Why Hire a Consultant for Your Assisted Living Business?
Oct 26, 2024
Starting your own assisted living business is a huge step, and let's be honest—it can get overwhelming fast. Between licensing, daily operations, and planning for growth, there’s a lot to manage. This is where a consultant can make a world of difference! But finding the right one isn't just about picking someone off a list; it’s about building a partnership that will guide your business to success. Let's dive into the essential steps for choosing the best assisted living business consultant for your needs!
Check out the video, too:
Step 1: Understand Pricing Structures
Before you hire a consultant, you’ve got to talk money. Understanding how they charge can save you from any "Wait, how much?" moment later on.
Hourly vs. Monthly Retainer: Some consultants charge by the hour, while others prefer a monthly fee. Both options have their pros and cons. For example, an hourly rate might be $300, and while that adds up quickly, it can still be more cost-effective if you don’t need the consultant as much over time. On the other hand, a monthly retainer, say $3,000, offers predictable costs but could be pricey if you don’t use all the services.
Extra Fees: And don’t forget the extras! Some consultants might tack on costs for travel, special equipment, or even policy books. Make sure to ask about these upfront, so you’re not caught off guard later.
Step 2: Review the Contract
Contracts might sound boring, but trust me—they’re your best friend when hiring a consultant. Here’s what to look for:
Simple Invoice Contracts: These are pretty straightforward, listing the services and their cost. For example, "Three months of consulting at $3,000 per month." Easy, right?
Detailed Scope of Work Contracts: These contracts go deeper, outlining specific tasks, deadlines, and expectations for both parties. It might seem like a lot, but clear expectations from day one make things smoother down the road.
No matter which type of contract you get, make sure it covers three key things: pricing, time commitment, and the exact scope of work. This isn’t just for your peace of mind; it’s also a lifesaver come tax time!
Step 3: Be Clear About Additional Costs
You know how things always seem to cost more than you planned? The same goes for working with a consultant. Make sure to ask about any additional expenses they might recommend. Whether it’s specialized software or must-have equipment like fire-resistant garbage cans (yes, those are a thing!), knowing these costs upfront will help you budget and avoid any nasty surprises.
Step 4: Finalize the Contract
You’ve done the groundwork, reviewed the terms, and now it’s time to make it official. Both you and your consultant need to sign on the dotted line. These days, this is usually done digitally, which means no paperwork hassle. Once everything's signed and payments are squared away, you’re ready to kick off your partnership and start building that dream assisted living business!
Step 5: Stay Responsive and Engaged
Hiring a consultant is only half the battle. Now, it’s about keeping that momentum going! Being responsive and proactive is key to a successful working relationship. Whether it’s gathering documents or making decisions, staying engaged shows your consultant you’re serious about the success of your business. A motivated consultant will go the extra mile for you when they know you’re in it together.
Remember, this relationship is a two-way street. When both you and your consultant are on the same page, you’re setting the stage for a winning partnership.
Final Thoughts
Bringing a consultant on board for your assisted living business is a big step, but it’s one that can set you up for long-term success. By understanding their pricing, reviewing the contract carefully, keeping track of additional costs, and staying actively involved, you can create a partnership that truly drives your business forward. The right consultant isn’t just a hired hand—they’re your guide to scaling your business effectively. So take the time to choose wisely, set clear expectations, and watch your assisted living business soar!
Next Step?
If you need help creating a business plan for your assisted living business, download our Business Plan Checklist to ensure you have a solid business plan to help launch your assisted living 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
after you found a few consultants and you spent some time interviewing them it's now time to hire a consultant and come to an agreement we're going to walk through that process a little bit in today's video 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] back to the channel in my last video i
00:00:34
talked about the process of interviewing a consultant go ahead and watch that video to kind of get some tips on how you should go about interviewing a consultant for for your small business for your uh for your assisted living facility in today's video we're going to get into the process of hiring a consultant and what you need to do is you're kind of getting ready to hire that consultant and start really developing this relationship with this working relationship that you're going to be starting
00:01:00
how do you go through the process of hiring this person so number one the first thing and probably one of the most important things that you could look at is going to be pricing you want to find out through the interview process you know with that consultant what their price is going to be and is it going to work for you for the different type of work that they're going to be doing for you some of the things that you want to look for in their pricing structure is are they an hourly versus a set fee
00:01:28
so if you do an hourly fee with your consultant it's likely that you'll be spending more money up front because of the amount of upfront work that you'll be doing you know it's possible that an hourly rate will be a little more cost effective in the long run though so just kind of do the math you know if it's 1500 and that's my set fee as a monthly kind of retainer fee and i can work with this individual quite a bit that's great um if they're 150 an hour um if i'm going
00:01:56
to be spending more than 10 hours a week with them you know kind of just do the math on that it's going to be a little more expensive on the hourly side but if this relationship is a 12-month relationship and at the end of it you know months 8 9 10 through through months 12 is just going to be a five hour thing you're going to be saving yourself a little bit of money there so just do some quick math what's going to make the most sense for me and and how we structure the payment structure um a lot of consultants have a
00:02:26
set thing in mind for how they want it structured so in my experience they're not necessarily going to move on it but you just want to be aware of what you're paying for so that you kind of can get a feel for what those fees are going to look like and how it's going to be structured another thing you want to kind of take into consideration is are you paying for mileage some consultants are going to require that you pay them either the same hourly rate for their drive time or they'll charge you kind of like a
00:02:55
stipend amount for the fuel that they're going to be using as they come out to your facility um so that's a question that you want to ask them you know hey drive time included do i need to pay for it kind of what what's your structure there um another one is are there going to be any other fees we've talked about this excuse me we talked about this before in like credit card videos and fees i'll link that up above but it's possible that there will be additional fees for things you know like policy books uh
00:03:25
software equipment uh just all of those types of things um do your best to kind of just vet out the process of what they're going to require of you before you start working they might not be fees directly associated with the consultant they just might be things you know what you need to get this electronic vendor to work with you you're going to need to go and buy these garbage cans which is something that we had to do and they needed to be specific types of garbage cans that were flammable resistance for residents who
00:03:57
are not supposed to smoke in the building but could possibly smoke so there's no fire you know those types of things resources and things like that um just hey as you were looking through the plan of correction was there anything that jumped out to you that i'm going to have to buy and just kind of get a feel for it as you're going through the process basically you just want to make sure that you have a good handle on what the pricing structure is going to look like before you sign that contract with the
00:04:22
consultant because this is going to be you know a longer term relationship and you just want to make sure you know exactly what you're getting into as you go through the process as for the contract um you know most consultants will already kind of have a contract in place they will provide that to you at the beginning of the engagement so the contract can come kind of in two forms so one is like a simple invoice that just outlines at a high level what services will be performed and what that
00:04:52
pay rate is going to be for their service so the consul consultant that we hired um that's that's how it looked um it was just like an invoice so you know first three months is this um here's the pay rate we're going to be doing general operating work like that was kind of the gist of the initial invoice the second option would be a larger contract that really kind of outlines the scope of the work and what you're going to be doing in that throughout that process and it really kind of sets expectations for
00:05:21
both sides so if you have a consultant that does that doesn't mean you need to be scared of it it actually might help you out a little bit because it really is setting out the scope of work you know what needs to happen and kind of help you through that process regardless of of what that contract looks like though it is going to be best to kind of formalize that agreement through a contract um it just you know makes it look more professional it's going to help you as a small business owner as well to say yep i did this so
00:05:52
when it comes to tax time you're able to provide an invoice if you're ever audited by the irs or something like that you have that information in place there you need to have kind of a formalized document that kind of says yep this is what we're working on and this is happening so if the consultant doesn't have it you could find something you could create your own invoice or something like that and have that in place so you can use it as a reference point if you ever needed it at some point in the future and because
00:06:20
the consultant is a contractor they are generally that person that's putting that contract together um but that's not always the case but if if it does kind of come to the point where you do need to do it you could very easily find a sample contract you know just like sample consulting contract search for that on the internet and you'd be able to find something put together something very simple very easy it's not a big deal but make sure you have that piece in place um if you have an attorney that you're
00:06:50
working with it's likely that they have some kind of a canned contract that they could provide to you you know for 50 100 bucks whatever fees that your attorney is going to do but it's likely that they have something in place and so that's another resource that you could go to and ask them hey i need a i'm working with a consultant they didn't have a contract do you have something i could put together just so that i have this buffer um in front of me and once you have that contract in place the next
00:07:16
step would be kind of finalizing that contract so once you've agreed on a pricing structure um if you've kind of reviewed that contract it's time to go ahead and sign the contract generally both parties will sign that contract it doesn't need to be you know in person or anything like that you could do electronic signatures you know scan it or print it off sign it scan it back in send it over kind of a thing but that contract should be outlining the price the time commitment and the
00:07:44
work that's going to be done as those are the three big things you want to see in this contract with the consultant in cases where it's just an invoice type of contract paying that invoice will suffice his agreement for the contract but they might have a spot on there where you need to sign it as well so once you have things they're signed everything's paid now it's time to get to work with your consultant and really kind of start that process of diving into the work to this point it's
00:08:11
just been more of a hey are we a good fit you've just been in a dating relationship you signed that contract now you're married now you're you're set you're ready to work with them uh as is probably one of the best analogies i could give you uh on on how this is gonna look again i'm i can't stress this enough make sure that you are responsive to your consultant and and the things that they're asking you to do it's just gonna make the process just go so much more
00:08:40
smoothly just please please please be responsive when you're working with a consultant they will appreciate it they'll talk highly of you they're going to give you extra effort and things on their end so just be responsive and do the things that they ask you to do and get it done that's honestly one of the best pieces of advice i can give you is you're working with a consultant in our next video we're going to be getting into the importance of setting up processes which is something that we
00:09:09
found as we're working with our consultant we needed to do better at and so i'm going to get into the process of or i'm going to get into the importance of setting up processes for your business to help you be successful if you are interested in learning more about investing in assisted living make sure you visit me on assistedlivinginvesting.net i have free content up there uh resources you can set up a consulting call with me and don't forget it doesn't take a lot just a little bit
00:09:35
keep making progress step by step by step if you do you're consistent i promise you that you will be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music] you
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