By Stephen Tweed
How big is a big company in home care?
What is it that helps the big companies get big?
What can you learn from the biggest companies in the industry?
One of the most interesting things that is happening at The Academy for Private Duty Home Care is the number of large private duty companies that are reaching out to us to attend our live events, participate in our Monday Morning Marketing Meeting program, and participate in our Mastermind Groups.
The median sized company in home care generates annual revenue of just under $1.4 million. That’s about 1,400 hour per week of personal care at $20.00 per hour. The companies that are reaching out to us are the companies that are doing 5,500 hours, 7,000 hours, 12,000 hours. We’re finding that there are some really amazing home care companies out there, and yet their Owners and CEOs are always looking for ways to get new ideas, learn how lead, and overcome the obstacles to growth.
Probably the best examples of this are the six CEOs and their COOs who are members of the $5 Million Mastermind Group. This group was formed in February of 2013 and has been meeting twice a year. We just came back from our spring meeting in Nashville, TN. This meeting was clearly most in-depth conversation and interaction, and the members discussed the value of being an active part of this mastermind.
Lessons from the Leaders
Last fall, this mastermind group met at the HCAOA leadership conference in Kansas City. Members of the group presented a panel on Lessons Learned from the Top 5%. Here are the six lessons they talked about:
- Have a Huge Vision – see the big picture of what you want your company to be like in the future
- Be a System’s Thinker – put in place people and processes to make it easy to repeat critical functions
- Try lots of New Things – if you are not making lots of mistakes, you are probably not trying enough new things
- There is a Season for Everything – great ideas you put in place two years ago may not last forever. Sometimes you have to stop doing things that once worked.
- Hire a COO – Every one of our CEOs talked about their decision to hire a Chief Operating Officer, and the positive impact that had on their companies and their lives
- Measure Everything – What gets measured get managed. What gets rewarded gets repeated. If you aren’t measuring it, you can’t improve it.
In the area measurement, the big conversation was on tracking the details of your recruiting and hiring process. All of these companies do a good job of tracking their marketing success and now they recognize the importance of measure their recruiting success.
These six lessons were affirmed in our conversation over two days as each of these company leaders talked about what they had accomplished since our last meeting, and the challenges they are facing today.
Biggest Challenges in 2015
Each of the companies talked about the biggest challenges they are facing this year. Last year the big issues were The Affordable Care Act and the Overtime Exemption. Both of those have been addressed and now they are moving on to other issues.
- Caregiver Recruiting – each of the member companies expressed the challenges they are facing in finding enough high quality caregivers.
- Caregiver Retention – Finding high quality caregivers is one thing. Keeping is another. The members recognized that the number one retention tool is “appreciation and recognition”. How do you show caregivers you value and appreciate them in a way that is meaningful to them?
- Sales Compensation – How do you set up a compensation system for a home care sales person that is affordable at the beginning, but gives them a big incentive to perform? The conversations around this topic were very enlightening and I could see light bulbs going on around the room.
- Differentiation in a crowded marketplace – While each of these companies is different, they are all experiencing exploding competition. The discussion was around how to differentiate your company from your competitors.
- Connecting with MCOs and MLTCs – With the growth of Accountable Care Organizations and Managed Long Term Care, how can a home care company connect with MCOs and MLTCs to help them reduce costs and hospital re-admissions?
- Technology – The group shared their experiences in applying technology to systematizing their businesses, from VoIP telephone systems to Google Docs, and from web conferencing with satellite offices to getting good data from your scheduling software.
Are you facing some of these came challenges?
We have observed over the last three decades that CEOs of high performing companies are all life-long learners. They are always reading, attending conferences, and engaging with other home care owners. The $5 Million Mastermind Group is another way they these high performance leaders invest in their companies and in their own professional growth.
The group agreed to invite four more companies into the group. If you own an independent private duty company that provides 5,000 hours of service a week or more, and if you would like to be considered for membership in this mastermind, call Jill Scott, Manager of Member Services at 502-310-0999 or send an email to Jill@leadinghomecare.com
If you are not yet at 5,000 hours per week, but would like to grow your business to that level, we are in the process of forming a new Marketing Mastermind Work Group. This will be a group of ten companies that want to work together to design, test, and refine marketing strategies that are proven to bring new high value clients. If you are interested in becoming a member of this group, please send an email to Jill@LeadingHomeCare.com with the subject line Marketing Mastermind. This group will be for companies that are providing between 2,000 and 5,000 hours per week. We expect this group to kick off in late spring 2015.
