8 Traits every Home Care Owner needs to grow a Successful Agency

The question of what “success” means has been asked over and over again by agency owners as they start their business or look to grow from where they are today. 

In other blogs, we have addressed some of the factors that make a home care provider successful. These include continued efficient operations, generating a profit, high customer satisfaction, and most importantly retaining their caregivers and clients.

All of this works together to build them into brand leaders in their markets.

But what individual traits stand out about the owners of successful home care agencies? What makes them different from others? And how do you ensure success as you start and grow your home care business? 

Here are some insights into the attributes of successful agency owners.

Looking at conversations and interviews with successful home care agency owners, there are some traits that stand out.

Here are 8 traits that most successful home care agency owners have:

Starts with Motivation

Every successful home care owner has a common drive; they are motivated.

Building a home care business is hard work, and there will be challenges and obstacles to overcome. Successful owners all have stories of how they worked through difficulties and overcame challenging issues. 

Having a strong desire and motivation to succeed is critical to the path of a home care owner’s success.

Have a Vision

Each successful home care owner talked about the vision they started out.

They had an idea of what their business would become, how it would look, and how their clients would perceive them. They were able to see the bigger picture of what could be and set their plans in place. They established measurable goals and then worked to achieve them.

They always have an idea of what success looks like and never lose sight of their vision.

Embrace Risk

Starting and growing any business has risks. New home care agencies are no different. There are financial commitments, economic changes, and competitive challenges that each owner faces. 

Successful home care agencies continually assess the risks and mitigate to reduce them. 

They understand that risk is part of the equation to success. They work hard to reduce that risk wherever they can and are willing to deal with the risks head-on and balance these against the reward.

Create and are Creative

Starting and running a home care business has challenges, business turns, and changes.

Successful owners use their creativity and the creativity of those around them to come up with new ideas and solutions to the challenges before them. They find solutions using their creativity.

They not only “think outside the box” but when needed, they “leave that box behind” and take new paths with new ideas that help them to build their business. When something isn’t working, they try new ideas to test solutions. All of this requires openness and creativity.

Selling

Everyday home care owners need to be able to sell the value of their business and services. They sell more than just to their customers or clients. They sell their business to their caregivers, staff, referral sources and other partners.

Having basic sales skills is imperative for negotiating, establishing your value, and building your business.

Owners that establish good foundational sales skills see their businesses grow faster. They understand how to calculate the value of their product which in turn helps them receive a higher price. 

Collaboration

Most home care owners start out working alone or with one caregiver.

But if they are to grow, they need to quickly be able to collaborate with others as they grow their team.

Collaboration is one of the best traits of successful home care owners. Retaining caregivers and bringing in more clients requires good collaboration. You cannot expect your caregivers to stay if they don’t feel like they are part of the team.

Successful home care owners achieve the very best solutions and outcomes when combining ideas and collaborating with their teams.

Invest

The most successful home care agencies continue to invest in their agency.

They invest not only financially but also with technology, training and skills for their care team. They look to tools and systems that can help them be more productive and make investments in those systems to achieve their growth goals.

They understand the value of learning. Successful owners also take time to invest in self-education and a better understanding of the systems and tools they use so they can take full advantage of them. They find time to continue to develop themselves, take classes, and learn more about the industry they are in.

Trust

Successful home care owners have a track record of strong trust and reliability.

Those who work with them know they can count on them; families are willing to put the care of their loved one in their hands. The caregivers know they have their best interest in mind, support them and trust what they are doing.

When a scheduled client visit has a no-show, they have technology systems in place to alert them and help them fill that visit quickly. Thereby maintaining the trust and reliability, they have with the client and family. This, in turn, drives the speed of decisions with their clients and care team.

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Smartcare Software can provide solutions that will help you and your agency prepare for the future of home care. Smartcare offers an easy-to-use enterprise solution to manage, schedule, and operate everything you need for your home care business. Smartcare is currently offering our COVID-19 Toolset at no charge to all home care agencies. The Toolset App includes reminders, agency notices, symptom checks, contact tracing and other important virus risk mitigation tools to help you manage your response to the pandemic. 

We are in this together. To find out more about Smartcare Software, email covid19@smartcaresoftware.com and let us know how we can help.

To find out how SmartCare™ software and support can help you differentiate your service and strategy, please contact us at 1+ 715-227-3768 or via email: hello@smartcaresoftware.com