The essence of assisted living facility is to provide accommodation strictly for rent to only elderly people who would need people to help them carry out some domestic tasks that they can no longer do on their own. As a matter of fact, nurses are assigned to these facilities to help take proper care of the elderly people in the assisted living facility because some of them may be battling with one sickness or another.
Setting up an assisted living facility requires hard work and serious planning. You are expected to apply and obtain permit and license to run such facility from the government, and your facility must meet the required health and safety standards before you can be allowed to operate an assisted living facility. Aside from well – trained domestic employees that will be on your payroll, you will also need to hire nurses.
Starting an assisted living facility business is indeed capital intensive, but at the same time it is a lucrative business. You are rest assured to make good returns on your investment because there will always be need for your service since people grow old daily.
Now let us quickly consider 7 steps to follow if you want to successfully start your own assisted living facility from the scratch and then build the business to profitability within the shortest time frame;
Starting an Assisted Living Facility – Sample Business Plan Template
1. Conduct Your Market Survey
Market survey is very important if you are looking to surpass others in the industry you choose to start a business in. Why is this so? Market survey is especially important because it helps you to draw inferences on how others have fared in business, and how you too may likely fare. Therefore it is vital that you know how the industry started in the first place, players in the field, how long it takes to set up such a businesses, the bodies involved, as well as other very important information that would help your own business,
2. Write Your Business Plan
The assisted living facility kind of business isn’t such that you can start haphazardly; it is such that you must start on a good note. That is why an assisted living facility business plan is really important. You will need to start this business with some pertinent information that you can always refer to in years to come.
This will include your financial projections for now and the future, the number of employees you want to start with now and in years to come, the type of facility you want to start with now and years to come, your target market and all what not. If you are able to cope with the technicality involved with starting business plan, then that is okay. Otherwise you might need to employ the services of a business plan writer.
3. Incorporate Your Business, Get the Right Insurance and Obtain Your Operating License
This is not the type of business that you can start without incorporation. This is because if you do so, you risk being forced to close down your business against your will. Therefore, wherever you find yourself, it is important to register your business at the appropriate business quarters. The chamber of commerce or the corporate affairs office might be the right place to turn to for this.
4. Get the skills Involved
If you are already a nurse, doctor, or are in the medical line of profession, then you might not have difficulty in pulling things off here. Conversely, if you do not have a medical background and just have a knack for the elderly ones, then you may consider sprucing up things. You will need to get trained by an expert or go work voluntarily at any of the assisted homes you know. This is especially important so that you can be up to speed with how things are run in these places.
5. Source for Startup Capital
Running an assisted living facility can gulp quite a lot. This is because of the various things that are involved in this. They include renting a facility, paying the workers, furnishing the facility to suit the elderly ones, the feeding, as well as some other very essential things that cannot be neglected. It is for this reason that you may need to source for funds.
If you have a great saving culture and have been able to save the amount involved up, then that is fine. On the other hand if not, there may be banks and microfinance banks to turn to for a loan. Also, there are angel investors that may be very interested in supporting your business.
6. Construct Your Facility in an Environment Conducive for Elderly
An Assisted living facility as the name suggests must be a very conducive one. You have got to first of all secure a facility in a less noisy area for these elderly ones. Thereafter, you would have to furnish the place with beddings, furniture, fittings and other things that can add to the ambience of the place, so that the elderly ones that would be brought to you can feel at home.
7. Hire and Train Your Employees (Domestic Staff and Nurses)
After you have gotten and made the facility a place of ambience, then you can look to hire employees. Be sure that you have well trained people so that the standard of service you start with doesn’t plummet. Therefore, you should look to hire those who have done a similar job in the past.
However, if you are looking to cut costs to the barest minimum- then you can consider a mix of inexperienced people. This is so that you can train them since the cost of hiring them is lower than that of the experienced people.
8. Advertise and Market Your Business
One of the reasons why you are in business is to make profit and not for charity. That means that you would need to have a rigorous marketing strategy on ground to fly with. One of these modes of advert is the word of mouth mode of advertising. Begin to tell people about your assisted living facility and tell them to tell others.
Thereafter, you can look to explore printing fliers and brochures. Be sure that all the information people want is seen there. You can also own a website, where you can blog about the assisted living industry.
This business in most cases falls under the charitable organizations, but that does not mean that you must go that way too. As a matter of fact, you can offer people premium services since yours is a paid one.
0 Comments