As consultants, remodelers, health care professionals, designers, durable medical equipment suppliers, architects, or other type of aging in place professional, we have a very important role to play in the lives of our clients.
As people reach a point in their lives – at whatever age or ability – that they determine that their current home is the one they want to remain in and continue to reside and that they need a little help in making that home more functional, we must be ready to help them achieve
Some people are going to have a fairly sizable budget for accomplishing the work that they envision or that might be required to meet their needs. Working with an ample budget gives us a lot of flexibility in suggesting various modifications and in choosing finishes, appliances, and other options.
It’s working with the smaller budgets that the work becomes more challenging. People aren’t going to necessarily have fewer needs just because they don’t have the financial ability to address all of them adequately. This is when we have to prioritize their needs and be creative. Often, the people with less financial means are going to need our services the most.
We can choose the type of client and the scope of work that we want to focus on, and the smaller budget jobs may not align with what we have selected as our business model. Nevertheless, there is a tremendous need here to step in and help.
If we are open as to what type of clients we are wanting to help, the size of the job that is appropriate for us to undertake, and a budget that trends toward the lower end of the spectrum, working with lower income seniors is a huge opportunity that we may want to consider.
Working with larger budgets and higher end solutions gives us a chance to be very creative with our clients and to deliver a solution for them that is cutting-edge that will impress both them and their friends and relatives that have an opportunity to see what they have done.
On the other hand, working with more modest budgets, or even very small ones, gives us an opportunity and a challenge to be very creative in a different way – to design a solution that is effective that utilizes technology, appliances, or construction techniques that maximizes the results for the limited investment that people can make. It forces us to come up with some innovative ideas that accommodates their needs within the budget they have.
People are looking to us to help them achieve the solutions they desire so we must be up to the task, regardless of their physical needs, budget, or the age of their home. In some cases, we aren’t going to be able to do as much as we would like due to budgetary constraints, but that challenges us to deliver the highest impact solution for them for what they can invest.
There might be a couple of dozen solutions that we would like to make to every home that we encounter, but we have to be willing temper that list based on what people can afford and where their need is the greatest. It might be that just a couple of items on that list will make a huge difference in the quality of their lives.