The Ultimate Guide on How to Start an Assisted Living Facility

How to Start an Assisted Living Facility: According to the National Center for Assisted Living, there are almost 30,000 assisted living facilities located throughout the U.S. right now. That might seem like a lot, but it appears as though there is going to be a great need for more assisted living facilities in the future.

There are about 46 million Americans over the age of 65 at this time. But by 2050, that number is expected to swell up to 90 million. It’s why the country desperately needs more senior living facilities.

Would you like to learn how to start an assisted living facility so that you can help combat this problem? By following the right steps, you can create an assisted living business that is destined for success in the years to come.

Here is how to start an assisted living home that will drum up plenty of interest in your community.

Assess the Need for Another Assisted Living Facility in Your Area

First things first: Before you begin trying to come up with an assisted living business plan for your new company, you should make sure that a demand exists in your area for assisted living services.

As we mentioned a few moments ago, there are tens of thousands of assisted living facilities scattered all across the country right now. There are also hundreds of new ones opening up every year.

Are there already dozens of assisted living options for those in your city or town? If so, the demand for yet another assisted living facility in your area might be low.

But if, on the other hand, there aren’t many assisted living options in your area right now and older people are flocking to other areas to take advantage of the assisted living facilities there, it might show you that there is, in fact, a great need for one in your area. You’ll be meeting this need by learning how to start an assisted living facility.

Create a Foolproof Assisted Living Business Plan

If you decide that enough of a need for an assisted living facility in your area exists, the next order of business will be coming up with the aforementioned assisted living business plan. While doing this, it’ll be important for you to lay out the plan that you’re going to put into place when getting your assisted living facility off the ground.

Your business plan should include some of the research that you’ve done that suggests that there is a demand for another assisted living facility in your area. It should also include a brief description of your company and what it’s all about. Additionally, you should make sure the following items appear in your business plan:

• A breakdown of your organization and who is going to be a part of it
• In-depth descriptions of the services that you’re going to provide
• Ideas on how you’re going to market your company

Outside of listing these things, you should also ask yourself, “How much does it cost to start an assisted living facility?”, and provide potential investors with information on how much money you’ll need to get things going. You’re going to have a tough time getting people on board with your business idea if your goals aren’t crystal clear.

Find the Best Place to Put Your Assisted Living Facility

Have you found the perfect place to put an assisted living facility in your area? If not, now would be a good time to go about trying to figure it out.

You shouldn’t simply pick an arbitrary location and decide to set up shop there. Instead, you should use the research that you’ve done on the local market to pick the right spot for an assisted living facility.

The place that you choose should be easy to get to for those in your community. It should also offer plenty of space for those who live in your facility to spread out.

It’s a great idea for you to carefully consider a handful of different options before selecting the location that you like best for your assisted living facility. By spending your fair share of time browsing through your options, you’re sure to land on a spot that’s great for your company.

Build an Assisted Living Facility From the Ground Up

One of the best ways to make your new assisted living facility stand out is by making it state-of-the-art. In order to do this, you’ll need to do more than just move into an existing building and set it up the way you want. You’ll have to build a new building from the ground up equipped with all the latest technology.

Doing this is obviously going to cost you a nice chunk of change. But you’ll be able to command higher prices for your services when you have a top-notch facility to sell to people.

You should spend at least a few months hammering out the details of your new facility while working with a dedicated team of architects and designers. They’ll be able to help you put together plans for an excellent facility that everyone in your community will love.

Decide What Kinds of Services Your Assisted Living Facility Will Offer

You can make your assisted living facility look as amazing as you want. But if you aren’t able to offer people the assisted living services that they need, what good is your beautiful building going to do?

You should once again use some of the research that you did earlier to assist you in coming up with the services that your facility will offer. You should strive to extend services to people that they won’t get anywhere else.

Every single assisted living facility in your area is going to offer people the basics, like 24/7 medical care and dietary assistance. But you should try to find some services that aren’t always available at assisted living facilities.

For example, you might want to spend a lot of your time focusing on helping older people to socialize when they live in your facility. By making your facility more fun than other facilities, you’ll help it to stand apart from the pack.

Hire the Best Staff Members to Work at Your Assisted Living Facility

When you’re first starting to try and get an assisted living facility off the ground, you want to make sure that you’re going to be able to staff it. You’re going to need to hire everyone from doctors and nurses to janitors and groundskeepers to work at your facility.

And they’re going to need to be more than just average. They need to be caring and compassionate people who are willing to go above and beyond to make everyone at your assisted living facility feel welcomed.

Shortly after deciding which services your facility is going to offer, you should jumpstart the process of trying to track down people to work for you. You shouldn’t wait until the very end and have to settle for those who might not be a good fit for your facility.

Your senior living management team, in particular, needs to feature some of the best employees in the business. They’ll give your facility every single chance to succeed right from the start.

Figure Out How Much to Charge for Your Assisted Living Services

You’re probably trying to open an assisted living facility, at least in part, because you’re passionate about helping people. That should be your ultimate goal when you’re running one of these facilities.

But one of your other goals is also going to be to try and make as much money as you can. It’s why you’ll need to think long and hard about how much you’ll charge for your services.

The prices for your assisted living facility’s services should be competitive when compared to the prices offered by other facilities. At the same time, they should reflect the level of care that you plan to provide to people who need it.

Market Your Assisted Living Facility to the Masses

Once you reach this point, you’ll be almost ready to open your assisted living facility’s front doors and welcome in your first group of new tenants. But before you can do that, you’ll need to market your facility effectively.

Come up with a strong marketing strategy that involves doing everything from running ads on local TV and radio stations to setting up a website and beefing up its search engine optimization. These things will help put your assisted living facility on the map and increase interest in it in no time.

Now That You Know How to Start an Assisted Living Facility, Go Do It

Starting an assisted living facility can be challenging. It’s not easy to find an untapped market in this day and age and stick an assisted living facility in it.

But now that you know how to start an assisted living facility, you’ll have a leg up on others trying to do it. You’ll be able to get your new business off the ground so that you can begin turning a profit almost right away.

Check out our blog for more tips on starting up a business.