Executive Summary
Safe Haven, the Center of Independent Living for Elderly will be located in Nevada, MO (Missouri) with population of about 8,600 people. The Center of Independent Living for Elderly offers various services for elderly people including medical care, dietary control, coordinated physical and mental activity. The mission of Safe Haven is to provide excellent services at a reasonable price to serve the community retirees and people with disabilities. Our ideal customers are elderly people aged 65 and elder. Potential clients are people at the age from 55 to 64. We will have excellent opportunities to develop our business in this community because medium age of the people living there is 35.
The business is a partnership of three owners who also manage this project. As we are good friends we hope that we will make a good team. All managers have vast managing experience. Cammie Name had been working for 5 years in customer service department in the daycare center for elderly people, Steven Atkinson worked as a Chief Accountant in similar organization and Emily White dealt with hiring staff in a hospital for more than 8 years.
We are sure that this business will be successful because of several reasons, namely: the population of Nevada MO has a stable trend to age, the level of the competition is low in this area and our services are reasonably priced.
Center of Independent Living for Elderly Safe Haven is a provider of an affordable life-care of high quality for elderly people in Nevada, MO community (Missouri). Management of the Center is constantly working on the improvement of our clients’ care and wellness.
We hope to get a bank loan of $20,000 to start up our business.
Part 1. The Contemporary Business Environment
Business Name
Safe Haven, the Center of Independent Living for Elderly.
Description of Business
Daycare community-based Center of Independent Living for Elderly Safe Haven located in Nevada MO, Missouri. The institution is supposed to offer a wide range of first-class daycare services for senior citizens of the local community.
Form of Business Ownership
Safe Haven is a partnership with my friends. Founders are: Cammie Name, Steven Atkinson and Emily White. All founders are supposed to manage certain business units. Cammie Name is accountable for developing client base because she is inventive and communicative. Steven’s responsibility will be accounting and cost management because he has an appropriate education and experience. Emily will manage the staff since she is experienced in this area.
Ideal Customer
Ideal customers are men and women aged 65 and elder having emotional, mental of physical problems (primary clients). Each group of the clients will be provided with the first-class specialized medical and care services. There are three programs targeted each category of clients. People in the age of from 55 up to 64 are supposed to become secondary clients. People aged 40-55 are seen as potential clients.
Our Advantages
There are at least three reasons of the Center’s success: a set of unique services offered, shortage of the daycare centers for elderly in the community and moderate price for the services. Safe Haven offers a wide range of services for elderly people including formal law exercise, adult supervision, pet therapy, art and music therapy, dance activities, health monitoring, psychological support, transportation, physical and occupational therapy, specialized diets.
Ethical Issues
Ethical issues mainly relate consumer rights and quality of the services. Noncompliance and safety of the customers are major ethical concerns. For example, a client may not be willing to adhere to a prescribed diet stipulated in a treatment plan. Terms ethical and moral do not always go together. Work in the daycare center requires high morality of the carers. Provision of clients’ safety is an important ethical issue since they are sometimes subjected to abuses and inappropriate attitude from the family members’ part. It is important to be careful and deliberate when dealing with this kind of the clients.
Also, we will behave ethically towards our employees whatever the situation had been. We will have a code of professional responsibility which will describe difficult decisions and conflict of interests in order to avoid such situations in our team.
Social Responsibility
Living in the small city we have a possibility to improve the situation in daycare service and help elderly people stay active. The initial establishment of the Center is designed to support the initiative of social responsibility.
Global Issues
Despite the business is local, we cannot ignore the global environmental issues associated with recycling, resource saving and pollution of the community area.
Part 2. The Business of Managing
Mission Statement
Center of Independent Living for Elderly Safe Haven is a provider of an affordable life-care of high quality for elderly people in Nevada, MO community (Missouri). Management of the Center is constantly working on the improvement of our clients’ care and wellness.
Business Goals
First Year Goals:
1. To achieve a break-even point in business.
2. To develop a strong clients’ base, making the center to work at full capacity (20 clients).
3. To increase clients’ awareness regarding the Center.
4. To develop an effective motivational system to retain staff.
Intermediate to Long-Term Goals:
1. To make net profit of $150,000 during next five years.
2. To establish another daycare center for elderly in three years.
SWOT Analysis for Safe Haven Center of Independent Living
Extremely motivated managers
Experience obtained when establishing other centers in the past
Business is established and focused on the local community needs
Shortage of start-up funds
Lack of experience of conducting business in Nevada, MO
Low awareness of the clients
27.25% of the population aged 55 and elder; 13.69% of the citizens are potential clients
Low competitiveness
Growing percentage of elderly in the community
Extensive clients’ base
Economic crisis weakening communities
New entrants in the market
Substitute services
Management:
One level of management of the daycare Center is represented by three types of managers:
Customer Service Manager (co-owner);
Medical Personnel and General Issues Manager (co-owner);
Accounting Manager (co-owner).
Organizational Chart
The organizational chart for Safe Haven is represented with a single-level management. However, with the business growth the managerial structure may expand with more employees involved. There are three managers who are the owners of the Center. The accountability areas are divided in accordance with managed departments.
Floor Plan
Picture 1. First Floor Plan
This is the first floor of Cammie’s home which was remodeled for day care center for elderly. A living room was remodeled for waiting room with dining area. The larger bedroom is supposed to be used as a room for physical activity and the smaller bedroom will be a room for relaxation.
Picture 2. Basement Floor Plan
Basement floor was remodeled for personnel use mainly. There is utility room and various closets for supplies and provision. There are rooms for dietitian, medical personnel, lawyer and physiologist disposed in former bedroom and living room.
Raw Materials and Supplies
Cammie’s home is supposed to be used as the premises for the Center. The building of the Center does not need any repair. We will possibly need a loan to start-up the Center. In addition, we will need to find competent staff and motivate them to do their job well.
Monthly Payments:
Salaries - $32,793
Employee Benefits - $3,300
Loan/Interest Payment - $600
Utilities - $800
Monthly Total - $37,493
Daily Total - $1,562
The center will need the following inventory:
Medical Equipment - $15,000
Furniture - $15,000
Food products (per month) - $5,000
Dietary supplies(per month) - $3,000
Utilities - $1000
Transportation costs - $7,000
Medical supplies - $3,000
Marketing costs - $1,000
Office supplies - $2,000
Miscellaneous expenses (toilet goods) - $1,000
Total - $53,000
The inventories are not affected by the seasonal changes. Daycare Center’s open hours are from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday. Saturday working hours are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday is a week-end day.
Quality Assurance
Ensuring quality is a responsibility of the management team and employees. Customer Service Manager’s responsibility is to establish and expand customers’ base, to perform transportation of the clients, and to organize interesting and useful activities for the clients within the Center. Medical Personnel and General Issues Manager are to provide customers with quality medical support and dietary, and clients’ well-being. Accounting Manager is accountable for organization of relevant and accurate accounting.
Part 3. People in Organizations
Corporate Culture
We encourage and appreciate team work, friendliness, support and compassion towards each other and Center’s clients. We strive for high quality service standards, high performance and excellence in everything. We try to make high standards clear for every member of our team through motivation and incentives. We encourage employees to make suggestions regarding the ideas of services quality improvement. Satisfaction of the customer needs is a primary goal for every employee. We consider creativity and innovation the main priorities on the way to success. We commit to participation in community social and charitable events. We strive for making our community the best domicile so every citizen could be proud of living here.
Leadership Philosophy
Our business supposes equal contribution and participation of three founders. Each participant has an equal stake as a founder and is accountable for his or her area of expertise as a manager. All managers are assigned to control their areas of activity. We encourage collaboration and result-oriented working manner. Employees are also encouraged to take part in decision making process.
Job Descriptions
Customer Service Manager (CSM): CSM is responsible for expanding customers’ base. Also, he/she is accountable for customer relations and organizing quality clients’ leisure-time. He/she coordinates and controls receptionist, social worker, activity specialist, exercise specialist, bus driver. He/she is involved in the organization of their training and staffing.
Medical Personnel and General Issues Manager (MPGIM): MPGIM is responsible for staffing and training medical staff. MPGIM organizes staff activity so they could provide maximum comfort and safety for the clients. He/she manages therapists, medical assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse’s aids and dietitian; interacts with CSM to ensure customers satisfaction.
Accounting Manager (AM): AM is accountable for paper work, report preparation, budgeting, accounting of income and expenses. He/she manages financial counselor activity.
Receptionist: accepts incoming calls, manages electronic base of clients; performs routine duties and paper work; executes CSM, MPGIM and AM assignments. He/she is formally subordinated to CSM.
Financial Counselor (Biller): makes out bills, helps AM in preparing reports, prepares statements.
Social Worker: is assigned to provide psychological and legal support to the clients; actively cooperates with medical personnel, activity and exercise specialists to provide customers’ well-being.
Therapist: helps resolve behavioral, physical, emotional and mental issues of the clients; diagnose and assess clients; runs counseling sessions with the clients and members of their families. He/she must be a licensed specialist in accordance with the local legislation.
Nurse Practitioner (geriatric): helps exercise client care, such as diagnosis, consultation, counseling and treatment; designs programs for recovering clients; prescribes medications in some cases; educates clients regarding the treatment and preventive measures. He/she works in a close cooperation with the therapists and social worker to develop an optimal medical treatment program of the clients’ stay in the Center.
Medical Assistant (geriatric): is to prepare clients for examination. He/she takes medical histories, assists therapists during examination and explains medical procedures to clients.
Certified Nurse’s Aid: is to help therapists and nurse practitioners provide high quality medical services for the clients. The position requires an appropriate certificate.
Activity Specialist: invents and suggests various activities to make clients’ stay in the Center more interesting and useful.
Exercise Specialist: has to help clients stay in a good physical shape, become healthier and more energetic.
Dietitian: is assigned to plan nutrition and food programs; to carry out a supervision of the meals preparation and serving; to promote healthy eating habits; to suggest diets.
Bus Driver: carries out the transportation of the clients in compliance with an approved schedule.
Job Specifications
Job Title: Customer Service Manager (CSM)
Needed Skills/Credentials/Qualification for Job
Job Title: Medical Personnel and General Issues Manager (MPGIM)
Needed Skills/Credentials/Qualification for Job
MPGIM must have excellent human relations and communication skills to be able to cooperate with employees and interact with the customers. He/she is responsible for the medical staff competence and training. He/she must have specialized medical education and at least three years of work experience in the daycare institutions.
Job Title: Accounting Manager
Needed Skills/Credentials/Qualification for Job
AM is required to perform excellent accounting and communication skills. He/she is responsible for training financial counselor. The position requires minimum of two years of working experience and a degree in Accounting, preferably specialty of Accounts Payable or Receivable.
Training Employees
Despite the employees are well-educated and experienced, professional training is needed to achieve success and gain competitive advantage. MPGIM needs to develop training program. The training will be run accordingly to the schedule. It will be on-the-job training because this type of training helps increase productivity, professionalism and morale. On-the-job training is one of the best training methods because it is planned, organized, and helps save time. The training will be run once a month in the second Wednesday of the month for 3 hours. Each coach (manager) will be assign to run training for his/her employees.
Compensation
Each of the managers will obtain $35,000 of salary per year. Also, they supposed to get benefits from the Center’s profit as they are the owners as well. We will offer average salary for our employees at the beginning of our work since we will not be able to pay high salaries when starting our business. We plan to hire young specialists so they could gain working experience at our Center. Salary and wages are shown in the Table 1 below.
Table 1 Staff Salary and Wage
In addition we will offer standard worthy social package for our employees including 401 ( k) plan, direct deposit, CEU Reimbursement, a chance to explore new opportunities, comprehensive health insurance plan, supplemental insurance, licensure reimbursement, assignment completion bonuses
Incentives
Undoubtedly, material incentives are an important part of the motivational program. However, having comfortable working place and friendly atmosphere in a team is also an important requirement for everyone. We can offer loyal attitude and fair incentives for diligent employees including goal setting, team work, and recognition taking into account individual approach to every employee. We want our employees feel like a family so they can work in synergy and achieve good results. Also, we will encourage our employees and their families to participate in informal events to raise team spirit. We are interested to communicate employees to improve our motivational system.
Target Market
Our target clients are divided into two groups: current clients and potential clients. Our primary goal is to expand our clients’ base at the expense of people aged 65 years and elder who have stable average pension. Our potential clients are people from 55 to 64 years old. We plan to inform carers of physically and mentally disabled people about our Center to expand out customers’ base. Also, we are going to increase awareness among people aged from 40 to 55 in order to ensure future customers’ flow. In accordance with official statistics the population of Nevada, MO made approximately 8,600 of people. As there are 27.25% of the population aged 55 and elder and 13.69% of the citizens aged between 40 and 55, we have market capacity of 2343 people and 1177 people as potential clients. Median age is 35 years, so we have capacious market for future. There are 3,463 households with average income of $33,301 (2010). Most of people are high school graduates (37.5%), 18.4% of population have some college degree, 24.6% of population have associated, bachelor, or professional degree while 19.5% do not have any diploma.
Safe Haven will offer an excellent service for elderly people at a reasonable price for our services. At the present we do not have serious competition in the area. This is a very important feature of our business. The list of our services is wide and we hope to satisfy both elderly people and their caregivers. We are going to emphasize outstanding service. Also, we plan to develop a loyalty program for our returning clients.
We are sure that low competition and excellent services will be our main difference from the local competitors. We want our clients to develop various skills and creativity. We will create a community inside of a community for elderly people so they could socialize and as comfortable as it possible. Our aim is to make our clients feel like home.
Pricing
We will implement a simple pricing strategy offering excellent services at an affordable price because senior people used to be thrifty. We believe that value-based pricing is the best alternative for a new business we begin. It will be based on effective value for our services to our customer relatively to alternatives. The price will stay reasonable ($110 per day while the average pricing in the US is from $60-$150 per day) till we will get certain marketing segment.
We are going to implement penetration pricing strategy because introduce new product and need to attract as more client as possible. Penetration strategy is the best choice for starting new business because it helps capture certain segment of the market due to comparatively low price. After we attract enough customers we could gradually increase price for our services.
Advertising
As we target a specific market, our advertising approach is to place ads in the local newspaper. Also, we will advertise on a local radio station offering discounts and loyalty cards for the first clients. We will need to attract the attention of caregivers placing ads in the Internet as well.
Pricing
We plan to promote our services offering loyalty program starting for the third attendance. Our first clients will be granted with special offers including free attendance and discounts for our services.
IT Resources
In order to promote our Center in more effective way we created a small web site. We will use it to promote our discount and loyalty programs. Our clients and caregivers will be able to send applications using web site and via e-mail. Employees will need several databases containing information about customers and their caregivers, addresses, family, age, health issues, preferences etc. We will need Internet connection to trace our customers’ base and seek for potential clients, our own e-mail and domain.
Accordingly to our mission, our primary goal is customer satisfaction. Communication plays an important role in our business which is why we plan to provide training of our staff. We will train our employees how to serve our clients and develop trust relationship. Also, we will encourage feedbacks and examine propositions with regard to our services in order to improve them.
Expected Revenue
Safe Haven is ready to accommodate 20 elderly people per day. Daily cost of staying in the Center is $110. We plan to receive at least 17 people per day to break-even in the time we planned.
