Home health care agency founder Michael Collura discusses the importance of meeting the needs of seniors and their families, offering services that help them live at home with the dignity and safety of in-home care.
Listen to the full interview of Adam Torres with Michael Collura on Mission Matters Innovation Podcast.
What attracted you to senior care?
Collura says that working in senior care helped him understand the importance and impact of quality care on people’s lives. Noticing a gap between the demand and availability of high-quality in-home care services, he decided to build a brand around it and create a franchise to help it grow. At its center, he says, is a mission to improve people’s quality of life.
“Being an entrepreneur happened by accident,” Collura says. While working in a nursing home as a teenager, he saw firsthand how meaningfully a senior’s surrounding environment and level of care can affect their quality of life, and he eventually went on to found his own in-home personal services company. It was then that he realized he actually enjoyed entrepreneurship.
The non-medical senior care model
Home-based personal services based on a “non-medical care model” are part of a growing industry that began blooming well before pandemic as the Baby Boomer generation began reaching their elder years.
Collura launched his company, In Home Personal Services, in 2004 and took time to learn the ins and outs of the industry’s ecosystem. As its franchise network developed, he says, it expanded and further proved its business model; today, the pandemic has led to overdue criticism of the gaps in the nursing home industry and a greater understanding of the need for more in-home care services as a welcome alternative.
Given the steadily increasing demand for in-home services, he says, franchising is a perfect vehicle for people who wish to take their next step in an entrepreneurial journey. With nearly 20 years in business, the In Home Personal Services team has the breadth and depth of hard-won experience to impart on everyone who joins its franchise network.
“We offer non-medical care, commonly referred to as a caregiver service,” Collura notes, and says he’s soon launching a website offering caregiver certification training in all 50 states. Its offerings, he says, will be offered free of charge through early July in an effort to give back to the healthcare system and welcome new caregivers without saddling them with a financial burden as they enter the industry.
The road ahead
For now, Collura says he wants to continue focusing and improving on what he’s already built. Currently, In Home Personal Services is focused on hiring more candidates to grow the team, expanding its caregiver network. Further, Collura also owns Bowes In Home Care, which he purchased from his mentor as she began planning her retirement; he notes that it’s since grown from a small clientele of a dozen or so to more than 700.
To learn more about In Home Personal...