Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Martindale.
Brooke, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My grandmother suffered her first stroke at age 53, and I saw first-hand how difficult it was for my parents to find her care, let alone dependable care that was suitable or helpful to an individual in her condition.
It was extraordinarily frustrating to hear and witness my family going through this struggle, and while I had never envisioned myself as an entrepreneur, I was somewhat angry and felt strongly that I could do better than the status quo in the industry. My work experience at the time was diverse, ranging from Financial Advising with Merrill Lynch, managing Alumni Relations at Trinity School in NYC (my alma mater), and multiple volunteer experiences in the field of health and human services (MGH, Red Cross, Duke Women’s Center, Ronald McDonald House, and so on). The bottom had just fallen out of the economy, but I was really motivated to create something that was my own, and for that “something” to make a difference.
I started Always Here Home Care in 2009 using my life savings. My goal in starting the business was to create a resource for the compassionate, dedicated and respectful care that I wished had been available to my parents and for my grandmother.
Getting the business off the ground was an immense challenge with many roadblocks, both anticipated and unforeseen, along the way. Since we provide clients with care around the clock, I basically worked 24/7 for the first few years, filling last minute shifts as a caregiver, and answering after-hours calls. It was exhausting, but really forced me to learn the in’s and out’s of every detail of the industry, and running a business in general. Fortunately, I now have an amazing support staff and many qualified wonderful caregivers on our roster. My focus in the last few years has been to continue on a trajectory for growth while ensuring that the level of client service we’ve become known for is maintained, if not improved. By the very nature of the industry, our clients come and go, so this is an incredibly difficult goal to achieve. We are always striving to get better, and although we are a significantly larger company than we were in 2009, we take pride in remaining dynamic enough to enact change if we see an opportunity to improve.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenge we face is balancing recruitment of reliable caregivers and retention of new clients at the same pace. All of our caregivers are W2 employees, so one 24/7 client requires 5 to 6 caregivers; if we get a lead call for a client requiring around the clock care, we need that many staff available to place immediately. Likewise, if a client passes away, six of our best caregivers may be out of work overnight. We work tirelessly to find suitable alternative work for everyone in these situations, but it is extraordinarily hard to align a new client’s needs with the schedule, availability, skillset, personality, and geographic proximity of those same caregivers. This is an ongoing operational challenge.
Our business operates 24/7. This includes all holidays. Staffing after-hours and weekend on-call has required a great deal of thought to ensure there is no gap in the quality of customer service our clients receive, regardless of when they may call. We pride ourselves on not outsourcing to a messaging service and being far more responsive than the average agency. It would have been far, far, far easier to outsource a long time ago, but the company’s reputation would not be the same today if we had made that choice.
A number of recent regulations, from ACA to Earned Sick Time in Massachusetts, introduce a unique set of challenges to our organization because the majority of our staff works fluctuating schedules that are driven by our client requests and needs. With a relatively small office staff, purely from an administrative standpoint, the time and effort required to ensure compliance has been astonishing.
Please tell us about Always Here Home Care.
Our agency provides non-medical home care (companionship, personal care, homemaking, Alzheimer’s/Dementia care) to the elderly and disabled. The company’s goal is to allow our clients to continue to live comfortably in their own home for as long as possible in a dignified way that maintains as much of the client’s independence as possible.
Always Here Home Care provides a level of transparency among the care team and family that is essentially unheard of in our sector of the industry. We employ a HIPAA compliant online family portal, GPS clock in verifications by our caregivers, and provide consistent oversight and review of client care plans to ensure our clients are receiving the most effective and appropriate care available.
Our organization is technology forward. We rely on software every day to support operations, combined with our staff’s ongoing diligence at keeping communication channels open and up to date across the entire Care Team.
One of the biggest mistakes new employees/people in general make is to assume you can wait for a problem to arise and then fix it. The key to success is being as proactive as possible, anticipating and foreseeing an issue, and preventing it before it happens. My husband and I emphasize this methodology, and try to ingrain this manner of thinking with our staff from the day one, and every day thereafter. It sounds silly, but this industry is not for the meek. Although we are non-medical, we regularly deal with life and death situations and are often the chief support for a family. Our client expectations, and sometimes demands, can be very high and we set a commensurate level of expectations of our staff.
What role has luck (good luck or bad luck) played in your life and business?
My husband and I have been listening a lot to “How I Built this” on NPR which chronicles the stories of many well-known entrepreneurs and their paths to success. Interestingly, nearly all of them would admit to at some point having a brush with good luck that changed the company’s fortune, both literally and figuratively. I can’t say for sure whether Always Here would be where it is today if not for a bit of luck and good will here and there; what I can tell you with certainty is that it would not be here without the immense amount of hard work invested in its success over the last eight years. Then again, I met my husband and business partner shortly after starting the company, which in all likelihood would not have happened if not for Always Here, so maybe the stars were aligned on that one!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1 Church Court
Boston, MA 02129 - Website: www.alwaysherehomecare.com
- Phone: 617-933-8884
- Email: bmartindale@alwaysherehomecare.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlwaysHereHomeCare/
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