Prove the demand before you spend
- Interview ten families who already pay for care2 hours
This step produces a one-page profile of who actually buys home care in your city and what they pay today — the raw material for every rate you set later in the plan. The trap is that the buyer is often not the person who needs the care: the adult child arranges it, schedules it, and holds the checkbook, so interview the person who pays.
Find ten households within two weeks. Start with the activities director at a local senior center, a pastor or priest with an older congregation, a geriatric care manager, and your own neighbors — the Eldercare Locator below lists the senior centers and Area Agencies on Aging in your county. Then run one 20-minute conversation per family, staying on pocket money: coffee, gas, a basket donation. Ask:
- Who decides, and who signs?
- What do you pay today, per hour, and how did you find the current caregiver?
- What are your two biggest complaints with the current arrangement?
- What would a nearby agency have to offer to win you over?
Write the answers on one sheet as you go. Do not smooth them into flattery afterwards — the complaints are the product.