The Senior Home Care Agency
Non-medical care for older adults in their own homes: bathing, meals, companionship, rides to the doctor. Families and long-term care insurers pay by the hour, caregivers you employ deliver the hours, and a small office schedules them. The business looks like selling care; it runs like hiring, because at typical turnover you replace most of your caregivers every year.
Read the launch plan: every step from deciding to opening, free →The Snapshot
Is this worth your attention?
Cited sources Typical bands for this kind of business, compiled from the public sources listed under Sources and method; they are a synthesis, not figures copied from any one source. Estimates, not forecasts; a specific business varies with its location, lease, equipment and owner. Last reviewed 2026-10-29. smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice.
A fit if you…
- Can recruit, train and keep hourly caregivers, week after week
- Are comfortable selling to hospitals, senior communities and anxious families
- Stay calm when a caregiver calls in sick at 6 a.m. and a client is waiting
- Want a business that can grow to a manager-run office and sell for a multiple
Probably not if you…
- Want a business with little people management
- Expect the state license to be a form rather than a program you run
- Cannot carry two to six weeks of payroll before clients and insurers pay
- Would rather do the care yourself than build a team that does it
Step Inside the Layout
A live look at one tool inside
This is the actual 3D floor from the full model. Drag to explore it. Inside, you configure the space yourself and watch the economics move with every choice.
Sources and method21 public sources, with the year and a link where the source gives one. The benchmark bands are smbnest's synthesis of these sources, not figures copied from them.
Sources & Method
Figures are compiled from the public sources below; the bands are a synthesis of them, not copies
How these numbers were built: the bill rate comes from the CareScout (Genworth) 2025 Cost of Care Survey national median; caregiver wages and the labor outlook from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook; turnover, client acquisition cost and rejected referrals from the Activated Insights (formerly Home Care Pulse) benchmarking reports as reported by Home Health Care News; gross margin, office payroll, marketing and caregiver counts from Right at Home’s 2024 franchise disclosure document; owner earnings, revenue and resale multiples from BizBuySell’s home health care benchmarks (2021 to 2025); workers comp rates, license fees and insurance from the state agencies and insurers listed; survival rates from BLS Business Employment Dynamics; and financing terms from the SBA. The hours lift for long-term care insurance clients, the cost per hire, the unfilled-shift share and the clients one coordinator can carry are estimates and are labeled as such. The margin shown is owner cash flow (SDE), before any pay to you, for an agency whose caregivers and office staff are paid employees. Franchise Item 19 figures are self-reported and unaudited, and benchmarking surveys over-represent larger agencies, so treat the percentages as directional. Figures are current as of 2025-2026; your own rates, wages and client count should replace ours.
Rates come from the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey national median and caregiver wages from BLS. The margin band is owner cash flow (SDE) before any owner pay, anchored to BizBuySell’s home health care sales (median SDE about 20% of revenue) and cross-checked against Right at Home’s reported 42.6% gross margin and 10.7% office payroll. Turnover, acquisition cost and rejected referrals come from the Activated Insights benchmarking reports as reported by Home Health Care News, which over-represent larger agencies. Franchise Item 19 figures are self-reported and unaudited. The hours lift for insurance clients, the cost per hire, the unfilled share and the clients per coordinator are estimates.
This is just the surface
The full model is the complete, interactive deep-dive, and every business here is built to the same standard: a live economics simulator you tune to your own numbers, an interactive 3D walkthrough, a location scorecard, an owner-fit assessment, a buy-versus-build comparison, and the full breakdown of how it makes money and what quietly kills margin.
then $29 a month
Time to choose and start, then month to month.
$99 today for your first 3 months, then $29 a month until you cancel.
about $17 a month
The best price: a year to decide, open and run it.
$199 today, then $199 each year until you cancel.
Renews until you cancel. Cancel any time from your account; you keep access to the end of the period you paid for, and your saved plans stay in your account. What membership opens
smbnest is a self-assessment tool. It does not give individualized financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Figures are estimates and benchmarks, not forecasts. Speak with a qualified financial adviser and a licensed attorney before you start, buy, finance or sign anything.