Home Care Heroes Blog

4 Reasons Home Care Agencies Should Build Community

 The word "community" is used often these days in business, marketing, politics, social media, and beyond.
A few things that community can describe depending on the context include: Geographic areas, sharing a common interest, shared experience, co-working space, or even "feeling a sense of community."
As the former head of events at a networking of co-working spaces, (and a member of a few others), and (pre-social distancing) surrounded by remote workers in the tech industry, "community" is a word that I hear multiple times daily.
But in the realm of business, the question still stands: What is "community," what does it mean to be a part of a community, why is it important, and again, "what is it exactly?"
If you're not entirely sure what we mean when we talk about community, you're not alone.  If you feel you have a strong handle on what community means to you, I commend you. I feel I have a good idea of what I think community means to me, however, after looking up the definition online, I was surprised to find that "the" definition is far more varied than I imagined (and has more variations than most of the words I can recall that I've looked up online in the past).
Here is the definition of "community" according to Merriam-Webster:

Definition of community

1: a unified body of individuals: such as:
a: the people with common interests living in a particular area
broadly : the area itself
c: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society
e: a group linked by a common policy
f: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (such as species) in a common location
2a: a social state or condition
b: joint ownership or participation
c: common character : LIKENESS
d: social activity : FELLOWSHIP
3: society at large
Okay, got it..it's a lot of different things. But what is community and why or how do we need to build it to help others, ourselves, or our businesses?  Good question!  Here are a handful of ideas that occurred to me on this very topic:

Improves Your Team's Work (and Beyond) Lives

Feeling connected to other humans and a desire to be a part of something "bigger than ourselves" are pretty universal drivers for humans.  Feeling that what we're spending our days doing impacts ourselves and others in positive and meaningful ways is important to most.  It is also a key to a healthier, happier, and more engaged employee. 

An employee motivated by helping strengthen and being a part of a community often brings more meaning in their own lives, which often extends that energy to their family's, co-workers, and clients lives.  

Improves Your Work Life

Just as above, your work can't just be about your work if you want to continue to do it well...and to grow your business financially.  The "why" you're doing it, the reason that you're putting in as much time and energy into your business needs to be about something more than making money, accomplishment, or even just "surviving".   If it isn't, you risk "burn out", resenting the work, or "just going through the motions", each of which can lead to your business faltering.

But if you create and embrace the ideas and ideals of community, then your work, clients, employees, family, friends, even your competitors are "in it" with you in different ways.  And because of this sense of community, the hard days become fewer and easier to get through, and the good days happen more and become great more often.  

Creates Feedback Loop of Helping Others

When someone starts putting energy into helping their team, that energy is usually reciprocated by the team returning the favor.  When a trust is built and expectations are set that "we're all in this together" you might be pleasantly surprised how much a sense of community can create a regular loop of teammates helping each other.

This of course, helps your clients, your employees, yourself, and ultimately, the strength of your business.

Community Builds Your Business

If you spend a concerted and sincere effort to build community with your employees, clients, and your general geographic or industry network, you'll often see a demonstrable improvement in your bottom line too.  You have to "mean it" sincerely, in your efforts and approach, but I've seen in my own experiences that there is a strong correlation between how strong you build/are a part of your community and how strong your business is in that community.

As I noted above, community can mean a lot of different things. In this case, my suggestions are pretty simple:  Show up, lend a hand where you can, ask for help if you need to, offer guidance, advice, a connection, brownies, donation, your time, your listening ear, a kind word...offer what you are able and what you would like others to offer you.  Community will come.  

From there, you may receive leads, word of mouth advertising, a helpful review, cookies, introductions to leaders in your community, appreciative clients and employees, referrals, and so on...at the very least, you may feel more connected and motivated by the community you help build.


If you have suggestions for topics or areas of interest to cover in future blog posts, please feel free to reach out. If there are ways that the Ankota team can bring value to your business, or help build the home care community, let us know by clicking the button below: 
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