The senior home care agency launch plan
Every step from deciding to opening, in the order it happens, shaped to your situation, with your own numbers beside it. About 45 steps in 8 phases, 20 of them specific to a senior home care agency. Free to read; ticking steps off and putting in your own numbers come with membership.
The plan45 steps
- 01Not started0/6Fold
Decide with the numbersa week or two
Before a dollar is spent. Most expensive mistakes happen here, and this phase costs nothing.
An agency bills by the hour for a caregiver in the home.
Typical for one unit is $400,000 to $2,500,000 a year; the owner keeps 12 to 24% of it before paying themselves. If that band does not cover what you need, that is the signal to pause and look again.
~50% survive 5 years. About half of new U.S. employer businesses are still operating after five years.
Twelve questions about your money, time, experience and temperament, scored. Then the 5 questions this business asks of its owner, about the hours and the work. Answer both before you spend a dollar.
Rule of thumb: build when you have the time to get licensed and a year of living costs, and buy when you find an agency with a wide client base, caregivers who stay, and a clean survey history, at a... Answer it in your situation above and the plan reshapes.
Customers, prices, rent, staff pay, what it costs to open. We filled in typical numbers; change what you know and everything on this page follows.
- 02Not started0/5Open
Plan the moneya week
What it costs to open, where the money comes from, and the cushion that keeps you alive until the business pays for itself.
A home care agency is cheap to open and expensive to .
The itemized cost to open9 lines
- Office technology: laptops, monitors, phones, printer, network: $3,800 to $14,200One workstation each for you and two schedulers; a tablet or two for intake visits at the high end
- Office furniture, files and office refresh: $2,200 to $23,200Three workstations, locking files for client and personnel records, an interview and training room; paint and carpet only at the high end
- Caregiver supplies: gait belts, gloves, kits, shirts, badges, client binders: $2,000 to $6,000
- Signage, logo, website and referral brochures: $1,200 to $14,300A careers page that recruits is worth as much as the client page
- State license, policy manual and administrator training: $650 to $7,900From a business license only in 13 states to $5,603 in California; the longest lead item
- Caregiver screening and CPR certification: $3,500 to $7,100Background checks, registry checks, TB tests and a group CPR class for 25 caregivers
- Insurance package, workers comp deposit, bond and cyber: $4,200 to $10,600
- Business setup, lease deposit, launch and recruiting marketing: $4,900 to $21,000
- Initial working capital: $35,000 to $90,000Weekly payroll, office costs and your living costs until the schedule fills, plus the float on insurance claims
Costs start on day one; customers take months. Map the first twelve months of cash so the business does not run out of money while it is getting going.
The business has to earn your pay like any other bill. Set it in your numbers and watch the month it move.
How deals in this business are financed4 lines
- SBA 7(a) loan (Up to $5M · up to 10 yr · 75-85% government-guaranteed)The usual way to buy an established agency with its clients, caregivers and license, and a fit for a start that needs working capital for the ramp.
- SBA Microloan (Up to $50,000 · up to 7 yr · FY2025 average about $16,000)Made through nonprofit community lenders, often with coaching.
- Business line of credit (Revolving · interest only on what you use)Covers weekly payroll while families and long-term care carriers pay 30 to 60 days later; draw only what you need and pay it down as claims come in.
- Seller financing (Often 10-25% of price · 3-7 yr)Common when buying an agency.
Most new shops pair an with 10 to 20% of your own cash. Know the monthly payment before you look at a single space.
Before you shop. A lender tells you what they would fund, what they need from you (credit, your cash in, a plan with numbers), and a pre-qualification letter makes a landlord or a seller take you seriously.
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Set up the companya day or two
A day of paperwork, and it has to come before the space: a lease, a loan application and every permit are in the company’s name.
Your state’s business name search, the trademark register, and the domain, before the name is on a sign, a van, or a lease.
A , an , and the S-corporation election each change what you keep and what you are exposed to. Compare them with the numbers, confirm with a CPA and an attorney, then file with your state.
After:The is free from the IRS in minutes once the company exists. The bank account needs both. Keep business money separate from day one.
After:Pick the accounting software and connect the bank account now, so every cost of opening is captured and the numbers you later are real.
- 04Not started0/4Open
The territory and the vehiclea week or two
An agency has an office but no storefront; the territory is a drive-time circle around it.
What decides it for this business: many residents over 75, retirement savings and home , a caregiver pool, hospitals, rehab and senior communities, homes close enough to chain visits.
Mobile businesses still answer to city rules: where the vehicle can be kept overnight, whether you can run the business from home, and what the state licenses.
The van or truck is the shop. Price it, outfit it, insure it, and brand it before the first job. The quotes go into the loan application.
Commercial auto for the vehicle, for the work. Customers and any lender will ask for the certificate.
- 05Not started0/2Open
Get the loanfour to eight weeks
Four to eight weeks with an SBA lender, longer if the file is incomplete. Everything else waits on this, so send a complete file.
Your plan with numbers (download it as a PDF from this page), the company’s papers, the vehicle and equipment quotes, your personal financial statement, and proof of the cash you put in.
The lender funds against the quotes and the insurance; the money goes to the vendors and the build.
After:
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Permits and the vehicletwo to four weeks
Non-medical home care needs no clinical license from the owner, but 37 states license or register the agency itself, with a named administrator, written policies, caregiver screening and training rules, and a survey.
Bind the policies you had quoted before a contractor, a vehicle or a customer is in play. Keep the certificates; the landlord, the lender and the city will ask.
After:With the money in hand: the vehicle, the , the branding, and the state inspection most cities require before it can work.
After:City or county registration, and a DBA filing if you trade under a name other than the company’s.
With your state, before the first taxable sale. Usually free and online; check your state.
Texas licenses a Home and Community Support Services Agency for personal assistance services ($2,625 for three years); California licenses a Home Care Organization ($5,603 for...
Licensing states require a named administrator and an alternate with initial training (Texas: 8 hours before applying, 24 in the first year) and a pre-survey course.
The application and the survey are checked against your policy manual, client service agreement, care plan forms and personnel policies.
Most states require a criminal background check (often fingerprint-based) plus searches of the state abuse or employee misconduct registry and the nurse aide registry before a...
Under the 2013 federal home care rule, agency caregivers are owed minimum wage and overtime; the Department of proposed restoring the old exemption in 2025 and paused...
Care notes, insurance claims and personal information are protected under state privacy laws and, for agencies that bill insurers electronically, HIPAA.
for Medicaid-funded personal care; not required for private pay, though most scheduling apps include GPS clock-in and families increasingly expect it.
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Set up to runduring the build
During the build, so the business runs from day one: the systems, the prices, the people and the routine.
The backbone: client schedules, caregiver matching, GPS clock-in and visit notes from the home, care plans and family portals.
Caregivers are hourly employees with overtime, pay rates and frequent turnover.
General and professional liability with abuse and molestation coverage, hired and non-owned auto, , a fidelity bond and cyber.
See the price the the business needs implies, then check it against what the market pays.
Early morning: The on-call phone rings with sick calls. Daytime: Caregivers clock in and out from the client’s home on the agency app. Afternoons: Interviews and orientation.
Opening, closing, the sale, the complaint, the cash. One page each. This is the manual a franchise would have sold you.
Free, and it is how most people will find you. Address, hours, photos and the menu or price list, live before opening day; then the sign, the soft opening and the first regulars.
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Open and measurethe first ninety days
You own it. Now run it on the numbers.
Friends, neighbors and a short menu or list. Find the problems while the room is forgiving.
Enter the real numbers and see every cost line against the for this business.
Caregiver pay and burden; Turnover and recruiting; Overtime and unfilled shifts.
Wages are the start: , insurance, training time and the hours you stop billing. Register as an employer and carry workers’ comp before the first payday.
Growth consumes cash before it produces it. Find the rate your own cash funds before you push.
A home care agency sells on its billable hours and the people who deliver them.