Education
By Jensen Jones
When owners want to grow, one of the first things they often do is hire a salesperson.
Maybe you are opening a second or third location. Maybe you are trying to grow the one you already have. Either way, the thinking makes sense. You need more clients, so you hire someone who is good at getting clients.
You put them in the market and wait for the hours to climb.
Then you spend the next year wondering why you hired a salesperson but still seem to be doing all the work required to actually grow the business.
Here is the problem.
There is nothing wrong with hiring a salesperson if what you need is a salesperson. Their job is to build relationships, create opportunities, and bring in new clients.
But growing a business requires more than bringing in clients. Someone has to think about staffing, quality, the numbers, the team, and how all of those pieces work together.
If you hire a salesperson and expect them to own all of that, you may be asking them to do a job you never actually hired them to do.
What you actually need in that seat is an entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur looks at your business and sees a platform. They want to make sales, make decisions, be responsible for quality and output, and get rewarded when it works.
Give that person responsibility for growth and they will treat it like it is theirs because, in every way that matters to them, it is.
The hard part is that you cannot always tell a salesperson and an entrepreneur apart in an interview. Both will interview well. Both will tell you they want to grow the business.
So the filter is not just the interview.
It is the job posting.
Write the posting for a salesperson and you will get a stack of salespeople.
Write it for an entrepreneur and you will attract a different kind of person.
Make it clear that you are not just asking them to grow sales. You are giving them the opportunity to help build the business.
When I was operating, this is exactly who I looked for.
I wanted entrepreneurial people. People who wanted responsibility, wanted to make decisions, and wanted to have an impact on the business.
Looking back, I think we got that right. Two of my three branch managers now own successful businesses of their own. Even my former scheduling supervisor went on to build a successful business of her own.
That does not happen by accident.
I see the same mindset today inside our HOMECAREceo mastermind groups. We have members who are successfully growing their businesses by putting entrepreneurial people in leadership roles and giving them the opportunity to build.
If you are staffing a new location or finally hiring help to grow the one you have, and you find yourself frustrated a year in, look back at how you described the role.
You may have advertised for the wrong person and gotten exactly who you asked for.
Community
Advanced Health Care: Four Decades of Trust
Trust must be earned. Advanced Health Care has been earning it since 1984.
Sharla Bode, RN, BSN, MS, is one of the owners and CEO of Advanced Health Care, a locally and family owned agency serving Tacoma, Olympia, and the South Puget Sound. More than four decades in one region is rare in any business. In home care, it is almost unheard of.
What stands out is the clinical backbone, and it starts with Sharla herself. She is not only an owner and CEO, she is the Nursing Supervisor. All care in the home is managed by experienced RN care managers who train the caregivers, and the team provides both non medical caregiving and skilled nursing, serving older adults.
The values they lead with, excellence, integrity, dignity, compassion, and teamwork, are not posters on a wall. After more than four decades, they are simply how the place runs.
I have had the opportunity to work with Sharla and her team one on one and to watch them grow through HOMECAREceo. Sharla is more than a member. I consider her a friend.
We have shown up for each other in the moments that matter, not just the easy ones. What comes through every time is that the trust Advanced Health Care has earned in its community is the same trust Sharla extends to the people around her.
Longevity like this does not come from a single good year. It comes from doing the work to the same standard, over and over, while the market changes around you.
For operators, Advanced Health Care is a reminder that staying power is built one well run year at a time. More than four decades of serving their community has proven something no new competitor can fake.
Learn more at advanced-healthcare.com.
Service
Zingage: Building for the Reality of Home Care
I have had the opportunity to watch Zingage grow over the last couple of years.
What started with a strong focus on caregiver engagement has grown into something much bigger. Zingage is building AI around the way home care agencies actually operate, from scheduling and after hours support to caregiver engagement and communication.
What stands out to me is that they stay close to the operators using it.
We have several HOMECAREceo members using Zingage, and I have watched the team listen to their feedback, respond when something is not working, and continue improving the product.
That matters to me.
There is no shortage of AI coming into home care right now. The question is not whether the technology is impressive. The question is whether it solves a real problem and gives your people time back.
If technology can handle more of the repetitive work, your team has more time for the work that requires judgment, relationships, and leadership.
That is where I think Zingage is getting it right.
They have also been a strong partner to HOMECAREceo, and I am excited to have Zingage as the Title Sponsor of our Better Together meeting in Denver this October.
They are investing in the same community they are building for, and I appreciate that.
Learn more at zingage.com.
Jensen Jones – CEO
Casey Rausin – CEO