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Like many businesses, the idea for launching H3 Care came with the thought of fulfilling a need.
For Nicole Whitford and Tiffani Helmrich, it meant offering services to keep elderly persons in their homes by helping with their daily living.
"We are a small, local, woman owned agency. We are not a franchise," Whitford said. "We want to keep somewhat small. So, the care we can give is more personalized.
"When choosing the company name, we wanted something unique that would represent what we want to offer for our clients and how we want them to live. The name H3 Care stands for Healthy and Happy at Home.
H3 Care, she described, as a non-medical home care agency offering companionship and personal care.
Daily living needs such as bathing, dressing, meal preparation, light housekeeping, as well as running errands, are offered to clients.
"Typically, the clients that I have mostly just need companionship," Whitford said. "Maybe some light personal care."
Clients include those who might have experienced an unexpected fall or recent surgery.
Whitford and Helmrich experienced taking care of relatives in need of personal care and felt it was important to offer such services to other families facing the same issues with their loved ones.
They realized that many baby boomers are now entering those years when they need such attention.
"It was to help families out as much as we could by keeping them in their own homes. Many care facilities are at their max of occupancy due to being understaffed." Whitford said. "Unfortunately, this is happening everywhere, staffing is an ongoing issue. "
Eight people are employed and trained in direct personal care by H3 Care.
"Our only requirement as far as service visits is that we have a three-hour minimum per shift," she said. "We can visit seven days a week, all shifts, when sufficiently staffed. The number of days a week a client is served varies based on the need.
"I like to take pride in saying that in the four years we've been in business, there have been less than 10 times we had to cancel a visit."
Since launching H3 Care four years ago, Whitford has learned a lot about running a business.
At the outset, perhaps the biggest challenge was finding reliable staff and obtaining new clients, she noted.
And, the COVID-19 pandemic only posed more challenges for finding and keeping staff.
Since having it up and running, the business has been very busy.
"It's a lot of work. I am responsible for all the everyday happenings from billing, invoicing, payroll, and anything else that rolls my way. I go out and meet with potential clients as well as do client visits when needed," Whitford said.
HC Care, based at 907 Southern Ave., South Williamsport, has about 16 clients.
When asked what apprehensions or misgivings she had about launching the business, she said, "I guess the biggest hesitation was in wondering if we could make ends meet, wondering if we could get enough clients to succeed."
Before starting the business, they made sure to research the local market to ascertain the need for the agency.
"We did some calling around to other home care agencies to see what they offered, pricing and such" she added.
They use advertising through billboards and newspapers to get the word out about the agency.
"One of the first things we did after opening was join the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce. Our hopes were to build networking opportunities through the many business contacts as well as get our name out with increased visibility in the community," she said.
More information about the agency is at https://www.h3careinc.com/.