Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: My opportunity is that the adult families of senior citizens need help caring for their elderly relatives. The adult children of these seniors have the need because they cannot balance the needs of their careers, their families, and their parents. They need help making sure that their elderly parents are not struggling with medical issues, loneliness, or basic tasks (like driving, cooking, and cleaning). Their parents may need help running errands, managing appointments, or figuring out technology, which allows them to stay connected to their families. Some seniors also may struggle with medical issues that impact them physically and/or mentally.

The change in the environment that is creating this need is the rising number of senior citizens in the United States. As the population of the US continues to age and the number of seniors in our country grows, the “window of opportunity” for this service will continue to be wide open and the size of the opportunity will grow. Right now, this is a fairly large opportunity, as only 3% of American seniors live in nursing homes. Currently, most customers (the adult children of seniors) fill this need of caring for their elderly relatives by assuming the burden of care and trying to help care for the seniors by themselves. This leaves the customers tired and stretched thin, as their jobs and nuclear families also require significant time and energy. It also means that most time spent with their elderly loved ones is not quality time. Because of the strain that trying to meet these needs causes, most customers are not loyal to the current situation, where there is no comprehensive solution.

The market of this opportunity can be defined as any adult with an elderly relative who needs assistance. A prototypical customer would be an adult who has a career and children of their own but also helps care for an elderly parent who lives independently. The prototypical customer would also have sufficient income to afford a care service.

While this venture can potentially expand to cover the entire US, it currently would be geographically bound to Northeastern Florida upon launch.

Innovation: My innovation would be a service that offers personal care to seniors, which is individually tailored to meet each senior’s specific needs. This service would help seniors who still live independently and would offer a multitude of services such as cooking, cleaning, driving, help with errands, help managing schedules, help with technology, and more. The business would also offer companionship services, but it would not offer medical services. One unique feature of this service is that each senior would be matched with one employee. This fosters a close relationship between the two for companionship and helps prevent the seniors from becoming socially isolated or lonely.

Once hired by a customer, the service would be scheduled to assist a senior for a predetermined number of hours per week. The employee would record their time and the customer would be billed. The base rate for this service would be $25 an hour, with increasing rates based on the services that were performed. For example, driving and running errands with a senior would cost $35 an hour.

Venture Concept: This service would meet the need of the adult children of these seniors by providing the basic care and assistance to the seniors that the children are currently forced to provide. The adult children will buy this service because it will reduce the strain of trying to provide everything for their elderly parents. They will be reassured that their loved ones are being taken care of, and the time they actually get to spend with their loved ones will be quality time, instead of everyday errands and chores.

Customers will buy this service because it will give them more free time and lessen the demands of their elderly loved ones on their time and energy. It will not be hard to get the customers to switch to this product because of the current lack of comprehensive care options outside of nursing homes. Other competitors include services that provide qualified medical assistance (like in-home nursing care) and services that provide help with specific needs, like grocery shopping (Instacart) or cleaning (maid services). While my service would not target the market of medical assistance for seniors, it would provide a comprehensive, one-stop-shop alternative to the many individual service options.

The price point of the service does help define the business concept by excluding some customers who cannot afford the service. Since the proposed service does not provide medical assistance, it is not set up to work with insurance, which eliminates some potential customers and further refines the target market. The business concept is also refined by the dual needs of both the adult customers (who are paying for the service) and the seniors (who are directly receiving the assistance). Customer feedback is a key component as communications of needs will be vital.

The business would start with a small (less than ten), thoroughly vetted, and qualified group of employees, who would directly provide the service. As the business grows, more employees will be hired and several administrative roles (like scheduling, marketing, and billing) will be added to support the providers.

Additional Elements:

1.     The most important resource to my business will be my personal experience helping seniors with basic errands and chores. This firsthand knowledge will help me anticipate the wants and needs of my customers, giving my business an edge over future competitors.

2.     The next steps for the venture would be expanding. First we would geographically expand our footprint, then we would expand into related services our customers may need, like medical assistance.

3.     Five years after launch, I would hope to be working on the administrative side of the business. Within ten years, I would like to move on from the business, either selling it or stepping back from management to move on to new opportunities, hopefully funded by the success of this venture.