Growing your home care business
Growing your home care business requires a clearly defined strategy that covers all aspects of your organisation. Instead of trying to do too much, focus on the fundamentals, namely the nature of your services, the extent of your network, and the strength of your marketing campaigns.
These are the three top strategies we’ve seen successful home care businesses use to grow:
- Diversify your services
- Expand your professional network
- Build your marketing strategy
Diversify your services
Diversifying your home care services can create new opportunities for growth. Adding new services such as complex care, supported care or live-in care can increase your client base and expand your business.
Before you consider diversification, evaluate your current business. Is it well managed, efficient, and profitable? If not, you should focus on these areas first. Next, consider the outlay in terms of people and resources required to diversify and whether this is something you can afford.
Expand your professional network
Consider partnering with other home care providers. For example, if you offer standard care, partner with a company that specialises in dementia care. So you can refer clients that don’t fit your services, and be referred clients that do.
Connect with healthcare providers such as GPs and NHS trusts. The communication between the healthcare and social care sector is often fragmented, leading to drawn-out and slow discharges. Enhance your visibility and you can increase your client base through an accelerated discharge process.
Build your marketing strategy
Good home care marketing means that you don’t have to compete on price. In the home care sector, people are not necessarily looking for the cheapest option, especially when purchasing care for their mum or dad. Instead, use marketing to highlight the warmth and professionalism of your services.
Testimonials from those you care for and stories illustrating how your carers will go above and beyond are very effective in winning the trust of prospective clients. Spread your message in a variety of channels including newspapers, community newsletters, and social media platforms.
How to grow a home care agency
Growing a home care agency requires a well-planned, comprehensive strategy that combines traditional and digital marketing. You should expect plenty of competition, so to succeed you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd.
If you are new to the industry, your first step should be to learn how to set up your own home care agency.
These are the top four strategies we’ve seen successful home care agencies use to grow:
- Use word of mouth
- Build your digital presence
- Secure a good or outstanding CQC rating
- Win social care tenders
Use word of mouth
Word of mouth is an often overlooked but powerful way to get more home care clients. Each of your clients has a potential network of friends and family who might be interested in your services. Clients or family members of clients who are active in their community or hobby groups can be a goldmine for spreading the word about your agency.
As an added incentive, set up a referral scheme to encourage word of mouth promotion. This could involve emailing your existing client base requesting referrals in return for a one-off discount in fees, free care visit, or well-being related vouchers. For clients who are unable to provide referrals, set up a free prize draw for people who post online reviews of your agency.
Build your digital presence
Get a website if you don’t already have one. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. A well-designed website with relevant information will convey your professionalism and win the trust of potential clients. Clients and their family members in need of your services will be searching online, so that’s where you need to be.
The more traffic you can attract to your website, the more potential leads you will receive. Draw up a content marketing strategy that focuses on producing online content that is relevant to what your audience is searching for. For home care clients, their searches tend to be local, such as “home care services in Sheffield” so focus your content on addressing queries relevant to your location.
Secure a top rating from the regulator
Clients and their families are looking for the best quality of care they can find. Alongside word of mouth and positive reviews, getting a top-tier rating from your national regulator of care is one of the best ways to do this.
For example, in England, the regulator of care services is the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Their ratings are the industry standard and will be used to evaluate the services you offer. Home care services that receive the highest CQC rating of ‘Outstanding’ will have a higher attractiveness and higher occupancy than care homes with lower ratings.
To achieve an ‘Outstanding’ rating, your home care service must be caring, outcome-focused, have traceable processes, and be agile enough to handle situations falling outside standard processes. A good way to understand what the CQC inspectors are looking for is to read the reports published on the CQC website using their search function.
Win social care tenders
Local authority funded care is a staple of many home care agencies’ business model. If you want to provide care services for a local authority, you will need to win their social care tenders. The success of your tender bid depends on the quality of the responses you give to the questions in your local authority’s specification document.
When writing social care tender responses, make sure you answer the question directly. Plan your responses so they address each element of the question. Work out they key points you wish to make for each section. Then address each point in a methodical manner, substantiating your assertions with evidence, testimonials, or background information.
How to grow private duty home care
Growing a private duty home care business starts with knowing how to find clients who are looking for private duty home care. Then you need to understand how to stand out from your competition, streamline your business, build your brand, and make local connections.
These are the top five strategies we’ve seen private duty home care providers use to grow:
- Target segments of your market
- Find your competitive advantage
- Improve operating efficiencies
- Establish your reputation
- Build your community network
Target segments of your market
When developing your growth strategy, you will need to consider which segment or segments of the market you are going to target. For example, the geographic area you will provide services in and how fast you aim to expand your reach.
You may want to provide specific types of services, such as live in care or for disabled adults.
Find your competitive advantage
You should also decide how you are going to compete in the market. For example, will you focus on differentiating yourself from others with extra touches or features to your service, such as live updates on their care via text or a mobile app? Or will you provide a higher priced service with more contact time?
Alternatively, you could focus on price competition. In local authority home care this is very tricky, but in privately funded services where pricing is more elastic it is feasible.
Improve operating efficiencies
Are you able to deliver high quality private home care at a lower price by running more efficiently? For example, by removing unnecessary admin burdens or using technology to improve care rostering. Can you identify innovations that both improve care standards and safety, while reducing operational costs?
Growing at scale (not incurring the same ratio of operating costs to revenue as you grow) is possible in home care. For example, Premier Community save £40,000 on every 500 hours of care they grow, through the use of technology. Watch this short video below to learn more.
Establish your reputation
Your reputation lies at the heart of your business. This means caring about what people are saying about you, whether they be clients, other professionals, or members of your community. Make a point of delivering the best care possible in every interaction with your clients. This will drive word of mouth marketing, still one of the best ways to grow a business.
Build your community network
Building connections with your local community will give you a steady and reliable source of clients. Take on speaking engagements at senior centres, assisted living facilities, and churches. Sponsor senior events like coffee mornings, pub lunches, or quizzes. Volunteer with local charities to build trust with your community.
Home care business plan
Your home care business plan is a roadmap for you to follow as you grow. It is also a blueprint that informs your business decisions and attracts potential investors. Your business plan needs to be reviewed and updated regularly to reflect changes in your business strategy.
There is no set format that your business plan needs to follow. Nevertheless, the following elements should usually be included:
Executive summary
Aim to capture your audience’s attention immediately by setting out your business objectives. You should briefly outline the home care services you will be offering and how they meet a specific need in the market. Be short and succinct.
Business description
Describe the care services you wish to offer, such as live in care, elderly care, or dementia home care. Include non-medical services like warm companionship, meal preparation, light housekeeping, or recreational activities. Include any health care services if you offer them, such as professional nursing, occupational therapy, or speech therapy.
Define. the target market you intend to cater for, such as the elderly, people with chronic conditions, or people recovering from an illness or injury. If your offering is unique in some way, highlight it as your competitive advantage.
Industry analysis
Carry out an in-depth industry analysis of the home care market including local trends, the lifestyles of your target clients, the services provided by your competitors, and any gaps in the market you can exploit to your advantage. Use your analysis to define where your business can fit into the current market.
Marketing strategy
Decide how you will get your services into the marketplace. Consider both traditional and digital home care advertising and marketing tactics.
Traditional strategies can include:
- Cold calls: Contact local health care centres, social centres, and senior organisations that could be a source for client referrals.
- Press releases: Send out press releases to your local news agencies.
- Brochures: Print brochures and mail them out to targeted addresses.
- Exhibitions: Attend care and industry events, and hold workshops and seminars.
- Public speaking: Give presentations to health centres, senior centres, and discharge planning meetings.
Digital strategies can include:
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Ensuring your website is optimised to appear high in search results for relevant queries.
- Content marketing: Draw visitors to your website with informative blog posts, eBooks, and embedded videos.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising: Running a PPC campaign on platforms like Google Ads will place your ads above search results for your targeted keywords.
- Social media marketing: Promote your services on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media channels where your target market can be found.
- Email marketing: Invite website visitors to sign up to your email list in return for an eBook. Then send out regular content to your list to engage them and convert them into customers.
- Press releases: Send out press releases to online news sites.
Financial projections
Financial projections are an important part of your business plan. Realistic financial estimates will help you set business goals, make financial decisions, and identify areas for operational improvement.
Potential investors will use your financial projections to give them insight into your business, and will also want to see projected income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
Domiciliary care business plan
Your domiciliary care business plan is the foundation of how to grow your domiciliary care business. Your business plan will help you to map out your financial projections, refine your services, and set out your goals. Above all, your plan should be realistic. If an idea fails on paper, you should start afresh.
You can build a business plan with the following elements:
Executive summary
Your executive summary should describe your career background and industry experience. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) sets out the relevant qualifications that domiciliary carers require. List your qualifications and detail any plans to acquire new ones. Disclose any existing relationships with suppliers or potential clients that you can leverage to grow your business.
Company overview
Provide basic background information about your company so interested readers understand what you do, who your management team is, where you’re located, and what type of clients you serve. Include a company mission statement that sets out your goals, values, and overarching vision.
Your company overview should help potential clients or investors can make an informed decision about whether your company is a good fit for their needs.
Services offered
Set out the range of services you will offer. Try to strike a balance between general and specialised services. Common domiciliary care services include:
- Personal care: Help with toileting, bathing, and dressing.
- Domestic support: Help with cleaning, laundry, and meal preparation.
- Companionship: Providing conversation, emotional support, and social trips.
- Light medical support: Help with catheter care, PEG feeding and suppositories.
- Disability support: Help with medication, nutrition, and accessing health care.
Competitive analysis
Competitive analysis means getting out and about to scout out similar companies that operate in your local area. Look for adverts in local media, billboards, office signs or branded vehicles. Your competitors can be direct (other domiciliary care business) or indirect (residential care homes or nursing homes).
Map out the strengths and weaknesses of you and your competitors. Look for gaps in the services on the market. Gaps might be services that aren’t being offered, price points that aren’t covered, and target customers whose needs aren’t being addressed.
Marketing and sales strategy
Your marketing and sales strategy outlines how you will promote your services to attract clients and grow your business.
Promotional activities might include:
- Branding: Creating a brand logo, signature colours, and key messages.
- Marketing: Pushing out digital content via your website, social media, and email. Reaching out to local newspapers and local radio stations.
- Networking: Giving guest speeches at nursing homes, senior centres, or community centres. Connecting with social workers and hospital staff. Sponsoring community events.
- Client acquisition: Incentivising existing clients to refer new clients. Launching targeted advertising campaigns.
The best way to grow your home care business
Growing your home care business requires significant time and effort to create, implement, and monitor a range of different growth strategies. As a responsible home care provider, you will still need to focus on delivering quality care and making a real difference to your clients. Fortunately, technology is here to help.
The right home care software solution can help you better manage the growth of your business by reducing administration time, improving efficiencies, and enhancing quality, meaning you can grow at scale, giving you more profit to invest back into your care services.
To find out about the home care software we offer at Access, contact us here to discuss your needs or book a demo.
