Letter from the Vice President, Jim Greatorex: March 2021

Published in Home Modifications on March 24, 2021

As we come to the close of the first quarter, I have a few thoughts to share and two announcements to make.

Spring is in the air, and even though we are still having crazy weather, renewal that Spring brings is coming at us in many ways!

Many of you have communicated that business was off in January and February and for some, including yours truly, it was somewhat surprising. Here is what we believe contributed to the lackluster results.

A very distracted senior market. People over 65 were (and in some areas still are) focused on one thing, which is getting vaccinated. Now that mass vaccination sites are established and the amount of doses available has been increased, this issue should be behind us in April, and moving forward the private pay senior market should rebound.
VA business is also flat or still down. We are hearing that the VA will gradually get back to business as usual, likely around May.
State waiver claims were also being held back in many areas, but in March we heard of some states releasing orders that had been held since October of 2020. We believe this revenue stream will rebound by May. We are keeping our fingers crossed that state budgets will continue to realize the value that home access safety upgrades bring and will continue to fund needed services to the populations served.

We believe that March, April, and May will see our pipelines back to get back to third and early fourth quarter levels we saw last year, and the second half of the year will see us back in a healthy growth stage. Let’s stay aggressive!

Announcements

Webinar schedule:

On April 8 at 1 p.m. CT, we will have Amy Streeter, VGM’s VP of Talent Acquisition, share with members some excellent tactics used to recruit new quality employees for all levels of jobs. She will also share some best practices on retaining your best employees for all size companies. This is a very current pain point for LAH members!

We have two more EZ-ACCESS webinars coming up on April 20 and May 18, both at 2 p.m. EST. These very popular webinars will cover how to grow business in the commercial ramp market (April) and the residential ramp market (May).

The first quarter is in the rear-view mirror. The rest of the year looks to have much opportunity.

As always, thanks very much for being a VGM Live at Home member!

Jim

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