Find Top Consultants for Assisted Living Success | Expert Tips
Oct 30, 2024
Starting or managing an assisted living facility is no small feat! From establishing new protocols to navigating strict state regulations, there's a lot to keep track of. If you’re ready to take your facility to the next level or need a little extra support, hiring a skilled consultant can make all the difference. But how do you find the right one? Let’s break down the steps to find the perfect assisted living business consultant who can guide you toward success.
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1. Determine Your Needs
First things first, figure out what you actually need help with. Are you launching a new assisted living facility and need guidance on policies and procedures? Struggling to meet state requirements after a survey? Or maybe you want to improve resident care or hire top-notch staff?
Being specific about your needs makes it much easier to find a consultant who fits like a glove. The more details you have, the better your chances of finding an expert who can give you targeted advice and solutions.
2. Reach Out to Your State’s Department of Health
Your state’s Department of Health is an absolute goldmine for finding qualified consultants. Many states keep a registry of consultants who specialize in assisted living. These folks know the ins and outs of state regulations and can help you stay compliant.
For example, when I had an issue with a state survey, I contacted my state’s Department of Health, and they gave me a list of consultants who had experience with similar facilities. If you’re opening a new facility or need help with compliance, this should be one of your first stops!
3. Connect with Other Assisted Living Facility Owners
Who better to ask for recommendations than people who’ve been in your shoes? Reaching out to other assisted living facility owners in your area—or even in nearby cities—can open up new possibilities. They might have just the referral you’re looking for or know someone who does.
For example, if I’m based in Boise but feel awkward asking local competitors for help, I might reach out to facility owners in Nampa or elsewhere in the Treasure Valley. Many owners have worked with consultants before and are more than happy to share their experiences.
4. Conduct an Internet Search
Sometimes the easiest way is the best way. A quick search like “assisted living consultants near me” or “assisted living consultants in Boise” can lead you to a range of potential consultants. Sure, you’ll need to do some vetting, but it’s a great place to start if you’re unsure where to begin.
And don’t worry if your first pick isn’t a match—many consultants have networks they can tap into. Even if they’re not the right fit, they might point you in the direction of someone who is.
5. Join Social Media Groups for Assisted Living Professionals
Social media isn’t just for cute cat videos—it’s also a fantastic resource for business! Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have numerous groups for assisted living professionals where you can connect with others in the industry.
These groups are packed with discussions on best practices, regulatory updates, and, of course, consultant recommendations. A simple post asking for advice could lead to some valuable suggestions from others who’ve been in your shoes.
If you can’t find a group in your area, why not start one? Building a local community can help you in the long run and foster ongoing support from fellow business owners.
6. Know What to Look for in a Consultant
Now that you’ve got a list of potential consultants, it’s time to see who makes the cut! Here’s what to focus on during the interview process:
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Experience: Does the consultant have a track record in the areas where you need help? Ask for specific examples of their work with other facilities.
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Budget: Make sure their services fit within your budget. You want a consultant whose fees reflect the level of support they’re offering without breaking the bank.
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Communication Style and Culture Fit: This is crucial! You’ll be working closely with your consultant, so it’s important that you click and communicate well.
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State Requirements: If you’re dealing with state compliance issues, ensure the consultant is certified or approved to handle your specific needs.
7. Be Clear About Your Expectations
When you finally sit down with your consultant, be crystal clear about your goals. Whether it’s setting up a new facility, fixing compliance issues, or boosting daily operations, make sure your objectives are on the table.
For instance, when I hired a consultant after a state survey issue, I was upfront about needing help with compliance and staff performance. This transparency made it easy to see if they were the right fit from the get-go.
Final Thoughts
Finding the right consultant for your assisted living facility might seem like searching for a needle in a haystack, but with the right strategy, it’s totally doable! Start by defining your needs, reaching out to your state’s Department of Health, and connecting with other facility owners. Don’t underestimate the power of social media and a good ol' Google search, either.
The perfect consultant is out there, ready to help you elevate your business. With a little homework and some proactive networking, you’ll soon find the ideal partner to guide your assisted living facility toward success!
If you’re ready to learn more about investing in assisted living download our Business Plan Checklist to help you build a solid foundation for your business.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
once you've decided that you want or you need a consultant it's time to try to find a consultant in today's video i'll provide you with a few resources that should help you find a consultant that fits your needs hey everybody i'm brandon gustafson and i own and operate two assisted living facilities and i created this channel to help people just like you learn the ins and outs of investing in assisted living welcome to assisted living investing [Music] welcome back to the channel in our last
00:00:35
video we talked about what type of a consultant should you hire i referenced that up above go ahead and watch that video in today's video we're going to be getting into the process of finding a consultant where do you go to look for a consultant how do you find one uh we'll get into that in today's video the first thing is you know is a consultant right for you is it something that that you should be doing should you hire a consultant that really depends on what your needs are all
00:01:02
references i talked about in a previous video to figure out what your needs are specifically so you can know if you need to go and hire a consultant one thing i really want to point out though is that hiring a consultant really is not a bad thing in fact it can be a really good thing especially if you take the time to find a really good person and hire the right person they're going to expedite a lot of the different things that you need to do your facility your policies and procedures making sure you're up to date
00:01:30
with rules and regulations maybe helping you bring in more and better residents bring in better quality staff a consultant is really going to be the one that is going to help you out with that so it's worth the money that you're paying them if you have it available to you but the big question here then is how do you find a consultant so where to start one great resource that i have found to be just extremely invaluable is the state's department of health actually we've talked about the state's
00:02:02
department of health several times in previous videos they as much as you know they're a regulatory body and and they kind of give oversight into what you can and can't do at your facility they also have a really robust um set of resources that can really help you out as you're going through things so what i actually found was our state department of health had a list of different numbers and different kind of approved consultants that we could use to help us get up and running to get a consultant which was extremely
00:02:41
helpful because otherwise i really i don't know where else i would have started so what i ended up doing is i reached out to them i call i'm pretty sure i called um the state because i tried emailing and i could not get anybody to email me back so i finally just gave a call went through and finally found somebody that was able to help me out and just kind of explain to them what i needed for for us it was you know we had an issue with a state survey and we needed to bring in a consultant it was mandated for us um to
00:03:09
do it so i brought that up to them and said hey i need to you know i need to comply with this how do i how do i find a consultant and they were able to help me out with it but if you're just getting up and starting you're just trying to figure it out you give them a call and say hey i'm starting up an assisted living facility and you know i need help understanding the process of launching a successful facility do you have any consultants that you'd recommend for that that kind of a question can really set
00:03:37
you down the path in helping you find a good consultant and what i found through that process is the state actually has a list of certified approved consultants that can help you out with your needs so that was just like an incredible resource for me that i didn't know existed but i bet your state has something very similar another resource is to ask other owners you can identify some of the other facilities in your area maybe not in your direct market since you know you'd be asking a potential competitor but i i
00:04:08
honestly think that it's not going to matter there are so many residents that need housing right now that even reaching out and developing relationships with different uh owners that are like in your direct market is not a horrible um idea um but you know if you're not comfortable with it maybe just go you know we're in colorado springs maybe i'd go down to denver find another owner there kind of a thing um you know just a market that's adjacent to us and i could probably find
00:04:36
somebody that would be willing to help us out these other facilities they they might know somebody they may have had to have used a consultant in the past um they can give you that information on somebody that could help you out the other thing is they actually might be willing to help you out themselves they might be able they might be able and willing to be a consultant for you um you just pay them a fee and they can really help you get up and running if you're going to do that i would make sure you do a little
00:05:04
bit of research on them just like them as a person and also them as a facility how they've been functioning and things like that you don't want to get somebody that also is in the same boat that you're in um if you're you know had a bad stay survey and you're trying to find somebody to help you out with a third resource for you would be doing an internet search so this is probably the most simple option that you uh you know sometimes we just overlook it its effectiveness in trying to find
00:05:32
something so searching for something like assisted living consultants near me or you know if you're me and your your gps tag is out of state then assisted living consultant in colorado springs in boise idaho you know whatever it needs to be doing that can lead to several potential leads that you could then just reach out to and start having a conversation you might not find the exact right person but they might know somebody that can help you or or you know kind of give you some direction and so just doing a simple internet
00:06:07
search is going to kind of start getting you down that path um it's simple it's easy you don't have to call other people it might require a little bit more work on the back end but it's a quick and easy way to really just kind of get started and trying to find a consultant for you and the fourth one would be to join the different social media groups that work in assisted living there are several of them i'm sure if you're watching this video you probably are a part of them um
00:06:35
because there's you know five six that are just kind of national and then there are also niche groups um for the different geographic areas so find the one that works for you go ahead and start one if there's not one already and start building up this really good network but putting it out there on social media can lead to some really good and successful conversations because you're talking to a very targeted audience that is involved in assisted living and they're probably going to help you out
00:07:04
whether it's their consultant or they're going to give you a referral to somebody else's consultant really good resource in helping you find that consultant that's going to help you through the process to help you get up and running and operating your facility the way that you need it to be so that you can be successful in the long run now finding a good fit is another like big important part of getting a consultant what you want to do is when you're going into a meeting with a
00:07:30
consultant you want to have a very clear view of what you want to get out of the relationship what's your wish list of items that you need to work on why are you hiring this consultant you're not you're not bringing this consultant in to tell you everything you need to do you want to have a vision i'm starting up a facility i need help with my policies and procedures and finding an administrator i'm an operating facility but we had some deficiencies with the state now i need to
00:07:58
you know reach out and and figure out how i need to make this correction of the facility what's some good where are some good places to go buy the different gloves and masks and things that i need to get at my facility those types of things have in your mind a vision what do you want to get out of this relationship and try to articulate that in the calls that you're having as you're kind of vetting potential consultants that you're going to work with just be explicit with your needs as well
00:08:28
it's going to help you narrow down your search and help you quickly vet those potential consultants to see if they're going to meet your needs you don't want to start talking about something with a consultant you're like oh man i really like this consultant i think they'd be a really good fit and then you find out that there's somebody like me who could maybe help you out in getting an sba loan um but as far as operating a facility i'm still learning and i'm probably not going to be the best one to
00:08:54
do that right now as of the recording of this video in uh march of 2022 um not to say that that's not going to be true later on in this year or even next year but it's something that you just kind of want to be aware of what's this person's experience on how can they help me out and are we gonna be able to work together are they gonna be able to meet my needs and just have a very frank conversation this is what i need can you help me consultants are gonna you know they want to have you have a
00:09:22
good experience so they can get reviews and and then get more um clients off of it so they're going to tell you not you know it's probably not the best fit for me um and that's okay there's a lot of different consultants out there spend your time make sure you find the right one there are a few things that you really want to look at this early in the process um just to make sure that they're going to be able to meet some of your needs so really the first one is are they going to be able to meet your
00:09:47
needs second are are they within your budget is it something that you can afford match your communication style and your culture you don't want to bring in somebody that's going to rock the boat or somebody that you just hate working with everybody has different personalities um not saying one is better than the other one you want to make sure that you're working with somebody that works well with you so that it makes sense to do that and then they are going to meet any requirements that the state might have
00:10:13
so for us when we had to bring in a consultant because of a state survey issue we had to get approval we had to make sure they were a certified provider certified consultant with the state that they were okay with it get their sign off get their buy-in um and you know if you're just starting up a facility and you're just bringing something you don't that's not a piece you're going to need to work with um you're not going to have to worry about this day approving a consultant if you're in a situation
00:10:38
where like where i've been in um you're probably going to need one and it's not a hard process and typically the consultants will know that process they're going to be able to help walk you through the process to get them approved to work with you so just something that you want to keep in mind though next time we're going to get into the process of interviewing a consultant and what's that like and how can you go about having that conversation and kind of vetting that person getting a good feel for who they
00:11:04
are give you some of that skill set so you can kind of start building it up if you would like to learn more about investing in assisted living make sure you visit me on assistedlivinginvesting.net i have resources up there uh newsletter uh blog you can set up a consulting call with me i just had my first one a little bit ago it was great i had a really fun conversation there love kind of interacting with you and learning where you're at in the process and seeing where i can help you out and give you more resources so make sure
00:11:35
you reach out to me there and just remember it doesn't take a lot just a little bit just keep making progress step by step by step if you keep making progress i promise you if you're consistent you're going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music] you
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