Home Care Marketing: Strategies for Expanding the Territories for Your Home Care Business

Home Care Marketing: Strategies for Expanding the Territories for Your Home Care Business

Ever wondered the secret to scaling your home care business for maximal impact and maximal profit? We’re unmasking the strategies that have propelled us to success in the heart of the senior care industry. Through this enlightening discussion, we uncover the monumental role of intentionality, planning, and team effort in the process of territorial expansion, revealing some of our most effective methods for caregiver recruitment, adjustment of billing strategies, and the utilization of a nifty marketing tool we call the leave-behind.

As we steer the conversation towards the generation of private pay business, we draw from a comparative analysis performed on two retirement communities, Sun Lakes and Sun City West. Here, we expose the relevance of age and income statistics in identifying viable prospects. Beyond demographics, we're pulling back the curtain on why studying healthcare facilities, specifically those that accept Medicare, in your target area could be game-changing for your business. Then, we switch gears to discuss the gritty yet exciting process of breaking into brand new territories. From leveraging the internet and social media for information gathering, to engaging with competitors, we've got you covered!

Finally, we tie it all together with a deep dive into marketing strategies and online visibility growth. You’ll learn how to differentiate yourself in the market, break into Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), and make the most of a lead caregiver program. We spare no detail in explaining how Search Engine Optimization can enhance your online presence and reach, drawing from real-life success stories. As we wrap up, we discuss the importance of holiday outreach and community involvement, and share ideas for promotional events. Tune in, as we open up a treasure trove of insights and practical strategies to help you navigate the exciting path of business expansion in the home care industry.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey everybody. I know there's going to be more people coming in as we hit the top of the hour and a little after people will be trickling in, but welcome to November 17. Yay, hope everybody's doing well. I see Don Me muted. Don Wrong Zoom room. Sorry about that.

Speaker 1: 0:37

We just set started rules of the road for all of you who are new or maybe haven't been here in a while. We want you to share with us. There is a chat and I think there's already some chats in the chat. So you can see where that is. It's lit up on your screen. It's got a little two right there probably. Share your successes and mute when you're not sharing. So if everybody can keep their line muted just because we hear your chicken nuggets order and the drive through and stuff like that, and then ask for help, tips and advice, contribute to the conversation, suggest topics for discussion, we're always open to knowing what you want to hear about. So please don't hesitate. And also, if you have questions, maybe for us, maybe for other people, just hit us up in the chat. Or if you need to unmute your line and talk, we can do that too.

Speaker 1: 1:27

All right, private portal. So I know everybody. I don't think people like to log in, but you should. You should at least look. I'll go to home care marketing, mastermindcom Pretty easy stuff and your email address that we send all the reminders to. That is your user and then whatever was emailed to you or whatever you set up for your password your password if you don't have that email address, your password if you don't know it, use forgot your password feature and log in there and see everything for almost the last two years. I probably need to clean that up a little bit, but all the past meetings are in there and they're also on Facebook in our private Facebook group, so be sure to use those. I'm going to turn it over to Don Viella.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Hello, happy Friday everybody. So we want to make sure that you mark your calendars for the big end of your webinar, wednesday November 29. All the times are here 3 pm Eastern, 2 pm Central, noon Pacific. So we're excited to do that again. It was a big hit last year. We have a lot. How many people are signed up, valerie? I know?

Speaker 1: 2:36

it's a lot. Oh, it's well, it's well over 100. I can't remember I didn't look again today, but it's, I don't know, close to 150 at this point. Great.

Speaker 2: 2:47

And I think seats might be limited.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Yes, we do have limited seating, so everybody get registered and get in there, it'll eventually stop taking. I think 300s are limited. So, we're about halfway there.

Speaker 2: 3:01

Okay, that's great, it's exciting. We go into all kinds of things. You know how to end the year, strong KPIs for every department, how to grow the business. It's a little bit of everything, but there's some more operational stuff in there, probably, than what we do here in Mountain. We're in Mastermind. Also, december 15th will be our last Mastermind of the year. It's our next one and our last one.

Speaker 2: 3:23

We won't be doing Mastermind this week, the November 29th week, because we'll be working on the big end of your webinar, so be sure to stay tuned for that. Well, Valerie, I think you have to do. I need control, or you got it Okay. So today we're going to cover steps to take to expand your territory in person and online. And then Val or Lisa's made a lot of February leave behind that you guys are just going to love. So we'll get into that too. We got to stay ahead. The further ahead you can be and plan and get your stuff purchased and ready to run out the door with it, the better. Okay, valerie.

Speaker 2: 4:06

So why would you want to expand your territory? I mean, there's lots of reasons. Sometimes you've kind of maxed out in the territory that you're in. Maybe there's better demographics somewhere outside of where you've been marketing or where you're getting your current clients. Maybe you want to increase available hours, maybe you want to charge more hourly. Maybe there's a higher income area just outside of where you've been where you could charge more hourly, or maybe you could have longer shifts.

Speaker 2: 4:34

Maybe the people outside of the demographic that you're currently serving maybe they're a little bit older, maybe a little more frail, maybe they need longer shifts. Maybe it's because there's more SNFs facilities in a certain territory. So I've been through the expansion of territories several times actually, and it does help with billing. I mean, you know it's a whole maneuver. You've got caregivers also that need to be in that area and ready to go, so it's not just like an overnight. Okay, we're moving into this area and that's it. I mean, everybody at the office needs to be aware and you've got also recruit for that move as well, or that addition. Okay, valerie, I think I'm going to need control because I'm going to be clicking on some things here in a minute.

Speaker 1: 5:18

You want to share your screen and I'll stop sharing? Yeah, I will be much easier on you.

Speaker 2: 5:24

Yes, yes, because I think we're going to be clicking around quite a bit. I'm just going to find where we were just at.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Okay, so there you go.

Speaker 2: 5:33

All right. So when I was at home and stood senior care, of course that's a franchise, right, and you have your franchise, you know. You know where you're able to go not able to go but we were a new franchise and it was huge. We covered this whole area down here, from Tempe all the way south to even Tucson. When I started four months in, we were really only covering Tempe and Mesa. I was hired to do Gilbert and Chandler and I took over, like the southern part of Tempe, and so we did that because there was a study done. You know the owner, she was an accountant and so she had done a ton of research. You know, is it time to do it? Do we have the caregivers down there? All the things that you need to look at.

Speaker 2: 6:13

Then I was in this area, the Gilbert Chandler area for probably six years and I felt pretty good about it. We were doing really well and I had heard from people in Chandler you need to venture into Sun Lakes. I'm a native. I've never even heard of Sun Lakes before. So we did another kind of study, which I'm going to show you that it was well worth to do it. We did it and we just increased by a lot because there are a lot of seniors in Sun Lakes. More recently, I was in an independent home care company. We covered the entire valley but we were able to spread out more into Sun City, which is over here, sun City West area. We had never ventured over there, but you really should do some research prior to just thinking, oh, that looks good or somebody told me that's good. You should do some, you know, some research and kind of look at income, look at age, look at some demographics before taken off into those other areas.

Speaker 2: 7:08

If you guys have any questions at all, feel free to use the chat, raise your hand, unmute, talk whatever you want to do. Something else I've always used and Lisa, you probably can attest to this too is zip codes. You've got to know your zip codes. Your scheduling team probably knows your zip codes. Your HR people probably know the zip codes. Super important when I was working at home. Instead, this was our Bible, I mean we. This was the map we looked at for everything. And then when I started over at the independent home care company, no one was using this map. They didn't know about this map. Right away I printed it and hung it up at everybody's desk you.

Speaker 2: 7:45

It really helps you to visually take a look at the territory. Where are your caregivers living when? Where are the seniors living when? Where is the stop gaps? Scottsdale is hard to staff right, really hard to staff. Lisa can probably attest to that too, having lived here and worked in this territory. So caregivers don't live in Scottsdale, they can't afford to live in Scottsdale. But I know they live in Mesa, tempe, and I can go look at the income of Mesa and Tempe and kind of verify that. How far are we talking? What zip codes should I then be doing my caregiver ads? Will they drive to Scottsdale? Is this too far?

Speaker 2: 8:22

There's a lot to look at, and looking at an aerial view of your area by zip code really can help you. It can help you with your caregiver ads. It can help you look for where are the senior densely populated areas as well. And I mean I've gone so far in the past to color code Seniors are in blue, caregivers are in green, and just what does that look like? A lot can be figured out by doing this. So that's something to kind of keep in mind too.

Speaker 2: 8:51

So, doing the research, I found a couple of different places. I've used a couple of different things through the year, so we're going to go in and look at the census. You can sort this any way that you want. I've got it sorted by person 65 years and over. Right now I'm just looking at age. I just want to know what is the age in different cities. You can look by state, county, city, town or zip code. So it's great you can search however you want.

Speaker 2: 9:18

I've got the United States. 17.3% of the people living in the United States are 65. And older. We know that that's growing. It's going to continue to grow as the baby boomers continue to age, so that's exciting for our industry. I had typed in Mesa 16.5%. Mesa has always been a pretty good city for us. I was surprised to see that this was a little bit lower than I expected. Sunlakes is that area that we broke into 78.5% or senior, 65 or older. So obviously that's as long as the income is where you need it to be. This is excellent and I put in Tempe because I was just curious and exactly what I would have expected. It's a very much younger population, but I left one out because I wanted to show you when you do the search. So Sun City West is an area that we started breaking into at the last company that I worked for. Let's see, why isn't it not coming up there? Hmm, okay, it's not going to pull up. I'm not sure why it's not doing that.

Speaker 1: 10:29

Maybe try just on sitting, I don't know. Yeah, just on city, maybe it'll usually populate real quick right here.

Speaker 2: 10:35

I don't know why it's not. That's great.

Speaker 1: 10:39

It refresh. Maybe you just need to refresh your screen, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:43

Yeah, that's really strange. Okay, well, I can tell you that it is more. More seniors live in Sun City West.

Speaker 3: 10:54

Probably comparable to some lengths. Maybe I needed to fill that out.

Speaker 2: 11:01

I just don't understand why this isn't working. Let me just look at one more thing here. Maybe it's because I didn't have, I don't know. I did this a million times to make sure it was going to work. Of course it's not. I'm 65 and older, let's see. I do know that it's higher. It's probably not going to work for us, but it is higher than Sun Lakes. It's like 85%.

Speaker 4: 11:27

So it's actually higher.

Speaker 2: 11:28

So those are both two really good. Looking at this. I need to look at incomes. But looking at this, sun City West would be sitting here and I know it's like 85%. Sun Lakes is 78.5. So based on age alone, this is looking pretty good. So if I go to the zip code income comparison, this is the zip code for Sun City West and this is zip code for Sun Lakes. I want to compare the zip codes and you can do all demographic. It's going to show you where the cities are and then you can look at population size males versus females in each zip code. So again, this is Sun Lakes and this is Sun City West.

Speaker 2: 12:07

But what I'm really interested in is income. So what this is saying here is 9% of the people living in Sun Lakes. Their income is less than 30,000 a year. In Sun City West, 12% is less. So I want to find the biggest percentage. Where is the biggest percentage of people for income? In Sun Lakes, 35.77% of their people have an income between 50 and 100,000 a year.

Speaker 2: 12:36

Remember seniors. This is something important we have to remember seniors homes are usually paid off. They don't usually have a mortgage. They don't usually have a car payment. They don't have children, usually living at home, and so a lot of this becomes disposable income. In Sun City West, 43% of the people that live there, their incomes between 50 and 100,000. But if you look, go down one more, 29% of the people in Sun Lakes. Their incomes between 100 and 200,000 a year. That's just amazing, and with a lot of that being disposable income.

Speaker 2: 13:07

So I would say, equally, these would be and I know because I marketed to these areas and we did very well in both Sun Lakes and Sun City. So that's what I would look at population or age, and then I would look at income. There are other things on here that you can also look at. Language might be important in your area, your neck of the woods, but definitely income is where it needs to be. I would say if most of them were income under 30,000, if this was 35% and 43, they may not be a great place for private pay business maybe Medicaid, but probably not private pay. So this is looking really good. According to this. You know there are older people in Sun Lakes, but there's, or in Sun City West, but there's more money maybe in Sun Lakes. But I think, equally, they would definitely be worth targeting.

Speaker 2: 13:58

The next thing I would look at would be the sniffs and hospitals in the area and we've looked at this before. Anyone who gets paid by Medicare is listed Medicaid and Medicare is listed here. So I'm just going to do the Sun Lakes zip code search here and when you get in here, these I've got it. I'm looking under nursing homes, but there's lots of different things you can look at while you're in here. But I'm going to look under nursing homes. These are rehab nursing homes. They have rehab and nursing both, or they're just straight rehab, one or the other. And what I want to really look for here is what are they taking Medicaid or are they taking Medicare or are they taking in combination? We know that if they are over 80% Medicaid in that building, it's probably not going to be a great place for you to get private pay clients. You'll get some, but it's probably not a great place to go.

Speaker 2: 14:53

So these buildings this is 4.5 miles away from Sun Lakes, 4.7, where we are it's very spread out. Where you are, you might they might need to be a lot closer, but people easily will go to a sniff 10, 15 miles from their home. It happens all the time here. I don't know. You know everybody's demographics are different, so that's what this mileage is. So I know for a fact because we got a lot of 24s from Well Springs.

Speaker 2: 15:21

If I go into Well Springs, what I'm looking for first and foremost is what are they taking for insurance? They only take Medicare. That is a gold mine. That means that everybody there can probably afford some sort of private pay. I also know this is a rehab. That's all they do. It's not. There's no long term side, it's straight rehab. There's only 32 beds but they're straight Medicare. So this is a gold mine.

Speaker 2: 15:46

If we go back to another one we look at, maybe Archstone up here they are both Medicaid and Medicare Does not tell you what percentage. I wish that it did. I wish it said. You know 80% Medicaid, 20%, and it doesn't do that. So how do you find that out? You can go tour and talk and work with the admissions person. That's their salesperson. Tell them I have lots of clients that go to sniffs from time to time. I would love a tour. The admissions person is going to be more than happy to give you a tour because they're the salesperson. It's their responsibility to keep that building full the census at 90 plus percent, so they would love to tour you. While they're touring you, you can ask them what percent Medicaid is this building? And then they tell you and you know if it's viable for you or not. This is about being effective and efficient. Out there you don't want to waste your time in a building. I've not seen yet a building that's straight Medicaid. It probably exists. I'm sure that it does.

Speaker 2: 16:45

The other things you can see in here are their health inspections, staffing, quality measures. If they are at a one or two star in staffing, this means they're short staffed. If you feel like staffing a sniff, helping them staff, sending your caregivers over there to staff to be workers, make sure you sign a non-compete and that they understand they're your caregivers and the caregivers understand they work for you. But if they're sitting at a one or two staffing, it's a great opportunity for you to go in and offer to staff. Don't tell them.

Speaker 2: 17:14

You looked at this, of course, but you know you have some inside intelligence here. You know that they're struggling and staffing and that your people can come in the way that we did this in Arizona. In some of these places you can't be hands-on unless you have certain certifications. So we would bring food, we would take them to dinner, we would wheel them around and let their staff do all the hands-on stuff, and then our people would be filling in the gaps that maybe were not hands-on, if that's a rule in your state. So there's a lot of great information here in this Medicaregov and you have all the links. You're going to get these slides and you can go and look at any one of these, and I would highly recommend to do your research before thinking about expanding outside of where you are. You want to make sure that you can handle that expansion and that it's worth it. To start with, right, we looked at ages, we looked at income and the SNFs around.

Speaker 2: 18:12

Does anybody have any questions or any comments? We're all good.

Speaker 3: 18:17

Yeah, super informative.

Speaker 2: 18:21

Great, okay, lisa, you're up. She sent some info for you.

Speaker 3: 18:26

Okay. So, talking about doing research, so you really want to make sure you've done all that. So now you want to study your competition in the area that you're looking to expand to. So what I would do is I would Google them and find out anything I can about them. I would look at their Facebook, their website, their reviews, see what they've done good and what they've done not so well, and use that to your advantage.

Speaker 3: 18:51

You can also ask questions. I have several time walked into a competitors and just started a conversation asking questions. Now, they're going to be a little, you know, guarded on. You know what they charge, but I mean, most of the people in that area that you've already spoke to probably have given you a ballpark, you know. But and if you don't want to do that, you can also give a call in star 67 and just ask questions and, you know, put on your actors cap and be either a potential caregiver or an adult child looking for care for your parents. So it's whatever you're most most comfortable with, and I think that the person on the other end whether you walk in or, you know, call them, it's going to be. It's really going to go how they want it to go. However, they feel about that and you know you want to find out what they're charging with their paying, what's their caregiver to client ratio? Struggles, successes and you'll find that a lot of them are pretty common, but you might find out something that you didn't know too. And then, of course, find out what they're not doing. That can be where you really shine.

Speaker 3: 19:55

So you also want to talk to your current caregivers about your plan to expand. Be honest, especially with your lead caregivers. If you have them or you're tried and true group of caregivers that you know that will run for you, you know get a list of them and make sure that they'd be willing to travel to help your company grow, and what that might look like as far as an incentive or pay. I actually did push into Sun Lakes and when I did, you know I had to get several caregivers to agree just for a little while while I built that caregiver base, you know, and got people that who were willing to travel and all of that, and had them commit. You know, please, you know, give me two weeks to a month and I'll get you out of there, but in the meantime I will, you know, compensate you this way with your gas or whatever. You know, whatever we put on the table, we made sure that could happen so that we could expand, knowing that in the you know, in very near future, hiring new caregivers in that area was going to be a thing. And then next slide. I love to fly in and it's bothering me.

Speaker 3: 21:07

Talk to your current community partners and facilities about your expansion and be honest, a lot of these people already love you. Some of your favorite facilities, your favorite people, you're their favorite too, because you've rescued them. And family members from you know doom you were able to, you know, with the 11th hour, come in, make things happen, get a caregiver out and about to their home, you know, making sure that they could get home safely. So, you know, have those people those, if they have sister, sister companies or, like I said here, familial ties ask for their blessing to give a good word about what you're doing and you're coming out to that territory and they should be expecting good things from you.

Speaker 3: 21:45

And you know what I used to do is I would ask for, you know, can you just introduce me really quickly with a text or an email, and we would have, you know, a group chat going and you know it made all the difference because that person that they trust is vouching for you and speaking on what you can do and what they've seen you do. So don't be afraid to ask anyone to reference you, so to speak. Give you a good reference. That's a great idea. I love that. Yeah, I've got a question.

Speaker 5: 22:13

And even the adult children too.

Speaker 3: 22:15

You know they work, they're out there, you know they talk to people, and so the more the merrier.

Speaker 2: 22:21

Yeah, okay. So how do you break into a new sniff in a new area? Maybe you haven't been into and we've had? Oh, valerie.

Speaker 1: 22:29

I think somebody has a question, oh, okay.

Speaker 4: 22:33

Yes, I'm just wondering if it's possible for you to like send me a written the webinar you're just giving now, if you can, if there's a way I can get it like a narrative from, because English is not my first language, so I'm not catching up at the rate at which you're going. I don't know. Maybe if you can slow down or if you can just give me a written form at the end, something I can read so that I'll be able to follow exactly. I'm not following that very well.

Speaker 1: 23:12

Okay Z, everything is recorded and you will receive the replay, so you can watch it as fast or slow as you want.

Speaker 4: 23:21

Oh, okay, all right Now. Is it the strategy for getting new clothes, that if you are doing like staffing, is it the same thing like staffing? And if you're doing staffing or you're trying to get some clients, is it the same way like if you're a staffing stroke home care agency? You're interested in both staffing and also home care. Is it the same strategy or there any difference?

Speaker 2: 23:56

I'm not changing. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, valerie, go ahead. I would say it's a little bit different, because if you're wanting home care clients, you're going to talk to them about discharging and you're going to talk to somebody different. You're going to talk to those social workers as people discharge you can also staff in the same facility but then you would be talking to the director of nursing. Usually in a SNF, the director of nursing is going to be the person that would probably refer those patients that either live in the rehab or the skilled nursing facility and they need extra care or they just need bodies on the floor. They just need some of your caregivers to be bodies on the floor. That's usually the executive director or the director of nursing that you would talk to about that, and for discharges people going home it would be the social worker case manager. Okay, did I answer your question? All right? Yeah, I see you nodding. Okay, so we have had a whole presentation on how to break into SNFs. We have a training program about that.

Speaker 2: 24:59

So this is just a very broad overview. You can call ahead and find out the name of the social workers. You don't have to tell them who you are if you don't want to, just so that you. It's just better to walk in, knowing their name and asking to speak to Susan or whoever it is. You can stop and see them. You're going to get stopped at the gate, in the front the gate. That gatekeeper is not going to just let you walk on in and I usually would say I haven't had a chance to explain our lead caregiver program. So this is the thing about home care. There's a lot of home care agencies. You have to differentiate yourself. What makes you different than all the home care companies that are coming in there? How are you different? You don't need to tell them about home care. They know what home care is, they know how home care works and it's not enough to say, well, my caregivers really care about the senior. They're all saying that what is different about you? We had a lead caregiver program that set us out and it also. There's nothing better than having something that differentiates you and also puts a little bit of like a little bit of doubt about your competitors in their mind.

Speaker 2: 26:05

So the lead caregiver program was set up in a way that when we had a new job start or a caregiver called out, we had what we called lead caregivers. Lead caregivers were people we paid a flat rate to maybe not a flat rate. We paid them 30 hours a week. Whether they worked 30 hours a week or not. We paid them 20 hours a week or 40 hours a week. It was a set amount. They got that pay whether they worked or not, but they had to be available to run. If we had a Friday discharge and it needed to start in an hour, it was a lead caregiver who went. If we had a call out and we needed somebody there right now, it was a lead caregiver that went.

Speaker 2: 26:45

So you set up a time. You're going to be available. You have to be available to run Friday, 7am through Tuesday, whatever those like maybe 7am to 7pm, friday through Tuesday, maybe that's. Those are their hours, something like that. And they have to be available to just go. And so when you tell a social worker, when we have a call out, that's who we send so our clients don't go without care. One, that makes you look wonderful, you're a hero. Two, they start thinking well, what are the competitors doing? What do you mean? People are going without care. How does that happen? You mean the seniors home alone and there's nobody there, it starts this thing in their mind like, wow, that's, that's terrifying. They're thinking of their seniors that have discharged with no care. So that was a really good differentiator to have, because I was able to set doubt in the minds of the social workers about my competitors.

Speaker 2: 27:39

You can also tour with admissions the salesperson at the SNF. You can set up a lunch and learn. If you call it a lunch and learn, you wanna make sure they are really learning something about home care, not just about your company. So this is a handout I've used for years and years. When you are at a senior center or you are wanting to do a talk and they're like, well, you can't really sell, we can't have you get up there and really sell. It happens a lot.

Speaker 2: 28:07

So this is great everywhere really, it's the questions to ask a home care agency before you hire them. You put your logo up here, you put the name of your home care company here and you put the questions here and you guys all have access to this of the things that make you look good. Okay, and so when they call ABC Home Care and they call another home care, they're gonna put that home care's name as many as they call and then they're going to be able to compare apples to apples. So if you drug test, you would put yes. If you don't drug test, don't make that a question. Sex offender registry are you checking that? If you are, put yes. If you're not, don't make it a question. And so they're gonna see all of your yeses and then, when they call your competitors, they're gonna see what their answers are.

Speaker 2: 28:54

This helps them to compare apples to apples, but it's also educating the social workers, the public, everybody, about the questions you should be asking a home care company before you hire them. They don't understand why having workman's comp is important. They just they don't understand that, and so you're explaining that to them. They don't understand the difference between a W2 employee and a contractor using a 1099 model. They don't know to ask that themselves. So I've had lots of social workers actually hand this out to their patients as they're discharging, so that they can ask important questions. And it has my logo, my phone number.

Speaker 2: 29:34

This is a great tool, though, when you do a lunch and learn, because it looks like you're educating and you are but you're also telling them how fabulous your company is. You're doing it. It's two birds one stone, so you will have access to this If you decide to do a lunch and learn. To get the lunch and learn it's always I haven't had a chance to explain why. My company's different. We do things very differently and if you have to get into the lead caregiver program or whatever it is, with that front gatekeeper, then do it. That's fine. But setting up a lunch and learn is a really great idea If they will let you do that. Bring a little lunch, if you can call it something else. If you go in the morning it's just donuts, it's cheaper. If you go three o'clock in the afternoon, it's cookies or brownies or maybe some fruit, it's cheaper.

Speaker 2: 30:21

If you do a lunch and learn, you have to bring some lunch and think about everything Bring bottled water, bring napkins, bring condiments. I had a hire. He was okay, but his first lunch and learn. He'd never done one and he'd been in the industry forever. I just couldn't understand. He did not have plates, he did not have napkins, he did not have silverware. It was a disaster. And he brought food that needed those things and so they're running all over the facility looking for stuff. So you have to walk in there as if you're hosting this. It's you. They have nothing. It's like a picnic. You have to bring it all, so make sure that you keep that in mind. Lisa, did you have something to add? Vegetarian options yes, that's important too. Vegetarian options, gluten-free, maybe? Options?

Speaker 4: 31:08

That's important.

Speaker 2: 31:09

Yeah, you can try to set up a 15 to 20 minute meeting. Sometimes they will do that and even with that, I'll bring some kind of little something. Usually maybe not food, maybe it's pens or post-its or something like that. And if you have a client rehabbing in a sniff you've never been in oh my gosh, you've just been handed a pot of gold Get in there. If they're in the hospital, get in there. Go in there and see your client. Bring them a plant, put your logo on the plant with a sticker. They need to see you in action. It's a great way to meet people in a sniff in a hospital is to go visit your clients. You also need to tag the client as your Follow them.

Speaker 2: 31:51

Follow them. If they're in a hospital, good chance. They're gonna end up in rehab after that. You need to follow them because guess what? The social worker's job is To find them home care. When they discharge it, they don't know they're your client, they're gonna send them to some other home care company. So one reason to go see them is to meet everybody who works in the building. Two is to make sure they stay yours. I lost to 24 that way one time Thought I would die. It was very painful. Yeah, all right. Whoops. Senior community. So Sun Lakes and Lisa mentioned breaking into Sun Lakes too. It is a very tight knit community. They even have this volunteer organization called Neighbors who Care, and it's a very tight knit community.

Speaker 2: 32:38

In that community I realized very soon we were gonna have to have an office there, a satellite office, and a phone number that looks local. Like it's a Sun Lakes phone number because they would say to me well, is your office here? They wanted us to be a part of the community. So we had to really to break in and it was worth it. We had to get a local phone number. It was just the prefix. It had to have the eight. I think it's 895 and 820. It had to have one of those phone numbers I still remember, and we did have a satellite office with our sign up there. It was literally a tiny little and we would interview caregivers there and that kind of thing. But they wanted us to be a part of the community and so that's what it took and it was worth it.

Speaker 2: 33:19

Ask a lot of questions everywhere you go to find out how this community works. Everything funneled through Neighbors who Care, everything in this community, and so I had to get in good with Neighbors who Care. We even became board members of Neighbors who Care. For that reason, volunteer, host an event within the community and tell everyone, create a flyer, get it on your social media, invite everyone to come and post it on your website and get all the people that you know to come to this event and have people bring something for seniors when they come.

Speaker 2: 33:52

Maybe it's Kleenex, maybe it's, I don't know. To get in the door you need to bring something, and that way you're also giving something back to the community. They come and they get to participate, but they're also bringing something little for the community as well. It can be hard to break into some of these senior communities, especially as big as Sunlakes and Sun City West. But once you learn the ins and outs and get the local phone number satellite office if you need to, you may not need to go to that extent, but we definitely had to to get to break into there. All right, and now Valerie is going to tell you how to grow or move into other territories. Expand your territory online.

Speaker 1: 34:32

Sure, absolutely. So. We talked about SEO a whole lot last week and so I would encourage you to go back to that November not last week, november 3rd and watch that video, because I talked, gave case studies and did the whole thing. So the best way to get visibility online so not necessarily the in-person part, but the online part is to make sure that you have search engine optimization on your website and you have pages or areas dedicated to the city, the town that you really want to service. If you do it correctly, you can get visibility in that town with a little bit of work.

Speaker 1: 35:18

So it depends on where you're located. So if you're in Manhattan, the ability to have a page on your website, that is, let's say, for Westchester, new York to have that show up on the first page of Google, yet you have no presence there, you have no office there. To get your website to show up for Westchester, new York, which is outside of Manhattan, is going to take a lot of work because it's New York City, right. But if you are in West Winamuck in Nevada and you have a location there but you want to show up in the next town over, of course having a page on your website show up is going to be much easier. So it depends on where you're located, the competition but I can say that with search engine optimization for our clients, they usually give us a range of towns that they really want to show up for, and when we create those pages on their website and we do it correctly and we do it the way Google likes us to do it, they do start showing up for those towns.

Speaker 1: 36:24

Some of them we've had people first page of Google on a very competitive market, three hours from their office. I don't know, don't ask me why. So I don't want to show up three hours away. But they had a, I guess, a suite of caregivers in another town that they wanted to get some business for, you know, to keep those folks busy, and they did mostly live in that area, and so we got them to page one for live in home care and you know. So those kinds of things do work. If you want to inquire about search engine optimization, it does take a lot of work and a lot of time, but it's definitely worth it. You know, I think we have, I think, partique's on here today. We have a client that serves the entire state.

Speaker 1: 37:10

Hi Partique Hi so his organization serves an entire state and so it's important to him to show up in key towns across the whole state. And, as you can imagine, nebraska is a big state, but it's also not Manhattan, so it's a little bit easier to get care tech to show up in those other towns than it might be for someone who's in Northern Virginia or South Florida or California, where we have lots of competition. So, anyway, so it is a long game strategy, though this doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't always stick. Sometimes it'll stick once you do all the work and you leave it. It'll stay like that for a while.

Speaker 1: 37:53

But as soon as your competition comes along and tries to outdo you in that town, if you're not paying attention or not adding pages to your website specific to that town, at some point it'll dry up a little bit and you'll have to do some more work. So it is a long game and especially for those highly competitive towns, you need to give it at least six months for super competitive markets. That's it. But that's how you expand online. Love it.

Speaker 2: 38:20

All right, Lisa, you're up.

Speaker 3: 38:22

Oh, I was gonna say I do love it too. I see the results, I know, even just a few months sometimes, and it gets me happy, it's crazy how you're like yes, running those numbers and seeing someone go from no visibility to page one for like nine different keyword phrases, that's crazy.

Speaker 4: 38:41

So it's really nice.

Speaker 1: 38:42

It's a really nice feeling and to share that is really nice as well. Totally totally.

Speaker 3: 38:48

I get excited every time, no matter who it is. Yeah, All right. So December fun. So we're coming up on the wire here for December. But, you know, coordinate with a few communities now. You still have some time, I feel like, Maybe not to bake a whole bunch yourself, but go out and get some cookies and see if you can do a cookie decorating with folks that live there and the staff and just make it a good time and just get out there and show them what you're made of and hopefully get you some referrals to.

Speaker 3: 39:19

You know, cook your recipes. We have here for you guys, for any of those of you who want to bake and make them from scratch. We have sugar, we have ginger bread and we even have how to make the icing if that's something that you wanted to do. But if not, you can go buy those things too at any store. And a very helpful hint or helpful tip that I know Don Fiala used to do quite often she would go to the bakers themselves within that you know, your local bakery in your grocery store and talk to them about what she was doing. She was going out to, you know, make some some old folks happy and decorate some cookies and they sometimes would donate those. And if they can't do that, then of course you can get the prepackage or you can let them know, maybe a week or two in advance, or ask them how much advance they need, and you can get all these things and go and take them to a facility or community and do that with the residents.

Speaker 3: 40:14

So I thought this really kind of went hand in hand. You're one smart cookie. Thank you for choosing us to get patients safely home for the holidays. I mean, that's what it's all about. The holidays. People want to get home with their families, their loved ones, and this is just a reminder that you can do that. Your caregivers will help with that transition. And we thought about you know attaching this and this. Maybe not for everybody and maybe you could do this, for you know a couple of different clients or or referral sources that you have, maybe the higher end, but you know these mason jars and you fill. You fill them up, basically like deconstructed cookies. You fill them up with one of these and you can. Even I saw at the Dollar Tree the other day there was these little vintage lights. You know a little ornaments that are. They're empty, and so if you filled those with sprinkles and wrapped it around the mason mason jar, I think that would look super cute.

Speaker 2: 41:05

That would be really cute. Yeah, and we measured this too, right, lisa? This is six ounces something and these are eight ounce jars. You could put the cookie dough in and then put the sprinklers. There's two ounces there. You could put sprinkles right on top in the jar too, so up to that would be.

Speaker 3: 41:22

I think that would be super cute to you and that will make for cookies that already have the sprinkles inside it, and so that could be really surprised when you bite into the cookie.

Speaker 2: 41:30

And then you tie your little finger, stick it right on.

Speaker 3: 41:33

here too, I think there's a couple of yeah, and there's a couple of little cookie cutters. Here too, that little bell in the middle is a cookie cutter and just decorating them and making them really pretty and stand out, showing, showing that you love your peeps. Also, I put a link for some piping bags in case you did want to do this yourself. Food coloring, in case you did too, but you can find it at your local grocery store as well. Cookie cutters again, to attach, you know, with some ribbon, to the mason jars or anything. Really a bag that you're taking out with some collateral and just some gifting that you're doing for the holidays. And don't forget to include a candy cane. I always tried to make sure I popped a candy cane on everything.

Speaker 2: 42:12

They're so inexpensive Really. I mean, it could be a handout. You know, I would just hand out candy canes by themselves. Sometimes too, it's a very inexpensive, easy thing to carry around in your car too.

Speaker 3: 42:25

Everybody loves a candy cane. And then I thought to because I was I was seeing people sending us photos of what they're doing out in the community and making these baskets and all these beautiful things. So I thought, gosh, you know this would be really cute to tie in with cookies and holidays and home for the holidays. And so you know there's some links here for you to go in and get a little home for the holiday stuff cookies, little spatulas and things. All right, this is Don Fiala's favorite and she says she gets lots of referral sources with this one. So I think this is cute.

Speaker 3: 43:00

And I was thinking too that you know for those, any extras that you have for this, you know for those caregivers that you know they're going in the home with their person, you know we could take them to them too and or go in color with them in the home.

Speaker 3: 43:16

And so this is really cool because you you know you get, you get with the school beforehand and you let them know what you're doing and what this is all about and you bring enough of copies of these to for all of the, all of the kids to be able to color as many as they their hearts desire and they leave a cute little message for that person in the SNF or facility that you're going to go see. And you know, these these will get used as like a place map for holiday dinners and just you know, I know that people will keep these for years and years. They'll keep them on their fridge. You know, they may even bring them out every single holiday season just because they're a part of the decor now. So these are really really cute. A lot of community outreach here and a lot of community involvement.

Speaker 2: 44:02

It really makes you look very involved in the community because you're taking coloring photos from children to the seniors. It's full circle.

Speaker 3: 44:12

Yeah, very intergenerational. I think it's super, super cute, anything you bring. I don't know if you could bring a kid with you, but that'd be cute too. Maybe your kid or your own kid. Yeah, don't still like it. All right, january, leave behind. So let us help you bring in the new year with less readmissions. Readmissions are a big no, no, especially during a certain timeframe, and some hospitals will. I think they maybe they all get you know dinged and so you knowing that is it is definitely a leg up there and I think that that's impressive, that you would know that when you're going out and about and taking these to the social workers and discharge planners and all of those folks. Then we had some new year glasses. I think these are the. Are these the really good ones? You know these were the cardboard ones right.

Speaker 3: 45:00

I think these are the cardboard ones.

Speaker 2: 45:01

Yeah, these are the more expensive. They're a little more expensive. So, yeah, there's cardboard or plastic.

Speaker 3: 45:07

Right, and these are just so cute because I can see and I've seen. I've seen people running around with their holiday garb on and you know their their ugly sweaters and their new year stuff, boas and everything.

Speaker 3: 45:19

So it just makes it a really fun time and they should be having fun. They're dealing with, you know, seniors and people that need their help, so I think it definitely shines a light. And then here's here's to a poppin new year, so happy to be popping into the new year together, which only naturally, popcorn, little bags of popcorn, and you can attach your message here and take that in for your, your weekly visit to your referral sources. And here's some links and things so you can get in there In order of those things. If you need January, another January. Leave behind eye cares, keep your vision. I know that it is the glaucoma awareness month, which I don't feel like a lot of people talk about, but I think it's super important because we like to see, and you want people to know that your caregivers are trained and understand the safety risk of eyesight loss and that your caregivers are going to help patients navigate home safely. Less falls, no falls, all of those things. You want them to know that they're safe with you and that you understand the challenges. And here are just a couple of things that related to eyes masks, to blackouts so you can sleep. Little messages here. I thought this would be really cute for referral sources when they go and look at their bracelet. So step away from your computer, because you really do need to protect your eyes. I have special glasses that I wear every once in a while just to keep my eyes from hurting from all that blue light.

Speaker 3: 46:55

Another good one eat well, feel well. If you eat well, you're going to feel well, and so many times I've had families ask if we could do meal prepping and how we helped with keeping that person on that same diet plan that they were when they discharged, and so it's a great way to let your social workers know that, yes, we do that too. We're going to adhere to the guidelines of their new diet and we're going to even more importantly, we can help them with meal prep and we can help them get out and touch and feel the vegetables and go pick their own, and so it's a very important piece to living. A lot of our lives are revolver on food, and this was just kind of to. I always took cuties out to people and sometimes I would just take the bag and attach some to it and be like here I just want to vitamin C, you stay well this season, or something like that, and so I think that that just ties into eat well and just making sure that people are eating healthy. Excuse me, I'm going to cough Just got over the flu.

Speaker 3: 48:05

So, february, I feel like it's all about heart health and healthy heart tips. And so here's just another one, and you're talking about what you can do for your social workers, those patients that are going home, and how you can help them stay heart healthy at home. Help relieve stress A caregiver in place can help relieve stress. They can help prep healthy meals again, help you get regular physical activity and it doesn't have to be anything crazy Maintain a healthy weight with that activity. Get healthy sleep time Super important and even help them either with their self-checks or taking them in the transportation to a checkup.

Speaker 3: 48:48

So these leave-behinds are really cute. Love this. Yeah, the colors are great. And then caregiving is a work of heart. I mean you don't do it If you don't love it, you don't do it right.

Speaker 3: 49:02

So I just thought this was a really cute leave-behind Just to, again, you're just planting that seed that our caregivers are devoted to your patient's happiness, keeping them safe at home, companionship I mean sometimes your caregiver is the only person that is seeing that person for months and months, and months, and so it's super important that they know that it's a heart job and that we're in it for that reason Don't stress, we're all heart Just another play on caregiving and how we love to love, and we love to love on the clients and letting the social workers know that that's what we're in it for and they're heart. People Celebrate Black History, and also I wanted to tie in Heart Month because and right here it says Otis Bocklin's invention, a patent that he actually helped redesign, a pacemaker resistor, and so I thought that this was something that we could really learn from and spread the good news. And also Dr Daniel Hill Williams, one of the first physicians to perform open heart surgery successfully, paving the way for countless future surgeons. So I want to recognize these things as well. That's great. And then we have our little giveaways.

Speaker 3: 50:22

I just thought heart stress, ball hearts, key chain hearts, and just go out and love on all your referral sources and put them on the chart there for them. Ooh, check this out. So these are photos from is this me still? Or Love all of this?

Speaker 2: 50:39

I know.

Speaker 3: 50:41

I'm digging this pumpkin here with the body.

Speaker 2: 50:44

I know, this is so cool.

Speaker 3: 50:47

Yep, all right. So these are some of the results and some of the photos from the pumpkin decorating contest from Care with Love, and I just think these are absolutely adorbs, and especially for the people who might have been interested in the pumpkin and the pumpkin and actually the pumpkin. I'm pretty sure they're all out, they're all out, I love them, they're so cute, I love them.

Speaker 3: 51:10

They're sonic, the hedgehog, I mean there's a bunch, they're great. Also, we have a caring touch homecare. They actually did something really similar and their first place winner was I think it was the little cat there, just right and the eyes just right, and I just thought that was really cute and she actually won an eight hour shift, so, oh, great.

Speaker 2: 51:37

That's great.

Speaker 3: 51:39

Trick or treat. Here's something sweet, very cute, from Care with Love. Again, they're just out in the community doing all that they can to get to get in where they fit in. I love these. This was a National Case Management Week, october 8th to 14th, and it looks like your heart shows. I love that. I can see your heart. That's really cute. It looks like they had a little giveaway that they brought in as well. And then National Apple Month Very cute, again with Care with Love. Very nice, we didn't make that one, we didn't make that one.

Speaker 2: 52:14

Love it, love it, love it Don't be a turkey.

Speaker 3: 52:18

This is one of my old time phase, because turkey butts, I just think it's really cute.

Speaker 2: 52:22

Yeah on their little backside, their little tushy, is their logo. I know you can't really see it well here, but you can have these printed, for it's probably late now, but this turned out so great.

Speaker 3: 52:34

And these are cute because people will bring these. Like you said, they'll bring these out everything's giving. This is part of the decor at this point and you know it's really cute. We just asked.

Speaker 2: 52:45

James asked if we could give some ideas for March and leave behind. Yes, we will be doing March next time. Yeah, yeah, so is that all I know?

Speaker 3: 52:56

I know it's spinal cord injury month. I know that there's also St Paddy's Day for March, march.

Speaker 2: 53:03

Madness. Social Work Month is a very big one for the SNF, so we will. We will definitely be doing March next next time. I'm curious I don't know if Rebecca's here if she's been handing these out how it's going. Maybe she said in the email I missed the email, I was on vacation, but are you here, rebecca?

Speaker 3: 53:23

She's logged in.

Speaker 2: 53:25

Maybe she's muted.

Speaker 3: 53:31

I also wanted to say whoever took out those the Thanksgiving poster, coloring book posters I really, really want to see photos of how much got colored and I want to see all the staff of the facility or hospital. I really hope that you can get some good photos. I can't wait to see those.

Speaker 2: 53:48

And I think Rebecca was getting ready to say something. I would love to see those posters too. Go ahead, rebecca.

Speaker 5: 53:55

Hey, no, I'm just. It's going really well. The turkeys was great. We wanted to do it last year but didn't have enough time to order them and get our logo printed. So even our branches have all implemented it, which normally is a little bit harder for them to implement things as they're smaller and less people. You know they're newer than our main, our main office, so they all have implemented it. They all have some pictures the social workers, the case managers. Everyone is loving it. I think it's really so, and it's just like a little turkey. It's just so fun.

Speaker 2: 54:33

I know it really is, and you're going to see that next year they're just going to get them out and they'll be on the desk and you'll walk in and see them everywhere. It's just wonderful and your logo's there, so it keeps you in in front of mind every year, over and over again. So great job. These are all just beautiful, everything.

Speaker 5: 54:51

Thank you for the idea and I was going to say the apple month idea. Last year you had an idea for apple month, so we did it again this year because people really liked it, especially those, those accounts that they don't want to do all the candy because they get so much candy for Halloween, so it's just like a nice alternative to give them something healthier. So, yeah, very, but it was. It was your idea last year, so okay, okay, oh well, good, that's great.

Speaker 2: 55:24

Well, thank you so much for that. So our next mastermind is Friday, december 15th, but before then we will be doing the big end of your webinar, wednesday, november 29th, and I know there's been emails going out, right, valerie? I think everybody's probably gotten one, two emails. There'll be more still, probably.

Speaker 1: 55:44

Yes yes, I'll send out a couple of more as we get a little bit closer, okay, and?

Speaker 2: 55:49

remember, seats are limited, so you want to. You want to get your seat ahead of time. Thank you so much. Everybody, have a great weekend.

Speaker 1: 55:58

Thank you guys bye thanks giving us.