Sandi McCann of Longmont found that when she provided caregiving for her stepmother, she wanted the same kind of meaningful work in her professional life.
Sandi had been a marketer for 27 years and was tired of the career, so she launched her own business. She and her younger sister, Maureen, who also desired a career change, started HomeCare of the Rockies, Inc., in April 2012. She is president and chief executive officer and a Certified Senior Advisor, and Maureen, who has a degree in economics, is the agency director.
“This work is so vibrant. It’s so life giving, if you will, even when someone is at the end of their life,” Sandi said.
HomeCare of the Rockies, 7105 La Vista Place, Ste. 100, provides in-home care services for seniors in Larimer and Boulder counties. The services include live-in and 24-hour in-home care, homecare after a hospital stay and respite care services, along with meal preparation, light housekeeping and other non-medical services.
“We are the eyes and ears for them, so they can stay safe at home and give families peace of mind,” Sandi said.
Sandi started the business after working as a senior vice-president of marketing for a Denver-based financial company, while caregiving for her father Jerry’s wife of 25 years, Nancy, who was ill from a rare neurological disease.
“The bottom line is as hard as it was to see her suffer, it transformed both of us,” Sandi said.
Sandi wanted to set the business apart as a local company, not a national franchise, providing a gold standard of high quality care. That care comes, in part, from a high ratio of staff to clients and personalized care plans for each of the 60 to 80 clients the company serves each year.
“Our motto is, we hear you; we’re on it; we’ll keep you in the loop,” Sandi said. “It’s compassion and action together.”
In 2016, Sandi, along with Maureen, developed the Caregiver Call to Serve, a program geared to build a sustainable network of professional caregivers. It includes a 100-hour professional caregiver training program called Home Care 100 with classroom instruction, hands-on practice and pay increases.
“This has helped the organization positively impact how professional caregivers are hired, trained and paid and results in a workforce where caregivers feel better supported to provide the important work in caring for older adults,” Sandi said.
In January 2015, the McCanns started working with Robert Coffey, a financial consultant with the Loveland Business Development Center and the Larimer Small Business Development Center.
“Anytime we are looking to make changes, he’ll say look at the numbers. If you make this change, how will it affect the rest of the business?” Maureen said.
Coffey commends the McCanns for a deep knowledge of their industry and Maureen’s meticulous recordkeeping.
“That has allowed the LBDC and SBDC to give them some very good advice based on their financial records,” Coffey said. “The trends are accurate; the projections we calculate based on the history are accurate.”
