How to Start a Home Care Business: The Proposal (part 7)

Market Research and Competitive Analysis

Market research helps you find customers for your business. Competitive analysis helps you make your business unique. Combine them to find competitive advantage for your small business.

The first thing I did in my market research and competitive analysis was to call the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and ask them to mail me a list of Medicaid providers of home health care in my area. The list is for the whole St. Louis metro area. There are a lot of companies on this list but I can winnow it down a bit. Since I am looking to start out small, I'm only interested in the immediate St. Charles area. So after reviewing the list of Medicaid providers of home care services, I find that there are 18 home care agencies in my area. That's a lot of competition, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not looking for a huge clientele. At present, I would just like to have a little list of people on call so that I can keep my own ass covered and remain in a community setting, which I'm sort of doing right now but its not an ideal situation. A lot of bartering and paying under the table and relying-on-neighbor stuff is going on. So I already have a little 2-bit operation going, but  I guess I'd just feel a little more secure if I had a more legitimate, larger operation running to have my ass covered. I don't know: It will be stressful then too. I'm just going through a transitional period. But I digress. Back to market research and competitive analysis.

As mentioned above, there are eighteen competitors in my general St. Charles area, and that's not including a lot of St. Louis companies that sort of poach customers in this area sometimes. But that's not much of a problem due to clash of cultures. For the most part, St. Louis people are not very fond of coming in to St. Charles, and vice versa. The few times I received services from St. Louis companies, it didn't work out very well. They would just start pulling no-call no-shows while pocketing the cash, or showing up and doing hardly anything and wanting to leave after an hour and wanting me to sign off for the whole four hours. Its a pretty sleazy business, to be honest. The St. Charles companies are generally a little better.

But, I again digress. There were 18 companies on that list. However, that number has to be taken with a grain of salt. There may be more, there may be less. These lists are generally not updated very well.  Many of them are not even open for business anymore, and a lot of them are just small operations with just a few clients, and they are not looking to expand. The only way to be certain would be to call all the names on the list to see if they are all still open, which I may do. But, a way to get a more accurate feel for what's out there would be to do a web search for Medicaid home healthcare providers in the St. Charles area, which is what I'm going to do now (be back in a few minutes).

After doing my research on the Internet, I can only conclude that there are A LOT of companies operating in the St. Charles area. Since this is an expanding area of business due to the aging population, everyone is trying to get into the business and businesses are opening and closing all the time. I think a lot of people who open these businesses aren't very good business people, don't really know what they are getting into, get in over their heads and close shop, or they get in trouble with the state for shady business practices and have to close down.

And upon further research, I think it would be wise to include all the St. Louis companies too as competition. They work on this side of the river a lot more than I thought. So unless I call all the companies on this hard copy list the state sent me or all the ones listed on Google, there's no way to know for sure, but I feel I have enough information to make a useful estimate.

The state sent me a list with about 190 companies on it. But, most of these are not competition. A lot of them have already folded and are no longer in business, and a lot of the ones that are still operating are just people with a few clients, looking to make a little extra money, and they're not looking to expand. So after all my extensive research, I would say there are about seven main competitors in St. Charles. These are larger companies who are always listed prominently on Google, which is the first place many people look when they want to find Medicaid providers of home care services operating in St. Charles. And these larger, well advertised companies are seemingly always looking to expand their customer base.

Your competitive analysis should identify your competition by product line or service and market segment. Assess the following characteristics of the competitive landscape:

• Market share
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Your window of opportunity to enter the market
• The importance of your target market to your competitors
• Any barriers that may hinder you as you enter the market
• Indirect or secondary competitors who may impact your success

Market Share

My prospective market share is very small. As I mentioned in an earlier post I was really only inspired to start this business because I thought I could do a better job of providing quality dependable caregivers for myself than the agencies I have dealt with were able to do so far. I also want to be the Medicaid services provider for my immediate neighborhood. Being a disabled adult on Medicaid myself, I live in the low-income part of town; the projects; the H.U.D. housing area. I know a lot of my neighbors in this area are disabled adults and seniors who use these home care services so they can remain in a community setting. So to start out I just wanted to set up a business that could serve me as it's first and foremost client, and then expand out to serve just my closest neighbors in this one little part of town where all the low-income people live.

Strengths and Weaknesses

My strength lies in actually being a recipient of Medicaid home care services for 25+ years and living right smack dab in the middle of my target market. I know my target market in a very intimate way. I've lived in this apartment complex for 17 years. My plan is to be the Medicaid provider of home care services for this little area; this apartment complex. This apartment complex is a H.U.D. provider of government subsidized housing for low-income people. All the people here get housing assistance. Most are on Medicaid and many rely on Medicaid provider home care services to remain in a community setting.

When I'm looking to expand, there are also several other low income apartment complex's in the immediate vicinity. However, in my strength also lies my weakness. On the one hand, while I myself being one of my target market in that I am a recipient of Medicaid home care services, get housing assistance, and am so conveniently located in my target market, and actually intimately know a lot of my target market, being their neighbor, this also means I am a low-income individual myself. So I will have very limited funds available for start-up costs, advertising, marketing, etc.

Window of Opportunity to Enter the Market

The window of opportunity to enter this market will be open for the foreseeable future, and I'm not under any type of deadline to get things up and running, so I have time to put together a good solid proposal for the Medicaid enrollment people at the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services.

The Importance of My Target Market to My Competitors

I would say that my target market is somewhat important to my competitors, but not very important. And here is my reasoning why: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of April 2019, the unemployment rate was 3.6%. So while this is a good number for the overall economy, for an employer it means there's somewhat of a labor shortage. Since everyone is already employed, it is harder to find good dependable caregivers.

So since my competitors are finding it harder to find caregivers, this means they can't take on as many clients because there are not enough caregivers to care for them. I would almost be helping them out by dominating my own tiny niche market here in North St. Charles.

Any Barriers that May Hinder Me as I Enter the Market

Like I mentioned earlier the one main barrier that may hinder me is my lack of finances. I will not have a lot of money for start-up costs, advertising, marketing, etc. Also, there's the labor shortage, as mentioned above. And furthermore while doing research at the Missouri Department of Health and Seniors Services's website, I came across this interesting bit of information:

As a result of the new state budget, nursing facility level of care eligibility standards are changing. The threshold for eligibility to receive care has increased; as a result, some people's benefits may be terminated. People who currently receive Home and Community Based Services will have their eligibility reevaluated at their next scheduled annual assessment. Participants will continue to get the same services until they are reevaluated or notified by division staff of a change to that care as a result of their annual assessment. If you have questions about when your next annual assessment will be scheduled you can contact your provider. If you have additional questions, call 573-526-3626.

So these cuts in the state budget may hinder me as I enter the market, as well.

Indirect or Secondary Competitors who May Impact My Success

The one major thing that stands out to me as an indirect or secondary competitor who may impact my success, is the overall economy. As I mentioned earlier, while 3.6% unemployment is good for the overall economy, it also means its harder to find good dependable employees, which is a crucial part of this business.

*SOURCE: SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION: MARKET RESEARCH AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS*

end