Roll call 4 BP members who are legit Assisted Living owner/ops???

Question

Hello,I have seen the assisted living topic thrown around a lot on this forum since I've joined up and have to give much credit to having found and participated in this forum to becoming an owner of a licensed 41 bed assisted living facility in KS, quitting my W2 job and the whole 9. Became an owner officially Oct 1 so am 2 mos in at this point. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase but haven't been happier. :)Are there any others on this forum like me? (I'm not seeking a pat on the back or humblebragging at all as I've just started and have a long road ahead of me) - I simply need help and want to find others like me to help them as well. Maybe this isn't the place but figured I'd start here. Networking and participating on this site helped me leap to where I'm at now and figure I need to dig in more to move forward.As I type this I just got back home from being gone over an hour helping one of our staff shut down our archaic fire sprinkler system. Fingers crossed the sprinkler company comes out tomorrow to help me get it back online so our staff can go off firewatch.I think I'm (or maybe I'm not) a relative enigma to some in this field as I had no prior experience in this field other than seeking out others in this business and learning a lot from my wife who's worked at the ground level in the industry. I need to learn more in order to grow.Right now we are having issues with some of our staffing. I've got some recruitement ideas but if anyone is a staffing expert I need to learn how to ramp up our recruiting efforts so we can better reorganize and upgrade our team. I cant make any moves now with out proper recruitment and systems in place. My 1st step is implementing a proper time clock system, then security cameras. Once the time clock system is turned on (I think I've identified one) I can start the reorg - which will hopefully start in Jan after the holidays.Anyways I've got a # of problems I need to solve and would be great to speak to others in my shoes. And believe me once I learn more I'd be glad to share with anyone else wanting to learn more. Be patient with me and I hope to have some things to pass on to others later. Hoping this is facility 1 of a future expansion to this one and further purchases in other communities.Anyone actually active in this industry I'd love to talk to you and brainstorm. I can try to help anyway I can as well.

Jeff Greenberg · Answer

@Shane H.I don't have that experience, but there was an investor at the Joe Fairless conference I attended last Feb. @Joe Fairless. Maybe Joe can help you out. My daughter in law used to run a home based facility with six beds, but that is a much smaller operation.

Justin Mullins · Answer

If you are looking to keep your residence full, I would consider signing up as a preferred provider with A Place For Mom, Caring.com, etc that will send referrals for potential residents and you only pay if you actually place a resident. Website and reviews will be VERY important. It's the first place families typically look with narrowing down the list. Also if you want to know if you are pricing ideally, call a place for mom (just google their 1-800 number) and just let the operator know you are looking for assisted living. They will connect you with a local advisor that can tell you would similar facilities in the area are charging. If you want to get and keep good employees you just have to pay them a little more (over simplification) but staff in the senior living industry are usually severely underpaid and overworked (at least that's what I'm told)

Joe Fairless · Answer

@Benjamin Lapidus who do we know that does assisted living? @Shane H. is trying to get some good recs.

Ronald Rohde · Answer

Congrats on the endeavor. Are you self-managing? I have been in the senior care industry for 7 years and its quite a handful at times.Your website doesn't load some content, Java errors? Do you have photos of the residence? If posted, they aren't easy to find. What type of existing policies did you inherit? That should help your recruitment efforts. Clear job descriptions and employee policies.

Shane H. · Answer

I've got that covered but would certainly be open to any other consultants out there.

Shane H. · Answer

Not self managing - acting as business manager/ceo - We have an executive director and would be lost without her. I want to offer her a vested ownership interest and plan on doing so.Website was partially updated by someone and I think they messed up the mapping showing the location when I asked them to delete the photo and bio of the prior owner - I plan a site overhaul and have a guy picked out in Wichita to come up and do Drone video of the surrounding area and promotional video of the site and executive director to put on our site and FacebookExisting policies havent been enforced like they should - I'm ramping that up now with the implementation of T Sheets time tracking - right now there are paper time sheets and I'm about to pull my hair out as I'm a non paper and digital person. My wife and I will go out in the community and I'll work the phones to start a recruiting pipeline. Electronic timesheets should cure some of our problems - security cameras are coming 1st quarter next year or at least that's in my plans.So far I'm enjoying it - doesnt seem like work - I'll be able to get more in the flow of things after we get a house bought here and more settled - so far in 2 mos we've moved twice - I have my former primary residence under partial construction to get it ready for the tenant moving in Dec 1 and another rental full gut rehab 70% completed and am selling another existing duplex in Wichita - so to say I have my hands full with outside things is an overstatement - I look forward to having a couple outside projects done in Wichita so I can 100% focus here.

Dan Brewer · Answer

Hi Shane, First of all, congrats on your purchase - welcome to the senior housing community! Senior housing is hot, the economy is hot, each contributing to a very challenging human resources problem for senior housing operators. So you have lots of company. Based on your inexperience in the senior housing sector, I recommend you hire an operations consultant. I can refer one to you if you wish (we do not provide that service). Dan Brewer

Zach Quick · Answer

@Shane H. While I am no help to the specific operations of your facility I would be interested in what lead you down that path/investment? I can speak to the staffing portion, I would create a Facebook page for your place if you haven't already and create it as a 'business' and then create a post that you are hiring for this position at this pay...etc. Boost the post for like $200 for the first time for a week or two and see what kind of response you get. It will get the phone ringing at the least.