Hire a Consultant for Your Assisted Living Startup: Pros & Cons
Sep 28, 2024
So, you're ready to jump into the assisted living business—exciting! But here’s a big question: Should you hire a consultant to help? It’s an important choice. Consultants can offer guidance, save time, and help you avoid mistakes, but they can also be pricey. Let’s break down the pros and cons so you can decide if a consultant is right for you.
Check out the video, too:
Why Hire a Consultant?
1. Expert Help Right from the Start
Starting an assisted living business means following lots of rules. Consultants know these regulations and can make sure you’re following them. This keeps you from making costly mistakes and helps you start off on the right foot.
2. Saving Time and Money
A consultant might seem expensive at first, but they can help you save money in the long run. By setting things up correctly, they can help you avoid future problems and speed up your path to profitability.
3. Preparing for State Surveys
State surveys are a big deal in assisted living. They make sure you’re following safety and quality standards. A consultant helps you prepare so you pass with flying colors, boosting your business’s reputation.
4. Keeping Up with New Rules
The assisted living world is always changing. Consultants stay updated on new laws and regulations, helping your business stay safe and efficient.
Franchise vs. Independent Consultant
When it comes to hiring help, you have two main options: joining a franchise or working with an independent consultant. Here’s how each option works:
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Franchise: With a franchise, you get a whole system, including guides, policies, and support. It’s a big help, but franchises usually charge ongoing fees, which can add up.
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Independent Consultant: Hiring an independent consultant often costs less in the long run. You get expert help without the ongoing fees, plus you keep control of your business.
When to Skip the Consultant
Sometimes, hiring a consultant isn’t the best choice. Here’s when you might want to go without one:
1. Limited Budget
Consultants can be pricey, with upfront costs from $10,000 to $50,000 or more. If money is tight, you might wait until you’re financially ready.
2. Your Own Knowledge and Experience
If you already know a lot about the assisted living industry, you may not need a consultant. Experienced operators might find it easier to build their own systems.
3. Strong Network
If you have friends, family, or colleagues who know the industry, they may offer guidance for free or at a lower cost. A supportive network can sometimes replace a paid consultant.
Choosing the Right Consultant
If you decide to go for a consultant, make sure they know assisted living specifically. Avoid consultants who only know hospitals or nursing homes since their experience might not be a perfect match. Ask for recommendations, check their qualifications, and find the best fit for your startup.
Final Thoughts
Hiring a consultant can be a great move, especially if you’re new to the assisted living business. They help you get started smoothly and stay on top of important rules. But remember, it’s all about what fits your budget, experience, and goals.
If you're ready to launch your assisted living business, get our free Business Plan Checklist to help you build a solid business plan.
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
you're pretty sure that you're ready to jump into a new business but you don't know everything yet could you learn it on your own sure should you that's a completely separate question there are consultants out there that can help you out in today's video we're going to talk about the big question should you hire a consultant to get your business up and running hi everybody i'm brandon gustafson i own and operate two assisted living facilities and i created this channel to
00:00:26
help people just like you learn the ins and outs of investing in assisted living welcome to assisted living investing [Music] hey everybody welcome back to the channel in my last video i talked about um running payroll in gusto and gave you a full tutorial on how to go about doing that process uh today we're gonna get into should you hire a consultant to start your business hiring a consultant may seem too expensive or maybe even a little bit scary you don't know really where to look and you don't know how to approach
00:01:06
a consultant and you might even be a little bit scared that you're going to get shut down because you just aren't prepared enough for it yet um what i've found they're there you know specifically for those reasons because you're not ready to to get things going they're there to help you out they they anticipate you not knowing what you need what you not knowing what you need to know um that's what they're going to be there is to help you through that process if you already knew everything you would
00:01:32
not need a consultant which makes a lot of sense when you think about it so don't be scared that you don't know enough to to get started with a consultant it's it's not a horrible thing that's what they're there for to answer those questions for you so why should you hire a consultant there are several reasons why you would want to hire a consultant you want to be successful and do things correctly from the beginning which is a big important thing it's going to save you so much time and
00:01:58
money if you do this and get it kicked off correctly from the beginning it's going to help you through the pitfalls that happen as you're getting up and starting to run your business it's going to help you avoid issues that may come up through a state survey so in assisted living the state is going to come out especially in the beginning they need to do a survey at your site to make sure you have everything in place everything is ready to go and that you're good good on that front
00:02:25
and so it's going to help you prepare for that state survey so you don't have as many deficiencies on it which just helps you in the long run it's going to help you make sure that you are up to the most current rules and regulations in the healthcare industry there's a lot of change it's very highly regulated there's a lot going on and so you want to make sure you have somebody that knows what they're talking about and can help you kind of get through that process this is essentially what a
00:02:51
franchise model does so if you're looking at a franchise model for assisted living it's not a horrible idea because they are going to have a lot of these steps and these processes in place that are going to just make your life a lot easier that's the purpose of buying into a franchise that's why you spend enough money it's why you spend the money to join a franchise because they are giving you this up-to-date information they're helping you prepare for surveys they're giving you the
00:03:17
policies and procedures and all those things um so that's kind of what they do you know instead of paying where why you wouldn't do it is um you know if you didn't want to pay the regular royalties that are associated with the franchise that's where you would prefer not to do a franchise this is where you would want to just kind of go with a consultant not saying that a franchise and a consultant are the exact same thing they're not they're they're very different they can
00:03:39
offer different services and different perks pros and cons to each list but if you don't want to spend you know six seven percent of all of your income going towards a franchise as a as a royalty um then looking at a consultant is actually a pretty good idea it's probably gonna save you a little bit of money there and you'll be able to be successful by doing that and i touched on this one a little bit earlier but it's going to save you a ton of money in the long run um you'll avoid all the pit
00:04:07
pitfalls that could cost you just a ton of money and a ton of time really and even it could potentially as you get into this you might even find that the state's going to require that you hire a consultant because you have certain deficiencies that actually has happened to us so it could happen to me it could happen to you and it's totally fine um so what happened with us is we just we were trying to figure out exactly how to run things and we were doing a pretty good job like we were making money and everything was going
00:04:35
along but we were not up to date on all of the current rules and regulations because our administrator was just swamped with the staffing crisis it was really hard for her to find people so she had to work a lot of hours and so she just wasn't able to get up to date on all the current rules and regulations which caused us to fall behind and now we're in a situation where we have to find and hire a consultant which it can happen to anybody it's not a bad thing though it's it's
00:05:00
actually a really good thing that's helping us improve a lot of things in our systems and get things in place so that we can make improvements going forward so why you should not hire a consultant number one is you just don't have the money with it consultants can be expensive so make sure that you have the funds available to pay them and don't put yourself in a really bad situation because you are paying this consultant up front um you know it can you know if if you can't afford a consultant even if
00:05:29
you don't feel like you need one um you're probably better off waiting to start the business anyways because it's not an exorbitant amount of money um consultants that i've talked to are between two and five thousand dollars for the first three months and then like a thousand dollars after that or you know that kind of puts you in the ballpark of what you're looking at so it's not a huge expense so if you can't afford that um you probably can't afford the the house anyways so kind of take
00:05:54
that um as food for thought and and see what you think about it as you're getting up and running if you already have the knowledge of how to get a facility up and running you've done this this is your third fourth facility you don't need a consultant you're just kind of here watching my channel because you're trying to learn the some of the other ins and outs to just kind of refine your processes then you probably don't need a consultant if you already have some of these processes
00:06:18
in place you're probably going to be fine you're going to be wasting your money it's maybe not a horrible idea to just kind of have a quick conversation see what they could offer you see or they could maybe improve you it's going to cost you less than it would to get some somebody like me that has to hire a consultant or somebody that's getting started up but it's something you might want to consider but if you're already there and you're going you probably don't need to
00:06:40
get a consultant in fact what you could maybe look at doing is creating your own consulting business and helping other people get to where you are today so that's another really cool option that you could look at doing one thing that i'll point out with consultants is healthcare is so broad there's a ton of uh different just little sectors and things in the healthcare industry so if you're getting into um looking at a consultant make sure you have somebody that is specific to what
00:07:09
you're doing you don't want to go and hire a consultant that has worked in a hospital or who has worked in a skilled nursing facility when you're trying to start up an assisted living you want to make sure that you have somebody that knows what they're talking about specific to the type of health care that you are providing assisted living in this case so make sure you do your research make sure you have somebody that that is good and in place um you know if so you have somebody in
00:07:35
your family who is or your network who's already really skilled in this area as well and they're willing to help you out for free then i wouldn't worry about hiring a consultant i would bring them in maybe pay them a little bit give them you know a small salary a stipend something like that help them give them something that makes it worth their time but uh yeah if you have one of those people in your in your network then use them if you're in a franchise i would also probably say
00:08:03
don't necessarily look at doing a consultant right off the bat typically that franchise is going to have a system that is built for you there's probably going to be documentation in there that you just need to go find and read talk to your franchisor talk to the people there at the franchise and see what resources they they have that could help you out in it they should be able to help you out with that they also may have resources with you know partners that they've done at the franchise level
00:08:28
that could give you some consultant help as you're getting through things so if you're a part of a franchise i would say take a step back breathe for a second and see if there are other resources that are available to you all right in our next video we're going to be getting into how to find a consultant so i'll talk about that in the next video to learn more about investing in assisted living make sure you visit me on assistedlivinginvesting.net i've got other content up there free
00:08:54
resources you can set up a consulting call with me and we can have a conversation about kind of your situation and where to go from there and make sure you follow me on my other social media platforms and remember it doesn't take a lot just a little bit just keep going keep making step by step by step if you keep making progress and you're diligent with it i promise that you will be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music] you
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