How to Create a Residential Assisted Living Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide

assisted living business plan assisted living financial planning how to create a business plan market research for assisted living residential assisted living business plan starting an assisted living facility Jul 03, 2025

Starting a residential assisted living facility? The first step to success is a solid business plan. Whether you’re buying an existing facility, converting a home, or building from scratch, a clear plan helps guide your decisions and attracts investors.

Let’s break down how to create a winning business plan for your assisted living facility, step-by-step! 🚀

Check out this video, too:

Why a Business Plan is Key to Your Success

A business plan isn’t just a formality—it’s the roadmap that will guide you through the process of starting your business and ensure you stay on track. Without a well-thought-out plan, you might find yourself getting overwhelmed by unexpected challenges.

Here’s why it matters:
✅ Clarifies Your Vision – Helps you define your mission and goals.
✅ Attracts Investors – Lenders and investors want to see a clear plan.
✅ Guides Decisions – Serves as a reference point for daily operations and long-term growth.

Step 1: Define Your Mission and Goals

Before diving into the numbers and operations, you need to know why you’re doing this. What’s your purpose for starting an assisted living facility?

Here’s what to ask yourself:
✅ Why do I want to start a residential assisted living business?
✅ Who will I serve? Will you focus on seniors, those with disabilities, or another group?
✅ What type of environment will I create? What will make your facility stand out?

💡 Tip: Your mission will guide every decision you make, from location selection to facility design and hiring.

Step 2: Understand Your Financials (Revenue & Expenses)

Your business plan needs a clear picture of the financials—both the income and expenses involved in running your facility.

Here’s what to include:
📌 Revenue Projections – Estimate how much you’ll earn from residents.
📌 Expenses – Factor in everything from property costs to staffing and supplies.
📌 Profit Margins – Make sure your numbers add up.
📌 Financial Projections – Create at least 2 years of income and expense forecasts.

💡 Tip: Use our Underwriting Calculator to make financial projections easier!

Step 3: Design Your Operations Plan

The operations section of your business plan outlines how you will run the facility day-to-day.

Key areas to cover:
✅ Staffing Needs – How many caregivers, housekeepers, and admin staff will you need?
✅ Resident Care Plans – How will you ensure quality care for each resident?
✅ Daily Operations – From meals to activities, plan out how you’ll manage the everyday aspects of the business.

📌 Tip: Make sure your operations plan aligns with local laws and regulations.

Step 4: Conduct Market Research & Analyze Competition

Choosing the right location is essential, so you need to know who your competitors are and whether there’s enough demand.

Here’s how to do it:
✅ Analyze the Market – Research the demand for assisted living in your target area.
✅ Study Competitors – Identify existing facilities and what they’re offering.
✅ Assess Location – Check zoning laws and regulations.
✅ Evaluate Pricing – What are others charging, and how will you compete?

💡 Tip: This step is crucial for understanding your potential profits and risks.

Step 5: Plan for Legal and Compliance

Starting a residential assisted living business involves legal complexities, so having a solid plan for compliance is a must.

Here’s what you need to cover:
📌 Business Structure – Decide whether you’ll form an LLC, corporation, etc.
📌 Licensing & Certifications – Each state has different requirements.
📌 Insurance – Make sure you’re fully covered in case of accidents or liability.

💡 Tip: I highly recommend consulting with an attorney or a compliance expert to ensure you meet all the legal requirements.

Step 6: Set Your Marketing Strategy

Your business plan should also include a strategy for attracting new residents.

Key areas to include:
✅ Branding & Messaging – How will you present your business to families and seniors?
✅ Online & Offline Marketing – Website, social media, and community outreach.
✅ Partnerships – Build relationships with healthcare providers, referral agencies, etc.

💡 Tip: Highlight what sets your facility apart. Whether it’s specialized care, a beautiful location, or exceptional services, let that shine through in your marketing.

Step 7: Review Your Plan Regularly

A business plan isn’t something you write once and forget about. As your business grows, make sure to update your plan regularly to reflect new goals, financials, and market changes.

✅ Set up quarterly reviews to check progress.
✅ Adjust your marketing and operations based on real-world results.
✅ Don’t be afraid to pivot if something’s not working!

Next Steps: Take Action Today!

🚀 Ready to create a solid plan for your residential assisted living business?

✅ Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to guide your process.
✅ Step 2: Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
✅ Step 3: Follow this plan and take action to turn your vision into reality!

Got questions? Drop them in the comments below! ⬇️

▶️ Watch on YouTube

Show full transcript 👇

Transcript

00:00:03 - 00:00:55
hey friend it is Brandon Gustafson with Assisted Living investing excited to have you here on our live today we're going to be talking about how to create a business plan for your residential Assisted Living so if this is something that you are interested in learning more about then make sure you stick around because we're going to get really deep into that today got a lot of really cool content for you that's going to help you out uh kind of through that process and and help you learn uh some of the the

00:00:29 - 00:01:29
good ways that you can do this before we get started though I wanted to just remind you you can get over to the website Assisted Living investing. net and I've got a link down below for a free business plan checklist that you can go through uh it's got all the content that you're going to need that we're going to be reviewing here in today's video and help you along your journey to creating a a business plan that has the potential to get you a million or more in funding through uh SBA through partnering with somebody

00:01:00 - 00:02:00
else uh you can find a lot of those types of videos here on my channel so make sure you like the video and subscribe ring the bell so you get notified every time we go live we do these once a week and we drop other content at least once a week as well so make sure you are following us and and staying up to date when we put out this super valuable content to help you along your journey that checklist can be found at us excuse me Assisted Living investing. netb checklist I've got a link down below and

00:01:29 - 00:02:22
you can see it I will be scrolling across the screen as we do the video here as well I'm going to switch up the video camera angle a little bit here and I'm hoping this this works and and hopefully you can read it as well but I wanted to feel a little more personal uh in in the way that I'm talking to you so I want it to be a little bit bigger than this little tiny thing on the on the bottom screen all right now let's jump into it uh for those of you that don't know me here's my background in Assisted

00:01:56 - 00:02:55
Living so I own and operate two assisted living facilities and I created an assisted living investing tell people like you learn the ins and outs of investing in Assisted Living so welcome to Assisted Living investing uh I operate those facilities out of state and I have secured over1 and A5 million dollars in funding through the SBA so I know this process know how to how to go through it how to help you craft a business plan craft your underwriting in a way that's going to help you get the funding that you need to so you can

00:02:25 - 00:03:30
start your business uh if you are new here if you're live and you're you're new type newbie down below and if you are just kind of learning this or you want to expand your portfolio put something like operator down below I'd love to see who's here watching the the live with us and if you're here afterwards just type that in as well because I'd love to to get a feel for who is watching and how I can cater some of this content more specifically to you so let's get into why do you need a business plan it's a kind of a tough

00:02:58 - 00:03:57
question right there are two big reasons why number one it's going to give you Direction it's going to get you Clarity it's going to help you get outside of your own head and help you uh know exactly what you need to do so you can have a successfully running business you want to do some Vision exercises you want to make sure that you are clear on what it is that you want so that you can then create your dream without putting those things into words without taking the time to to Really dive in and and

00:03:28 - 00:04:24
outline those things you're not going to know where you should be going and you're going to be walking around you're like I want to do Assisted Living I want to do something in senior care but you're not going to have that direction and having this business plan is going to give you the clarity it's going to say it's going to give your your mind the the direction that it needs to really start putting these things into practice and start laying this out so that's the first one it's really going to help you out uh from a personal

00:03:56 - 00:04:52
standpoint and helping you realize what your dreams are and helping you accomplish Lish them and a second one is going to be it's going to help you communicate that Vision you when you're getting into assisted living it's more likely than not especially the people that I talk to on on this channel and and that follow me on the website you are needing somebody to help you get the funding um you either need a lender that's going to help you out or you need investors that are going to help you out

00:04:23 - 00:05:23
and having a solid built business plan that has all of the components that they need which we're going to talk about today is what's going to allow you to find the the person that's going to get you the funding that you need to help you along your investment Journey so make sure that you are putting all of that information in here as well so we're going to talk a little bit about what you need to put into that business plan so that you have the direction that you need and also so that you are able

00:04:54 - 00:05:55
to really communicate these things over to the lender and communicate it over to those investors and help them uh feel comfortable in working with you and make it a no-brainer for them really honestly I have a business planning guide as well we have that link down below but that's what it's all about is making it a no-brainer for those lenders and and uh for those lenders and investors to want to work with you uh because you have something that's built so just amazingly and it's ready to go so what what do you

00:05:25 - 00:06:26
need to include in this business plan there are eight components and these are in the checklist so make sure you to Assisted Living investing. netb checklist we got that link down below and the things that you need to include in here you're going to have your mission statement what is it that you uh what do you want to accomplish and get clear on that and having a mission statement it's going to just give you the clarity and direction that you need to help you just kind of move things along on your investment Journey next is

00:05:55 - 00:06:54
market research and Analysis so you need to know where you you should be investing that's a really key component of doing this business plan doing the research to just make sure that you you're comfortable with the city and the state where you're where you're going to be operating that that business and that you have everything all your ducks in a row with the city zoning and planning you want to make sure you have all of those things ready to go so that you know how to progress and that you know

00:06:25 - 00:07:19
that you're going to have enough of the type of residence that you need to run a successful and profitable business the third step is uh service description so you need to get clear on what type of service you're going to be offering I've talked a lot of the people that watch this are thinking you know traditional Assisted Living you're helping out the Elderly Care uh but I did a video last week um where I talked about the different levels of senior care and so there there's different things that you

00:06:52 - 00:07:51
can do there and I'm going to do another video here in a little bit which is going to be talking about the different areas of of doing this type of of work so you could be getting into memory care you could be doing something like sober living you could do something like a transitional house or a residential treatment facility all of those plus assisted living or care homes or the things that you are probably here on the channel there's so much that you can do in this industry and and getting more

00:07:21 - 00:08:19
clear on that service description is going to give you Clarity in what I'm trying to do but also let your your investors know hey okay they they know what they they know what they're doing they they've got really clear on this but you could also build in some of those things as contingency plans so if it doesn't work out for whatever reason you could fall back into silver living um and and figure something out along those lines okay now the next the fourth one is financial projections and you can also

00:07:50 - 00:08:49
get my underwriting calculator uh it's not linked down below but if you get over to the website Assisted Living investing. net there's a big blue button up there you can go and grab that calculator as well that's going to help you out in building out your financial projections for your facility it's really important for you to have solid projections here because that's what the the lenders and the investors they want to know um what type of return they're going to beginning and or as a from A lender perspective that it's a secure

00:08:20 - 00:09:16
investment and and that they can feel confident that you're going to be able to pay that debt service so you want to be able to to have those projections and built in a way it's easy to understand them and that they're confident in in what you're doing confident in your financial model and the business planning guide again linked down below is going to teach you a lot about how to do that how to use the underwriting calculator that I built for you for free um how to use that to secure the funding

00:08:47 - 00:09:53
that you need the fifth one is going to be marketing strategy and this is different from marketing analysis and research your marketing strategy is all about how are you going to get people into your facility into your home and that could be something like social media you might look at doing Google ads what I think is the best way to do marketing though is network marketing building relationships with other people in the community uh with rehab centers with hospitals with independent living homes uh with skilled nursing facilities

00:09:21 - 00:10:25
even for people that need to come back to a lower level of care those are the types of relationships you need to do and what I would highly recommend that you have a big component of your marketing strategy built around but you also would like to probably be on some social media Facebook Instagram um or are good places for you to be at and building out a a nice page where people can follow you and you can give updates and and exciting things uh which is which is great the sixth um option the sixth thing here is your operational

00:09:52 - 00:10:49
plan so how are you going to operate your business you need to kind of put that in there so people understand how you're going to operate that business who are the people that are going to be involved do you have an administrator are you the administrator are you going to have a a a living caregiver are you going to um you know have a nurse on site what does that look like what types of amenities are you going to offer are are you going to have a personal chef that's there or are you something like what I have where it's

00:10:21 - 00:11:17
Medicaid and we can't afford that and so the staff for cooking you want to lay all of these things out and how you're going to operate that business number seven is risk R management and contingency plan and so I talked a little bit about this before where I was talking about the service description in this section the risk management and and contingency planning you want to have something that's going to say hey know if this doesn't work out here are our backup options and and here's what we think might we could fall back into and

00:10:49 - 00:11:39
and still be successful and still generate enough income there uh so having that laid out is going to help the lender and investors a little more confident and comfortable that hey hey okay this person they've got it figured out they know what's going to happen even if it goes bad and they've got a plan in place for it and number eight is your executive summary and this actually can go at the very top of your business plan but you're going to write it last and you'll see that in the checklist but

00:11:14 - 00:12:06
getting that information out there uh it just kind of summarizes everything that you've talked about in your business plan in a one to two paragraph little section that people can pick it up and and read it because honestly that's what most people are going to be reading when it comes to your your business plan especially in the beginning before they really dive deep into the business plan they just want to look at that executive summary see that you know what you're talking about and you've got things in

00:11:40 - 00:12:44
place and then they will move on to the next thing okay so those are the eight components that you need to have in your business plan again we will link that down below you got it across the the ticker there uh Assisted Living investing. nbp checklist it's going to help you out in getting started on your business plan now I want to talk about the five P of a solid business plan uh there are five things that you need here and this is something I learned in grad school as well so it's something that uh

00:12:11 - 00:13:17
I have an MBA um in addition to my mha which is healthcare administration and and what I learned there is is you there's these like you know five PS four Ps of marketing uh the SWAT like there's all these little acronym type things and and this is a good one that I learned there so the five PS of a solid business plan we want talk about the people um the people that are going to be involved in in the in the business and operating the business and this is a lot on you and as the person that is working with a

00:12:44 - 00:13:33
lender and investor upfront you need to sell yourself you need to show that you are a good person and that you have a good head on your shoulder and you know what you're talking about and you can kind of work through these things you've done the research and the more that you are able to communicate Comm unicate that to people the more likely and more comfortable they're going to be to invest with you and work with you the more excited they're going to be working with you and another one is for the

00:13:09 - 00:14:06
people is going to be who's your administrator if you're going to be the administrator then cool you're killing two birds with one stone but if you're hiring an administrator then you would want to put that person in your business plan this is what we did we found out who that person was wrote a bio about them um made sure we were comfortable with them and and move forward with it there second p is the position so this is where you're going to be at in the marketplace um you know how are you going

00:13:37 - 00:14:36
to what type of position do you want to have in in the way that you're setting yourself up for success and and helping you move things along the third p is going to be product and we talked about this a lot in the business plan checklist and what you need there but you need to describe exactly what it is that you are offering to other people and what client you're going to be serving and how you're going to be helping them uh through through their Continuum of Care and and and what types of service you're

00:14:07 - 00:15:10
going to be offering them you want to be clear on that as well fourth p is projection so this is again the financial uh projections that you're putting out there they want to see what those look like and so you want to just remember that youve got the those projections in there and then the fifth one is planning and you want to show that you have contingencies in place you want to show uh you can excuse me you can carry this all the way through so the five PS is just a really quick way to remember all those things that were

00:14:38 - 00:15:32
in those the eight checklist items that are a little bit more in-depth and things like that but if you have these five PS in here you're going to have a solid business plan you're going to have something that's going to get you over a million dollars in in funding so you can purchase your home your facility and move forward with your business and help you be successful if you're here live I'd love to hear any questions that you have uh so chat those down below and again those newbies uh type in newbie

00:15:05 - 00:16:01
and those that are kind of existing operators go ahead and type operator in in the chat there and I want to remind you as well that go live here on the channel once a week uh we're doing this on Tuesday Mornings now and so if you get on the channel and subscribe ring the bell you're going to get notified every time I go live and we do that in the Facebook group as well so you're going to be able to get those notifications and be aware when uh when I'm going live and you also get notified when we put all the other

00:15:33 - 00:16:27
content out on the channel so just want to remind you to make sure that you are putting uh subscribing liking and sharing the video so that other people can be aware of all the incredible resources that we are putting together for you now I just want to thank you for for being here with me today uh it's been fun to kind of go through a business plan I love doing the business plan and helping people through that process if you need uh if you need just kind of something to kick you off and get you

00:16:00 - 00:16:55
started get over to Assisted Living investing. netb checklist and you can get that free checklist and if you need more then get over to Assisted Living investing. netb PG for the business planning guide and I can help you out through that process those residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you just don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing we are here to help you through the process from start to finish thanks for watching and have a great day

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