For Profit Idea: iElderCare

Business Type: Elder Care for the 21st century

Estimated Start Up: $Varies - $5K- $25K

Where: Local markets at first, with potential for national or regional growth.

Concept: Many families are seperated from their aging parents because of many reasons such as a new job on a different side of the country. Nursing homes and In home nurses are not always needed and can often be very expensive. What if that parent is fairly active, by senior standards, but needs help with errands, prescriptions, meal preparation and household cleaning? No nursing degree needed, just common sense, basic first aid training, basic domestic skills and some certifications that can be obtained over time such as CPR and the like.

So this has probably been done many times, what makes this idea different?

Now add to this technology components such as ability to record these meetings between the new age" go-fer" and the loved ones to the people that are footing the bill. Such as the use of real time web cams, online to do list, digital video and or pictures, mp3 recorded conversations for quality control, video conferencing with the family. Very simple technology that is not currently exploited in this field.

Service
Essentially this service would contain common task such as grocery shopping, light cleaning, food preparation, prescription assistance, doctor visits, cell phone tutorials, new product purchases and other tasks completed as requested by the elderly person that does not need a full time nurse, but rather a 3 hour per day for 4 days a week assistant.


Users:
1. People priced out of the full time elderly care and nursing homes
2. Fairly active seniors that need minor assistance
3. Family concerned but geographically unable to visit as often
4. Lonely seniors

Compensation:
1. Pricing models vary depending on services and areas, but read this clip from a CNBC article,

In fact, the U. S. General Accounting Office says that nearly 40% of people age 65 now will spend some time in a nursing home. The federal Health Care Financing Administration projects that spending on nursing home care will rise from about $94.1 billion now to $125 billion a year by the end of 2005 and $330 billion by 2030.

The average annual cost of a private nursing home is now about $55,000, or $150 per day -- with many facilities in large cities costing more than $65,000 a year. Those costs can add up quickly, and Medicare does NOT cover them -- except for a few days in a skilled nursing facility after a hospital st