There are some proven professional tips to maneuver through any tough time in business, and these strategies will help you survive struggles successfully.
Business, by its very nature, is an adventure to be conquered. It is a call to make something happen, as a result, profit is your reward.
Business involves planning, execution and reflection.
It requires developing and improving your product, service, reputation and engagement.
Residential assisted living business owners must be ready to engage full heartedly with a mental determination to navigate through obstacles.
It has been said that difficulties affect businesses in three ways.
3 TYPES OF BUSINESS CHALLENGES
1. Businesses that have faced difficult times.
2. Businesses that are facing difficult times.
3. Businesses that succumb to difficult times.
Issues manifest from human resource challenges to lawsuits, but questions remain about best strategies to overcome difficult times.
What does one do to thrive in the midst of difficulties? What clarity does one need to really succeed in business?
Starting a Residential Assisted Living home is no different from any other business. It comes with a known and unknown set of challenges.
However, there are concrete answers to cope with these challenges – there are solutions to these difficulties.
There are eleven absolutely non-negotiable things that have continually proven to be the most helpful strategies to grind through difficult times.
11 STRATEGIES FOR DIFFICULT TIMES
- Don’t Make Things Worse by Doing Nothing
- Deal with Facts Not Fiction
- Always Cement Your Relationship with Your Existing Customers
- Use This Situation to Rethink Your Business
- It Is Time to Get Out and Chase Business
- Be Careful Who You Spend Your Time With
- Be Prepared to Try “NEW”
- Invest in Your Business
- Invest in Yourself
- Find Someone to Mentor You Through Challenging Times
- Learn from The Experience
Your residential assisted living business can continue to thrive during pandemics like COVID-19 and other unexpected challenges.
When those obstacles surface, and they will, how will you deal with them? The following 11 strategies provide detailed content and helpful ideas for facing challenges in business.
1. Don’t Make Things Worse by Doing Nothing
Making no decision is, in fact, making a decision. Whenever you see a disaster looming, the single most important thing to do is to evaluate where you can take action. Sometimes, an owner can be a little like a deer in the headlights, disbelieving the reality staring brazenly at you. By doing nothing, avoiding decision making at such a critical time, we miss the optimal moment to succeed. Make a decision and take decisive action. Sometimes, when starting a residential assisted living home, difficulties seemingly come from nowhere. You are not the first to experience this, nor will you be the last. Therefore, take the time to understand what the challenge is and face it head on with boldness. Do not shirk at it. Your future residents are depending on you to make it happen, and the prize for facing these challenges is gratitude coupled with profit.
2. Deal with Facts Not Fiction
When thrust into the throes of difficulty, it is a necessity to get the facts. Anxiety comes because of nervous thoughts that troll the mind. Cold-hard-facts resolve anxiety in business. Do not get anxious about:
- What could be…
- What might happen if…
- If we don’t do ‘X’ we’re going to go out of business
The truth is these thoughts are falsehoods. They have no factual basis. Your Residential Assisted Living home is not the first to face such difficulties. As the owner, you need to calm down and become pragmatic. Get the facts. COVID-19 has scared America beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations. Nursing homes have become ground zero of the pandemic. It is easy for an owner of a residential assisted living home to become paranoid. However, what are the facts:
- Smaller homes work better than big box facilities.
- Infection rate in RALs is incredibly low.
- The survival rates when a case is diagnosed is rather high.
So, what does that mean? It means you can calm down, develop a plan, preserve your sanity and serve your residents. In addition, you need to plan for the post COVID-19 RAL. There will be a need for more RALs. Why? The facts are the facts. Adult children will always want the safest place for Mom and Dad, especially if COVID-19 or some other virus plagues America in the future. So, get ready.
3. Always Cement Your Relationship with Your Existing Customers
Tough times have a way of crippling a business owner. It is as if business paralysis sets in and the owner is unable to function properly. Shake that mindset off and engage with your existing residents and their families like never before. Connect with them in the most meaningful way and assure them of your attention and concern for their well-being. Explain to them how you will navigate the difficult times, if they need to be informed of them, and trudge forward relentlessly. It is up to you to foster trust and confidence with your residents and staff. When residents and staff both trust and have confidence in you, they will rise to the occasion with you. You are not alone. Acknowledge those who partner with you when difficult times emerge. Throw a “Thank-you” party, give gift bags or simply send a card. Show gratitude to your residents, their families, and your staff.
4. Use This Situation to Rethink Your Business
Tough times are crossroads in business, and they provide an opportunity to make hard decisions about what is working and what is not. This is the perfect time to stop and really reflect on your business and make the necessary changes. The Residential Assisted Living Academy model works. It has a proven track record of success, coupled with data to confirm growth based upon demographic studies and real estate feasibility studies. Yet, there are things that occur within each RAL that may or may not be contributing to the overall success of the RAL. Difficult times tend to highlight these things and you may need to reconfigure operations to adapt to the changing economic sphere. Make the decision, take action, and do what is best for your RAL business.
5. It Is Time to Get Out and Chase Business
The old adage says, “you are always selling.” This is most certainly true in the RAL business. Selling should not be looked upon as unfavorable or beneath an owner. Quite the contrary, it should be a primary role of the owner or manager. Nothing gets purchased if it is not sold. A detailed and effective marketing strategy with accompanying sales tactics should be in full operation at your RAL. This is especially crucial at the present. COVID-19 has scared many RAL owners into paralysis. This should not be your posture. You should actively be planning and engaging the community through social media, mail campaigns, webinars, online tours and information dissemination. Why? What RAL will get visited when the COVID-19 pandemic is abated? During these trying times, many adult children are discovering how much help Mom and Dad really need. Also, hidden medical conditions are being discovered as many doctor’s offices were closed for an elongated period of time and symptoms became unhidden. Many seniors have been at home and have suffered loss of function or may have fallen. Do not stop selling. As an owner, you are always selling because by selling you are helping.
6. Be Careful Who You Spend Your Time With
Another old saying is “if you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.” Avoid harbingers of doom. These people have nothing but negative thoughts about everything. COVID-19 has made them the Nostradamus of America. Get away, now. You are the owner or future owner of a very successful RAL. Your business addresses hard times with a solution. When you make a statement, it is one of hope and confidence, not doom and gloom. It is imperative that you lead the way to the future, not follow the weak into the pit. Your future residents, staff and families are depending on you to guide them.
7. Be Prepared to Try “NEW”
When what you are doing isn’t working it makes sense to try something different. This sounds logical, yet so many businesses slowly fail simply because they kept doing the same thing. For instance, consider taxi cabs. When was the last time you called for one? Here’s another, what happened to public pay phones? Hmm… If you are a business owner in a changing industry, maybe it’s time to make a change – try something new. Fortunately, the assisted living industry is turning toward smaller RAL homes, now more than ever.
8. Invest in Your Business
Fear has crippled many business owners, and unfortunately among them are owners of RALs. However, now is the time to make thoughtful investments in your business. By doing so, you prepare your RAL for the post-COVID pandemic. One should not prepare for the game once it has already begun. At that point, it’s too late. Therefore, it is time to give the home a fresh coat of paint, upgrade the website, fortify the brand, train your staff, invest in new technology. Do not cease building your business, internally. Strengthen what you have so that it will be strong enough to handle the influx that is soon to come.
9. Invest in Yourself
The best investments are not made in financial instruments, real estate or business opportunities. The best investment is made in you. Therefore, do not neglect to strengthen your skills, expertise and savvy. You must develop as a person and as a business owner if success is to be yours. Difficult times will come, if they are not already upon you. Whatever is in you, will come out. If fear is in you, fear will manifest. If pride is in you, pride will manifest. But, if humility and ingenuity is in you, creativity and confidence will manifest. You are what you study. Therefore, it’s time to get in class. Stop skipping school and get engaged, now. It is critical for the present as well as the future. The past is behind you, but if you have missed valuable lessons history has taught, you will repeat that class. Get ahead and connect with Residential Assisted Living Academy.
10. Find Someone to Mentor You Through Challenging Times
If you have someone who you admire and respect and who you know has been through a similar challenge, why not reach out and ask for help? Be honest and share your challenge. Inform them of how significant the challenge is for you. This type of vulnerability will get you far in business. The misnomer of “only the strong survive,” is rooted in pride and arrogance. The truth is those who ask will receive. Ask for help, ask for advice, ask for guidance, and you will get help, advice and guidance. The Residential Assisted Living Academy is full of instructors, owners and industry experts who feel the need to serve others. This is not a place for the proud. It is a place for the humble, those who serve relentlessly, those who reap the reward of their labor. So, connect with us now.
11. Learn from The Experience
This can be such a cliché, but it is true. Most RAL owners are really good at beating themselves up for things that go wrong, but there really isn’t much to be achieved from this. Far better to take a step back and learn from the experience. What would you do differently next time? What were the clues that you should have picked up on? What are you going to do to make absolutely certain that this never happens again? You can learn a lesson from others.
LEARN TO NAVIGATE ON ROUGH TERRAIN
Get the clarity you need to equip your RAL business to survive during difficult times.
Do not fear. Get informed. The Residential Assisted Living Academy has the information you need to make an informed decision.
Why go it alone?
The RAL Academy will show you step-by-step how to maximize this opportunity to net profit $5,000, $10,000 and even $15,000 per month, even during nationwide economic challenges.
Take the time to learn how to really manage and navigate difficult times. There are people who have trudged before you.
RAL Academy has people with the experience, industry intelligence, and grit to help you succeed in this process.
Contact us today in order to get the help needed to develop into the leader you have the potential of becoming.
