Launch Your Assisted Living Business in 5 Strategic Phases
Feb 11, 2025
Starting an assisted living business can feel overwhelming, but don’t worry—breaking it down into simple steps makes it manageable and achievable! By following these five key phases, you’ll build a strong foundation, find the right property, secure funding, get licensed, and launch successfully.
Check out the video, too:
Phase 1: Build a Strong Business Foundation
Before you jump in, you need a solid plan. This phase is all about getting organized, researching your market, and setting yourself up for success.
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Write a Business Plan – Outline your mission, vision, and goals. This is your roadmap and will help you attract lenders, investors, and partners.
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Perform Market Research – Study demographics, retirement trends, and competition to pick the best location.
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Underwrite the Numbers – Use tools like an underwriting calculator to make sure your business will be profitable.
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Identify Your Target Population – Will you serve seniors, individuals with disabilities, or those with mental health needs?
π Why It Matters: A strong foundation makes the next steps easier and prevents costly mistakes.
Phase 2: Find the Right Property
Now that you have a plan, it’s time to find the perfect home for your assisted living business.
π‘ Check Zoning & Local Regulations – Make sure the property is zoned for assisted living and meets fire safety standards.
π‘ Evaluate Property Features – Look for a layout that works for residents, caregivers, and accessibility.
π‘ Assess Renovation Needs – Will you need to widen doorways, add ramps, or upgrade bathrooms?
Where to Look: Use platforms like Zillow, LoopNet, or work with a real estate agent who understands assisted living.
π Pro Tip: Before buying, talk to your local fire marshal and zoning office to avoid costly surprises.
Phase 3: Secure Funding
How will you pay for the property, renovations, and startup costs? There are many ways to fund your assisted living business:
π° SBA Loans – Great for first-time owners but requires a strong business plan.
π° Private Lenders – Investors or private loans can offer more flexibility.
π° Partnerships – Bringing in a financial partner can help split the costs.
πΉ Build Relationships with Lenders – Be prepared with your business plan, financials, and market research.
πΉ Plan for Startup Costs – Budget for down payments, licensing fees, payroll, and marketing.
π Pro Tip: Need help? The Success System provides funding strategies and lender connections.
Phase 4: Obtain Licenses & Meet Regulations
To legally operate your facility, you need the right licenses and certifications.
π Facility License – Your state requires a license to operate an assisted living home.
π Administrator Certification – If you plan to run the home yourself, you may need training and certification.
π Medicaid Certification – If you want to accept Medicaid, there’s an extra certification process.
How to Get It Done: Contact your state’s licensing department early to understand the specific steps.
π Why It Matters: Proper licensing helps you avoid fines, build trust, and attract more residents.
Phase 5: Launch & Scale Your Business
You’re licensed and ready to open! Now, focus on daily operations and long-term growth.
π‘ Set Up Systems – Get your payroll, meal planning, and supply orders organized.
π©βοΈ Hire Staff – Find qualified administrators, caregivers, and support staff.
π Track KPIs – Keep an eye on occupancy rates, revenue, and resident satisfaction.
Long-Term Growth: Once your facility is running smoothly, you can start expanding, improving, and even opening a second location!
π Pro Tip: Small assisted living homes fill up faster with strong community connections—network with hospitals, case managers, and placement agencies!
Final Thoughts
Starting an assisted living home is exciting, and following these five phases will help you avoid mistakes and launch successfully.
π Need more help? Download our free business plan checklist.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Got questions? Drop them in the comments! β¬οΈ
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:00
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson and I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months in today's video we're going to be getting into a five phase approach to launching your Assisted Living business so if you need help launching that business make sure you stick around for today's video cuz we're going to talk all about that in our simple five phase approach to doing [Music] this hey friend welcome back to the channel Assisted Living investing
00:00:28
excited to have you here before we get started into our five phase approach I want to remind you to get over to the website Assisted Living investing. net where you can get access to our free underwriting calcul so make sure you go and check that out we'll have links down below now let's get into our topic for today's video we have five a five-phase approach that I like to bring people through as they are trying to launch their Assisted Living business so I want to lay this out for you to understand
00:00:52
exactly what this looks like phase number one is all about building your business Foundation there's a lot that goes into this um but you have to do this a lot of people skip this step or they kind of throw it in at other places but what I want you to do is make sure you have the foundations that you need so you can make some progress we talked previously in a video about Vision work so make sure you go and watch that because it's going to give you some guidance there um the vision work is
00:01:17
going to help you create the life that you want and then fit the business into it the business Foundation is now getting that business moving forward in a spot for where it's it's meeting that need and and filling that Gap so that you can launch that business um for yourself so in this phase we're going to kind of have four different sections one is going to be your business plan Building A business plan is the first section Building A business plan is such an important part it gives you the
00:01:41
clarity that you need to really get things going and know what type of business you're going to be building it also makes other people excited to work with you lenders Partners investors it gives them something to kind of look at and and really kind of put together and feel excited about building with you and and making some progress so make sure you spend a lot of time getting a really solid business plan it will make or break your business the second thing is going to be underwriting so in
00:02:09
underwriting it's it's really just kind of looking at the financials and making a decision on if the financials are going to make sense um what you're going to do in this in this phase is you're going to take all the financials that existed from the previous owners and you're going to do a little bit of underwriting you're going to do some projecting and we'll create what's called a proforma most banks are going to want to see something that is 24 to 36 months they want it on a
00:02:31
month-by-month thing and if you want a template for that make sure you go and grab our free underwriting calculator we'll link that down below but Assisted Living investing. netal we'll get that to you for free uh and really kind of help build that and if you need some help like understanding the calculator go check out the business planning guide as well it's Assisted Living investing. netb PG for business planning guide and it will give you all the kind of guidance that you need as you are
00:02:56
getting started down this path the next phase is Market research and again this is in the business planning guide I update this on an annual basis but you need to figure out exactly where you want to be doing this which geographic location you want to look at things like you know where people are going to retire how much money people are making you want to look at some of these other things that you know crime statistics and you want to look at things like political leanings uh which can really
00:03:23
actually impact your business based off of the regulations in a state or in a county there's so many pieces of Market search that you want to pay attention to and when you pay attention to it it's going to just kind of make a huge difference in where you are deciding to go as an example so we did our first facility in Colorado and we just kind of jumped into it and I was really excited and it's been successful but we spent a lot more time on the second goor round especially in the market research phase
00:03:49
and we identified the boisey area as a spot for us and we bought our second facility in NAA and it has been more successful it's because we spent that time doing the research building the plan spending being more conservative in our underwriting and it got us to the point where we have these two facilities and I can tell you very easily which one is more profitable for us and you know it's based off of my experiences now that I've done it but I learned a ton as I went through that process the fourth
00:04:19
thing here in this phase is all about identifying who you want to serve you know are you serving an elderly population are you working with a those that deal with mental health issues schizophrenia bipolar who who do you want to serve you want to build all of this out this is your criteria everything that you're doing here is the base for where you want to go and we're going to talk about this more in a future video and we'll link that up above once it's ready but it's all about
00:04:42
business plan and building that foundation and why it's so important second phase number two is going to be finding the right property for you so because you spent so much time in the foundation section you have the criteria you know how many beds you want you know which population you want to serve you want to know you already know which geographic look you know all of these things and so now when you start looking on Zillow for a house that you want to convert or a red fin or you start looking on loopnet for
00:05:09
a house that you want to buy or you start engaging a broker or an agent that's going to help you identify you know find the house you already have all of this criteria you just hand it to them and they're like oh well yeah here's five opportunities for you right uh it's going to streamline that process so much because you have done so much of your ground workor and you know exactly what you want it's really important for you to spend time in phase one so that the rest of these phases go a lot faster
00:05:36
for you now when you are looking at phase two which is going to be all about finding the house there's three things that you need to be aware of one is zoning make sure you talk to the local municipality to see if it's actually zoned properly for you you also number two want to talk to the fire department and make sure that it is you know it's actually going to work for you see if you need a fire suppression system any other Renovations on the house they give you a punch list that's going to help
00:05:59
you know what you need to do and then number three is going to be figuring out exactly how many beds that you have and how many beds you can have in the house rooms versus beds and what that looks like so make sure you spend some time here figuring out exactly what you need to do in phase two which is finding the right property for you so phase three is funding a lot of people say this is the part that is the most difficult or the thing that they are most scared of and this could be anything from I don't have
00:06:23
the money for a down payment all the way to I have no idea where to find a lender or what type of financing I want so in this phase we're going to help you understand exactly you know what type of funding options are out there and then start talking to those people whether it's SBA which is something I have a lot of experience in or if it's finding a partner that's going to help you out with that down payment or working with private money to the point that you do private money for a little bit and then
00:06:50
you refinance that into more of a traditional there are so many options out there with funding that will help you get into your Assisted Living business and we want to help you understand exactly what that looks like inside of this phase you're going to you figure out the type of funding you're going to find the lender and then you're going to be I'll be teaching you how to work with a lender so if you want to check out the The Mastermind program to see if it's a good fit for you go to
00:07:13
assist living investing. netmaster what I have found though is learning how to work with a lender is so important you need to have the documents ready you need to be responsive and building that relationship whether they work with you or not is going to be crucial to your future success and when you do those things it's going to be beneficial now phase four is all about kind of obtaining the licenses this is the regulatory piece of everything that you need to put together so in this phase you're going to learn how to get the
00:07:44
facility license itself whether it's a brand new license or you're doing a change of ownership slightly different processes you know the application all the paperwork you need your policies and procedures everything that goes into that is is there but also if you want to be the administrator this is the phase where you're working on getting that and and and becoming the administrator and if you want to be Medicaid certified this is happening at this point as well kind of walking you through the process
00:08:06
of understanding what it what it means to be Medicaid certified the regulatory piece of of Healthcare in general is something that scares a lot of people and why there's such a high barrier to getting into this type of a business but it's not something that you need to be scared of this is where people think I have no healthcare experience I can't do this that is not true you can do this even if you don't have the healthcare experience you just need to kind of frame yourself did in that foundational
00:08:31
piece there of the business plan the business Foundation H you're going to write why you're still a good foot even though you don't have the healthcare background that's going to help you be successful and and make some progress as you go through this now the other thing that I want you to be aware of is yes these regulations exist you are caring for people they can be confusing it is not easy to do this um but it is something that you can do you just need somebody to kind of give you some
00:08:57
guidance um the state is actually really good at helping you along that path but if you need somebody to kind of walk you through and help you understand what it means then you know check out the The Mastermind program is something that I love doing is helping people and kind of helping them understand the healthcare industry because it is so confusing and the last thing is Phase five and a lot of people ask me actually why is The Mastermind program a 12 Monon program does is it really going to take me that
00:09:22
long to launch the business and the answer to that is no it won't take you that long I I closed on my first facility in four months second one was three and a half months so you can definitely do this in less than 12 months but the reason why I do this as a 12-month program is because it's going to allow you to get things up and running and launch and then potentially scale that business if that's what you want this is Phase five so in here we're going to be talking about you know all
00:09:46
the things that you need to do to run a successful business this is going to be things like finding a payroll vendor how to run payroll making sure you have the bank set up correctly meal planning what tools are you going to use for that this is getting into how to go and buy the groceries and some of the tools that we use that help us get into that process we're also going to talk a little bit about hiring the right people um how are you going to go and find and hire that right person whether it's the
00:10:10
administrator or your other staff tools that you can use to do that we're going to be getting into setting up kpi so you know if the business is running well or not a really big one for you to be aware of is going to be your occupancy rates what does that look like but you want to set up you know three to 10 of these kpis so you know exactly how the business is running now I've been talking a lot about this throughout the the entire video but you know if you need help check out the Assisted Living
00:10:34
investing Mastermind program it is something that is here to give you some guidance and give you the support that you need over that 12-month process so that you can feel confident in your ability to launch this business so make sure you check that out to recap what we've been talking about our five phase approach phase one was working on the business foundations business plan underwriting all those things that kind of build a foundation for everything else phase two is finding the right property phase three is getting the fun
00:11:00
so you can actually buy the property or buy the business phase four is going to be all about licensing and the regulatory piece of being in the Assisted Living World and phase five is where you make it or break it this is where it is the help that you need to actually launch and scale that business and make it what you want it to be if you found this video to be helpful if you found all this information to be helpful make sure you like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified every time we put out
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content we do our lives on Tuesdays and we do this these other videos on Thursdays um to make sure you have all the support and and guidance that you need and to help you out as you're trying to learn how to launch that Assisted Living business so make sure you check us out over at Assisted Living investing. net as well and do all the things here on the on the channel so you get notified once I put out more of this content to really give you some guidance and help you along your path to launching your Assisted Living business
00:11:51
does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net we're here to help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months make sure you check us out over on the website so I can bring you through and see if it's a good fit for you or not Assisted Living investing. Mastermind is the best place for you to go to see if we can help you out in your certain situation and remember it doesn't take a
00:12:13
lot just a little bit keep going keep making progress step by step by step I promise that if you do you're going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
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