Start Your Own - HOME BASED BUSINESS
Daily needs
1. Daily money management. Although older adults are able to live independently longer, many need assistance with tasks such as making bank deposits; paying bills; balancing checkbooks; reconciling bank, credit card, and charge account statements; organizing taxes and other paper- work; and filing medical claims. This business has grown from the fact that adult children often no longer live in the same community as their parents, and even when some do, they’re too busy to help manage their parents’ day-to-day financial affairs.
2. In-home care. Many seniors need help with the activities of daily living (ADLs), such as cleaning, cooking, driving to medical appointments, grooming, laundry, medication reminders, organizing closets, and running errands such as picking up prescriptions and especially shopping. In-home, non-medical caregivers provide these services, as well as much- needed companionship. House cleaning is especially important, because many seniors lose their visual acuity and simply can’t see dirt in kitchens and bathrooms that would appall them if they could. These services enable elders to continue to live in their own homes, avoiding placement in nursing homes. Also, because of the growing size of the senior market, research and development is creating new products and medical technology that should enable more elders to live at home with the assistance of people who lend a helping hand and in the process help control health care costs.
In-home health care is a separate service that is typically operated on a larger scale than can be done from home; however, smaller in-home health care providers in rural areas are sometimes home based. In-home health care is usually paid by Medicare or Medicaid, but sometimes families pay for in-home health care directly.
3. Personal-chef services. Personal chefs bring the groceries and their own utensils and equipment to cook in their clients’ kitchens. Typically, personal chefs who cook for seniors come in once every two weeks and package meals to store in the refrigerator or freezer for use until their next visit. Resource: United States Personal Chef Association, (800) 995-2138, www.uspca.com.
4. Pet services. Seniors love their pets, and research has proved pets are healthy for them. For example, seniors with dogs go to the doctor less, have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels, and engage in conversation and social interaction. Thus, seniors are frequent customers for pet sitters and other pet services such as dog and cat training, mobile pet grooming, non-anesthetic dental cleaning, pet transportation, and pooper-scooper services.
Professional services
1. Geriatric care management. These professionals specialize in assessing the needs of seniors whose situations require special attention in order for them to continue to live independently. Geriatric care managers also coordinate needed services and negotiate their delivery with agencies. Because of certification requirements, being credentialed in gerontology, nursing, social work, or psychology is required in this field.
2. Professional advice. Professionals of all kinds — including accountants, clergy, financial planners, insurance brokers, lawyers, independent nurse practitioners, real estate agents, and psychotherapists are specializing in working with elders. Professionals and others can become Certified Senior Advisors by the Society of Certified Senior www.society-csa.com.
Special services
1. Relocation services. When life circumstances change due to health or finances, downsizing one’s home is something seniors often do, trading a now too-large or hard-to-maintain home for a smaller one. But moving is both physically and emotionally daunting. This has given rise to relocation specialists, who handle everything from packing to unpacking and setting up the new living space to make its new resident(s) feel at home.
2. Retirement counseling. A recent Gallup survey found 54 percent of American adults do not have a long-term financial plan and that 74 per- cent of these do not expect to have enough money to retire. This means a lot of work for retirement counselors to do. www.infre.org) offers a Certified Retirement Counselor (CRC) designation to financial planners and individuals with human resource and finance work experience in corporations or government.
3. Tour packaging. Travel is a high priority for the maturing population. When people approaching retirement age are asked what kind of travel they look forward to, travel that combines intellectual and physical stimulation scores high. So a home-business–based tour packaging business does more than make travel arrangements; it’s also about fulfilling aspirations for adventure for both mind and body. Most tour operators find niches — novel and unique tours or subjects focused on food, art, history, or other special interests, sometimes exotic, that require particular knowledge and expertise in order to create a satisfying tour. Unlike travel agents, who are in an increasingly difficult field, tour packagers generally do not sell tickets to their customers; they either pay for the transportation such as renting a bus, which is included in the tour pack- age, or the customers make their own travel arrangements. The tour package consists of the itinerary, hotel accommodations, food, and guide services
4. Virtual Retirement Communities. This form of retirement community enables seniors to stay in their homes by providing them with access to needed services at preferred costs from reliable vendors. Example: Beacon Hill Village, www. beaconhillvillage.org.
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