Welcome to 2012!

       #209, January 4, 2012      

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
  • Welcome to 2012!
  • Private Duty in 2012
  • Linked In
  • Increase Your Income in 2012 By Selling to Bank Trust Officers
  • Bookstore


Welcome to 2012!
by Jason Tweed

The beginning of the year for me is a time of reflection, introspection and planning. 

In the office we re-examine long term goals and chart our progress.  We set actionable targets for the current year.  Then we plan and schedule the first of these actions.

Personally, I review successes and struggles from the past year.  I make commitments to myself and my family to improve where improvement is needed.  I look for opportunities for personal growth and professional development.  I review my roles as a writer, husband, father and member of our local community.  Lastly, I plan for fun!  After all, what good is growth and hard work if it doesn't improve your quality of life.

Strategic planning is important both professionally and personally.  As the owner or decision-maker in a private duty home care company, the choices you make and the actions you take affect the lives of many.  Your career, your staff members and teammates, your caregivers and other field staff, referral sources, clients and their families are all influenced by the decisions you're going to make in the next 12 months.  You owe it to yourself, and to perhaps dozens or even hundreds of others, to plan strategies to guide your decision making.

Ask yourself these questions, among others:

Promotion

  • What activities will further solidify our brand in the minds of referral sources and the community?
  • How are we differentiating ourselves from competitors in the minds of our referral sources?
  • What actions can we perform to improve customer experiences?
  • How are we going to exceed the expectations of our clients and their families?
  • What can we do to find more clients and close more sales?
  • What can we do to encourage more word-of-mouth promotion?

People

  • How are we going to increase the number of qualified applicants?
  • How are we going to improve the way we choose from these applicants?
  • How are we going to improve retention of our best workers?
  • What incentives are we going to use to reward and recognize quality work?
  • How do we improve communication between office staff and field staff?
  • How do we communicate corporate goals, culture, values and attitudes?

Profitability

  • What financial goals are critical to improvement and growth?
  • What non-financial measures affect overall company performance?
  • What strategies are in place for revenue growth?
  • What strategies where we implement for improving margins and/or reducing costs?
  • What ways will we improve efficiency in scheduling, billing, collections, staff retention and other systems?
  • How are we going to improve the quantity, quality and usefulness of data we collect?
  • Will positive results move us closer to a desirable exit strategy?

Personal

  • What are my financial goals and how does my work help me achieve them?
  • What areas of career growth are important to me?
  • What areas of personal growth do I desire outside of my career?
  • What impact do I personally make in the lives of coworkers, clients and my community?
  • What tools do I need to improve my productivity, decisions and effectiveness?
  • What habits do I need to improve these things?

This week, I approach you with more questions than answers.  In 2012 our aim is to help you answer many of the questions above and stimulate your thinking.

Here's to a prosperous, meaningful and happy New Year!

Private Duty in 2012

A video look at opportunities in private duty home care in 2012 with Stephen Tweed.


To help you grow your private duty home care business in 2012, we have added a new feature to Private Duty Today.  In each issue, we will send you a link to a new video featuring Stephen Tweed, CEO of Leading Home Care... a Tweed Jeffries company.  Stephen will be presenting new information on the twenty seven elements of a high performing private duty home care business.


Over 1600 home health, hospice and private duty home care executives are now members of our discussion group, Leading Home Care Network.  The discussions have been lively, and sometimes controversial.

Here are the latest hot topics:

  • President Obama proposes rule to eliminate the Companionship Exemption
  • ACOs and homemaker/companion services
  • 2012 Private Duty Benchmarking Study
  • Do you have success in targeting upper class seniors for non-medical home care?
  • Caregiving for a hostile married couple
  • The Crucial Step before you do online marketing
  • Is client management of home care services becoming more difficult?

Log into Linked In today to join the discussion.

Increase Your Income in 2012 By Selling To Bank Trust Officers
We continue to explore new facts and data to help you grow your private duty home care business.  One of the pieces of data we have picked up is that in some situations, client referrals coming from trusted advisors such as bank trust officers generate higher revenue per episode than referrals coming from health care providers.

A small but rapidly growing number of seniors have accumulated significant net worth, and have placed their money in the hands of a bank trust department to administer.  In many instances, those bank trust officers need to find a home care provider to serve their trust  department clients.

You can learn more about the operation of a bank trust department, and how you can sell your services to those trust officers.  Our friend and colleague, Mike Sullivan, partnered with Stephen Tweed, CEO of Leading Home Care to write the book on it.

Click on the link to get more information on how to increase your income in 2012 by selling to bank trust officers.



Whether you are looking for help with marketing, selecting the best caregivers, improving your process for phone inquiries or new revenue sources, one of the e-books or e-tools listed below will be sure to help you!  To order any of our other outstanding products or learn more about them, just click on their titles.

Our most popular e-Books:

Capture the Caller:  Turning Inquiries into Admissions in Private Duty Home Care - by Barbara Akst and Stephen Tweed

Get the Best:  Nine Steps to Hiring Quality Caregivers and Improving Your Bottom Line in Private Duty Home Care - by Leigh Davis and Stephen Tweed

Marketing to Die For... Without Killing Your Budget - by Angela Landmesser and Patricia Menoni

Increase Your Income Selling to Bank Trust Officers & Other Trusted Advisors - by Mike Sullivan and Stephen Tweed.

Our most popular e-Tools:
1. Private Duty Strategic Scorecard
2. Caregiver Recruiting & Retention Scorecard
3. Home Care Billing Rate Calculator
4. Lost Opportunity Cost Calculator



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visit one of the links below.

Private Duty Today | Leading Home Care |Caregiver Quality  Assurance

Reprints: Articles from this issue may be reprinted by home care companies and home care associations. Permission is granted provided that the author and publication are given credit, and provided that the article is used verbatim in its entirety. All reprints must be accompanied by a mention of our website, at www.leadinghomecare.com and/or www.privatedutytoday.com. Reprints of articles published online must have a link. Other use of this content is available with written permission only. To request permission, please email jason@leadinghomecare.com.