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Carline Cadet Francois: Hello friend, if you are new here, welcome. Today we're gonna talk about ALF operation and how great caregiving alone is not completely sufficient for you to be able to operate a successful ALF business. We know that caregivers You get into this business because you love to help people and you love to make a difference. You love to take care of your clients, and that's amazing. That's not the only thing you need to do in order for your business to become a successful operation. So today we're gonna cover a few strategies and things for you to consider. When getting into the ALF or caregiving industry, even if you already are operating an existing ALF, some things that you want to consider for achieving success in your caregiving career. Because let's face it, we all get into the caregiving industry because of our good heart, but we also have to be able to make a good living for ourselves and have the ideal lifestyle that you can care for your residents while caring for yourself. ⁓ At the end of the day, we all win, which is much nicer balance. You don't want your caregiving to be a sacrifice. You want it to be a business you enjoy and you want to make a difference while you're feeling like you're actually helping yourself, making a difference for yourself, your lifestyle, your livelihood, and the next generation, if that's one of the things that you care about as well. So number one, there are issues that I've seen in caregiving businesses where the caregiver haven't done the business mindset shift. As a caregiver, when you begin to operate your caregiving business, you are also a CEO and a business owner. So now you're not only caring for your residents, but you're also operating and running a business. One of the things that I've seen is poor management. And when you have the skills of a poor manager, your staff won't stay because it's chaotic to come to work. Caregiving is already an industry that you don't get so much a Which is sadly, that's one of the reasons why at the ALF Caregivers Conference, we have a Caregivers Award. And it's, I believe, is the best part of the conference because we are able to honor our caregivers. If you're interested, click the link in the description. You can learn more. Lack of proper management looks something like this. You're not sure as The leader, what you need to do. And so you're guessing on the things that you're telling your staff to do. And because you're guessing and because you're not sure, your staff can see you're not confident. They are not slow. They can read your body language. They can hear the tone of your voice that you're not sure. And your actions will show that you're not sure. And now you are in conflict with yourself, both the knowledge and your emotion because you're not sure. What to do. Inside of the Carepreneur program that we have, we mentor operators who are new to the business. They need help with the structure. They need help with knowing how to manage staff, how to hire staff, how to deal with the ACA regulations, all of these portals, what to do about them, what is the employee roster? Where do you add an employee? Where do you remove an employee? It's a lot. So I understand how it can become overwhelming and how the lack of structure can take place, especially if you got yourself licensed or you hire a consultant to get you licensed, but they didn't really go over a lot of these operational strategies. It can become a lot and very hectic to manage staff, to manage resident, and also to manage the resident family, and also. the providers that are coming to your ALF, it's a lot of moving parts, not to scare you, but to prepare you. Because if you have the proper education, you have the proper resources, you know what to do, you have someone that you can reach out to, you have a program that you're going through, going over your confidence level, the things that you need to work on with knowledge and resources, you automatically get a confidence boost. And also while managing staff, issues that come into the ALS setting where one day you have this person working and then you call, you cancel their shift, and then the next day you want them to come to work, figure out what you want. Do you want to put them on a part-time schedule? Do you want to put them on a full-time schedule? Are they really your independent contractor that they can come and go as they please? Figure out which structure is best for you. Because when you have proper structure, it helps everyone involved. It helps you because you know, okay, this is the structure I put in place. Then that one day you wake up and you feel you want to change things because your emotions tell you you need to change them. You tell your emotion, hey, I put these structures in place. And we have to be disciplined. Not just my employees or, you know, my residents and the providers and everybody else, the resident family that's coming in. But you yourself As the operator, the administrator, the business owner, you have to be disciplined. When you put a structure in place and you notice everyone is following the structure, you don't want to change it unless you absolutely have to change it. And that is one requirement that as a leader, you have to be able to embrace. Another one is no clear expectation because you yourself are just figuring things out without mentorship, without leadership, and you're not sure what to do. In that first year of management, we'll slap the life out of you, okay? ⁓ that first year of management, you're going to go through a lot of things that you're learning for the first time, and your nervous system is going to be inflared if you don't have. proper structure with mentorship, with someone you can call and ask questions, it gets really hectic. But you can do it. It's just a matter of putting the right structures in place, disciplining yourself to keep those structures in place, making sure your team are trained and people
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are following the procedures that are in place. And it makes life easier for everyone involved. And when you have an easier structure that people can follow, it tend to avoid burnout. It tends to avoid your staff calling out because they don't want to deal with you today. They don't know what your emotions will be like. They don't know if you're gonna be happy, sad, angry. Figure out your middle person. Call it your leadership personality. If you're gonna call yourself Karen or Felicia, I don't know. I'm just joking. But seriously, figure out your personality that you're gonna come to work with every single day because your staff need to figure out. Who are you? And when every day your personality is different, one day you show up, you look angry, the next day you look sad. The next day you look happy. The next day they can't figure out who you are. You're stressing everyone out. Not just the resident, but the resident families, the resident themselves, the staff, the providers. Figure out which personality you're bringing to work and do your best to keep that personality every day. Of course, we're all human. I get that. But it gets confusing if people can't figure you out as a leader. They have to figure who you are as a leader. They have to know your leadership style. And that tends to happen to leaders where, you know, what every day there's somebody different because they have not figured out their leadership style. And how do you figure out your leadership style? Through mentorship, through education. You figure that out. We know that tend to be epic within ⁓ the larger setting, you know, the commercial setting. Within the residential, we do have our issues. And when it comes to staff and resident turnover, oftentimes there's an area that needs to be worked on. But then when you get to the larger setting where the lack of structure and also The staff and resident turnover every day you have a new manager, every day you have a new administrator, it gets really messy. And then the people that stick with you because they value the business and they want the business to succeed, every day they're being exposed to a different personality or different way of leadership. It gets messy. So the backbone of the business is proper leadership, proper structure, and with Proper leadership, proper structure, less turnover happen and less burnout sessions happens and there is a middle ground. There is some type of norm. And with that norm, that is the glue that keeps everything together. The other thing you want to consider is system and compliance structure. If you're a smaller setting, for example, one simple system could be a WhatsApp group. I use that because I required end of shift reports and you can call it differently. I came from law enforcement. This was a natural thing for us. Whenever we were relieved of duty, we needed to pass on what happened during the shift and things that needs to be looked into, things you want to watch out for. It's the
same thing for your ALF setting. That person or those people that was on shift, there were things that happened. And if you don't have a way of making sure that you tell me what happened during the shift, off duty reports. Tell me, you know, what happened at your shift. Is there anything I should look out for? It's the same thing. And sometimes, sometimes people will forget. To pass on a key piece of information. And sometimes they don't want to be bothered. But if they have a way of, you know, just going into a voice chat and adding their message. Now everyone within that chat will get the information. There is no mistake because you can be on your way home. You forgot to pass on a great piece of information. You go into the group chat. You add that information on there and now everyone have access to it. Now the communication flow is going and there is no, ⁓ I'll let them know tomorrow. And then tomorrow you show up, you forget to tell. And now it could be a key piece of information that needed to be done. And usually medication management play a major role. How did that client look after they took that medication? Did the doctor change the order? Do we have the order? Is the MOR updated? All of this type of information are crucial pieces of information that as human we may forget. But if I can just drop that information into the group chat because I forgot to say it, that's one way that you can keep the communication going. Now, if you're a larger setting and you wanna have other systems that you want to implement, by all means go ahead and do that. But if you're gonna do that, you wanna make sure your staff The people you are managing, make sure they know how to use that. Because if they don't know how to use that, you're going to have problems. Because guess what? They're not going to use it. So those are all things that you want to consider. Also, your policies, your procedures. Do everyone know about your policies? Do they really know about your policies and your procedures? Are you giving them a thick piece of Policy for them to educate on. Are they really going to read it? I've found most staff don't like to read. So perhaps what you can do is you can record videos on your policies. You can have monthly meetings where you go over the policies. You can give awards to someone who answers the most questions about your policies. Encourage your team to learn. Encourage your team to want to participate. Give rewards to those who are knowledgeable about your policies. Those who come to work and those who treat the residents right. Create a culture where people want to come to work. People want to show up to training. Perhaps what you can do is you can, for example, you can work with other providers, trainers, core trainers, pharmacies. To show up in your monthly or even weekly meeting. At the minimum, you should have monthly meetings. Regardless of what your size is, you should have monthly meetings at the very bare minimum. Where you train, you educate, you give awards, you appreciate your staff. You appreciate people. As a leader, it is your duty to appreciate and help your staff feel. that they are part of a team and it's greater than one person. It is a team. Make them feel welcome. Make them feel appreciated. Give them award. Give them gift cards. Your monthly meeting should be fun. You know, have Donuts or a breakfast or even coffee. Make it fun. If it's three, four hours they're going to spend training. They're going to spend going over policies. Make it fun so people actually want to be part of that. And make it a requirement that everybody show up. Establish those dates way ahead of time and pay your staff when they show up to those meetings. Also, compliance play a major factor with checklists. We know that sometimes people forget things. The way they thought they remember it is not actually how it's being done. Have checklists, you know, have information posted around your facility to make sure your staff is up to par with what's going on. And if there's a new change, be the first one to learn it and then teach it to your staff, or have the proper people come over and teach those information to your staff. Also You must track your numbers. You must track your income versus your expenses versus your resident turnovers versus how much it costs you to lose a resident. And also establish your means of getting your residence and treating the residents and their families correctly, making sure you are doing the right things. Because if you become overly mismanaged or annoying to a resident and their families, their families are probably going to move that resident out. And then when that resident is moved out, you have to remember how much it the resident acquisition and how much it costs you to actually have one resident move in. So your biggest strategy should be to keep the people that you currently have. That means your staff, That means your residents, that means those residents' families. And communication play a major role with the resident and their families. If you're not updating them with what's going on with their mom and dad, it's a problem. If you are over Updating them with what's going on with mom and dad. It's a problem. So you have to establish at admissions, and sometimes it may change, and you may want to revisit those communication methods quarterly with the resident and their families to make sure that we are a team and you are doing what you are expected to do and everyone is on the same page. How much money are you making? How much money are you losing? What you're gonna do about your numbers? That backbone of your business is one of the areas, especially in the smaller settings, that businesses lack. Because they can focus so much on the caregiving aspect, but they neglect or they don't know how to manage the business operation of the business. And also password sharing. You should not be giving anyone your password. Instead, you should use a password
sharing platform. Like NordPass is a good one, even though they're not sponsoring this. But it is a system that I use within my own business to be able to share passwords and also hire. help a virtual assistant there are some things that a virtual assistant will be able to help you when I operated I had a virtual assistant that helped me say for example if I went to a marketing networking event I didn't have the time to really be in the back end and doing all those email follow up And structuring and all of these things. I had a virtual assistant that helped me with that part of the business. Business CRMs, customer relations system. You could have had a customer, you cared for their mom, and unfortunately, mom passed away. If you have proper email automation set up, you can continue to be top of mind with, you know. At least the holiday emails, the birthday emails, and keeping in touch with that resident family because down the road they may know of another friend or a family member who may need an ALF. And here they are. These people are amazing, they'll say about you. Even after mom passed away, they say ⁓ to date with me, they communicated with me. I know what's going on at their ALF, changes that have happened within the ALF. There's a way for you to not Have to send with the proper CRM structures. And sometimes it's not complicated. It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. And you have to also remember the more money you have, the better it is for you as a business owner and operator because you'll be able to give your staff raises. You'll be able to help them. Sometimes they'll have emergencies that happen in their families. You'll be able to be a good leader. Even doing those monthly meetings, you'll be able to give them. Gifts, but without money, everything suffers. You're not able to give the resident the type of lifestyle they're looking for, and ACA might shut you down because certain things you're just not allowed to do. And if you don't have enough money to operate the business, it's a big problem. It can get you shut down, it can revoke your license. And I do understand the size matter, you know, within the residential community, there's more hands-on, there is more staff to resident ratio for. For example, and biggest issue is training and that operation side of the business. And then with the larger setting, because you have different layers of ⁓ management styles, different positions that are within different tier of management, you will have different issues. You have bigger issues with staff turnovers, burnouts, people calling out because you know my manager don't care. She don't seem to care about me all that much. There is a way that when your direct manager, the people, your administrator, for example, the people that are dealing with the staff on a first level where they are speaking directly with the staff. When the staff members can like that person, clearly there are times when they're not going to like that person for, you know, disciplinary issues that may come up. But if overall if they like that leader, that is their direct line of communication, you gain their favors. There are days when they could call out and they won't because, you know, they like the leader. They want to make things a little easier for the leader. And you don't get those type of gratitude unless you yourself as the leader show appreciation and treat the person like you wanna be treated if you want to treat yourself nicely. Okay. And there's a difference between being a boss and being a leader. A leader knows what's going on with their staff. A leader understands there are days when staff is having issues at home and they may have to be a part of that issue to a certain level. But nonetheless, we are not robot where you know you're expected to show up and you're expected to show up regardless of how you feel to meet people At the people level, if you know what I mean, will be priceless to you. That's how I can put it. Even in worst case scenarios, people remember that you are good to them. And also, as a leader, you also have to know when you need to let go of an employee. You shouldn't have to think for anyone. You should be able to help them answer their questions. But at the end of the day, they need to be able to do the job. And if they're not able to do the job and you keep them, now you're Creating a culture of okay, you don't have to do what you're supposed to do, right? Or the people who are doing what they're supposed to do, now they feel some kind of way. Because how come this person is not doing what they're supposed to do, yet you tolerate them? Why should I continue to do what I'm supposed to do when I'm the only one doing it? So you can see the type of negative. Culture that you can mistakenly implement without realizing it. And so holding everyone accountable for their positions and what they're supposed to do is crucial. Otherwise, ⁓ you have a toxic culture. And what do people don't want to do with toxic cultures? They don't want to be in it. So they start looking for another job, they start Calling out, and then you don't have enough staff members to cover your shift. Now deficiencies may come up, safety issues may come up to stay at the bare minimum. And now you have to hire new staff. And with new staff, you have to train them. And it takes time for them to fit into the culture, for them to learn about your business. You can see how this is going. But if you can get a good grip of your leadership style, If you can put the proper procedures in place, you can treat people like they want to be treated in a nice way. And you can Discipline when that's necessary. You can hold people accountable for their positions. You can have those proper communication ⁓ levels. And you can make sure even if someone forgot to pass on a crucial piece of information, they have a way, even if they are on their way home while driving home, that they can pass that information without having to make a phone call and speak to anybody, I think you're gonna be okay. Having proper system is how you grow, how you keep your team, how you keep your residence, how you keep your beds full, regardless of size. And all it takes is you putting pen to paper, having the right mentorship to be able to help you with that. If you have any specific questions, if you would like to speak to me directly, click the link in the description. You learn how you can schedule a one-on-one consultation. In the link in the description, you'll also learn how you can work with me through the Carepreneur mentorship program where we help Business operators learn business strategies and leadership strategies to keep their business running successfully because it is only when your business are running successfully you're able to make a difference for yourself, for your residents, for your residents' families, for the employees that count on you to be able to pay their bills and take care of their family. It's a big rewarding responsibility. And with proper help, you can absolutely do it. If you found this video helpful. Please consider like, subscribe, and share it with someone that will find it valuable. Until next time, I will see you in the next one.