Care Giving For The Elderly

[freepro]

So I have been thinking of a business idea and wanted to see what you guys thought of it.

I currently work full time so I would have to start this gig as a side hustle. Basically, I would be caring for the elderly on the weekends, beginning on Friday. Services would include the following:

• Washing, meal prepping, grocery shopping, taking them out to appointments, etc.
• Staying with them over night and monitoring them in case they need anything.
• Being a friend to them, listening to their stories, etc.

Who would I target?

• Individuals that will be alone for the weekend.
• I would target the younger children that need to find a place for their mom/dad/grandma/grandpa.

What would I offer?

• Trust, sincerity, patience.
• Never in my life have I been in trouble with the law. Luckily background check would pass with flying colors.
• If staying over night, I would offer camera access so that family members have peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are being cared for the way they should.
• If picking up groceries, GPS tracking to track that I am not just messing around or going to other places and wasting time.

Prices. This is where I need the community's help because I would be more than twice as expensive as local care giving companies. (They charge 21 an hour)

• If doing washing, meal prepping, grocery shopping, etc, I would charge 50 dollars per hour. Why would people pay that much? Well, these companies are usually booked out weeks at a time so I would be targeting customers that need a last minute option (Almost as an emergency service)
• If staying over night, I would charge 350 dollars beginning at 9 PM.

How do you guys see this business model working? Theres such demand from what I have read, but at the same time pricing seems low. I doubled pricing, but will I still be able to compete?

What do you guys think?

 

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[Scot]

I’m assuming you’re in the US.

First, are you a licensed home health aid?

Second, do you plan on getting insurance contracts? Do you know how to get insurance contracts? Can you afford insurance contracts?

Third, you realize you’re competing with a well established multi billion dollar industry, right?

 

[Danny Sullivan]

Hey @freepro

Although i perceive it as a meaningful and necessary service to care for our elderly and make their lifes as comfortable as possible i fail to see to profitability for you in it.

I mean, the value you'd provide is huge. But it's an time and human resources intense venture that i think would be hard to scale. I don't how it's in the US but in germany you'd also have to be qualified to work with elder people, especially if they have medical conditions.

I'd guess a lot of people simply don't have enough money to buy such an expensive service, especially since it just mitigates a long-term problem for a short amount of time and provides no "real solution".

Also (germany again) if elderly people reach a certain degree of disability they have the right for a caretaker by law. Don't know how this is in the US or where you live.

I want to add something from personal experience. You can be the most patient and well willing person in the world - but dealing with elderly people (especially if they're suffering from alzheimer's disease) will catch you off-guard some day or another.
Out of nowhere they don't want you around them, start to scream and punch you or run from you, call for help or caretakers, yelling that you steal from them or harass them, lock themselves up in their rooms or hurt themselves from falling down stairs or similar things.

I don't want to discourage you from doing it, yet maybe look if you can work weekends for one of the companies doing this already, or help out in retirement homes on the weekends to see what else can be done to help or if it's generally up your alley.

Best of luck!

 

[freepro]

I’m assuming you’re in the US.

First, are you a licensed home health aid?

Second, do you plan on getting insurance contracts? Do you know how to get insurance contracts? Can you afford insurance contracts?

Third, you realize you’re competing with a well established multi billion dollar industry, right?

Hey @freepro

Although i perceive it as a meaningful and necessary service to care for our elderly and make their lifes as comfortable as possible i fail to see to profitability for you in it.

I mean, the value you'd provide is huge. But it's an time and human resources intense venture that i think would be hard to scale. I don't how it's in the US but in germany you'd also have to be qualified to work with elder people, especially if they have medical conditions.

I'd guess a lot of people simply don't have enough money to buy such an expensive service, especially since it just mitigates a long-term problem for a short amount of time and provides no "real solution".

Also (germany again) if elderly people reach a certain degree of disability they have the right for a caretaker by law. Don't know how this is in the US or where you live.

I want to add something from personal experience. You can be the most patient and well willing person in the world - but dealing with elderly people (especially if they're suffering from alzheimer's disease) will catch you off-guard some day or another.
Out of nowhere they don't want you around them, start to scream and punch you or run from you, call for help or caretakers, yelling that you steal from them or harass them, lock themselves up in their rooms or hurt themselves from falling down stairs or similar things.

I don't want to discourage you from doing it, yet maybe look if you can work weekends for one of the companies doing this already, or help out in retirement homes on the weekends to see what else can be done to help or if it's generally up your alley.

Best of luck!

So it sounds like this might not be a good idea after all. The other two industries I was interested in was being a digital marketer and targeting local businesses or starting a landscaping company since I have a background in this .

Ultimately I'm looking to get into a business that is in demand and can be profitable with the ability to start as a side hustle

 

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[Danny Sullivan]

I feel the sudden urge to redirect you to this thread:

GOLD! - Making Money For Dummies (And In a Crowded Market)

I suggest you read it at least twice... because it's just that good. And if you're able to catch the spirit of this thread, your problems in finding your "niche" might vanish.

 

[minivanman]

What is your goal for this business? Do you just want to work it yourself or grow it and have workers?

 

[Mattie]

So I have been thinking of a business idea and wanted to see what you guys thought of it.

I currently work full time so I would have to start this gig as a side hustle. Basically, I would be caring for the elderly on the weekends, beginning on Friday. Services would include the following:

• Washing, meal prepping, grocery shopping, taking them out to appointments, etc.
• Staying with them over night and monitoring them in case they need anything.
• Being a friend to them, listening to their stories, etc.

Who would I target?

• Individuals that will be alone for the weekend.
• I would target the younger children that need to find a place for their mom/dad/grandma/grandpa.

What would I offer?

• Trust, sincerity, patience.
• Never in my life have I been in trouble with the law. Luckily background check would pass with flying colors.
• If staying over night, I would offer camera access so that family members have peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are being cared for the way they should.
• If picking up groceries, GPS tracking to track that I am not just messing around or going to other places and wasting time.

Prices. This is where I need the community's help because I would be more than twice as expensive as local care giving companies. (They charge 21 an hour)

• If doing washing, meal prepping, grocery shopping, etc, I would charge 50 dollars per hour. Why would people pay that much? Well, these companies are usually booked out weeks at a time so I would be targeting customers that need a last minute option (Almost as an emergency service)
• If staying over night, I would charge 350 dollars beginning at 9 PM.

How do you guys see this business model working? Theres such demand from what I have read, but at the same time pricing seems low. I doubled pricing, but will I still be able to compete?

What do you guys think?

This is called being a Nurse Aide, or Care Giver. They really need transportation to get out of the house, if you can afford a van that is wheel chair accessible. Most of there are many bed ridden who can't get out of the house just to go to a restaurant, the beach, the park, or some activity they might enjoy. You might fly with that one, if you provide a service which caters to a "Make a Wish" idea, that they can go do what they want too for Adults.

Perhaps they want to go to a concert, opera, baseball game, foot ball game, and all they need is you with them and drive them. They would absolutely love this.

You want to aim for private care residents in Adult Foster care Homes, Assisted Living Communities where they all live together.

There are different levels there in these homes. You'd have to get first aide training, also a C.N.A. license that might take you 8-10 weeks. You get a certificate.
The wealthy clients are usually in private homes. In-home care in there homes. And you have the one's who can't really afford anything in the nursing homes.
Usually the wealthy individuals love having you do house work, yard work, and there quite picky about how you do things and the only way you'll be hired is if you have local, state, and international background check.
Usually, you will aim for their children or their spouses, since they usually are in charge of them legally.

Usually they have a lot of equipment you need to learn. If you know how to use the equipment in their homes, you will get more jobs than the rest like I did, and if you can handle the tough people, you will always be called first and be the top person of choice.

I always stood out because I didn't care what the clients said, did, I just did what they asked.

Just some advice. Do not sit there and do nothing, play video games, watch t.v. without their permission. If they give you a list to do, do it without complaint.

Do not take any thing from their home without permission from the client and their family.

You have to accept the fact that if you start a business with the elderly, they are not always nice, pleasant, and sometimes out of their mind. Depending on what they have they can be very fragile and break bones or tear skin very easily.

Really the Elderly is wonderful job, I enjoyed it very much.

Usually Entrepreneurs own the homes and hire other people to run them. Rarely do you see them accept when the come into check on everything.

You may see if these homes will contract you for what you listed, if you have the certification, this says, your qualified to handle their needs.

You'd have to check with Department of Human Services and see what you need to know about providing a service since there is a Nurse Aide registry to assure they aren't abused. They also have Adult Protective services, so you need to know those laws.

The clients in in-home care you should aim for because they really need the help the most and need different services on the weekend, third shift, and if you have good references they will pay you well and give you gifts.

When you work with the families you become part of their family. Respect them in the same manner.

Hospice clients, I'm not sure if you'd be able to take out, but sometimes they need people just to sit in the room with them and make sure they don't get out of bed and hurt themselves. Usually they are on morphine and other pain medications and hallucinate.

Don't argue with any of them when their hallucinating, just go with the story they're seeing and just go along with it, and they will be more manageable. If you tell them their reality isn't real, they get restless, agitated, and will fight with you physically.

If you have anymore questions, just ask. I worked in that area for many years.

 

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[GeoffP]

So I have been thinking of a business idea and wanted to see what you guys thought of it.

I currently work full time so I would have to start this gig as a side hustle. Basically, I would be caring for the elderly on the weekends, beginning on Friday. Services would include the following:

• Washing, meal prepping, grocery shopping, taking them out to appointments, etc.
• Staying with them over night and monitoring them in case they need anything.
• Being a friend to them, listening to their stories, etc.

Who would I target?

• Individuals that will be alone for the weekend.
• I would target the younger children that need to find a place for their mom/dad/grandma/grandpa.

What would I offer?

• Trust, sincerity, patience.
• Never in my life have I been in trouble with the law. Luckily background check would pass with flying colors.
• If staying over night, I would offer camera access so that family members have peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are being cared for the way they should.
• If picking up groceries, GPS tracking to track that I am not just messing around or going to other places and wasting time.

Prices. This is where I need the community's help because I would be more than twice as expensive as local care giving companies. (They charge 21 an hour)

• If doing washing, meal prepping, grocery shopping, etc, I would charge 50 dollars per hour. Why would people pay that much? Well, these companies are usually booked out weeks at a time so I would be targeting customers that need a last minute option (Almost as an emergency service)
• If staying over night, I would charge 350 dollars beginning at 9 PM.

How do you guys see this business model working? Theres such demand from what I have read, but at the same time pricing seems low. I doubled pricing, but will I still be able to compete?

What do you guys think?

Your problem here will be Scale I think. There is always a need for competent home care but it's really hard to train people to do this well. I like the idea of emergency care since I haven't really seen that model but I suspect there is a need for it. You may even be able to get referrals from other home care agencies.

I recommend you go to the drawing board and do a lot of market research and then start figuring out how to launch this.

 

[minivanman]

OP never answered my question but for anyone interested in this business..... one of the easiest business to scale in the world. Your work force is anyone that has a heart beat. Not really any training needed at all. Low worker pay is why they only charge $21 an hour. $7.50-$9 an hour is what this type of work pays.... today, July 2019. There is probably a few exceptions, but on a whole.

While the OP was interested in $50 emergency care, the core business would be the $21 a man hour for normal care and if the OP could make it work to have emergency care, then you could charge the $50. That would mean someone would need to be on-call 24/7. Not that hard at all to find these types of workers that are willing to do that for a few dollars extra. Normally, the general public is not where the money is made for a business like this. Contracts through the government is where the money is at. That is probably the reason emergency care is not that common. You would need the government contracts but you could also service the general public. We talked about starting this type of business but here is the problem.... have you ever heard of an @ss load of paper work? x5 and that is what you have with a business like this. We were not looking to service the private sector because of the same reason companies in this line of business doesn't target the private sector...... collecting money through the government is so easy, why mess with the private customers?

If a person would want an easier version of this, look in to elderly/handicapped transportation.

 

[GeoffP]

OP never answered my question but for anyone interested in this business..... one of the easiest business to scale in the world. Your work force is anyone that has a heart beat. Not really any training needed at all. Low worker pay is why they only charge $21 an hour. $7.50-$9 an hour is what this type of work pays.... today, July 2019. There is probably a few exceptions, but on a whole.

While the OP was interested in $50 emergency care, the core business would be the $21 a man hour for normal care and if the OP could make it work to have emergency care, then you could charge the $50. That would mean someone would need to be on-call 24/7. Not that hard at all to find these types of workers that are willing to do that for a few dollars extra. Normally, the general public is not where the money is made for a business like this. Contracts through the government is where the money is at. That is probably the reason emergency care is not that common. You would need the government contracts but you could also service the general public. We talked about starting this type of business but here is the problem.... have you ever heard of an @ss load of paper work? x5 and that is what you have with a business like this. We were not looking to service the private sector because of the same reason companies in this line of business doesn't target the private sector...... collecting money through the government is so easy, why mess with the private customers?

If a person would want an easier version of this, look in to elderly/handicapped transportation.

Mediocrity in this industry scales well. A high quality business along the lines of what OP was thinking, not as easy to scale.

 

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[BBarakti]

Surely there's a Fastlane position between mediocrity and luxury service in the home health/ personal care industry?

Is this industry not Fastlane?
Control- If not a franchise, then Medicaid/ Medicare/ Insurance providers would have substantial control over your paperwork requirements. So, "C" isn't ideal, but every industry has negatives and this negative creates a "positive" in the next facet.
Entry- The barrier to entry is high and daunting, mostly due to the paperwork requirements and high costs of fronting multiple caregivers salaries for the first few months.
Need- Huge and growing. Something like 10k boomers turns 65 per day. The wave is only just beginning, people are living longer and these people have good insurance and funded retirements to pay for health care for decades.
Time- I'm young(ish). For the next 20-30 years, the boomers are going to be passing through the targetted demographic....plenty time to build a "net".
Scalability- Again... boomers. By 2030, something like 20% of our population is going to be over 65. That's pretty good scaling.

Yet, I see a lot of naysayers regarding the industry. What am I missing?

I get that it's not the early days of the internet kinda sexy, but it's still profitable. Right?

 

[biggeemac]

So it sounds like this might not be a good idea after all. The other two industries I was interested in was being a digital marketer and targeting local businesses or starting a landscaping company since I have a background in this .

Ultimately I'm looking to get into a business that is in demand and can be profitable with the ability to start as a side hustle

This is actually my business niche. If your goal is to "get into a business that is in demand and can be profitable with the ability to start as a side hustle", then this is the wrong business for you. Your passion HAS TO BE helping people. If profit and money is the end all be all for you, then you will fail, and hurt some vulnerable people in the process. I went into the caregiving business with a similar mindset. Fortunately, as I began to see how things REALLY work, I shifted my mindset.

Good luck to you!

 

[Tourmaline]

Sounds like a recipe to become self employed, not really have a business.

Think bigger. Read TMF if you haven't, cause it sounds like you haven't.

What about a company that has employees that do the care taking while you hash out systems to ensure that someone with the right attitude can come in with no experience, get trained by your system, and provide the level of care you want, while you mostly work on getting more clients and expanding to new markets?

 

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