There are millions of adults in the United States that provide unpaid yet compassionate care for loved ones. In fact, according to the CDC, around 25% of all adults provide assistance to someone in need. While this care is given freely and with love, caregivers often need support, too.
Today, Moon Design offers a few tips on how to open a business in this niche space.
Types of Businesses That Serve Caregivers
As a caregiver service provider, you have many options. This includes things like respite care, personal assistant, and assisted-living counseling.
- Respite care. As a respite care provider, you will be a caregiver’s best friend. You will provide caregiving services while they run errands or simply spend time with their other friends and family members. The Alzheimer’s Association explains that there are many different types of respite care providers, including maid services, home health aides, and companions.
- Personal assistant. As a personal assistant, you will do a host of tasks, including grocery shopping and answering phone calls for your clients’ businesses. You may even find yourself taking kids back and forth to school. Chances are, you’ll start as a freelancer and may work for one person at a time, or you may have many different clients that use your services at different times during the week. Most personal assistants make around $20 an hour.
- Assisted-living counseling. It often happens that a caregiver can no longer provide the support their loved ones need. Their loved one may have a decline in health or the caregiver may have to return back to their home to tend to their children or career. If you would like to help people find the right assisted-living facility, choose to provide assisted-living counseling services. You can help families sort through quality, payment options, pricing, and amenities until they find the perfect place for their loved one to call home.
Business Tips
Even if your new endeavor is a passion project, you are still running a business, and it must be treated as such. Having a website, getting business insurance, and creating an invoicing system are three of the top things you should do from the beginning.
- Why your website matters. Your website is likely where you will promote your services, and the vast majority of consumers find new businesses online. Moon Designs can design your site and even provide optimized content to ensure that it’s useful to your clients and visible to the search engines.
- Don’t skip the insurance. The Insurance Bee website explains that general liability insurance is important for caregiving services. Your insurance policy will come into play if you are sued for common issues, such as personal or advertising injury.
- Invoice right from the beginning. Even if you’re providing your services from a place of heart, you still have to pay the bills. Look for an invoice generator/template that lets you customize with your brand. You should be able to download your invoice into your system, whether you use QuickBooks, Freshbooks, or another invoicing platform. Make sure you invoice your clients on a predictable schedule so that you get paid when and what you should.
Starting your own business supporting caregivers is a smart way to meet a need. With time, patience, and excellent service, you’ll be able to take on more clients, hire staff, and increase your marketing budget. Whether you choose to be a respite care provider or assisted-living counselor, don’t forget to handle important business tasks, like invoicing and getting insurance. All of your proverbial Ts must be crossed and Is dotted to make your business a success.
