Stepping Into The Next Chapter – 6 Steps to Selling a Home Care Agency
We strive to help our partner agencies maximize their potential to help to give people a better life than yesterday though innovation, intelligence and improvement. This blog helps to serve home care and home healthcare agency owners to feel like there is always hope for struggling businesses. Despite many of the challenges that home care agency owners face, there are options and solutions to be able to work with a team like ours, a management service organization, that enable assistance with chronic issues like billing or staffing. More than often, owners either want to elevate their agency or just want to step away, knowing their employees and patients will be cared for.
Today’s blog will focus on the process of partnering or selling an agency, to help owners see that it may not be as intimidating or cumbersome as some may think.
Here are 6 steps to selling, or partnering with a management service organization.
Connect
Have you heard of the phrase “right place, right time”? Well in our business often the first step starts with the right connection at the right time. Dependent on the owner and agency, it may be the first time they considered reaching out, or it could be the last. The owner could be thinking M/A is an option to escape and retire, or the owner could fear leaving the company would greatly impact what they have built. The right connection at the right time can lead to a good conversation. Making the right connection with a buyer who has compassion and experience working with home care agency owners is vital, to ensure your needs are respected and met.
Conversation
When working with Prestige, step 2 begins with a simple 1 to 1 conversation. We will seek out to best understand your personal situation, objectives, concerns, and goals. Upon this information we can provide insight into the many ways that our organization can be an asset for you, at various levels. You have options to stick around for as long, or as little as you want. What’s most important to you, is most important to us.
Determine Value
With some basic information about your organization, we can gather enough information quickly to help establish your agency’s value. Based on your EBITDA and a few other basic financial inquiries, we can give you a good idea of what you could get for your business. This also obviously depends on what role you want to take on with the company in the future, but having these figures can allow you to consider ALL of your options with real, tangible numbers in front of you. One of the main benefits of getting a business valuation is knowing if that number isn’t as high as you’d like it to be, you can still take time to implement changes and tweak processes to add to the overall strength.
Due Diligence
Once we have reached an agreement and agreed to move forward, an LOI will be issued. Once the LOI is signed by both parties, this is where due diligence occurs. This is where all the final t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted. A buyer will assess other factors that they feel are vital to partnering or acquiring an agency. This stage is essential because it allows the buyer to confirm pertinent information about the seller, such as contracts, finances, and customers. With this information a buyer is fully equipped to make a formal decision to close the deal.
Closing of the Merger/Acquisition:
Based on the specifications and closing steps, this is where the beginning of your next chapter begins. Dependent on your wishes and objectives in step 2, you will either commence in stepping away from the organization to retire/begin your new life, or you will continue to work in the role that you see fit. This allows you the comfort in knowing that you made the best decision not only for yourself, but your fellow teammates, employees, vendors, partners, and most importantly, your patients..
Future
Your future rests on your personal vision for your organization. As mentioned, working with Prestige means partnering with an organization that has similar values and morals as you. Whoever you choose to enter the process of mergers and acquisitions with, ensure that you work with someone who truly cares about the home care/home health care industry. This helps to ensure that your business decisions don’t collide with your emotional attachments. We understand how important caring for others is, as we are in the same business. Whether it’s help with a struggling department, or helping to allow you to be free from stress, we will work with you to ensure you’re making the best decision for all parties.
Every situation, every company, every location is different. No two home care agencies are the same, and we are all working toward the same goal- to help others live a better life than yesterday. If you or someone you know is struggling with managing their business, we can help you. Just reach out via our contact form to get in touch with Michael Ford, our Business Development Director to learn more! Thanks for reading and remember to follow us on Linkedin for more industry news!
