Herman: John L. Herman Jr., Author

Did She Spend $3,500.00 Wisely?

In June of this year I spoke at the Howard County Business Women’s Network in Columbia, Maryland. It was there that I launched the “consulting” phase of my Author/Speaker/Consulting career. There were about sixty people in attendance and I offered a simple plan: They could receive consulting services from me for six months at very inexpensive rates, one thousand dollars for the first month and five hundred dollars per month for the next five months. There would be two monthly visits, they pick the area of concentration, and emails and telephone calls whenever they had an issue to discuss.

The minute the last question was answered, as I walked away from the podium, Linda Cromwell handed me her card and said I would be hearing from her. At our first meeting she explained how seven years ago she went from the personal care giver to Dr. Robert Kearns…the “Flash of Genius” inventor of the intermittent wipers…to the operator of BEING THERE SENIOR CARE and she began providing seniors with quality home companions and care givers. Linda was given a five thousand dollar gift from Dr. Kearns family to jumpstart a business that gave the level of care to seniors in need that Linda had been providing. Next, a small grant from Howard County added marketing brochures and her first website and soon she was contracting care after pouring through more than a hundred applications to find her first few care givers.

Linda marketed to assisted living facilities, joined groups like COGS (Coalition Of Geriatric Services), gave her time as a volunteer to local women’s groups, and worked days, nights and weekends to grow her business.

By June BEING THERE SENIOR CARE had more than 100 care givers in their file with more than thirty of them contracted and active with clients spreading further from her home base. The reason Linda engaged me for her six month consulting run was to help her manage the growth. Should she license others to help her grow? Should she joint-venture with partners in different territories? What about Franchising?

Early research indicated Franchising could cost eighty to one hundred thousand dollars to get off the ground. My consulting fee allowed me to do more homework for her and we will complete the process for her at far less than forty thousand dollars. BEING THERE SENIOR CARE is submitting the application to become a Franchisor in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia within the next thirty days and we should be legal to offer franchises in February. The goal is to sell 3 to 5 franchises in the next twelve months, perhaps ten by eighteen months.

Our six month consulting agreement is up. Linda wants a lifetime contract. Just kidding. But we have agreed that I will stay with her for the next year to move this project along. We found lawyers wanting forty to fifty thousand dollars, and located a firm that specializes in franchise law at more reasonable rates. There were OPERATIONS and TRAINING MANUAL writers and services at fifteen to twenty thousand dollars of cost, and Linda spent one third of that to get them written. Linda has engaged me to handle training of new franchise owners and she is getting excited about where her business is headed.

For those wondering about the economy…and whether her business will suffer in these hard times…let me report that since we began this arrangement six months ago BEING THERE SENIOR CARE has grown by over twenty-five percent in the second half of 2008 and will gross more than one million dollars in billed services for the year. Not bad for a home-based business that started with just one client seven years ago. Congratulations to Linda on her great entrepreneurial accomplishment.

And thanks Linda for being my first $3,500.00 consultant…I think others would agree you got your money’s worth.

• Posted: 18 December 2008
• Comments: 1
• Category: Running a business

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