Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

Do You the Have Business Skills to Run a ALCA or GCM Agency ? Watch This Video

You chose to Start A Business

You need clinical skills to start and run an aging life or geriatric care management agency but you must have business skills as well- It IS A Business.

 

Geriatric care managers need to understand revenue- how they make money to be financially to make a profit. Revenue does come from billing – but poor billing is very unprofitable billing. Money-losing billing is anything less than 85% of your client’s time. When you bill less than 85% you actually start losing money. Revenue is the high tide of money and is calculated by the number of clients you serve, new clients per month, number of clients canceling service. % of the time billed (the goal is 85%) and what you charge for travel time.

Competition Survey Mandatory To Start A Business

You need to know how to do a competition survey to measure whether you have too much competition and what your competitors offer so you can offer more and be chosen. You should also identify and survey other direct GCM competitors like the non-profit area agency on aging which may have a GCM arm or for-profits like accountants or elder law attorneys who include geriatric care management in their service mix.

Do You Understand Branding?

You need to know branding. Aging life or geriatric care manager must use different branding and a  marketing approach that messages hyper-attention to seamless care to attract these top 10% concierge clients who can afford your services long term.

Do You Have a Marketing Strategy?

Marketing Strategy Business concept. The meeting at the white office table

Marketing your existing or new Aging Life or GCM business is vital to growth, but where you spend your marketing dollars? What marketing tactics make the most sense for you? Where will you reach your concierge client base best?

This is where your marketing strategy comes into play. Before the business can start generating large revenue, a concierge marketing strategy and sales techniques must be in place.

Your marketing message must be communicated to the concierge customer. You need to how to write a business plan, use social media to attract customers, how to do 1-1 marketing to third parties-.

Check out my  Online GCM Business Class which includes 10 modules on starting your GCM Business including one module on Organizational Design with the job descriptions for every role in a GCM agency and recruitment tools to get the best candidate.

Skills you will learn in My GCM Business Class

  • GCM organizational design skills to create your business flow chart and job descriptions, and outline how power flows down your staff to deliver gold standard care to clients
  • GCM marketing survey skills to pinpoint your area’s upper 10% clients and 3rd-party referrals to market, to make your business profitable
  • GCM competitive analysis skills to set the fee per hour your market will bear for your services and to gather information from each, to position your services vs your competition’s so clients will choose you
  • GCM timeline skills to identify and list (in a manageable, doable order), major tasks to complete before you open your business
  • GCM business planning skills to write a 13-part business plan to create a blueprint of measurable goals for your business’s financial success
  • GCM marketing skills to create a marketing plan to develop lead sources, conduct lead generation, launch social media, and conduct content marketing to gain new customers
  • GCM sales skills to position your agency to sell your menu of services
    through benefits to 3rd parties and clients through cold calling, 1-1 sales meetings, and inquiries, by knowing how to close the sale and sign the contract
  • GCM ALCA billing skills to develop a billing system that allows you to bill 85% of your time, control your cash flow, invoice promptly to make a profit
  • GCM financial forecasting skills to develop a 3-year financial forecast Excel spreadsheet to track your basic profit and expenses and to track the number of clients and billable hours needed to break even make a profit, pay back loans, hire new staff, and take a salary yourself
  • The Business class set for a start-up GCM Budget and now offers a subscription payment plan for a start-up budget

 

 

Can Your Write Your Mission Statement 20 Words?

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Your geriatric care management business plan starts with your mission statement, which should state the core of your business in a few sentences. The mission statement should reflect the goals and values of your organization. It should be short, focused, perhaps only 20 words, written in the present tense, in positive terms and without qualifiers.

  As part of your business plan so you are adding a major part to a document that will allow you to plan your business and perhaps get investors.

 

Here is an excellent Mission statement from Stowell Assoc GCM agency that has been in business and thrived since 1983

Mission

Stowell Associates mission is to improve the quality of the day-to-day lives of our clients and their families in ways both small and large.

Try something on your own that is short focused and those 20 words.

 

 

 

 

Market opportunity-Starting A Geriatric Care Management Business

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To start a Geriatric Care Management business PLUS to write a major section of your  GCM business plan,you must describe the customers you intend to serve -your market assessment or opportunity. It tells you and investors whether you will have enough customers to make money.  Start with a definition of your ideal client. Example: Woman, 85 years old with chronic care needs who has an income or liquid assets of $500,000 or more.

You want to list the customers who will reward you the most financially.

 How many of these ideal clients are in the area you wish to serve? You need do an analysis of the age and income levels. Generally, geriatric care management customers are over age 85 or are disabled younger people with incomes in the range of the top 10% in your community. Your customers are also the local overstressed adult children of clients, long-distance caregivers with family members who need help and live in your community, and third parties who may hire you as a GCM such as trust officers, attorneys, conservators, or guardians.

You need to do market research to define the size of the market in the area where your business will be located (e.g., how many people over age 85 live in Modesto, California, how many third-party target markets such as trust departments are in the town?). This type of demographic information may be available from U.S. Census Bureau reports, local Area Agencies on Aging, local chambers of commerce, local hospitals, and even members of the local media who have done their own surveys. You can use the Internet to retrieve U.S. Census data in your area, and in addition you can Google your State Department of Aging, find your local Department of Aging, and then find all senior services that may have data on older people in your area.

 

What is a Geriatric Care Management Care Plan? Finding Interventions in Your Business Plan

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How to find intervention for your care plan? Well you can just refer to your business plan (Hopefully you started your GCM business with one).

You can review your business plan and find all the sources you listed there as target markets such as the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys web site for elder law attorneys. Most organizations serving seniors maintain a web site. Of course, you should only recommend services that you know to be competent and able to solve the particular problem you are seeking to ameliorate. For example, if you recommend a local conservator or guardian, there should be an organization in your state of conservators or guardians with a web site

You can expand your knowledge beyond your local continuum of care nationally the single point of entry  Eldercare Locator .

 

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