READ MOREAlan Wikman Of SYNERGY HomeCare of Prescott On How to Successfully Ride the Emotional Highs and Lows of Being an Entrepreneur

Alan Wikman and his wife Liz and are the owners of SYNERGY HomeCare of Prescott, which provides non-medical in-home care to older adults. They live in Prescott, AZ along with their children Collin and Emma. Their passion is to provide care to our aging population.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Iworked for the State of Michigan for 13 years in the Department of Health and Human Services. Making a difference in people’s lives is very important to me. While working for the State I realized that very there was very little in my control to influence. The climate in Michigan was also starting to wear on me so combining that with a less than rewarding career, Liz and I decided to look at other options. We settled on Prescott and SYNERGY HomeCare, sold our 3,600 square foot home, sold our belongings, bought a motorhome and moved across country to Prescott with our soon to be 1-year-old son Collin. We lived in our motorhome for the first year while getting our business off the ground.

What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

While less than dramatic, my “aha moment” that led to starting SYNERGY HomeCare came after doing research on the job and demographic market in Prescott where we wanted to move. Prescott is a retirement destination so the need for in-home care seemed to be very high. At the time we were looking to move, the job market didn’t look good, so we decided to start our own business.

In your opinion, were you a natural born entrepreneur or did you develop that aptitude later on? Can you explain what you mean?

I didn’t give myself the option to be an entrepreneur early on in life. My first dabble into entrepreneurship was a duplex I purchased in Marquette as an investment property. I remember many people telling me I was crazy to do that because tenants can be difficult, they might destroy your property, they might stop paying rent, etc. My response to that was if it was easy, everyone would do it; if it was impossible nobody would do it. That was when I became much less averse to risk, which I believe is what holds most back from starting a business.

Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?

One of my close friends in Michigan is a retired superintended of the school district. During our investigation into starting the business, she provided me a lot of support and advice. One thing that has stuck with me and I still use today is some advice she gave me early which is: “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right”.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We pride ourselves in being employee oriented. Without happy and well-trained employees, our business is worthless. We continue to invest a lot of time and resources into recruiting, retaining and training our staff. Well-trained and happy employees translate to well cared for and happy clients. Happy clients tell others about their experience with SYNERGY HomeCare and word spreads.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Passion: I am passionate about the work my team does. This passion is what drives me to continue to improve every day.

Commitment: I am committed not only to my business but also the clients, community and industry I have chosen to serve. My industry is not a Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. operation. I have chosen this industry and so I’m committed to assisting those who have needs at any time of the day or night. We received a call from a client at 2 a.m. who needed to go to the ER. She was unable to leave her husband at home alone, so I got out of bed and drove to her house to stay with her husband while she was in the ER.

Optimism: Owning a business is as challenging as it is rewarding. Every challenge I’ve been faced with so far, has taught me an important lesson. While it’s not always easy when in the throes of a challenge, I remind myself to look at what I can learn from the experience and focus on the solution rather than the problem.

Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?

Nothing specifically comes to mind on advice I wish I never followed. When I first decided to start SYNERGY HomeCare many people felt free to offer advice ranging from support to thinking I was crazy to quit a secure, full-time job to go out on my own. I learned to take the advice and process it. As they say, everyone has an opinion….

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them create a work culture in which employees thrive and do not “burn out” or get overwhelmed?

I have learned that it is really important to make sure the administrative staff as well as the caregivers know that I have their back when the going gets tough. The past few weeks in the office have been tough so I sent out an email mandating that the staff take 2 days off in the next month. Sometimes committed employees forget to watch out for their own self so it’s my job to make sure they take the time needed to do that.

What would you advise other business leaders to do in order to build trust, credibility, and Authority in their industry?

The best way to build trust and credibility is being honest in what you’re selling to your customers and referral partners. My team sets realistic expectations in the beginning of our relationship — whether it be a new caregiver, client or referral partner. We do not over promise and underdeliver. We set realistic expectations and strive to go above and beyond. To build authority in our industry, I invest in training for caregivers and the administrative staff. Our caregivers go through a six-hour training course led by a nurse educator. This builds their self-confidence and sharpens their skills. It also sends a strong message on how important they are to my business. We also provide our caregivers with a clear ongoing training plan and a career path. Any full-time office positions that open up are offered first to our caregivers before being offered to those outside of the company. For the administrative staff we do team building exercises throughout the year. So really, building trust, credibility and authority start with building and supporting employees at all levels.

Can you help articulate why doing that is essential today?

In the five years I’ve been in business, things have changed dramatically. In homecare, the need for our service is increasing, and the labor pool is not keeping up. We look to develop long term relationships with our caregivers so that our clients have a consistent team. We are honest about our staffing abilities with our clients, and we do not make promises we cannot keep. Working through these challenging times have been difficult for the entire team, but very rewarding.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

I see a lot of CEOs and founders becoming complacent when things are going well and giving up when things are not going so well. To avoid these errors, it’s important for new business owners to learn from both the slow times and good times. To this, there needs to be good metrics in place to measure how the business is doing. During slow times, these metrics will tell you where to focus your energy. For example, if business is slow, is it because there are not enough prospects coming in or we are not turning these prospects into customers.

Ok fantastic. Thank you for those excellent insights. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about How to Successfully Ride The Emotional Highs & Lows Of Being An Entrepreneur. The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy, and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. This might be intuitive, but I think it will be very useful to specifically articulate it. Can you describe to our readers why no matter how successful you are as an entrepreneur, you will always have fairly dramatic highs and lows? Particularly, can you help explain why this is different from someone with a “regular job”?

The highs and lows I’ve experienced as an entrepreneur are a lot more personal and often emotionally charged than those I felt during my previous career. My business has grown from zero to 100 caregivers in the five years we’ve been open. The highs and lows in the beginning were very dramatic and often drastic. Loosing one client was a significant portion of my business. The highs and lows seemed to be much closer together in the beginning. I could wake up one morning feeling on top of the world, only to get a call from a client who was stopping services and feel like I was ready for bankruptcy, only to be called by a prospect wanting to start services right away. Riding these highs and lows was one of the most difficult things for me to work through. Now that we are a much larger business, the highs and lows are still there but I’ve learned to deal with them and to have the confidence in my business and myself to maneuver through them. I also have an amazing team to support our goals and mission.

Do you feel comfortable sharing a story from your own experience about how you felt unusually high and excited as a result of your business? We would love to hear it.

I remember, like it was yesterday, the feeling when our first customer called to set their assessment appointment. They called on Friday and we were set to open on Monday. I was beyond excited for this very first assessment! On the day of the assessment, I sat in their driveway before walking in very excited and scared at the same time. I had to remind myself that my entire business did NOT rely on this one person who called for services. They did sign up for services.

Do you feel comfortable sharing a story from your own experience about how you felt unusually low, and vulnerable as a result of your business? We would love to hear it.

Service failures are part of every business. A lot like our first client, I remember our first service failure as well. We had a client who called us and was not satisfied with the assigned caregiver as she did not make her bed to her specifications. The problem was she put the pillows with the covers under the comforter and they needed to be on top of the comforter. This was early on in my business, and I was not sure how I would be able to possibly train caregivers on how to make beds to everyone’s specifications. If someone can get this upset over pillows on the wrong side of the comforter, I couldn’t imagine what would happen if someone put the fork in the spoon container or folded the towels instead of rolling them, or any number of other things that could potentially go awry. I focused on the problem rather than the solution. It really took the wind out of my sails. This was my first hard lesson in owning a business. Looking back at it now, I find it comical that I, too, got so worked up about pillows on the wrong side of a comforter!

Based on your experience can you tell us what you did to bounce back?

Bouncing back from the pillows on the wrong side of the comforter was more difficult than it should have been. I spent way too much time and energy worrying about what could happen in other situations. These pillows nearly drove me to distraction. As I often still do when things are not going right, I talked to my wife. She came up with the simple solution of adding a note to the client’s profile that pillows must be placed on top of the comforter and not underneath. I called the client back, let them know our plan going forward and all was well. I learned a big lesson from these pillows and that is to focus on the solution, not the problem, and learn from it.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Things You Need To Successfully Ride The Emotional Highs & Lows Of Being An Entrepreneur”? Please share a story or an example for each.

#1 Hire a Great Team

I have made some terrible hiring decisions. The bad decisions were when I was hiring quickly to put out fires that I didn’t catch in time. Rather than taking time to find the right person, I hired quickly only to learn that person didn’t have the skill set I needed. Now, my motto is to hire for where I want to be and not where I am currently. I’d rather have some redundancies built into my team so when life happens, we are better prepared.

#2 Have Confidence

I have learned to have confidence in myself and my business. When something is not going right, I work hard to change it and have confidence that thing will turn around.

#3 Have Patience

Hard work is often not enough to get through a challenging time. It often takes time and some luck to get through. Realizing that things take time to change has often tested my patience.

#4 Set realistic expectations

Early on, I set goals for myself that were not realistic. I was constantly falling short of them and feeling defeated. When I adjusted my goals and included a stretch goal, I found I was happier and felt more successful.

#5 Be real with and about yourself

I have learned that I am one of my worst employees to manage. I have learned a lot about my own personal strengths and weaknesses. It has been a journey learning to work on my weaknesses and further develop my strengths.

We are living during challenging times and resilience is critical during times like these. How would you define resilience? What do you believe are the characteristics or traits of resilient people?

Resilience is being able to quickly pivot and change directions during a challenging time. The characteristics of a person with resilience are being decisive, flexible and strong.

Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Would you mind sharing a story?

I grew up in a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Winters were harsh and long. Getting out of bed in the morning to head out the door and stand at a bus stop in the cold was not an easy feat for me. I am grateful my parents had the resilience to teach me resilience.

In your opinion, do you tend to keep a positive attitude during difficult situations? What helps you to do so?

I do tend to get to a positive attitude during difficult situations but sometimes it takes me while to get there. I need to do a lot of positive self-talk in some situations.

Can you help articulate why a leader’s positive attitude can have a positive impact both on their clients and their team? Please share a story or example if you can.

A positive attitude is contagious. My clients are often in distress when they reach out to us. Yesterday evening, I was called into a situation where our client was recently discharged from a rehab facility to her home with 24-hour care. The family was overwhelmed with the steps they felt they needed to complete to ensure a safe transition. This was their first experience (as is the case with many clients we come in contact with). I showed up at their home with a smile and positive energy. I offered them solutions and options. When I was leaving, they told me for the first time since discharge they felt hope. Being positive is what drives hope.

Ok. Super. We are nearly done. What is your favorite inspirational quote that motivates you to pursue greatness? Can you share a story about how it was relevant to you in your own life?

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” –Winston Churchill.

I’ve experienced both success and failure. Both come with their own challenges, and I’ve found success can quickly turn into failure if I am not careful.

How can our readers further follow you online?

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

Source: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/alan-wikman-of-synergy-homecare-of-prescott-on-how-to-successfully-ride-the-emotional-highs-and-bb4864c2971d