Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast

Scaling Small Business: Stephen Richardson on Senior Care Growth and Leadership

• Helperly, Caleb Richardson • Season 2 • Episode 10

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We are thrilled to share this episode with Stephen Richardson, our friend and one of the original creators of this podcast! This episode is filled with stories of Caleb and Stephen's mistakes, and lessons learned while attempting to grow a senior care business. 

Stephen is a seasoned entrepreneur who has helped scale multiple small businesses in the past few years. Stephen sheds light on what it takes build a business in the senior care space. 

From achieving a remarkable 300% growth milestone at Helperly, Stephen shares his insights on scaling companies with a strategic mindset. If you're eager to understand the impactful nature of work in senior care and the entrepreneurial spirit behind it, this episode is a compelling listen.

Stephen shares that adaptability is the cornerstone of success, and this episode explores its critical role in business growth. We chat about the necessity of setting ambitious goals, the willingness to pivot strategies when faced with new information, and the importance of building scalable systems for future success. The conversation also highlights the relentless hard work and dedication required to achieve long-term business success, emphasizing that it’s the quality of team members and culture that often accelerates progress. 

Thank you Stephen and we hope that all of you enjoy this conversation!

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Senior Care Academy podcast. They were joined by Steven Richardson. Steven's a lifelong entrepreneur. He has expertise in business organization and growth. Steven worked with us here on the podcast as well as Helperly, and helped us oversee a 300% growth sprint in less than a year. He's a proud father of four kids and one on the way, and or no. Three kids, three kids and one on the way. We put down four because it's basically four.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to just I don't know what that sentence is. He's a proud father of three and a half.

Speaker 1:

He's a proud father of three kids, with one on the way, and a loving husband. We are so stoked to have him on the show. Steven, thanks for coming in. Thanks on the show, steven. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. Yes, so I want to start talking about because you, when you originally started at Helperly, you went and got your MBA. Yeah, I think senior care probably wasn't on the timeline, no, so what? As you came into an industry that you didn't really like, know a ton about, what was something that kind of caught your, that was surprising to you, about just the industry of senior care specifically yeah especially now.

Speaker 1:

Um so, since leaving helperly kind of consult not consulting but helping other businesses on their organization. What, uh, what surprised you in the senior care space compared to other business models?

Speaker 2:

um, I think that that's a great question. I think that other, I think that there's a difference for sure between it, cause, I mean, I think in senior care, there's a very different motivation to be running a senior care. Obviously, there has a lot of business aspects of it that you have to be business savvy, but a lot of the other businesses, it's like we just want to grow a business, we want to make money Senior care. When you come here, it's like we want to help seniors, and I think that was something that surprised me coming into the senior care industry is seeing how many seniors do not have people to take care of them. Like that's crazy. Like the amount of people like just on Thanksgiving, uh, thinking about who's not with their family, they're by themselves, don't have anyone there with them. I think that's the thing that really drives senior care providers and that's what's different from like other businesses. Other businesses it's like, oh, we just want to make money senior care. It's like we got to help these people.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I like that a lot. It really is, um, you get to see just a lot of sad stories, a lot of really meaningful ones as well, but it is hard to like see a lot of these older adults that are just struggling. Yeah, um, what, as you were in the senior care space, what, um, what did you appreciate most about working in senior care for the year that you were here? Like you said, you have the sad side, where people aren't taken care of, but on the other side, what did you appreciate?

Speaker 2:

I think, just knowing that we're doing something that's helpful for people because I think of, I mean, grandparents right, they are taken care of and thinking about, uh, if they weren't, if my parents specifically weren't taken care of, uh, that is so sad to think about so so, knowing that that's what something that we're doing is we're taking care of somebody's parents and making sure that they have a ride to the grocery store.

Speaker 2:

I mean, that's the thing people don't think about because it's's like, yes, they, they're, they're major needs are taken care of, like they go to the hospital if they break bone or whatever, but like they need to go to the grocery store, they need to have their house cleaned, cause if you go to some of these people's houses and they're just not eating healthy food because they can get what they eat, what they can get, being the person to take them to the grocery store and take care of those needs that we don't think about was just so fulfilling.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we had a guest come on. I was talking about dementia and like how to avoid it or how to, I guess, postpone it, and she mentioned it's like the basic stuff and like eating healthy is one of them. Like just getting out of the house, all these little things that, like I said, people don't think about Because, as we're in the working years of our life, well, I think you're always in your working years, but it just isn't front of mind because you always have something to do. But when you don't have something to do, it's easy to forget food and moving your body and not just sitting there all day. It really is very impactful.

Speaker 1:

I do want to talk a little bit about your. This is a little bit of a different podcast. We're talking about senior care, but also your business expertise and whatnot. And so what was it at Helperly? Because you were here during a lot of growth and I like attribute tons of that to you, um. So, while you're at helperly, what, oh man? Let me just read that question what was it about your time at helperly that um showed you how much a business could grow, or what it takes to grow a business?

Speaker 1:

and what you focus on well first of all.

Speaker 2:

So I like like my journey how it started. Help, really hit the microphone, but the we're cousins, right. So so I was, I was looking for jobs and I just came in and I was like the point where not finding something, right, that's where it's like, ah, I'm in the mindset where it's like I have to work for somebody, right, that's where I'm at which my mindset's totally changed. Now it's like, oh wait, you can'm in the mindset where it's like I have to work for somebody, right, that's where I'm at which my mindset's totally changed. Now it's like, oh wait, you can just make money by yourself. You don't have to work for somebody.

Speaker 2:

That's cool, yeah, but that's where my mindset was. I applied to hundreds of jobs, the market was rough, and then I went and I was helping you with your computer and I was like, wait, I'd work here for $12 an hour right now, like cause, like literally, right now I'm just, I want to get some business experience so I'm more marketable, like that's where I'm at. And so remind me what the question is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I'm getting to it as you were growing with Helperly or what it? Took to grow and and what you focused on during your year here that helped, yeah, accelerate. And what you focused on during your year here that helped accelerate growth as fast as you can, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I think that I definitely was inspired by you when I started and just seeing, like your drive because your business experience has helped really right, and learning and being like and really what business is is like I'm just not gonna stop, we're just gonna do it right, we're just gonna get it done, we're gonna figure out how to do it. Like I'm just not going to stop, we're just going to do it, we're just going to get it done, we're going to figure out how to do it. I don't know how to do it, we're going to figure it out. And so that was something that inspired me.

Speaker 2:

So when I saw that and felt that like, oh, none of us know what we're doing, cool, so we just try a bunch of things, and I think that's something. That's what we did. We did have plans, we made the year plans and we made the quarterly plans and weekly even right. So, and that's super, super important, because if you don't do that, you're just shooting in random directions. Yeah, but it's also okay to shift and try new things. Like it's like we're not growing right now and then if we continue on this path, we're not going to grow. So let's try something random, like we did some really random stuff. Like this podcast is awesome, but before this podcast we did another podcast and it was so fun it was so fun, but it does not.

Speaker 2:

It was not helpful for growing, for what we needed at the time. So it's like it's okay to go the wrong direction for a little bit, but you just got to, like figure out exactly what we need. Um, as long as you have that big, that big overall, arching picture of like, hey, this is where we want to end up by the end of the month, here's where we want to go at the end of the year, how are we going to get there? Uh, but yeah, so, so really, I think it's in the helperly's vision but just get it done, just get this, get it Like. We're going to do it, no matter what it takes, we're going to get it done, we're going to have it, and I think that's that's the culture of helperly and that's something that I want to take into other businesses that I work with.

Speaker 2:

It's like, okay, we don't know how to do it. Okay, well, let's do it. Then. Let's just do it. Then. Let's just do it like. Let's like we don't need to wait for an expert, we don't need to wait for somebody to tell us how to do it. Like, let's just figure it out, let's get it done this week. Let's do it like the sky's the limit there's. There's nothing we can't do. Let's get it done.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that you kind of hinted at a little bit of it's like we had on that that first podcast we had so much conviction of like this is just going to blow up, actually two other podcasts, two different ones. We had Wisdom Well and then Business. Oh yeah, the business one, that was different.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but we had so much conviction and I think that's part of the thing is, like you said, you set the target and you have strong beliefs loosely held, like we were like this is going to work, and then, as soon as we got new information right after doing like 12 or whatever episodes, like, yeah, it's actually not working, let's change.

Speaker 1:

and so I think that's something as well, like you need to be so convicted about what you're doing in your company, um, but if new information comes along right, then you need to be able to change your belief and be like wait, this is what's what's going to work. So that was, I think, something a challenge that a lot of people have, like I said, is just getting started getting things done. But, reflecting on your experience in business and as you start helping other businesses, what would you say is a challenge that most people, what would you say is a challenge that people should start embracing to be able to grow their business, something that they're trying to avoid?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think that there's a lot of. I mean, there's the cliche no growth in the comfort zone, Of course, like where it's like ah, we got to just, we got to just do it how we're doing it. I think change, I guess, is a thing that that stops people from growing a ton. Because with Halperly, when I was working with Helperly, so like we had to change so much about the business Because when I first started we were using Google Sheets. We were using we found out that that's not something we can do right pretty quick. So like if we didn't, if we didn't change helperly at that point, we would still be at that point. So I think that's the thing is like where do you want your business to be at in 10 years from now?

Speaker 2:

it's like okay, first of all, double that, because that's ridiculous like most people are like, oh, I want to add an extra million to my business. And it's like, why? Like yeah, you could probably do that, doing the same things you're doing in 10 years. Like okay, but like, really, in your wildest dreams, where do you want to be in 10 years? And then it's like, okay, here's where I want to be Awesome. And then it's like what processes are not going to be sustainable in 10 years? Yeah, like all of them Cool.

Speaker 1:

Like we've got 10 years, that's okay.

Speaker 2:

Like we can, we can do it. So then you just start and then from that point it's like oh, we got this huge thing, we got to change. It's like, no, we just do it like an elephant. We like we pick little things and we do that first, and then whatever's most pressing, and then we just slowly change it. So that's kind of I was doing everything which I loved. I was like okay, this is awesome, I'm doing everything and I'm also at the same time changing all the processes and procedures, getting new systems, getting all these things set up, and then having somebody else do one thing for me, and then having somebody else do one thing for me and then slowly building it up and then, once we got everything changed, changing it all again.

Speaker 1:

It's like, oh, this is sustainable for the next year and that's it, crap.

Speaker 2:

Well, let's redo everything, and it's like we were just trying to hit that target of 10 years. It's like, okay, when we get the new information, we just change, we don't keep going in the wrong direction. Be like oh, in a year we're going to change the system. It's like, no, it doesn't work now, so let's change it now.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I think a lot of people they spend like every day or every week is like chasing their tail a little bit of. They're always behind and reacting rather than making the action first, like being like a preparatory action, right. It's like, oh crap, the system's not working, thinking you know six, 12, 24 months ahead. Let's make something that'll last long enough to make meaningful growth. Because if you're constantly, if there's no systems, there's no organization, if, like, everything is just made off of a gut feeling right, it's going to be so difficult to actually have meaningful growth so yeah, and that's something that you are excellent at is, well, that putting two those things together, the example of that, too, that I'd give is like we had to change the system.

Speaker 2:

So I spent a long time getting this awesome system put together, figuring out which one to use, putting all of our clients into the system, getting all of our caregivers to use the system and training them, making videos to train them, only to realize that that system would not sustainable. Like immediately, like this is the worst system we could have found. Great.

Speaker 2:

So it's like yeah could have just been like well, we're going to use it for a year and see, see if fill it out. It's like no, we got to literally change it again. So it's like we're not trying to last through the year. We that. It's like we're gonna see how long we can survive with this system. It's like no, it's like we need to survive with, we need to get the system that's going to take us to the next 10 years. So we immediately changed it again. Yeah, and so that's a lot of a lot of operational work like it's a lot, but that's gonna save us, saved us so much time in the long run.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think it's definitely possible to survive with like subpar systems or processes or um, but eventually it's going to hurt. Like it's comfortable in the moment to just be like this works well enough, but then in the long run it ends up just shooting you in the foot and you're stuck for forever, and so it definitely is worth the lift and the time it takes. In the beginning.

Speaker 1:

A quote that I love from a mentor of mine is like if you take the time it takes, it takes less time. I think a lot of the time and I think that's also true in like the actual providing of services to seniors. Like take the time it takes to like hear them and be there with them, it takes less time, right, meaning like you can go about your day and you won't have a bunch of phone calls and problems and all these things arise. If you just like be there in the moment and I think that's also true in business like totally take all the time up front, like you're talking about, to get something working, it'll take way less time than running from just like a garbage system right, um, and then a year later you're needing to do six months of back work to try to catch up and do something.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, um, and then get a whole new system. Then, yeah, and then do. Yeah, it just like slows down. And that's the same, just in like any aspect of life, like even when you're sick, you just like take time to rest. It'll take less time than trying to like run yourself ragged. But yeah, um, what funny stories do you have in the early days of help? Really, you mentioned I think that's kind of a funny story of like we spent all this time which we thought was it was, it was a EVV system that we were using and we thoughtV at all. It's like wait, wait, a minute.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, anyways, that's a funny story. It's hard because we had so much fun there. Like, I mean, a lot of times it's just me and you, me and you and one other two other people at the office, maybe right and then we just, first of all it was fun and that was I think that culture is still here and that's super important where it's like, hey, we're here to for the betterment of people, right Of seniors, but we also are enjoying ourselves. I think funny stories are, I mean I I mean like really just just trying our best, going nowhere for for some things, where it's like our visions here. But like I think the funniest is just the podcast that we did, which is awesome.

Speaker 2:

I just remember me and you driving in our car for whatever's car for the whole day.

Speaker 1:

But also just running around trying to use our phones to video stuff and like our, the really cheap stuff that we had.

Speaker 2:

And then the phones, realizing how much battery that takes, and then we didn't have battery space, we're just like throwing gigabytes worth of podcast video my phone still is destroyed, like from that. Like my phone will last. It's a.

Speaker 1:

it's a, it'll last like the newest model Five hours yeah, and then it dies.

Speaker 2:

So I'm not looking for compensation, I just I just joke. I just joke. But yeah, so that that was. But that that's. The thing, though, is like, I think the drive that we had like, where we were willing to do that cause we thought it was going to be good, yeah, like. And then we immediately we loved it so much, it was such a valuable project that I think someday should happen again really but we realized it wasn't helping the business and, even though we loved it so much, we just cut it Like one day we're like this is not doing it.

Speaker 2:

All right, done Like we're not doing one more episode of this, yeah, even though it was so fun. But then we figured out this podcast and we're like, oh, this is awesome, like we're meeting so many good, awesome senior care providers, making such good connections, and here it is still going. It's gotten better because of Aaron, but, yeah, it wasn't going to get better with me doing it, but that's why you know, when you get to that point, when you set up the process and procedures and you find somebody to make it even better, yeah, like that that was the fun thing, cause, cause we, our experience is not, is not enough, like your experience as a CEO is not enough to grow Helperly, like you grow it to what you can, and then you find people that'll take it a step further, step further, step further. And it's like, hey, nothing's impossible. And I think that's another thing. This is a tangent now. But I think people are like, oh well, I can't afford to hire new people, like they just can't afford that right now. And I'm like, well, you can actually, because that's that's one thing.

Speaker 2:

When I left helperly to start my own business, I had no money, no investment or anything like that. Yeah, and I just immediately started networking and I found five people that are willing to work with me without any sort of pay up front or anything at all. It's like, hey, if you guys help me with these jobs that I find for you, you'll get paid, and they're like awesome. And so I have these five people on my payroll already, where it's like they're going to help me grow my business. So it's like you don't know how to do something. You can first of all learn it. It takes a lot of time, but you can find somebody that there's. There's any sort of wall that you run into. You just have to be creative enough to get through it and really you just do it. It's not, it's not hard.

Speaker 1:

It's.

Speaker 2:

It sounds silly, but like my mindset from a year ago, where I'm like, oh, I applied to 150 jobs or 200 jobs and nobody accepts me. It's like it doesn't matter who accepts you and your job and your job. First of all, go find someone work at the bottom, show them that you can do it and then go from there or just do your own thing, like it's so easy to do it.

Speaker 1:

You just have to do it.

Speaker 1:

It is incredible how, like I said it's I think it's simple to win, hard to execute, like the hard part is just going out and doing it because but the process, like I said, it's so simple right, it's like go and find people and like chunk up and keep on chunking up and getting like said that next person to get you a little bit farther right, and it really is just a matter of talking to people and asking, and then just like having confidence in yourself, right, and the hard part is like executing. So many people it's. It's so easy not to execute, I think, these days, cause there's a lot of comfort in just like that. My business idea, this didn't work out because. And then like insert some sort of outside force, right, and it makes it so much, it makes you sleep better at night being like it was totally out of my control, right, yeah, at night, being like it was totally out of my control, right, yeah, well then, people also they have their baby.

Speaker 2:

They have a really good business business idea, right, whatever it may be. I mean working with senior care. This model is awesome because insurance pays for a lot of it yeah, we have private pay, but like it really is a no-brainer for people to sign up for the service. Yeah, because it's like we're taking care of your loved one and they are taking care of their, their needs, right. Yeah, but it's like you can't just sit on your butt and be like people are gonna find out about it, because it's so good it's like that's the thing.

Speaker 2:

It's easy that the secret sauce is grinding, putting in the effort to get it done. It's like, yeah, well, we have all these projects and since it's such a good business, it's gonna just happen.

Speaker 1:

So we're just gonna hopefully it's like, no, it's like we have to work our butts off every single day, and then that part of it is what I mean.

Speaker 2:

It's like it is hard because you have to work your butt off to get it done right. You have to grind every day, but it's like you don't have to be, you don't have to have these special skills or knowledge, because all that comes while you do it. You just have to do it. So that's I think that's the part that that's easy. Yeah, is that it's just like really you can make anything happen, you just yeah it's just a matter.

Speaker 1:

The equation that I like to say is it's um, it's people um times. Culture divided by strategy equals the outcome, you know, whatever that might be, and then and then it just equals, or equals the time it takes. Because if you have, like, the extreme on the left side is you have terrible people with a bad culture executing on like a so-so strategy, but if you give them 100 years, they're still going to build a big business Right Versus if you have excellent people with, like, a culture of high execution and work ethic, with following a winning strategy, you know it might take two, three, five years, yeah, um, and so it really is just a matter of showing up every single day. And yeah, if you want to take a hundred years, that's okay. Just get bad people and right that don't want to work and then do a terrible business model, but you'll still make money over a long enough time horizon.

Speaker 2:

So that's another thing too, is that, when we grew it, because we to begin to begin with right, just three or four of us right, and then we all had this culture, but it's easy to have that culture with just three or four people yeah, I think that it's like we need to hire somebody to do this thing. I think a lot of people rush into that and they interview two people and they get their best friend or whatever, like you can do it, just come do it right, yeah, and and there was some of that but, um, but the like going through the process of like, like finding evan right, yeah, where it's like, that was not a fun process because in the meantime, like um, in the meantime there was a lot of work that had to be done by Logan, like Logan, really like our HR person was really suffering because he was doing the HR and the scheduling Right.

Speaker 2:

He was suffering for so long. So for a long time it's like, okay, we can just hire somebody, let's figure out the right person. So it was like