In your own words, what does your company do?
The CareSide is a family-owned home care and nursing service provider for elderly and disabled individuals headquartered in Perth, Australia. We also offer home care in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. Many clients reach out to us when they need assistance caring for a family member. In Australia, it’s common for seniors to spend their twilight years living at home rather than transitioning to nursing care facilities, and that’s where we come in. We provide services such as nursing care, companion care, and personal care. Our goal is to help seniors maintain their autonomy so they can enjoy themselves, and continue to be productive members of society.
📈 Monthly revenue: $2 million dollars
📈 ~% Churn: N/A
📈 ~% Net profit: Do not wish to disclose
📈 Funding: Self-funded but open to partnering with investors
📈 Initial cost/investment to start the company: $66,308
📈 Number of team members: 400
📈 Number of founders: 2
📈 Started: 2017, March
How does the company make money?
These all fall under home care services, and the price range depends on whether the care is on a weekday, a weeknight, Saturday, Sunday, or a public holiday:
💰Live-in Care ($715-1600 per 24 hours) – A caregiver stays in the home of an elderly person to give them a stable and comfortable environment, in familiar surroundings, and with a daily routine.
💰Personal Care ($62- 125 per hour) – A carer assists with everyday tasks such as showering, personal grooming, medication reminders, and help with grocery shopping or appointments.
💰Companion Care ($62- 125 per hour) – A carer provides regular social contact, so the customer can maintain the social connections that are needed for better quality of life, self-confidence, and independence.
💰Nursing Care ($99-210 per hour) – A registered nurse provides clinical care for urgent short-term treatment or has an ongoing role to oversee chronic clinical care needs. Our home care nurses provide, for example, wound care and IV therapy.
💰Disability Support Services (prices dependent upon the NDIS [National Disability Insurance Scheme]) – A highly-skilled support worker offers assistance with daily activities, therapy for capacity building, or nursing care, for example, depending on the customer’s needs.
3 strategies that have worked to attract and retain customers?
✅ We put significant effort into matching customers with the best caregivers for their needs. Clients will have the same caregiver (with specialized training) every time, which is uncommon with most home healthcare agencies.The personalized service we offer ensures that clients will remain comfortable in their homes, with a caregiver they can trust.
✅ We’ve invested more in PPC over the last year- this is now about ¼ of how we get our traffic – and our overall SEO efforts. SEO has helped us stay visible and maintain our trustworthiness among those seeking care or already receiving it.
✅ We have been working on our custom internal CRM software to further manage our operations and facilitate connecting care seekers to carers. Our CRM helps us keep our costs low, and in turn pass savings along to our customers with more hours of service.
3 things that you’ve learned about hiring and retaining great talent?
✅ With hiring, I’ve learned that it’s best to go with your gut and let the process take as long as it needs to. When you want excellent talent, you can’t give yourself too short of a deadline to find someone, because you never know when the ideal candidate will be seeking the role you need to fill. It can take months to find someone with not only the qualifications, but also culture fit that is needed. Allowing myself the space to properly gauge if someone could have a major positive impact on our customers and team has made a difference.
✅ Offer flexible scheduling – If you have the option, you have to offer your team members as much flexibility as possible. It’s important to me to show that I trust my team to work around their lives, as opposed to the other way around.
✅ Offer opportunities for trainings and career growth/development – I think providing team members with ongoing training, following an initial training when they are hired, is key to having them excel in their roles. This can additionally lead to them discovering how they want their current role to transition or evolve into another.