Hearing loss is something that everyone knows about, but only those who experience it can truly understand. The caricature of an elderly person asking those around them to repeat themselves or getting the words wrong is a comedic trope found in TV and movies. But for those who experience hearing loss, the struggle is no joke.
The inability to easily understand those around you can lead to feelings of loneliness, isolation, and shame. Janie York of Hear Now Solutions understands this dynamic from personal and professional perspectives.
As the Activity Director of a long term elder care community, Janie worked with many residents who owned hearing aids, but weren’t using them. She discovered common issues that made the hearing aids a source of frustration for her residents. Thanks to her own experience with hearing loss, she was able to approach these individuals with empathy, clean their hearing aids, and replace batteries when needed.
Many of the residents who Janie helped were able to use their hearing aids properly for the first time, and she saw their attitudes toward the devices improve dramatically.
“I started going around every two weeks, cleaning hearing aids. By the second time I went around, I was known as ‘The Hearing Aid Lady’, and families were in love with the service.”
-Janie York, Founder of Hear Now Solutions
Thanks to Janie’s ability to provide care with empathy, and understand common issues with hearing aids, she had identified a much-needed service. For years, she would provide this service to communities in which she worked. Years later, she would start her own business with the aim of getting more people the help they needed.
After her time working in elder care communities, Janie decided to expand the reach of her hearing aid services to help more people and support a business of her own. In 2017, she worked to earn her license as a hearing aid specialist. She founded Hear Now Solutions to provide hearing aid cleaning, troubleshooting, and educational services to facilities where staff may not know how to help.
“It is a real problem, because nurses and CNAs in those facilities don’t know what to do when hearing aids stop working.”
-Janie York, Founder of Hear Now Solutions
Janie provides her hearing aid solutions to over 11 different communities currently, and has plans to expand her reach even more with digital educational material she will be able to deliver to facilities around the world.
Once facility administrators see the tremendous impact Hear Now Solutions can have on their residents, they sign up for ongoing services. Janie found a way to impact lives and, in the process, discovered a successful business model.
However, ongoing success and her plans to expand would depend on her ability to learn how to manage the financial aspects of her business.
Hear Now Solutions had a growing clientele list with positive feedback. However, the business was time-consuming for Janie. Learning the bookkeeping skills needed to bring clarity and stability to her operations required more time and attention than she was able to offer it.
Her tax accountant had taught her some QuickBooks basics, but ultimately recommended Janie seek financial services to help her with ongoing financial recordkeeping. Years into running a business, she had a limited understanding of her business’s financial health, and had little to go off of when making significant investment decisions.
With her tax accountant’s recommendation, Janie decided to hire financial management services from Advantage Insights. She handed over a “big folder of stuff” containing a scattered assortment of receipts, invoices, bills, and tax documents. According to Janie, she began to see the benefits of using Advantage Insights right away.
“[Mary] had the vision of what she wanted my financial processes to look like, and over a pretty short period of time she created a beautiful system for me that’s very easy for me to manage. She trained me on how to use it, she’s made instructional videos for me, and she’s always accessible. I just don’t know how I got along without her.”
-Janie York, Founder of Hear Now Solutions
With help from Advantage Insights, Janie says she has been able to maintain ongoing budgets and projections that she refers to as “a living document”. This kind of tool is essential for businesses that want to be able to adapt to emergencies like we experienced with COVID-19, or make important purchases and hires.
To survive, thrive, and grow sustainably, businesses like Hear Now Solutions must have actionable projections and financial processes in place. Janie has also benefited from her new invoicing practices, as designed by Advantage Insights.
“I have so much more time. It never takes me more than about 30 minutes to handle all my invoices.”
-Janie York, Founder of Hear Now Solutions
And time is precious for any business owner. Not only can Janie make decisions with more clarity than she has ever had, she can allocate more of her time and attention to improving and expanding the impact of her business.
Despite the disorganized state of her financial records, Janie says Advantage Insights was able to rebuild old records and institute processes to keep her financial statements complete and up-to-date moving forward. According to Janie, there was no shame in correcting her records. “She’s so non-judgmental,” she said of Mary’s helpful processes.
There’s no point in staying in the dark. As Janie York found, getting her company’s financial records and processes in order brought confidence to running a business, and helped preserve her mental and emotional energy for those areas of her work she enjoys most: helping people, and figuring out how to help more people.
Advantage Insights offers financial management and entrepreneur advisory services that are designed specifically for you and your business, no matter how your records look now. Financial services can help you save money now and make informed decisions for your future.
If you want to see the difference financial services can make on your business, reach out for a free consultation!
For more information, call 402-281-3785 or email info@youradvantageinsights.com.
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