Wai F. ⋅ New York , NY U.S. Army, Captain ⋅ 15 years served

Mr. Welk,

Thank you for your sharing. I did some research and found similar results except for the high capital expenditures. At this time, I have managed to find a home care agency that will assist with the set up of the business for a small fee and we estimated that it will take around $30K and about two years to be fully set up and running on a basic scale.

I am in NY and they have stricter restrictions. I am pondering on the idea of partnering with a nurse or another health care professional so together we can have enough experience to run it. I also thought about what will happen in the future when insurance companies totally eliminate home care services from their policies due to high uncontrollable cost, and the lack of professional dedicated home health aides because of low pay. I am evaluating how different pay and benefit structures can work to mitiate those issues if I do proceed forward. I believe the current business structure of home health care will not be sustainable in the next few decades because the composition of the labor force (Aides) will not be the same. They will be more educated, less willing and more demanding than the current force. And as far as business or contracts goes, I am jumping ahead and looking how the business will evlove over time and how I can capitalize on attracting those customers. Maybe with a dedicated force....maybe there might need to be a bonus sharing incentive....happy employees translates to happy customers......all still in the thinking tank.

Everything is still on a hold until I can get a medical professional who is willing to partake this journey with me. It was one of those entrepreneur ideas.

Thanks again. Once I find this significant other, I will definitely need more guidance as I proceed forward.

Frederick Welk ⋅ Meriden , CT Community Economic Development Fund ⋅ 33 years experience

Kuen,
I am a business advisor for a nonprofit lender. One of my clients is a small home health agency. I can tell you that the referral sources (i.e. hospital discharge planners, assisted living centers, social service agencies etc.) are overrun with agencies competing for their business. The key is to build relationships the old fashioned way, which can take time. You will not initially have much status in the marketplace except for the random call from a private pay family shopping in the proverbial Yellow Pages. Once you get an opportunity for a order, you must deliver flawless service. That becomes the trick when you labor force is made up of many under-experienced, under-motivated and often under-paid workers. Home health care is an industry with low barriers to entry. (i.e. nearly anyone can get the licensing and set up shop.) But it is a very working capital intensive business which many newcomers neglect. You need many tens of thousands of dollars in working capital to be paying your employees, normal fixed office expenses and marketing costs because it takes time to get paid. Often much longer than you imagine.

Wai F. ⋅ New York , NY U.S. Army, Captain ⋅ 15 years served

Advisors,

Good Morning, I would to thank everyone. I really appreciate you taking the time to share with me your knowledge and views. I will re-look at my business proposition again within my current business environment based on your suggestions. So far, I have spoken with two franchises but what I am concerned about are their restrictions, royalty payment and timeframe of the contracts. Especially, what they brief are almost the overview of success and not the little particulars that is of great interest to me. I am actually trying to find out if someone had the knowledge on how and where to bid health care contracts and the process itself so I can take it into consideration into my business planning as I have been informed that it is different for NY than any other state. I am still missing some information based on my business plan criteria but what is been shared here is a good start. Thank you everyone and I will post again once I have digested all the information or reached a wall. Hope everyone have a great weekend!

Bruce Cohen ⋅ Fort Lauderdale , FL Leland Capital Advisors LLC ⋅ 25 years experience

I have extensive experience in finance and when you get to that part e mail me and I can help.
I did run a large publicly traded company for many years but that was prior to my career in finance and those skill sets are probably outdated.
Let me know if i can help. I am here for you.

Richard Ashe ⋅ Houston , TX Veteran Franchise Advisers ⋅ 30 years experience

I agree with the advisors above. A business plan is essential to understanding if your business idea is viable. As Leo mentions above it is a living document that requires constant review and update as the market and landscape change and evolve. It is your battle plan and just like a battle plan its perfect until the first shot is fired!

I think the biggest challenge in starting a business is “you don’t know what you don’t know”. Now you may think “I can learn as I go” and that’s a great attitude to have. However, what you may not realize is that every mistake made along your journey to owning and running a business costs money...whether its time, hard dollars, lost customer, time to market, etc. Every entrepreneur at some point looks back and says “if I knew then what I know now...”.

The home health care market is growing so much so that there are a number of franchise opportunities that you may want to consider in your exploration and business planning process.

Franchising has advantages and disadvantages to consider: Advantages - established brand, training programs, marketing and sales tools and support, industry and market knowledge and expertise. Disadvantages - Less Freedom, required to share financial information and conform to standard operating procedures, Royalty payments.

Remember, as you formulate your business plan to take a serious look at the competition and figure out how you're going to do it better, different, more cost effective than others.

Good luck and keep asking questions and seeking guidance.

Leo P Flood ⋅ Kountze , TX SCORE ⋅ 30 years experience

Since you are aware of military regulations your state also have rules and regulation that you need to be aware of in order to start your business. Get to know and follow them and start your business off on the right footing. There are so many that start their business and have it closed for not following the rules of their state. Write your Business Plan and follow it. Keep in mind that a business plan is never complete as long as you have your business and plan on continuing it,.