Monday, March 12, 2012

How to Become an Elder Companion

Quite a few senior citizens require help in their everyday lives but do not have a person to rely on. Their children could possibly be living hundreds or maybe even thousands of miles distant. They may not wish, or are not able to afford, to reside in a nursing home. So you can earn income by giving service and a friendly relationship to these older people.

You are likely to carry out a wide range of tasks:
  • Running errands (buying groceries, driving to scheduled appointments, etc.)
  • Cleaning
  • Cooking or delivering daily meals
  • Playing card games or board games
  • Heading out to outdoor parks as well as other fun trips
  • Continuing to keep your companions' families well-informed of their health
  • All various special necessities your companions need help with
The Good
You will be serving aging adults and making certain they've got decent meals, bringing them to their health care provider appointments, and enriching their lives with friendship. You'll find it is a respectable cause and you will understand that you are creating a big difference in another person's everyday living.

The Bad
The salary is typically fairly modest. As stated by PayScale.com, ordinary hourly earnings are roughly $7-10.

Schooling / Skills Needed

You won't need any specialized schooling in this occupation. You really need a large heart, openness to undertake a variety of obligations, and patience.

Gear / Resources Involved

A dependable vehicle is all you may need for doing this work, since you will be required to visit your companions and run errands for them. You might also want to have some board games, playing cards, books, DVDs, and various other pleasurable activities to do together with your companions.

Locale
You'll be able to run this enterprise from your own home. Frequently you will certainly be driving to see your companions or doing outside chores on their behalf.

Startup Costs
Start-up expenditures would include your advertisement and marketing costs. You will most likely need to create handouts, develop a business web page, and also put ads in the telephone book or area newspapers. If you adhere to a quick business web site, you can probably begin this enterprise for less than a thousand dollars.

Legal / Insurance Considerations
Make sure you avoid rendering any sort of health care or anything else that requires particular education or licenses. If you did, and your companion endured health issues as a result, you could be easily prosecuted. Even things as easy as failing to remember to remind your companion to take their pills could potentially cause issues. Basically, if you forget to remind them and they turn out to be affected because of this, you could be held responsible.

I'm no attorney, so I advocate talking about this concern with a legal professional before you go into this service. You may need to have your clients agree to some type of release form prior to working with them.

How to Begin

Put up pamphlets in community facilities, senior citizen facilities, pharmacies, and medical-related equipment retail stores. Place ads in church newsletters, local magazines, and the telephone book. Develop a straightforward internet site that points out the services you provide and incorporate references or testimonies from satisfied customers. Retain business cards with you. Do all that you can to pass on your message.

If you're not finding any customers, you could potentially get a job for a care-giving organization temporarily to acquire working experience. When you've got some working experience and pleased clientele it will be possible to break off by yourself and be self-employed.

Possible Clients

Obviously, your clients would be older people that need help or fundamental attention.

Do not restrict your marketing to elderly individuals, though. Anybody may view your advertisements and think of a person they know who needs your services.

Rates

Demand a per hour charge for your services. If any of your customers reside far away, you could potentially work out an honest mileage charge for your traveling.

As mentioned above, the national typical income for this job is around $7-10 per hour. You could very well request more when you are experienced or provide an exceptional level of service.

If you want more self-employment ideas, please visit http://www.bestselfemploymentideas.com.