How I Stopped Building a Practice and Built a Company Instead — Stephen Tweed

Stephen Tweed, CEO of Leading Home Care and Founder of the Home Care CEO Forum, joins host David Knack to discuss his biggest career regret: choosing to build a solo practice instead of a scalable company. With over three decades in the industry, Stephen explains why "working on the business" rather than "in the business" is the key to long-term survival and impact.

The conversation covers Stephen's philosophy on mixing work with adventure (including a memorable trip to Japan), the three major causes of 90-day caregiver turnover, and why home care owners must stop answering the phone like an administrative assistant.

Stephen also shares actionable advice on developing a clear vision, systematizing operations, and shifting to a caregiver-first culture to drive growth.

Lesson Takeaways:

1. Build a Company, Not Just a Practice: Choosing to remain a solopreneur limits your resources and impact. Building a team and infrastructure allows you to serve more clients, support your community, and create a lasting legacy beyond your personal involvement .

2. Solve the "Paycheck Match" for Caregivers: Caregivers don't leave for 25 cents an hour. They leave because their paycheck doesn't match their needs. Move beyond asking "how many hours?" to asking "how much money do you need this week?" and then help them get the shifts to get there.

3. Shift from Client-First to Caregiver-First: In home care, high-quality clients follow high-quality caregivers. Prioritizing caregiver retention and satisfaction creates the capacity to deliver exceptional service, making the traditional "customer is always right" model secondary to caregiver support .

4. Work On the Business, Not In It: If you are answering every phone call or putting out every fire, you have a job, not a scalable company. Develop systems and a leadership team that allows you to focus on strategy, vision, and future-proofing your agency.

5. Don't Underrate the Phone Call: The person answering your phones is your front line. A poorly trained admin with a bad phone voice kills conversion rates. Hiring a competent phone presence who can convert callers into in-home assessments is a small fix with massive revenue consequences.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Introduction and Stephen's role in home care
01:49 — Stephen's recent trip to Japan and mixing work with play
04:27 — The role of travel and adventure in Stephen's marriage
06:05 — The big mistake: Building a practice instead of a company
09:18 — How a bigger company gives you resources for greater impact
12:03 — Moving from a "practice" mindset to a "company" mindset
15:15 — The travel story that changed Stephen's view on regret
21:51 — The most underrated thing in home care: Caregiver retention
24:04 — The three big causes of 90-day caregiver turnover
27:52 — The little mistake: Hiring the wrong person to answer phones
31:34 — How a bad phone voice kills your conversion rates
34:22 — Stephen's recent win: Transferring ownership of the CEO Forum
37:42 — How to future proof your home care business
40:52 — One trend Stephen predicted correctly: Industry consolidation
43:52 — One innovation that will have the largest impact over three years

Quotes:

Stephen Tweed: "If we really want to grow a business, then we need to focus on the whole process of recruiting, selection, onboarding, training, retention…it starts with high-quality applicants."

Stephen Tweed: "A number of members have made a conscious decision…We're going to put our caregivers first. And you say that to most business people and they say, no, the customer is always first. But we're saying in this case, no, because if we can get high quality caregivers and keep them, we can get clients."

David Knack: "Get super specific about your brags. Somebody may not have the exact same situation, but they can relate to it. That specificity, even though it's not exactly what they're looking at, is way better than saying we work with lots of clients."

David Knack: "You've got to stop being the 'hit by a bus' problems in our own businesses. It's gotta get out of our brains. Thanks to the innovations of AI, you can systematize that knowledge."

Resources:

1. Connect with Stephen Tweed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephentweed/
2. Learn more about the Home Care CEO Forum: https://homecareceo.com/
3. Visit Leading Home Care: https://leadinghomecare.com/
4. Connect with David Knack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-knack/
5. Powered by Zingage: https://zingage.com
6. Watch this episode on Zingage's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Zingage