By Stephen Tweed
This past weekend, I was in San Francisco for the annual winter workshop of the National Speakers Association. It’s my time to be a student and learn more about the business of being a professional speaker, and to have family time with my speaking buddies from around the world.
One of the highlights of this workshop was the Saturday evening dinner and entertainment. It was amazing. The concert was presented by NSA member Karen Jacobson from New York City. If you have a GPS in your car, you know Karen. She’s The GPS girl.
Growing up in the tiny town of McKay, near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, she dreamed of having her songs played on the radio, but she never imagined all of the people who would hear her voice. Karen is the voice of your global positioning system, and is heard in over 25 million cars around the world.
Recalculating
Karen presented a mesmerizing evening of songs and spoken words around the theme of “Recalculating”. We’ve all heard that word when we’ve made a wrong turn in the car. Karen led us on a journey in song looking at all of the ways that we are constantly “recalculating” in business and in life.
Recalculating Home Care
As I sat in that packed ball room with hundreds of my speaker friends lost in the music, I began to think about how Karen’s message was impacting all of us. I took out a slip of paper and pen from my coat pocket and made some notes about Recalculating Home Care. Here are five areas where you can recalculate your business.
Recalculating Competitive Advantage – What makes your home care company different from your competitors? Are you truly unique? Have you crafted a compelling competitive strategy to differentiate your company in the local marketplace? Maybe now is the time to Recalculate!
Recalculating Market Strategy – Is your business growing as rapidly as you like? There are three ways to grow your business. Get more clients. Get more repeat clients. Earn more revenue per client. Is your marketing strategy working the way you would like? Maybe now is the time to Recalculate!
Recalculating Your Sales Approach – One of the biggest challenges I see in our industry right now is finding and keeping good sales people who can really bring in measurable results. What are you doing about selling home care services to referral sources? Have you found the right person to bring in the new business? How are you coaching and training your sales person? Maybe now is the time to Recalculate!
Recalculating Caregiver Recruiting – As the economy improves, one of the biggest barriers to growth will be your ability to find and keep enough high quality caregivers to meet the needs of your clients. What are you doing to recruit new caregivers? What strategies have worked in the past? Will they continue to work in the future? Maybe now is the time to Recalculate!
Recalculating Caregiver Selection – Seven years ago when we first started doing research into caregiver recruiting and retention, we realized that while recruiting is important, having an effective selection system is critical. When you recruit and select only the best caregivers, your turnover comes down, your client satisfaction goes up, your frustration level comes down, and your profits go up. What is the core of your caregiver selection system? Are you using pre-employment assessments from Caregiver Quality Assurance to really understand the people you are hiring? Maybe now is the time to Recalculate!
Recalculate with The Academy for Private Duty Home Care
To get some new ideas to Recalculate your Home Care business, visit the brand new web site of The Academy for Private Duty Home Care and watch the 27 videos on The 27 Elements of a Highly Effective Home Care Company. Then take some time to Recalculate your Home Care Business.
