The number one reason to have a business plan is for you, so that you have clarity of vision of who you are, what you're doing and where you're going. The second reason for a business plan is to help raise capital. No private investor or a lender is going to give you the money you need without a business plan. You need to be able to show to other people that you know what you’re doing and where you’re going, where it starts, where we break even, where we're profitable, what's my reserve and all of the details. You want to give them a clear vision so they can buy into or lend to you. But that lender wants to know that they're going to make money, and that they will eventually get out of that deal. You also need to consider the 5 Ps in your business plan. They are People, Position, Product, Projection, and Plan. We go over all of these individually in more detail in our Blog. There's a lot to know in a business plan, but the two keys are clarity of vision for you and the ability to raise capital  

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Business Plans For Opening An Assisted Living Home

You can turn your home into senior housing anywhere from independent living up to Assisted Living. Independent living is senior safe. I mean grab bars, smoke detectors, wider doors, trip hazards removed. That home itself maybe has four bedrooms. There's four different people living there. Now if you have a home right now that is maybe on a single level that could be converted to four bedrooms and maybe there's at least two bathrooms, so there's two people to a bathroom or maybe you add some extra bathrooms. Being close to different activities as well. Libraries, grocery shopping, movies, those kinds of things are more important for independent living, That could be a good transformation or conversion from your current home into some senior housing. Assisted Living means somebody is there to take care of them. We provide a service for them, and you need to get it ready because Assisted Living means there's going to be caregivers that there. They're not necessarily living in the house with them, live in caregivers, but if you are doing it that way, there might be a room that's designated for the caregivers. The conversion itself is fairly similar, senior safe, but there may be a few more requirements to make sure it's appropriate for assisted living.

Transforming Your Home Into Senior Housing

As our family ages they start to need more. Their independence is gone and they don’t want to admit that they may not be capable emotionally or physically. So I think a lot of times we just assume that we should take care of our own mom, our own dad.   The reality may be we just aren't designed for that or have the time and ability to do so. So assisted living provides the care, the home, and the opportunity for us to take care of our parents without physically doing it ourselves. There's a lot of people that will have Alzheimer's or dementia issues, memory care issues. The idea of memory care and understanding how to handle that is just as important as the physical contact. Assisted living is not just physical, it's also in memory care and brain change. You know there's so much to learn, but the reality is we're all going to have to. We are all aging. Assisted Living is going to affect each and every one of us. You're either going to own the real estate the assisted living home is in, you're going to own and operate the business that is taking care of those seniors, or you or a family member may be living in a home, writing a check to somebody else who does. So how will you be a part of it?

You Don’t Have To Be The Caretaker Yourself

A long time ago Assisted Living meant a big institution. Today it is completely different. When you think about living at an Assisted Living home, it has all of the comforts of home and there's other people in that home. It's a group of 8, 10, to 12 seniors in a home with peers their own age, living in that home together. It’s a community. Having a community of people to be with is incredibly important. It's not just your physical health, it's your mental health, your attitude. Assisted Living is for when somebody has an event, they move into Assisted Living after that event where they need additional help or monitoring. They need help with their medication, bathing, feeding or whatever it may be. They move there because they have to. And it's a home setting and that's specifically what we do with residential assisted living. Let's face it, we're all going to pass away. The question is when, not if. The family will come and they'll spend the last few days saying their goodbyes. 9 times out of 10, they pass away in the middle of the night. The opportunity to care for them and share with other people during that time is incredibly powerful. The families are thankful that we were there to take care of their family member all during that time.  

Assisted Living Explained

Offline Marketing is having brochure, flyers and business cards. The brochures should match your website and your online presence. You only get one chance to make a first impression.   One of your biggest and probably the most important way to market your business is referrals. Referral marketing is the best way to get new business in Assisted Living and Residential Assisted Living. We need to have those relationships. There are professional referral sources, placement agents that refer seniors to homes, attorneys that specialize in working with seniors, insurance agents that work with long-term care insurance, and financial planners that specialize in working with people's estates as they get older. They went out and created the relationships. Hospitals and doctors offices are your two other primary sources for referrals. It could be something as simple as having your brochure in the waiting room or building a relationship with the nurses and staff. Imagine if you show up once a week and bring in a flat of coffee, a small box of chocolates and a handful of brochures. Everything I just described costs about $100 per month. You're going to get one, two, even up to 22 referrals from that. Every one of them is worth thousands of dollars to you.

Marketing Offline Helps Build Personal Relationships

Hospice provides benefits for people at end of life care.The money that pays for it is provided through the government, which comes from our tax dollars. When somebody is on hospice, the services are provided to them at no cost to them. That company that is providing them the hospice provider, they'll bill insurance and the government to get reimbursed. We're all getting closer to the end of life every day. But somebody who is really truly closer to end of life now could be on hospice for years. Hospice provides all of the care, equipment, supplies, care, nursing visits and so on. They may need 24 hour care, maybe even a few visits a day or per week. Some people come in on hospice and they're with us for months and years. Assisted Living works hand in hand with hospice providers. They give us referrals and we give them referrals. One of the things I truly appreciate about hospice is their heart's in the right place. They really want that resident, who needs to help, to get the care that they need. Hospice is a wonderful service that we do fully utilize in Residential Assisted Living. Someday you or your family member may need exactly that. Don't hesitate to call them.

Hospice - Who Really Pays For It?

You probably haven’t even considered putting mom or dad into a home. You just got to a point where it was harder than you thought and you didn't have the time, the skills or maybe the heart. You weren't designed to be that caregiver. You needed that help and you know they did too. In your heart, you know it's the right thing, When it comes to a home, it's not just their physical need, it's their emotional needs, their spiritual need. A lot of older people have gotten to the point where they're not social anymore. Sitting and watching TV isn't very social for you or me. It's certainly not for them. But maybe there's games that can be played, puzzles that can be put together, or playing cards. Maybe it's artwork or crafts. Maybe it's dancing. When was the last time you saw your parents dance? They even had some really cool dances that they did. Bring some music that would have been from when they were younger. Ask them did they ever go to a speakeasy or an after hours club? Some of the stories that will come out will tickle their imagination and bring life into their eyes and conversation. And the biggest one, just sit and talk. Ask them, “where did you travel? Where did you meet your spouse? Tell me about your kids.” If you start thinking about those things differently, you may just find that your parent is in the home you always dreamed of.

Are Mom And Dad In A Home You Feel Good About?

Learn from other people's success. Learn from other people's mistakes. Learn from other people's experience who's actually doing it, not just talking about it.  The most expensive lesson is the expense of doing it ourselves, getting to the end and saying, “I wish I knew that before I started.” You could save yourself a lot of money, but if you save yourself weeks or months or years. Saving time is even more valuable than saving money. When you have a business you typically have standard operating procedures, SOPs. In Residential Assisted Living, we call those policies and procedures. It covers everything from bringing somebody into the home,  medication management, menus, scheduling of the caregivers, record keeping and everything in between. Even checking a resident out of the home. Lastly, you have to have backup plans. So that when something doesn't go right what's the backup plan? What do we do in every situation? If this doesn't work, then this is what we do next. How are we going to do this if we can't get it done that way? If you have systems in place and you have the backup redundancy, you can pretty much handle anything that comes your way in Residential Assisted Living or virtually anything that you do.   

3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting In Assisted Living

20 years ago when we first heard about assisted living, we all heard about the silver tsunami that was coming.They were sharing it from the business perspective but there was nobody there to show how it's done. But when it comes to real estate, it's just bricks and sticks. You can fix it,  flip it, buy it, hold it and rent it. But it's kind of cold and meaningless. You have to take care of business, but you also have to have a heart. We're taking care of people, but it's okay to make money. Making money is why we do it, but we can choose to do it in a way where we can make money and help people. The more money you make, the more you can give and it flows through and the faster it comes. All of us have parents or people who are older within our family that somebody is going to need to take care of. So you can start your own home and they can move in for free. Or you can charge them money or whatever it is that they can afford. You want to have a little bit of control over the caregivers and managers, but not be the caregiver or manager. By owning the residential assisted living home, you can have that control, you can help them do good and do well. It is truly the best of both worlds. Make money and help others. 

Making Money Or Helping People - Do You Have To Choose?

You're going to work at something, you're going to get good at something, the question is what. And what are you willing to do in order to get the return that you say that you want? If you could create a business where you're making all the money you need to pay your bills, well then you can do whatever you want with the rest of your time. Right now a lot of you are working 60 or 80 hours a week doing a job that you hate. And you're working for somebody else. 10,000 hours is what they say it takes to become successful, to become an expert. What are you going to invest the next 10,000 hours in? If you have just one home, not only would it provide the income for you so you are financially free. But now when mom or dad need that help or an aunt or an uncle need that help, it's not a burden on the whole family. And if they or you have long-term care insurance, you can now bill the insurance company for that longterm care. I guarantee you're going to get involved in assisted living one way or the other. The choice is yours right now, but it's up to you If you want to get started.

RAL Isn’t Easy, But It’s Worth It

There are 3 main signs that it is time to move to assisted living. Number one is that there there was an event, maybe they fell and the doctors say they could fall again and if they do, who's going to be there in the home to see it and pick them up or bring them in or call 911. Mobility issues are there more activities that they can't do? I mean really slowing down to the point where they need a cane, a walker or even a wheelchair. The second sign is that they're lonely. They're at home, alone, and they're not engaged anymore. If they're all alone at home, what's going to stimulate them? They need to be engaged and just need to do something where they're part of a community. But if they're quieter, they're staying in, they don't leave the house anymore. That turns into the social constriction, and isolation. Third one is, are they meeting their own needs when it comes to medication, are they forgetting to take it or taking too much? Food, they forget to eat, or they eat and forgot they eat and eat again. And taking care of themselves, they aren’t bathing or washing their clothes. Those kinds of personal functions are what we call activities of daily living. When they start to need help with those things, well you know that it's getting close to time.

3 Signs It May Be Time To Move Into Assisted Living

Staying active is incredibly important. If you just simply lie on the couch things are gonna slow down. They can still do something, but maybe it's volunteer. Maybe it's where they're passing on their wisdom or helping somebody else reach their goals. They're at the point in life where they're giving back, not taking from. And frankly there's no reason to have given up or be physically incapable of taking care of yourself unless there is a true major medical condition. In our homes when somebody moves in, we try to keep them active, exercise, senior yoga, music, pet therapy and so on. You need to stay active physically and mentally. What you're looking for is that community, the other people that are around them. Can the mom or dad, or the person who's looking to move into your home, relate to the other residents in that home. And if they used to do something or want to do something, you can bring that activity in. When you talk to somebody that has different ideas and they share what they believe and you share what you believe and you have that interaction and exchange of ideas. That is empowering, it's growing It gives you power, juice and energy. Seniors need that too.

Life Doesn’t End At 70 Years Old

You're going to have the conversation with the parents about moving into assisted living and if you really focus on what's good for them it’s good for you. Many times older relatives will sell their house and move after all of the kids are out of the house. They want to move to a warmer environment and retire. Some do want to do it and plan for it. They may go visit for a few weeks during the winter. They can get comfortable with the fact that there's a place they can go. For them, this may be the right thing. It may be time to hire somebody or move mom and dad into assisted living. That transition can be smoother if somebody comes in to help in the home, but that's more expensive. Or they move into a home with this small group of seniors. The closer it is to you the more you can visit. Many times that relationship gets deeper and closer because they're making the time and the effort to go see them and spend time. Those caregivers are trained and it allows you to be the son, the daughter, the granddaughter, the grandson. It allows you to play the part that you were designed to play. Whether it's in your own home or in that facility it’s good for them and for you.

Is It Time For Assisted Living? - Part 2 - What’s Best For Them And You?

It's important to have the conversation with your parents when it's time to move into assisted living. It’s going to be very awkward and feel uncomfortable and a lot like the roles have reversed. At some point, they may need assisted living. Let me show you the conversation that you need to have. That adult has been independent and they're not gonna ask you for help. Many times a senior, when they're younger and not as in need, transitions better into senior housing. That's more of an independent living situation where they're in their own townhome or apartment but they also have access to a cafeteria and group activities. Most seniors would rather stay in their own home. They'd rather have their own independence. One good way to transition is to have them volunteer at a home. They can go in and play cards, make a puzzle, or read to those people. They become friends with the residents, and then when it comes time to move into the home it's not as foreign to them. Another way is that you sometimes need a break. You bring somebody into the home on a respite, from a couple of days to a week, and if they have a good experience, that later transition could be natural  At some point something has to be done and that decision made. So you really do need to have that conversation.

Is It Time For Assisted Living? - Part 1 - Having The “You Need Assistance” Talk

There's a crisis out there. And there is the opportunity to help, to be a part of something big and important. The question is, are you going to be a part of the solution or part of those who complain about it and do nothing? One of the saddest things In our society today is that more than half of people polled feel lonely. We look at our phones and those things that take us away from talking to each other. There's a lot of seniors who would just love to have somebody stop by and say hello. It really doesn't take much. If you're sitting at home watching golf, why not go sit with them and watch golf? Then ask them a question, did you ever play golf? What kind of clubs did you use? Before you know it, you're going to find out about wooden clubs and how they used to play with just three clubs, and that was it, and they played the whole round with three clubs and a ball. Have those conversations take that time. The greatest generation, the silent generation is needing your help by you being a part of the solution. Volunteering your time is one way. Starting a residential assisted living home with excellent care is another. It’s totally up to you, but you can do both.

Rise Up And Take Care Of The Greatest Generation

Assisted Living Network: Learn about Assisted Living through the expert Gene Guarino! Gene is the President, CEO & Founder of RALAcademy.com. Gene has over 30 years experience in real estate investing and business. Today, Gene is focused on just one thing… investing in the mega-trend of senior assisted housing. Having trained tens of thousands of investor / entrepreneurs over the past 25 years, he now specializes in helping others take advantage of this mega-trend opportunity.

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Assisted Living Network's Podcast

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