Interviewing a Consultant for Assisted Living Investing Success
Mar 20, 2026
Hiring a consultant is a game-changer for launching or improving your assisted living business. Whether you're just starting or looking to optimize your operations, a great consultant can provide the expertise and guidance you need to succeed. But how do you find the right fit? It all starts with the interview.
This guide will walk you through every step of interviewing a consultant to ensure they align with your goals and help elevate your assisted living venture.
Check out the video, too👇
Step 1: Make the First Move
To kick things off, reach out to potential consultants via email or phone. Email is often best because it lets them respond with their schedule. Keep your message short and clear:
“Hi, my name is [Your Name], and I’m looking for a consultant to help with [specific need]. Would you be available for a call to discuss this further?”
Once they respond, schedule a time for a detailed conversation.
Step 2: Prepare for the Conversation
Before the call, outline what you need help with. Write down your main goals, challenges, and questions. This preparation ensures you make the most of the consultant’s time—and your own.
Some consultants may dive in quickly, so having an agenda will help you stay on track.
Step 3: Start with Introductions
Begin the conversation by sharing a bit about yourself and your business. For example:
“I’m new to the assisted living industry. I’ve found a property and need help with compliance and developing policies to get started.”
After sharing, ask the consultant about their background. You’ll want to hear about their experience in assisted living, specific success stories, and what makes them passionate about the industry.
Step 4: Define Your Needs Clearly
Now it’s time to get specific. Tell the consultant exactly what you’re looking for. Examples include:
- Developing a marketing strategy
- Writing policies and procedures
- Preparing for a state inspection
- Securing SBA funding
The more details you provide, the better the consultant can tailor their response.
Step 5: Discuss the Timeline
Be upfront about your timeline. Are you looking for a quick fix over the next two months, or do you need a long-term partnership?
For instance, you might say:
“I need to be fully compliant and ready for inspections within 60 days.”
This helps the consultant assess whether they can meet your deadlines.
Step 6: Talk About Costs
No one likes surprises when it comes to money, so bring up costs early. Ask about their pricing model:
- Hourly rates
- Project-based fees
- Monthly retainers
If they need time to create an estimate, that’s fine—just ensure both parties are clear on expectations.
Step 7: Ask Key Questions
Here are some great questions to ask during the interview:
- Experience: Have you worked with assisted living businesses before?
- Success Stories: Can you share examples of how you’ve helped other clients?
- Working Style: How do you prefer to communicate—email, phone, or in-person?
- Availability: How much time can you dedicate to my project?
- Problem-Solving: How would you approach [specific challenge]?
Step 8: Take Notes and Compare Options
Interviewing multiple consultants? Be sure to take detailed notes during each conversation. Look for:
- Their expertise in areas like compliance, operations, or marketing.
- How well they understand your goals.
- Whether their working style matches your needs.
Comparing notes will help you make an informed decision.
Step 9: Provide Supporting Documents
If the consultant asks for documents—like state orders, funding applications, or survey reports—be ready to share them. This information helps them understand your situation and craft a tailored approach.
Final Thoughts
Interviewing a consultant is about more than finding someone with the right skills. It’s about building a relationship with someone who understands your vision and can help you achieve it.
Take your time, ask the right questions, and trust your instincts. The right consultant can be the key to unlocking your assisted living business’s full potential.
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
00:00:01
you've identified that you need a consultant and you have in mind the type of consultant that you are looking for and how they're going to be able to address your needs and you've started finding a consultant which is awesome the next step in this process is going to be interviewing a consultant in today's video we're going to get into the process of how you do that types of questions you want to ask and what to expect as you go through the process of interviewing a consultant for your
00:00:26
business hi everybody i'm brandon gustafson 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 my last video i talked about the process of finding a consultant how what are some resources for you so you can go out and find a consultant for your business to help you get up and running one thing i really want to point out is obviously
00:01:02
this this this channel is very centric on assisted living but i try to make it so that these videos are going to be helpful to any small business owner just in general to help you through the process of getting up and running so take what i say and if you're trying to do a different type of business just take out the word assisted living and insert the type of business that you're doing i do assisted living obviously but i have a few other businesses that i work on you know my youtube channel i'm working on doing
00:01:30
a franchise uh i'm also going to be looking at trying to get in a transportation company that will be adjacent to one of my assisted living facilities so i'm really trying to build out a lot of this type of a network and so the tools that i'm giving you are going to be applicable to a lot of those different areas and if you have interest in learning a little bit more about those things or if you have like you know insight into processes that you've gone through as you're trying to get your
00:01:55
business up and running i'd love to hear from you reach out to me on assistedlivinginvesting.net we'd love to have a conversation see if there's anything we could do to maybe partner um going forward i just would love to have that type of a conversation so sorry just wanted to give that a little bit of a plug before i get into the topic of today which is interviewing a consultant and what that process is is like and what you could expect to happen as you're going through this process so the initial conversation
00:02:23
that you're going to have with them you know once you've decided that you're going to hire a consultant and you know the type of consultant that you should hire you need to initiate the the contact and i'll reference my video up above about the type of consultant that you should be looking for as you're going through the process you know how do you select a consultant i'll link that up above so you can go ahead and watch that video if you're wondering how do i go about
00:02:49
identifying what my needs are to watch that video so as far as initiating contact there are really kind of two ways that you can do that the first is email most consultants will have an email address on their website or they'll at least provide you some contact emails where you can reach out to them and start getting a hold of them to help you you know start initiating that contact and the other one would be to reach out to them on the phone give them a call um so just give them a quick call uh explain who you are what your
00:03:20
needs are and what you're looking for and then set up a more in-depth conversation with them um in a few days or something like that you're if you're cold calling somebody reaching out the chances of them having 30 to 60 minutes to really sit down and dig into it with you is not very likely just be very respectful of their time hey i just want to give you a quick call i'm looking for a you know a consultant to help out with my assisted living facility um is that something you could help me out with can
00:03:46
we set up a call um here in you know in two days on tuesday or whatever it is um to help get the ball rolling um those are the two best ways to start initiating that contact with a consultant and the other thing that i would point out there is you know like i i mentioned this a little bit uh but you want to really make this initial conversation very just short and sweet this is the high level stuff that i need you don't need to get into all of the details yet that's what that kind of conversation that's going
00:04:15
to be a little bit down the line is going to be for um so you just want to you know make sure that this is a quick conversation you're getting what you need out there see if it's a good initial fit and then go from there now for that big conversation after you have that initial conversation and uh to be clear they're gonna be a handful of consultants that are just like ready to go right from that initial call and you're gonna jump into this bigger conversation from the get-go and that's
00:04:44
totally fine this is why it's important for you to kind of prepare this is the stuff that i need so that you if if this does happen to you you're able to really dive in and have a conversation an example i had a consultant that i reached out to via email and said hey i need a consultant i'd love to have a quick conversation with you here's my number and then what's your availability she called me 10 minutes later and we had an hour-long conversation so like it could happen to you where they're just ready
00:05:14
to go immediately and you're already having that big conversation so do your research make sure you have an understanding of exactly what you need so that if this comes up and you need to have this big in-depth conversation it's going to be something that's very easy for you to do from the jump and you're ready to go and and you're prepared to have a good solid conversation with them now once you've set up this time for that initial conversation let's just use this as an example you you've done that
00:05:42
initial email or quick phone call you set up the time you want to make sure like i mentioned that you come prepared to have this big conversation you want to build yourself a bit of an agenda these are the different types of things that um you know i want to to talk about as i go through this conversation this is to help you kind of stay on task um and you know like i mentioned it's probably good that you kind of have this agenda built out prior to giving people a call because you never know if somebody's
00:06:12
gonna have an hour to just give you right off the you know right off the bat um so you could include some of the following topics in your agenda as you're building this out for the conversation that you're going to have with this consultant so number one is to get to know your conversation so share your experiences your background the situation with the consultant and ask them to do the same for you just like let's get to know each other let's spend five minutes you know i'm an owner of
00:06:42
assisted living facility i live out of state i have this facility we got into a problem and i need some help kind of clearing up the plans of corrections that came out of that survey or i'm brand new i'm trying to get started i really want to get into assisted living and i've got the house selected you know i've got funding is is kind of in place we're we're down that road and now i just need somebody to kind of help me out with the policies and procedures and make sure everything is just going
00:07:09
to run good from day one or it could be something you know hey i want to get into assisted living but i don't know how how do i find a uh you know a house how do i go and talk to a broker how do i get sba funding and things like that so these are the types of conversations that i would help out with when i have the capacity to bring on new clients and things like that so uh you know this is what i need let's have this get to know you um conversation and then you ask them to do the same for you um you know what's your
00:07:39
what's your experience tell me a little bit about your work in consulting what's your past experience what what type of thing have a really good solid get to know you conversation it doesn't have to be long five minutes is probably sufficient but it really kind of sets that boundary sets a really good base for you to start having a good relationship going forward so just make sure you take time to get to know the person the next one is going to be your needs so number two is uh your needs so you want to lay them out
00:08:08
very clearly if it's plans of correction that the state has given you you want to say here's the five items that the state has told me we really need to improve on or it could be hey i'm going to email you after this meeting the different plans of corrections that we have if it's i need to get policies and procedures in place and you know lay that out for them you know we're a brand new facility we're purchasing an existing facility um i know that the policies and procedures are there but i
00:08:34
need somebody to like look at them and make sure they're up to current standards and different things like that maybe do some editing with me and kind of working through the process helping me build in systems that are going to help uh you know help me be successful at running my facility number three is the timeline so what is the timeline that you are trying to work on are you trying to close on a deal and you need it done soon you know this is like a two-month project um start to finish and
00:09:03
everything is going to be good is it the state has given you a timeline to work with you need to be with this consultant for three six 12 months that you need to have this relationship built in so that you're complying with you know whatever state has has told you you need to do if there's any kind of a deadline you want to make sure that you're communicating that just be very clear up front this is the timeline this is how long i anticipate our relationship to last um so that they have a good
00:09:32
understanding of what they're getting into and what they're going to be committing to as you go through the process number four is um the price so you want to make sure and i think it's appropriate to ask what the price is it's common that a consultant is not going to be able to tell you off the top of the head a lot of them are actually going to probably say let me take this back and let me think about it a little bit this that's a common thing for them to just be like you know i need
00:10:03
to think about it and give you a quote later totally okay but it's appropriate for you to ask you know how much is this going to cost um what's it going to look like for me financially to hire you and to to work with you some of them might tell you you know it's an hourly rate my hourly rate is 150 bucks or it could be i do kind of a retainer fee and it's 1500 a month and then you can use me as much as you need it just depends on the consultant and how they want to get things set up so
00:10:30
number five is just questions so if there are questions that we haven't outlined already above then make sure you have those listed out for the types of questions that you have for the consultant are you able to be on site is this going to be kind of more of a virtual consultant type of a relationship those types of things how are things structured how much of my time do i have what's your preferred method of contact those those are really good questions to ask as you go through this process and try to get things set
00:10:58
up with the consultant so that you have kind of a good ground base view of how your interactions are going to go how this relationship is going to look and you know just answer any questions that you have about the process and what it's going to look like as you're going through that conversation those five different topics that i put up there for you make sure that you are taking notes writing up a recap of the call when you're done so that it's fresh in your mind so that you have the notes to look
00:11:26
at you're likely going to be looking at multiple different consultants and it's a good idea to kind of keep notes and and see what you're thinking in the moment so you can go back and review them and then say yeah i really liked this this individual this person was pretty good i think they would help us out a lot but i you know communication style wasn't wasn't great and so i don't think i could work with them but this one seems to me all the needs that i have if you're looking back at this three
00:11:53
weeks later two weeks later whatever um you might not remember those things so taking notes in the moment is going to help you review it and so when it gets to the point where you're really comparing the different consultants you're going to have this kind of built-in notes and things like that so you can really evaluate them and see where things are at i did this we had narrowed it down to actually three different consultants and had a lot of different notes and things like that went through the process and then
00:12:19
we finally picked one based off of the notes that i had done that helped us really get a feel for what we wanted to look at so uh just good process there now the next thing that you need to look at is a document so it's quite possible that the consultant will ask you for different paperwork that that they want to look at so you know different state orders or progress and securing funding for a project when you're looking um at a lending process with a consultant uh so if i would just come into this expecting
00:13:00
that uh you know a consultant's gonna ask you hey do you have any documentation for where you're at in the process because i don't want to waste your time and they don't want to waste their time either you want to make sure that you know it's something that they could actually handle so visit me actually on assistedlivinginvesting.net if you're interested in using me as a consultant on something like an sba 7a loan so that's the type of consulting at this point again uh as a
00:13:21
recording of this video in the first quarter of 2022 um that i am kind of offering at this point i down the line here later in the year hopefully i'll be able to do a little bit more of the operational type of consulting and helping you build out processes that's one of the goals that i have for you on this channel is to build out some some really good and useful tools but visit me on assistedlivinginvesting.net so you can kind of start you know getting a feel for what that might look like and how we
00:13:49
could build out some of those relationships now if the consultant requests documents get them to the consultant as quickly as you possibly can so just like when you're working with a lender and i'll reference a video up above you want to make sure that you are extremely responsive and that you are over communicating just hedge on the side of talking about things consistently and frequently so that um there's just clarity and it just it's gonna make the consultant be a little bit happier um if you're
00:14:21
responsive in getting things done it's gonna make them feel like oh yeah they they actually want to do this with me they're willing to work with me if you get into this relationship and you have not been responding and you're not answering questions and you're just kind of being lackadaisical um the consultant's going to do the exact same to you they're not going to be as responsive and it's just going to result in a bad kind of just pension-filled relationship you don't
00:14:45
want that so make sure you're responsive the consultant will do the same for you um that's really just kind of solid advice just make sure that you are over communicating and you're responsive in getting things done and then uh following up so after you have that big conversation with the uh with the consultant and you're getting those documents over to the consultant make sure that you're following up with them um you know ask them if they have a quote on your project i think after a
00:15:13
week three to five days it's appropriate to say hey i just want to make sure you know you got all the documents you're able to review it do you have a you have a quote for me do you have a price for me just kind of keep that conversation going if they didn't give it to you already in the call it's probably just a good idea to ask that question do they have the capacity to take on your project don't just assume that they have time for you even if they you know call answered the call and you had that
00:15:41
60 minute conversation right off the bat doesn't mean that they have the capacity for you myself right now i've had to turn down a few people and i feel horrible about it but i just don't have the capacity if i took on another thing right now um my wife would kill me for one um and then i i i don't know when i would sleep and so i just i don't have the capacity to to bring on another project right now and i feel bad about it but i also have to take care of me and same with the
00:16:09
consultant they've got to make sure that they are in a good spot and you know that they're not over burning themselves just because you need help and that you know you just have to be understanding of that and it's okay and i'll say you know the reason for that is it takes a lot of time for a consultant to get into the mode into the mindset of working on your project with you um so and it takes a lot of effort it's a big lift for them because they're not coming from the exact same location as you um
00:16:41
so they're having to jump into this brand new and try to figure it out so you just want to be understanding of that as well like and it's okay if they say no it doesn't mean that they're a bad person it doesn't mean that they wouldn't love to work with you it doesn't mean that they're the wrong consultant it just means that right now this isn't the best time so just kind of keep that in mind as you're going through the process of trying to find this consultant and trying to get
00:17:04
things in place uh another question would be when can they get started you want to ask them hey you know i would love to work with you when can you get started on the project so we can start working together are you able to start you know january 1st or do we need to wait until next tuesday or whatever it is i keep using tuesday i'm not sure why uh but you know just kind of keep an eye on that when when can we get started on this project another point to just kind of take into consideration is don't put
00:17:35
all of your eggs in one basket um don't just ask one consultant make sure you're talking to several i've talked about this i think previously if i have a space i'll i'll put it up in a card here when you're talking with lenders you want to talk to a bunch of of lenders and make sure you have a lot of different options out there same with consultants when i had to hire a consultant i reached out to five six seven consultants uh to just kind of start having a conversation we
00:18:03
narrowed it down to three and then from there we really made a decision um it just made it a lot the process just went so much more smoothly when we did that so just make sure that you are looking at about a lot of different options because there's going to be different styles and different you know different styles in the way that they work with you and different styles and how they approach the work as well so you just want to make sure that you're finding somebody that's a good fit
00:18:28
you want to make sure that you're getting the best person that's going to meet your needs and match your culture i also don't think that it's a bad thing necessarily to let the consultant know you know i'm talking to a few other people so you know at this point i'm just kind of trying to get a feel especially really early on in the process i think it's appropriate to just you know let them know hey i'm talking to a few other people as well it's common practice
00:18:53
that you do that and then it shows that potential consultant that you're very committed to making a difference in your situation they're gonna look at and be like oh okay so they like i'm not the only person i reached out to they're talking to a few different people they really want to tackle this thing um i probably should you know i should give these guys some really good consideration um that's how i would view it as a consultant and others that i have talked to um kind of feel the same
00:19:18
way um so don't be scared to just let them know you know i'm talking a few other people about this process as well as you're trying to make a decision and then even if you're talking to multiple consultants you still want to make a decision quickly you don't want to drag this process out you want to be respectful of their time you probably need to get things figured out as well a little more quickly and so just make sure that you are doing that um just don't you know don't make this a
00:19:45
two month long process don't try probably not to even make it a two week process try to get through this quickly make a decision so that everybody can kind of get back to their lives and and to their work in my next video we're going to get into the process of hiring a consultant so go ahead and watch that video if you are interested in learning more about investing in assisted living make sure you visit me on assistedlivinginvesting.net i have resources up there you can set up a call with me have a conversation
00:20:11
and kind of see where we might take our relationship uh just as a you know since i'm a consultant and trying to help you out through the process so make sure you visit me again on assisted living investing.net and 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 you will be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
Download Your FREE Calculator
Stay connected with news and updates!
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.