5 Startup Hacks to Streamline Your Assisted Living Success
Mar 21, 2025
Starting an assisted living business in 2025 is a huge opportunity, but it can also feel overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you avoid costly mistakes?
Good news—you don’t have to figure it out alone! Here are five startup hacks to help you launch and grow your assisted living facility faster and smarter.
Check out the video, too;
1οΈβ£ Build a Strong Business Foundation
Every great business starts with a solid foundation. Before you worry about properties, funding, or marketing, take time to:
β
Write a Business Plan – Outline your vision, services, and financial goals.
β
Run the Numbers – Use financial underwriting to ensure your business is profitable before you start.
β
Pick the Right Location – Choose a city and neighborhood with high demand for assisted living.
π‘ Success Tip: Be like an athlete setting a goal. Amon-Ra St. Brown, a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, set a target of 1,500 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2023—and he hit it despite an injury. Set clear goals, stay focused, and execute!
2οΈβ£ Secure the Right Property
Your assisted living home needs to meet zoning and licensing requirements. That means you have four options:
π‘ Buy an Existing Facility – Faster setup but may need renovations.
π¨ Convert a Home – More control but requires zoning approvals.
π Build from Scratch – Higher cost but fully customized.
π Lease a Property – Lower upfront investment but less control.
π Pro Tip: Before buying, check with your city’s zoning office to ensure the property is eligible for assisted living.
3οΈβ£ Secure Funding (Without Going Broke!)
Funding is the #1 challenge new assisted living owners face. But don’t let it stop you—there are many ways to fund your business:
π° SBA Loans – A top choice for assisted living. I’ve personally used over $1.5M in SBA loans for my facilities.
π€ Private Money – Find investors willing to fund your deal.
π¦ Commercial Loans – Offered by banks for business purchases.
π‘ Conventional Mortgages – Good for residential home conversions.
π Need Help? Comment "Funding" below, and let me know what you’re struggling with!
4οΈβ£ Master the Rules & Regulations
Assisted living is a heavily regulated industry—ignoring the rules can shut you down. Here’s how to stay compliant:
β
Find Your State’s Licensing Requirements – Search "Assisted Living Licensing in [Your State]" to get the right info.
β
Create Policies & Procedures – Your facility needs clear guidelines for resident care.
β
Understand Safety & Health Laws – Even unlicensed facilities must follow certain legal and ethical standards.
π Pro Tip: Licensing varies by state, so get expert help to avoid delays!
5οΈβ£ Launch & Scale Like a Pro
Once you’re licensed and open, it’s time to grow! The key to success? Systems and marketing.
π Hire & Train Great Staff – Caregivers are the heart of your business.
π’ Market Your Facility – Use social media, Google, and referral partners to attract residents.
π Use Software for Efficiency – Automate billing, scheduling, and operations.
π Plan for Growth – Think beyond one home—set up your business to expand!
π Pro Tip: Many owners get stuck after opening. With the right strategy, you can scale to multiple locations!
Final Thoughts: Ready to Start?
Starting an assisted living home in 2025 is a smart investment, but only if you do it the right way. Follow these five phases to stay on track:
β Build a strong foundation – Get your business plan and numbers right.
β Find the right property – Make sure it meets zoning and licensing rules.
β Secure funding – Explore SBA loans, private money, and investors.
β Understand regulations – Get licensed and stay compliant.
β Launch & grow – Hire great staff, market your business, and plan to scale!
π― Next Steps:
π₯ Download the Business Plan Checklist to make sure you’re ready to apply for funding.
π₯ Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
π Let’s turn your dream into a reality!
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:00 - 00:00:53
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months excited to have you with me today for this video we're going to be talking about the basics of starting an assisted living facility in 2025 so if you need some help with that and you're really interested in Assisted Living make sure you stick around for today's [Music] video hey friend welcome to Assisted Living investing in today's video we're going to be talking about the basics of
00:00:28 - 00:01:18
starting an assisted living business in 2025 happy New Year we're here it's 2025 we made it but if you are looking at this you've been thinking about Assisted Living you're like I just I want to figure out how to do this but you're not sure how to get started if that's you this video is for you and if you need help along the way make sure you grab the free underwriting calculator assisted Liv investing. netal or just go to the website Assisted Living investing. net and it we'll pop up and
00:00:53 - 00:01:48
you get that free calculator let's get into today's video so when it comes to starting an assisted living business what I have found is there's five phases that really kind of set you up for making some progress I've talked about this a ton in in a lot of my past videos so I'll try to link something up above that can help you out through that process or help you understand exactly what that entails but we're going to do a little bit of a deep dive into those five phases here in
00:01:20 - 00:02:13
today's video the reason why I say there's this five-phase process is it really helps you see that it's it's manageable that you can start this business and you can make some good progress I talk to so many of you and what I hear is I don't know how to get started I I I don't even know where to start do I do this thing first do I do that thing and often times what I find is you're skipping one of the most important steps and we're going to do a link a video up above of one of where I
00:01:47 - 00:02:48
talk specifically about building a business Foundation but I want to touch on that briefly building your business Foundation is the step that everybody else skips and it's probably the most crucial part if you think about goal setting what you're going to what you find is you spend time setting goals and when you spend that time setting those goals and you put those down on paper it really allows you to make some progress I'm going to use a football example if you go back to the year 2023 for the NFL
00:02:17 - 00:03:23
season Alan raw St Brown who is a wide receiver for the for the Detroit Lions he had these goals and he he said I wanted to get, 1500 yards for the season and I wanted to have 10 touchdowns by the end of the season he did that he had 15 1,515 yards and 10 touchdowns he did exactly what he wanted to do now what was crazy about that though is he had torn his oblique like the muscle wasn't even attached to the Bone anymore and he played almost the entire season that way but he had this goal he had written it
00:02:50 - 00:03:40
down he looked at it every single game before he started playing and that is what allowed him to get the drive to reach his goal when we set those go goals and we have something written down it'll really it's empowering it allows us to make really good progress this is why the business Foundation is such a crucial part of what you're trying to do with your business you need to write a business plan you need to do the underwriting you need to make sure it works from a financial perspective and
00:03:16 - 00:04:06
when you do those things and you know which Market you're going to be in and you have this Foundation that's built it allows you to run it allows you to really make some good progress whereas if you just jump in and you're just like trying to grab things and and try to put it all together it doesn't work like trust me I I've done it that way so much more confusing I bought two facilities my first one I was just grabbing stuff I was trying to figure it out on my own trying to figure it out we we got it
00:03:40 - 00:04:48
done it was fine but the second time I built that business plan I built that foundation and having that in place allowed us to go a lot faster get profitable a lot more quickly and be in a spot that is frankly a better market for us and and those types of things is when you build that foundation and you you really prioritize doing that and getting really firm on what you want to do it makes everything go more smoothly so that is that's phase one you have to do it so I hope that that really resonates with you if it does make sure
00:04:15 - 00:05:06
you give a a thumbs up uh like this video because it's going to help other people see this because it is so important if you want some help going through that process you can apply to my Mastermind program just go to Alim mastermind.com do that or check out the business Foundation basics course Assisted Living investing. net BFB it's a really simple way to get in and start working on building out your business plan phase two is all about getting the right property and this is not just like
00:04:41 - 00:05:29
I I know I have this house I want to get it ready you have to do zoning fire department you want to get that certific of occupancy there's a few things that kind of go into this phases 2 three and four of what I teach they all kind of come together and and happen a lot at the same time but phase two is getting the property because you cannot do this type of a business if you don't have the property now this could be something like you're buying an existing facility it could be you have a house that you're
00:05:05 - 00:05:51
going to renovate it could be you're going to build something from the ground up maybe you want to rent from somebody there's a lot of ways to get into this but you have to have the property so that's phase two phase three is all about funding this is the other thing that I hear from people all the time I don't know funding like I don't know how much I need I don't know what that process is going to look like how it's going to work and what I want to tell you is funding is it can be confusing
00:05:27 - 00:06:21
you're going to get told no a ton you really will but you can make it through all of this and and you can be successful you can find funding a lot of what I teach is SBA funding I've done three SBA deals over 1 and a half million in SBA funding so I'm very familiar with what SBA is how it works and how to leverage that but you want to make sure that you are doing that you are finding opportunities that are out there and it really comes back to that business Foundation it comes back to
00:05:54 - 00:06:45
building that business plan because when you do that and lenders see that you've built that Foundation you you have the underwriting it makes sense there and you have a solid deal they're so much more likely to work with you there's a lot of options when it comes to funding you can go the SBA route which I've done there's private money you can go with commercial other types of of business loans there's conventional mortgages there's a lot of ways to get into this but it does all come back to building
00:06:20 - 00:07:08
that business foundation and when you have that you're ready to go if you would like to learn a little bit more about funding type in funding down below and then tell me what you want to know more about is it the types of loans that are available is it how much you need as a down payment type those things down below because I can create some videos that are specific to that so make sure you are subscribing and and ringing the bell so you get notified when I put out this content especially if you comment
00:06:44 - 00:07:34
because I'm going to answer your question I promise I will all right the fourth phase here is rules and regulations so when you working in Assisted Living there's a lot that goes into it it's Healthcare Healthcare is confusing there's a lot that that goes into the healthcare industry and and you have to deal with that when you are doing Assisted Living there's rules and regulations you have to be familiar with I was just helping somebody in the Mastermind program and we were looking
00:07:09 - 00:07:54
at the different rules that exist in Colorado for the different types of facilities and how you need to go and have those conversations so if that's something that you feel like would help you out then go ahead and apply to The Mastermind Alim mastermind.com would love to help you out through that process but really what it comes down to is you have to understand what those rules and regulations are you're going to have to build policies and procedures for you for your facility and then
00:07:31 - 00:08:18
you're going to have to comply and get the different licenses and and things like that there are unlicensed opportunities out there but you're still going to need to comply because you're still in the healthcare industry so there's still going to be a lot that you've got to do to just kind of make sure that you are up toate and and following all the different rules and regulations that exist because you are in a health care space you are serving individuals and there's a lot that goes
00:07:55 - 00:08:49
into that so even if you're unlicensed there's still going to be a lot that goes into it so that is something that's phase four you want to make sure you can navigate all of that and understand exactly what's going on the best place to start is to search for something like Assisted Living licensing body in my state and that's going to tell you who you should be talking to and make things work for you from that standpoint all right let's talk about phase five so phase five is actually up to this point
00:08:22 - 00:09:12
you're you're just working on getting the facility up and running and then one day it's just going to happen you're going to have the facility but then the next day you're going to wake up and you're going to be like oh crap now I have a business now I actually have to run this facility I actually have to do a lot of this stuff and so phase five is launching and scaling the business this is hiring the right people and using the right software and just making sure you have some of those internal policies how
00:08:47 - 00:09:39
to how to just really navigate and bring in new residents and marketing plans and all those types of things a lot of this you're going to build in that business plan phase but when you get to this part you're really refining it and and trying to find ways to to make it run and operate a lot more smoothly so you can be profitable so this is Phase five something that a lot of people they just other coaches would be like hey cool you got it go go on your way good luck and and you know if you need help go hire a
00:09:13 - 00:10:02
consultant over there I really like to share with you the types of things that I have experienced the lessons I've learned the money that I've lost and how it can really benefit you and help you make some good progress as you're trying to really build your business build your Empire and maybe add another two or three facilities to your portfolio so you can serve even more people and have more of a a financial impact in your personal life all right to so to recap this video we've been talking about how
00:09:38 - 00:10:30
to start an assisted living business in 2025 it all comes down to a five-phase process number one is building your business Foundation number two is finding the right property number three is all about getting the funding number four is getting understanding those rules and regulations and everything that goes into that and number five is going to be just launching and scaling the business and getting it up to the point where it's profitable if you do all five of those things then you're going to be successful you'll
00:10:04 - 00:10:48
have a nice profitable business and you're going to serve a lot of people and it's going to be great if you skip out on those or you're not sure how to do it and you're just grabbing it straws it's going to be a lot harder for you and if you need some help doing that I'd love to help you out check out The Mastermind program again it's Alim mastermind.com free application let me see if I can help you if I can I'll send you all the details and you can decide otherwise keep watching YouTube like the
00:10:26 - 00:11:14
video subscribe ring the bell so you get notified I put out content on a regular basis we do lives on Tuesdays we put out content on Thursdays as well to kind of help you out through the process and navigate things and understand exactly what is going on so you can really make some some deep progress so make sure you do all those things so you can get the help that you need that's what I'm here for I love helping people I love coaching people and helping you reach your goals so if you want to start an
00:10:50 - 00:11:35
assisted living business in 2025 check out the channel check out the ecosystem and everything that I've got in here to see if it can help you along your path does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you're not sure how to get started at Assisted Living investing I'm here to help beginners like you launch their business in the next 12 months thanks for watching and I want you to remember as well that it doesn't take a lot just a little bit just keep going step by step by step and
00:11:13 - 00:11:32
I promise you that if you do and you're consistent and persistent you are going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
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