Many clients of a non-medical home care agency do not find the agency on their own. They arrive because a hospital discharge planner, a senior living director, an elder law attorney or a care manager gave the family a name. So the work of finding clients is the work of becoming a name that professionals are comfortable giving out.
This is a 60-day plan for a small agency to build ten of those relationships, with week-by-week numbers. The agency and the figures are fictional. The method stays the same for your town, but the rates, the rules and the number of hospitals will not.
The agency and the goal
Renata owns Willow Bend Home Care, a private-pay, non-medical agency with herself and two caregivers on staff. She helps seniors with meals, bathing, medication reminders, errands and companionship, for a few hours a day up to round-the-clock care. Her capacity is about 60 hours of care a week more than she is using today. Her goal for the next 60 days: ten referral relationships, and at least three new clients from them.
Her buyers are not the people who use the service. The decision is made by an adult child, often during a crisis, and the first suggestion usually comes from a professional the family already trusts. That is who she writes to.
Week 1: 40 referral sources listed by name
Renata spends about six hours building a list of 40 people. She looks for the role, not just the organization. She needs a name, a title and an email or phone number for each.
- 8 hospital discharge planners and case managers, from the three hospitals within 30 minutes.
- 10 directors and community relations staff at senior living communities and assisted living facilities.
- 8 elder law attorneys.
- 6 geriatric care managers, who help families arrange care.
- 4 social workers at rehab centers and skilled nursing facilities.
- 4 others: hospice social workers, Area Agency on Aging staff, and a couple of church or senior-center coordinators.
The names come from the organizations' websites, staff pages, state bar and care-manager directories, and a few phone calls to ask who handles referrals. Her sheet has a column for the source type, the person's name and role, and a place to record what each one said. How to find office managers and facility managers uses the same approach for other professional buyers.
Week 2: the first emails and the first calls to discharge planners
She sends 40 emails in two batches, about 90 minutes each, and calls the 8 hospital contacts. The email is short and written to a busy professional, not to a family.
Subject: A home care agency for the families you work with
Hi Ms. Darnell, I'm Renata, owner of Willow Bend Home Care in Brookfield. We provide non-medical care at home for seniors, from a few hours a week to full days. When a family you're working with needs help at home, we return intake calls within 24 hours, usually the same day, and offer a no-obligation in-home assessment. Could I stop by for 15 minutes with a one-page sheet about how we work? Renata Okoye, Willow Bend Home Care, 12 Alder Court, Brookfield. Reply STOP and I won't write again.
Calls to hospital staff are short. Planners are on the floor most of the day, so she calls at the start or end of a shift and asks one thing: "Who is the best person to give a one-page sheet to, and when is a good time?" Many hospitals require visitors and vendors to register or limit marketing visits, so she asks about that too. How to cold email the owner instead of the gatekeeper and how to get meetings with decision makers have more wording for getting through.
By the end of the week, 9 people have replied, 4 of the 8 hospital contacts have been reached, and 3 of those have said she can drop off a sheet.
Week 3: the meetings, and what referral sources ask
Renata holds 10 short meetings, 15 to 20 minutes each, in lobbies, coffee shops and offices. She brings the one-page sheet and no gifts. The sheet lists the services, the service area, the minimum shift length, the hourly rate, how fast she answers an intake call, and how caregivers are screened. She does not promise outcomes.
The questions she gets are consistent: How fast can you start? What's your minimum shift? Do you handle dementia care? Can you do overnights and weekends? How do you screen and train caregivers? Are you licensed and insured, as your state requires? What happens if a caregiver calls out? Who answers the phone at night? She writes down the answers she didn't have and fixes them. The most common gap is a clear answer on how fast she can start.
Two rules she keeps. She never asks a professional for patient information, because that is not theirs to give without the family's written authorization. And she does not pay for referrals or give gifts. If your agency bills Medicaid, a waiver program or any federal program, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute applies to what you give and receive, and many hospitals and senior living communities have their own gift policies. Talk to a healthcare attorney before you set up anything that looks like payment for a referral.
Weeks 4 to 6: the first referrals and the follow-up routine
Ten relationships do not produce clients in week three. They produce a name in someone's head. Renata follows up in three ways. She sends each person a thank-you note within a day of the meeting. She checks in with a short email once a month, with something useful, such as her current availability for the coming weeks. And she answers every intake call within the hour, because a professional who gives out her name and then gets a slow reply won't do it twice. How to ask for referrals covers the ask.
In week 4 an elder law attorney sends one family. In week 5 a senior living director refers two families who want extra hours for a resident. In week 6 a hospital planner adds Willow Bend to the list of agencies she hands to families, and one family calls. That's five inquiries. Renata turns three of them into clients after an in-home assessment, which she offers at no charge.
The numbers after 60 days
- 40 referral sources listed, 40 emailed, 9 replies, 10 meetings held.
- 5 referral inquiries, 3 clients started.
- The three clients need 20, 12 and 28 hours a week: 60 hours.
At a billing rate of $34 an hour, 60 hours is $2,040 a week, or about $8,840 a month. If she pays caregivers $20 an hour, the margin before other costs is $14 an hour, or $840 a week and about $3,640 a month. Those rates are an example. Check your own. Roughly 40 hours of Renata's time produced that, and the relationships keep working after day 60.
What to take from Renata's 60 days, and what to adjust
Copy the order: list by name, a short email to professionals, meetings with a one-page sheet, then steady follow-up and fast intake. Change the mix of sources to your town. Some areas have few hospitals and many senior communities. Check your state's rules for non-medical home care, since licensing and what you can say differ widely. And do not tell anyone who refers to you what happens to their patients; keep to your own service.
A weekly rhythm helps. Outbound prospecting for small teams sets out a three-hour week, and how to get feedback from customers shows how to ask families what worked.
Finding the right names and writing to them every month is repeated work. Rocketship finds the referral sources by name, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required.