"Handled With Care" - Home Loving Senior Care

(Continued from main page)

Hack would be proud of his little girl today, and of the business she runs in his honor. Boggs employs more than 50 people and provides in-home care for senior citizens throughout the Triad, allowing them to live independently by helping with tasks ranging from meal preparation to grooming to errand-running.

A matter of trust

The life-and-death experiences Boggs experienced that first year have also made her a better businesswoman, especially given the highly personal nature of her work.

Clients and their family members have to trust that the caregivers Boggs assigns will be honest, reliable and compassionate, so Boggs tries to make sure they understand her story and how it has impacted her hands-on business philosophy by, for example, including a touching eulogy to her father on her Web site.

That gives Boggs a connection to her clients and assures them that she can relate to their own family's situation, said Evelyn Hayes, the owner of Waughtown Electric Co. in Winston-Salem and Boggs' client during that difficult first year. Home Loving helped Hayes and her family look after her mother Dorothy until she went into a residential facility.

Hayes says when they were looking for help with their mother, she and her family had to take it on faith that they would choose the best caregiver for the important job.

"When we were first getting to know Judy we were just a little concerned because she was so new" in the business, Hayes says. "But she proved she had the dedication to run that kind of business, a caring business. We could tell it wasn't all business to her, that she put a lot of herself into taking care of the families."

"We could always call and within a few hours, she's been able to provide whatever we needed," Hayes said.

Regular challenges, too

In recent years, Boggs' challenges have been more typical of a young, growing business. Her biggest challenge, she says, has been finding and keeping reliable caregivers that she can honestly tell clients she would entrust her own family to.

Many of her employees are of retirement age themselves but aren't ready sit back on the couch quite yet. Boggs, a 30-year veteran of Lucent Technologies herself, can relate to that, but she and her full-time staff geriatric specialist Betty Little are looking primarily for people who have the patience and understanding that caring for seniors requires.

"Betty and I are very picky about the caregivers we hire," Boggs says. "We have to look at their personalities, but there's a lot of other things to also consider," including criminal background checks and references.

Job candidates come from many sources, including church referrals, newspaper ads and employment guides, Boggs says. Caregivers work part time and turnover is always an issue, but she said careful screening and a few years of experience has helped her recognize those who will make it on the job.

One of her best, Boggs says, is Elaine Fraley, who has been working for Home Loving for about two years. Fraley, who turns 73 in July, worked with seniors for years in rehabilitation clinics in Florida, she said, so she understands the recruiting challenges Boggs faces.

"It's hard to find good and reliable help, because it's not a job where you're just going to sit by the person's bed all day," Fraley says. "You've got to clean the house, fix the meals, care for them, bathe them, do all kinds of things."

Providing opportunities

There's plenty of competition in the senior-care business, and Boggs tries to keep all her employees happy by treating them like members of the family themselves, she says.

While many of her older workers aren't particularly interested in career advancement, Boggs says she does want to provide opportunities for those who do want to go further by offering a certification program through Seniors Choice, a membership mentoring organization for companies like hers.

"It's a 19-module course, and if you complete it, you're not certified as a (Certified Nursing Assistant), but you do become a certified care-giver associate, and we reward you with higher pay," Boggs says.

One other immediate challenge for Boggs is space. Since the founding of her company she has worked out of a small extra bedroom in her Kernersville home, even as her client base and work force has multiplied, because she wants to be accessible to her clients day and night.

The files and paperwork are taking over, though, so she expects to be looking for office space soon and may even look to provide space for adult day-care.

One thing that won't change, she says, is her approach to her business. Don't press too hard, show respect and caring, and the company she runs in memory of her father will continue to do them both proud.

"We have a successful business because we don't go out and dog people, but we're here for them when they need us," Boggs says. "It's something that's very important to us all, and we're always looking for ways to improve, but it's something I really just love."

Reach Matt Evans at (336) 370-2916 or mlevans@bizjournals.com.