Press Room

Melbourne business owner honored as entrepreneur
Florida Today Newspaper – March 6, 2002

MELBOURNE — Senior Partner Care Services, a Melbourne-based provider of in-borne senior care, has been named one of Florida’s most successful new small businesses.

Don Kramer, president of Senior Partner Care Services Inc., started the company in 1997 with what be said was limited capital and what statis-tics show was a sharp eye for a good business niche.

Not only did Kramer’s busi-ness flourish in a relatively short period of time, but “his commu-nity involvement impressed us,” said Vicky Peake, director of the Regional Small Business Devel-opment Center at Brevard Community College, who helped se-lect Kramer for the honor.

“ It‘s not easy to grow a busi-ness and also give back to the community,” she said.

Kramer, the only winner from Brevard County, was rec-ognized recently with 17 other Florida entrepreneurs whose new companies helped boost the state’s economy.

Among other winners were Data-Maxx Software Systems of Lee County, which mar-kets labor-force-management hardware and soft-ware; and Cool Breeze of Key West, which adapted technology for outdoor cooling systems to Florida’s humid cli-mate. Like Senior Partner, those companies got business counseling from their local small-busi-ness development centers.

Peake said each center around the state usually chooses a single company to represent a model of business development for its community. In Brevard, the ongoing process involves about 3,000 companies the cen-ter baa worked with over the past decade, she said.

Peake said the impetus be-hind showcasing successful small businesses is a nationwide trend to “let legislators know what business centers do in terms of growing business and providing jobs in local communi-ties.”

Senior Partner is a good example of that.

Started as a one-client opera-tion run out of Kramer’s home, the company — also known to customers as Senior Partner At-Home Care – has four adminis-trative staff, including Kramer, and 55 contract caregivers.

This year, operating out of an office at 4451 Stack Blvd., it is on track to generate close to $1 million in revenues, Kramer said.

Peake calls Senior Partner Care Services “one of our suc-cess stories.”

The Small Business Develop-ment Center offered Kramer courses, round-table discussions and networking that guided him as he shaped his commercial venture.

Kramer’s business is “actually built from scratch,” Peake said, “And he’s impacting our economy because he’s hiring people.”

He also has helped other small businesses along the way through outreach programs, networking and industry associations, she said.

And Kramer is an active member of the Brevard Association of. Human Services, a networking group with an interest in providing for-profit services to the elderly. Under his leadership, membership has grown from 30 to 100 members.

A new direction

Kramer’s prior business experi-ence had nothing to do with health. He ran a New York company that designed and built props and sets for commercial pho-tographers, magazines, catalogs and ad agencies.
But Kramer, a Florida native, said he missed his home state and moved back in 1997.

The decision to begin a health care-related company began with his wife, a critical care registered nurse, and was furthered as he noted Brevard’s large and rapidly growing population of older seniors who needed help living at home.

The recent U.S. Census con-firmed Kramer’s observation. Nearly one in five of the county’s 476,000 residents is over age 65, the age group which uses health services the most.

Although the couple briefly flirted with the idea of starting a medical home-care business, he said, they rejected the idea because of regulatory hurdles posed by Medicare reform and their own re-stricted finances. Instead, they de-cided on a non-medical home-care service.

“ The core of our business is still non-medical,” he said, but as the company has grown, certified home health aides have been added to the mix, and he plans to add nurses.

“ We’re not going to market that heavily,” Kramer said, referring to the nursing hires. “But it will allow us to maintain continuity of care when it’s needed. The focus of our business is to allow people to live at home as long as possible.”

Even with non-medical care, that can be costly.

The hourly rate for a companion/homemaker is $11.50 [per hour], while the flat daily live-in rate is $135, Kramer said.

Typical clients are in their 80’s, relatively healthy, and pay for the service themselves.
But with the oldest of the more than 70 million baby boomers now in their mid-50s, there is a trend to-ward long-term-care insurance, with some clients’ costs covered by their insurers.
That might contribute to an even-greater growth in Senior Part-ner Care Services, as more people are able to afford it.

“ Senior Partner Care Services is a shining example of a business that has planned well,” Peake said. “It has been a joy to watch Don’s com-pany grow.”

Senior Partner Care Services to open its third office this fall, husband-and-wife team Don and Beth Kramer find niche providing range of in-home, non-Medicare services to seniors
Brevard Business News, June 30, 2003

In five years, entrepreneurs Don Kramer and his wife Beth have built their home-care enterprise into one of the largest businesses of its kind in the local marketplace.

The Kramers' Senior Partner Care Services Inc. of Brevard and Lake Mary successfully sliced a niche in the $40 billion-plus home-care industry by providing a full range of non-Medicare services to seniors in their homes, everything from companionship to helping with any kind of hands-on care that doesn’t require a nurse.

“ We provide around 500 hours of home care every day, mostly in Brevard County,” said Don Kramer, whose business was recently nominated for the 2003 Governor’s Business Diversification Award by Enterprise Florida and the Brevard Economic Development Commission. The awards, presented in various categories, are earmarked for companies in emerging and high-tech industries that are contributing to Florida’s economic growth. “It’s an honor to be nominated,” he added. Senior Partner is in the Entrepreneurship category.

His agency grew 400 percent in 2001 and more than 100 percent last year. And in the first halfof 2003 business is strong. As of May, Senior Partner had nearly 100 caregivers providing more than 3,000 hours per week of in-home care. In Brevard alone, its main market, roughly 75 caregivers were delivering some 400 hours of care every day. Senior Partner has more than 64 FTEs, or full time equivalents, providing care in all Brevard markets.

Most of his company’s clients pay out of their own pocket for the services, although Senior Partner does accept long-term care insurance, a growing piece of the business. “We started with zero and today about 20 percent of our cases are paid for by long-term care insurance,” he said.

Catering their services to a fast-aging senior population, the Kramers plan to expand again this fall and open a third office, after launching the business with one client in 1998.

Based in Melbourne, Senior Partner also has an office Lake Mary, in greater Orlando, opening there in mid-2002. Its newest location will be in Viera and that site will serve as company headquarters, said Don Kramer, founder and president. “Most of our operations will be housed at Viera. The other offices will be sort of hub-and-spoke set-ups as we continue to grow the business.”

The Agency for Health Care Administration divides the state into districts and Senior Partner’s license allows it to serve four counties — Brevard, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. The Kramers are scouting other markets within their district for additional offices in the future.

Senior Partner is a provider of private-duty non-medical and certified-aide level home care for seniors only. He said the company’s mission is to serve as the first line of defense “between our elderly clients and what we call the ‘first-wave’ problems… difficulty with housework and shopping, lack of companionship or social support, loss of ability to drive, falls and early stage dementia. These problems, often subtle at first, become a force that can put the individual at risk, reduce their independence and quality of life, or even drive them prematurely into a nursing home.”

But unlike companion agencies or “elder nanny” services, Senior Partner goes beyond basic caregiving with a staff RN on call 24 hours and certified aides for those who require hands-on care. The company is licensed to provide the higher level of care. Beth Kramer is administrator and director of nursing. Before teaming up with her husband in the venture she was a nurse at Wuesthoff Hospital. Companions, homemakers, certified home health aides and nursing assistants all are under the supervision of a registered nurse.

“ There are many small companion or nanny-service agencies across the nation — almost all of them are franchises and they do not provide hands-on care like assis-tance with bathing, dressing and personal care. And that is our niche,” he said.

After getting the business up and running and building a client base, the Kramers fine-tuned their business model. By early 2000, Don Kramer said it was becoming clear that having just a companion/homemaker/sitter license was too limiting. “Florida law prohibits an agency with that license from providing hands-on care and most elderly clients either need such care at the outset, or very likely will as time passes.”

However, the difficulty and expense of obtaining an expanded licensure keeps many agencies from making the change, he said. “But for an agency willing and able to meet the challenge, this presented an opportunity.” In the summer of 2000, his company undertook an expansion designed to reposition Senior Partner as a provider of a full range of custodial elder homecare services — both companion/homemaker and hands-on, aide-level care.

The arduous application process for an expanded Florida license was initiated, he said. Three full-time administrative staffers were added — an administrator/director of nursing, marketing director and scheduler. Then, in September, the company rolled out the “new” Senior Partner at the grand opening of its South Brevard office inside the Fountains retirement community on Stack Boulevard, near the Melbourne-Palm Bay border. Don Kramer said that location was selected to extend the company’s service area south into Palm Bay, Barefoot Bay and the south beaches.

In November, the second phase of the expansion project was completed when Senior Partner received its initial survey by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. It was judged to be “deficiency free,” the highest possible rating, and was awarded licensure as a Florida Nurse Registry.

Don Kramer, who earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Florida Atlantic University and holds a master of fine arts/photography from the University of Florida, credits the Small Business Development Center on the Brevard Community College Melbourne campus for his firm’s successful launch. Vicky Peake is the SBDC director. The Kramers researched the field for about one year before making their decision to start their health-care business. “If I had to pick one person that helped us more than anyone else,” said Don Kramer, “it would be Vicky and the SBDC. She does a terrific job.”

He said Senior Partner has “wildly exceeded our first five-year plan. I know the next five years will be much more difficult to achieve the kind of growth rates we have been experiencing.” A former business owner in New York City (he designed and built custom photography sets) Don Kramer spends a lot of time serving in community leadership positions. He sits on a number of local boards including the Brevard Association of Human Services and Yellow Umbrella for the Prevention of Child Abuse.

Entrepreneur to Participate in Expo Despite Impact of 9/11
Florida’s Business Dividends Newsletter, Winter 2001/02
(Quarterly newsletter of the Florida Small Business Development Center (FSBDC) Network in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration)

In the early ‘90s, Don Kramer owned a totally unrelated business in New York City designing and building custom props and sets for commercial photographers, magazines, catalogs, and ad agencies. He loved being in business, so when his family moved back to Florida, he and his wife, Beth, immediately began looking for opportunities. They had both grown up in Florida, and Beth had been a critical-care registered nurse for years, so they began to lean in the direction of providing some sort of health-related service. After several months of research, beginning in mid-1997, they discovered there was a large and rapidly growing population of relatively healthy seniors who needed help living at home. To them, it looked like the classic entrepreneurial opportunity… an unmet need.

Don’s first contact with the SBDC came when he attended one of its New Venture Clinics, a sort of “nuts and bolts of starting a new business” class. Soon Don began attending many of the SBDC’s (free) Roundtables and says that much of what he knows about developing a business plan, marketing, accounting and taxes, business insurance, business law, banking and finance, and writing a press release he learned at the Roundtables. He says he heard more good ideas than he could scribble down. Over the next few months, Don phoned several of the presenters at their offices for advice. He received counseling from SCORE, and downloaded forms and software from the SBA website.

In early 1998, operating out of a corner of their family room, the Kramers opened Senior Partner At-Home Care and began offering non-medical homecare and related services designed to help seniors live at home. Senior Partner grew rapidly, and today has four administrative staff and over 40 employees delivering approximately 1 500 hours of home-care every week to clients all across Brevard County. In late 2000, the company incorporated as Senior Partner Care Services, Inc. and also became an authorized provider of Lifeline Personal Medical Alarm systems. In the summer of 2000, the company undertook an expansion designed to position Senior Partner as a one-stop source of elder homecare and services. Three full-time administrative staff were added: Administrator/Director of Nursing, Marketing Director, and Scheduler. The company rolled out the “new’ Senior Partner at the grand opening of their south county office in September and, in November, the expansion was complete when they received licensure as a Florida Nurse Registry.

To show his appreciation and support of the SBDC, Don plans to participate in the FSBDC’s Third Annual Product Exposition on February 27, 2002, in Tallahassee, despite the impact of September 11.