Connect to Other Business Leaders in Your Community and in the Home Health Care Industry

Success doesn’t exist in a bubble.  You will speed up your company growth by communicating with other individuals, particularly ones that are having their own success.  There are three opportunities to connect with other business leaders. 

In Your Community

You will learn more about selling locally by learning from others who already are successful.  Participate in the local Chamber of Commerce or other business related community groups.  Many people view these groups as an opportunity to develop sales relationships and referral sources.  You’ll find frequently that these groups are used to sales and public relations types coming to meetings trying for a quick boost in revenue.  These groups can be wary of newcomers.  The key is to give before you receive.  Participate and contribute your time and energy.  Then, you will reap the rewards.  These rewards may be direct in terms of referrals, or indirect in terms of personal growth and development. 

In Your Industry

State and national home care associations are the grassroots of our industry.  The unfortunate reality is that many of these associations, while providing excellent support for Medicare Certified companies do not cater to private duty home care.  This is changing, however slowly.  One of the main reasons they don’t cater to private duty as well as they should is that private duty companies aren’t participating as much as they should.  We strongly encourage you to join your state association, and perhaps one of the national associations.  Participate, attend meetings and advocate on behalf of non-medical home care companies. 

Currently there is one national association, The National Private Duty Association (NPDA), dedicated to non-medical home care.  This new association is growing and gaining respect rapidly.  Additionally, they are in the process of launching state chapters.  The first state chapter was launched in Illinois in 2004.

Leading Home Care has assembled a Directory of Home Care Associations.  This directory includes national, regional and state associations for both home health care and non-medical home care. 

With Other Franchise Owners or Members

Some of you have chosen to purchase a franchise or join a private duty membership organization.  If so, one of the benefits of these organizations is access to other individuals in non-competing markets with very similar companies.  After the first year, many franchise owners and membership organization members fail to recognize the ongoing value of their relationship.  Make sure you’re getting value for your royalties or fees by keeping communication open with more experienced owners and mentoring newer owners.  Attend annual meetings and make time to communicate with regional owners. 

If you haven’t yet considered franchise ownership or organization membership, we recommend you check out the following two directories. 

• Directory of Non-Medical Home Care Franchises
• Directory of Non-Medical Home Care Membership Organizations