Private carers - where would you look?

[carerlookingtochangejob]

If you were looking for someone to help provide care for your elderly or disabled family member or friend where would you go to look.

I'm a self employed personal assistant/ carer and have been since before the pandemic. Always been busy and always quickly filled my books.
Until now.
Up until now the blast majority of my clients have found me through a service and website provided by social services and the local council. Funding for this has now been cut so our usual link between carers and those needing care has gone.
Lots of local carers are finding the same thing.

So I'm wondering where best to advertise my services going forward. Facebook has had a limited success. Not currently on any other social media - but not sure that's the right place anyway.

Parish magazines etc all charge to advertise and long periods between publications.
Will be putting ads up on local notice boards.

Anywhere else anyone would go to look?

I would google. It would probably bring up agencies though, as they would have more advertising power. Can you mention on local facebook groups or similar? I know there are babysitting websites, is there a carers equivalent?

The Lady magazine

Not very helpful- but tbh when I was searching for private cater - word of mouth. I asked family friends who worked in hairdressers/ pubs ( ie knew a lot of people in community) if they knew anyone.
Although we actually found someone who had advertised on fb - I hadn’t seen post rather a family member had and they knew the person themselves.
Could you target notice boards/ leaflet drop business which have older clientele perhaps local cafe, hairdressers, parish hall? etc.
I have a self- employed friend who joined the city’s business networking group and that has helped her get to know local business people who in turn recommend her to others
Good luck

Our local shop still does postcards in the window - would probably do a few of those.

Ask local church wardens if you can put some flyers in churches.

Word of mouth for us.
Could you put leaflets into local letter boxes ?( sorry not much help)

Facebook is where I have primarily based my marketing so far. But doesn't seem to be helping at the moment.

Beginning to fear I'm being bad mouthed as I reported another carer last year for lying about their DBS clearance - they had lots of convictions and so were showing a fake DBS.
This individual was very popular but had stolen from numerous people.

Thanks will look into this

Notice boards are my target for this week.

Thanks - I'm looking to remain independent as I like to be able to set my own pricing and be flexible. So not really wanting to join an agency right now

I would invest jn a very simple one page website, with your contact details and a bit about yourself, using lots of key words that will help your page appear in google if anyone was googling ie
private carer
elderly care
brighton hove east sussex

There are some platforms like Bark and Care.com that match independent Carers with people seeking care. Good luck.

Curam care app, I hired my PA through there!

Next door website local page? Speak to local doctors surgeries?

I agree with Curam Care

Thanks but Curran care is effectively an agency. I am self employed and want to remain so

Unfortunately even a simple webpage now costs nearly £20 per month to run. It simply isn't cost effective to keep one live anymore. I had a webpage for years but it didn't result in any actual clients.

Thanks yes I have an ad on next door

Agree with the lady.

Are you on LinkedIn also? It is free and you can do some posts with a photo of your notice going on boards. That makes it easy to share.

Busy professionals looking for caters for their family are a good market.

Where are the community hubs near you? Librarys / churches? Post office? Many people would be put off by too glossy a flyer. Some supermarkets have noticeboards. Pharmacies? Garden centres?

What area are you in @carerlookingtochangejob ? I know people in need.

I wouldn't recommend Curam at all. It's like a bad dating agency with a very low response rate IME.

The Lady magazine has an online portal for carer jobs so you can search for openings yourself as well as advertising.

If a website is too costly at the moment, what about a free blog site? You can use SEO and tags and stuff. Spread it about on your Facebook and ask friends to share too.
When we were looking it was by word of mouth through a friend of a friend who worked in a gift shop and whose mum did private care. Had this not happened we'd have been stuffed.

Just south west of Exeter area

How about mentioning that you’ve got some free slots to existing clients or their families in case they know anyone that’s looking?.

Thanks - yes I do this as a matter of course in case anyone wants to increase or change their hours