bird is stuffed, and then Cindy fills several more casserole dishes with more of her famous stuffing. Then she outsources the rest. Every family brings a dish. Most of us know what to bring because this tradition has gone on since before I was born. Cindy is Thanksgiving CEO in our family. Cindy has one job that day. Her job is to make sure that 50 family members plus half a dozen invited guests and friends, and sometimes a few last-minute strangers, all get more food than they can possibly eat. If you're the CEO of a private duty home care company, chances are one point you had many jobs. Whether you own a franchise, direct the private duty segment of a home health care agency, or built your business one brick at a time, today most owners are very involved with daily operations. Unfortunately, as your company grows, there has to be a division of labor.
Time and again we see franchise owners struggling to build a team around them. They have a tendency to hire short-order cooks rather than chefs. Does this scenario sound familiar? CEO’s makes sales calls, hire staff, manage the money then go home for five hours to sleep. At this point, they know they need help. They hire one assistant to take over one of those tasks, and with guidance they lessen the burden. The company grows and the CEO hires another to take over more tasks. The company grows again and the CEO hires another, then suddenly realizes the company has stopped growing. The CEO no longer has time to grow the business, think strategically. That time is now used to manage people. What this company needs are three chefs. Three people that not only can handle the tasks, but also can focus on growing the business within their pillar of responsibility. My advice to CEOs who have hired too many assistants, or are considering hiring more, is to look at your company with three distinct growth areas. We call these the Pillars of Private Duty: People, Promotion, and Profitability. When you make your hires, find people who will grow these pillars rather than hiring an assistant in one of the areas. Choose which pillar you will own, and which you will abdicate responsibility. Here are the three potential CEOs for your Private Duty Company:1. The People CEO: Strong team leaders make good CEOs. The people CEO is focused on building a team in the office and in the field. They become masters at recruitment, selection and retention. The people CEO builds a business around loyalty of caregivers and dedication to customers and their families. The People CEO needs to hire a strong marketing director, and a solid office manager. This CEO needs a constant supply of new customers, and someone to make sure that he/she doesn't give away the store to employees or in the name of customer service.
2. The Promotion CEO: Many good companies have been built on the back of a great salesperson. As the company grows, this type of CEO must master sales, marketing and public relations. This CEO spends four days on the road in one day in the office. This CEO builds a business by creating marketing campaigns and developing the brand recognition in the community. The Promotion CEO needs a solid human resources director, and a skilled office manager.
3. The Profitability CEO: No company operates profitably for very long without good systems, tools, and someone keeping a close eye on the cash flow. The Profitability CEO specializes in building the infrastructure that's the foundation of any good company. They monitor growth, track marketing ROI, tried to keep receivables low and payables lower. They create budgets and balance sheets, and set financial goals for the company. This CEO needs a good marketing director and a solid human resources person.
The key is that no one can be all three for a growing company and keep things in balance. If any of the three areas falter, the company ceases to grow. It's critical that you have solid decision-makers in each of the three pillars. - The $1 million company has a CEO that's constantly changing hats.
- The $5 million company has a CEO that's heavily focused in one area, and has solid leadership in the other two.
- The $25 million company has five locations, each with three solid directors, and the CEO who can safely run their company with a laptop and cell phone from a beach.
Ask yourself what size company you are, and what size you want to be. If you want to learn more about taking your business to the next tier, I urge you to join us for an upcoming Advanced Academy. The Academy for Private Duty Home Care will be holding two Advanced Academies this spring. |
We just completed our 2nd Academy for Private Duty Home Care for 2011 in Phoenix, AZ and the feedback is outstanding!
Between what we learned from the groups in New Orleans and Phoenix, we have never been more excited about The Academy for Private Duty Home Care.
First of all, the New Orleans group gave us an average score of 9.3 on a scale of 1 to 10 for the overall value of the workshop. Then, they told us that the most important "keepers" or high value take-aways were:
1. New marketing ideas & strategies
2. Finding high value prospects
3. How to grow the business
4. How to get the best caregivers (selection process)
5. Creating competitive advantage
6. Strategic planning
7. Benchmarked financial data analysis
8. Leadership skills
If you would like to get the latest strategies, insights and benchmark data to grow your private duty business, join us at one of our upcoming Academies:
May 3, 2011 Raleigh, NC - hosted by the Association for Home Care & Hospice of North Carolina
May 17, 2011 Indianapolis, IN - hosted by the Indiana Association for Home & Hospice Care
May 25, 2011 Newton, MA - Hosted by The New England Home Care Conference. Please contact the New England Home Care conference committee by clicking on the link or at 617-482-8830.
June 14, 2011 Philadelphia, PA - hosted by the VNAs of America specifically for VNAs and other not-for-profit home health agencies with private duty home care.
|
 The Advanced Academy
We have also learned that the participants in our past Academies are really looking forward to our Advanced Academy, which will kick on on April 6 & 7, 2011 in Orlando, Florida (co-hosted by the Home Care Association of Florida). This one and a half day interactive program is designed for previous graduates of the Academy and for the more experienced owners of larger private pay businesses. The group will be limited to 30 participants and registrations are coming in fast.
If you would like to really go deep into the best practices to grow your business, then you'll want to be in Orlando for The Advanced Academy for Private Duty Home Care.
How Profitable Is Your Private Pay Home Care Business?
Did you know... the average private pay home care business that is affiliated with a Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) is larger, growing faster, and is less profitable than either a franchise or independent private duty company? 45% of private pay businesses in home health lost money in 2009? the average private pay business in home health earned a combination of overhead allocation to corporate and net profit of 8.11% of revenue? the average salary of a private pay director working for a home health agency was $73,245 in 2009?
 Imagine how much more effective you could be in making decisions about your private pay business if you had access to the latest industry benchmark data.
Now you can have it! The 2010 Private Pay in Home Health Care Benchmarking and State of the Industry Report was just released by Leading Home Care. This industry study, conducted in corporation with the Visiting Nurse Associations of America and the Accreditation Commission for Health Care provides the latest statistical data from the readers of Home Health Care Today.
Generate Referrals With Trusted Hands! Our very first home care & hospice sales & marketing survey in 2004 showed Television was one of the most effective methods for generating referrals that turn into admissions and our 2010 results still say Television works. Althought very few people are using television, those that do still find it to be effective.
Last year we introduced you to Trusted Hands Network, then a brand new company that was taking an innovative approach to using television to generate leads and referrals for home health care and private duty home care. Trusted Hands Network, based in Encino, CA is a company unlike any we have seen.
We would like to remind you that if you are trying to reach a wider audience then Trusted Hands Network is a company that you need to consider.
Karissa Price, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Trusted Hands Network. Dr. Price says, "Trusted Hands is different from most of the referral and lead generators on the market today because, from its inception, it was designed to provide cost effective, qualified leads that meet the exact criteria of home care and home health agencies. Trusted Hands uses television advertising to generate calls from families and then uses live consultants and its proprietary software to qualify those callers into referrals that meet the exact criteria of our agencies. Best of all, when you receive a referral from us, it is a warm transfer from our call center to your agency and your agency alone." You don't have to worry about several other agencies calling your leads at the same time; they are yours alone to turn into happy clients.
Here's what others are saying about Trusted Hands Network:
"The Trusted Hands Network to us means effective, efficient advertising that generates quality leads and real growth for my business."
Terri Garcia
Owner
AngeliCare
Fresno, CA
"We received the promised number of leads in less than a month and were able to close on some very attractive new clients thanks to the Trusted Hands Network."
Lisa Marie Blaskie
Owner
ComforCare Senior Services
Palm Springs, CA
"The principles at Trusted Hands Network are warm, intelligent, honest professionals who understand my business needs and are a pleasure to work with."
Jurema Genovese
Owner
AV HomeCare
Los Angeles, CA
Marketing to Die for...Without Killing Your Budget! In this marketing focused e-book, a mother-daughter team, Angela Landmesser and Patricia Menoni share with you how they grew their Private Duty business from zero to $3.5 million in less than four years.
 Learn how to use their success to create your own.
Marketing to Die For...Without Killing Your Budget - by Patricia Mennoni and Angela Landmesser
|
|
