Senior Care Facility
Hearts and Hopes Senior Home

2300 Oak Hollow Blvd.
Englewood, Florida 34224

Gerald Rekve

A woman familiar with managing a section of a hospital decided to transition to the independent care sector. This plan outlines the planning she underwent and steps she took to successfully establish her senior home.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

After working for five years in the management of a hospital wing, Patricia Millen decided it was time to move into her own business. When identified of the opportunity to own a care home, Patricia made the move to open this home. Coming from the medical field helped her; however, running a care home was more about running a business. Expenses can be high and, if not managed correctly, can be costly.

As part of the planning process, Patricia applied for the required license before she purchased a building or a land site. This was smart, considering without approval, you cannot operate this type of home.

MARKET ANALYSIS

Englewood has a population of 200,000 people. With the aging population as well as an increase in government grants, we have determined there was an opportunity to open a senior care facility in this area.

Right now there are only four of these types of facilities, with an average of 22 clients per site. After calls to each one, we identified there is a three month waiting list with over 100 names listed. The entire city has 27 adult care facilities and those have been at capacity for some time. The average client age is 69 years old, and their average stay is four years. There are three different levels of care. Most of these locations offer all levels of care. We have determined that in order to offer all levels of care, we will require a RN on staff 24/7.

In the area where we want locate, we have determined that with the age of the region, we would be required to buy a larger house and build adequate rooms on to it. This would not require a special city permit, because we have found out that this region is in real need for this type of service and the city is looking for qualified providers to offer these services. We applied and were approved for the license to operate a special care home in this geographic region.

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

After researching the availiblity of government grants, we determined that there were a few for our region that we might qualify for. So we took the steps and applied for these grants and were approved for them. We applied for the home buying grant, and as a result, the federal government gave us a one time grant of $15,000 to put toward buying a home. We will also receive a $10,000 federally-funded grant each year for every RN hired. The state gave us a grant for all the required renovations to the house (i.e. wheelchair access, bathroom and kitchen access), which could be worth approximately $40,000.

The state also offers employers hiring any staff a special wage top-up for the first six months. This will include our business and we will receive a monthly check for each employee for the amount of $270.00.

OPERATIONS

Location

We have placed an offer on a 1,400 square foot bungalow with a detached garage. We will add a 1,000 square foot addition to the back of the home. This addition will take up only 50% of the back lawn, so there will still be plenty of room for clients to plant a garden and enjoy the outdoors.

The addition will add eight bedrooms to the home, making a total of 14 bedrooms for our clients. Because we will have staff on-site 24/7, we will have an additional bedroom designated for staff.

The home will contain all the appliances designed for special need clients. We have a security system and an emergency system. This facility is only one block from the fire department with four trucks and one ambulance. When there is a client emergency, the ambulance will be no more than five minutes away.

The front steps will be replaced with a front deck and wheelchair access. The front door will be replaced with a commercial size sliding door. The basement of the house has already been completed. It has two bedrooms and a bathroom, along with a living room and a storage/laundry room. We will move the laundry room to the main floor and put it in the new addition, allowing for ease of use for the staff. The rooms in the basement will house one staff person and the RN's room. We will not have any clients in the basement. We will put in games, card tables, and a foosball table to encourage clients to lounge in the basement. We will add a chair lift for the basement to transport clients up and down the steps as needed. This will allow everyone to enjoy the games and living room in the basement. We will also have a smaller living room on the main level.

The kitchen will be gutted and a larger kitchen with more commercial type appliances will be installed, while keeping in mind the need for clients to access the kitchen. Our goal is to have a free, easy going open policy for clients while respecting the safety of both the clients and the staff.

Community Support

Part of our goal is to offer our clients the best care and to assist them in keeping active. We will winterize the garage, allowing our clients to use the garage as a workshop. The workshop will only have smaller power tools and hand tools. If the clients require larger power tools to complete a job, we have made arrangements with a local handyman to use his shop. This handyman is strong supporter of all the care homes in the region and believes that people need to stay active. We don't have to pay anything for this service; we just need to make sure our insurance is properly written to cover us and our clients in the case of accidents, etc.

We have met will all the home owners within one block of the adult care home to tell them what we are doing. Every one of them was very supportive and signed a form giving us their support. This was very important for us, since ambulances will periodically come to our home to assist patients and they will have their sirens wailing.

Staffing

Our business is unlike most in that we require medical staff to work at our care home. Our staffing will contain a Registered Nurse (RN) who will work a twenty-five hour week and be on call as required. We have already hired a RN who had worked ten hours a week at a care home in the region. This will allow us to have a properly trained nurse on staff. Also, we will hire adult care providers from the local area; we have run some test ads and gotten a quite a few applicants that meet the state standards for experience and training.

Because our staff is key to our success, we will be offering them a various options for work. Since we are open 24/7, our work week consists of 168 hours in a week. If you divide this by forty hours, there are 4.2 full shifts in a week. We will hire four full-time staff to work forty hour rotating shifts, and we will hire six part-time staff to work 20-hour rotating shifts and on-call shifts.

Based on state laws and national laws, every hour that is worked over a forty-hour week is paid overtime. Therefore, if necessary, we will pay overtime.

Staffing Hours Worked and Wages Paid

• RN—25 hours per week @ $37 per hour
• Client staff—40 hours per week @ $14 per hour
• Client staff—20 hours per week @ $14 per hour
• Cleaning Staff—30 hours per week @ $9 per hour
• Accountant and Manager (Owner)—$40,000 per year + profits

MARKET ANALYSIS

Monthly Operating Expenses

• Taxes—$140
• Mortgage—$850
• Power—$200
• Natural Gas—$200K
• Telephone—$100
• Cable TV/Internet—$100
• Food—$900
• Repairs and Maintenance—$140
• Bus—$599
• Fuel for Bus—$250

Competition

We have determined that this industry is not as competitive as most. In order to open this type of care home you need to get linked. The government also only approves a certain number of care homes based on population.

Growth Strategy

Start-up Schedule

1. Get licensed to operate home—completed
2. Buy home—will take one month

1. Renovate home—will take two months
2. Hire staff—will take one month
3. Bring in clients—will take three-four months from date of home purchase

Required Capital

• Money to buy home: $150,000
• Money to build addition: $40,000
• Money to buy required appliances: $10,000
• Operating line of credit: $50,000
• Money to lease a bus to transport clients: $599 per month

Necessary Furniture and Equipment

• Couch: 3
• Easy chairs: 10
• Coffee tables: 4
• Beds: 15
• Night tables: 15
• Chairs: 25
• Wall mirrors: 20
• Curtains: 25
• Stove: 1
• Refridgerator: 2
• Freezer: 2
• Book shelves: 20
• Large screen televisions: 2
• 12 inch televisions: 14
• Television stands: 20
• Barbeques: 3
• Kitchen tables: 2
• Basic cook and dinner ware
• Foosball table
• Pool table
• Card tables
• Power tools for the garage
• Lawn furniture

The benchmark of this facility is based on quality care of our clients. Since we have already been approved for this facility by the state, we are now putting together the financial package for the required banking units. This will allow us to get the funding required to move this project along.

We will have three telephones lines and phones. Each client will have the option of their own phone, and they will pay the installation fee and monthly costs.

Revenue Potential

We will charge our clients rent anywhere from $1,400-$3,000 per month, based on level of care required and identified by a doctor. This charge only covers the rent and food portions, and does not cover the other expenses incurred with this stay (i.e. medical devices, self-care products, clothing, etc.)

Based on this amount, our monthly revenue will be approximately 14 clients X $2,100 = $29,400 per month, or $352,800 per year.