Senior Companion (Non-Medical) Blueprint

Companionship and errands for aging neighbors.

This course takes you from 'I'm good with older people' to running a real non-medical senior companion business: what the work actually is (companionship, errands, meal prep, light housekeeping, and rides — and strictly nothing medical), what it costs to start ($300–$900), how to price visits from your real costs, where the legal line sits between companion care and licensed home care, and how to get your first 10 clients through the referral network that already exists in your town. Because these figures are not inherited from the Discover profile for senior companion care, every money example uses one explicit base case — verify it against your own market: a solo companion working 22 hours a week across 4 recurring clients (the sustainable solo range is 15–30 hours across 3–6 clients) at a $26 hourly average ($22–$35 in most markets), with about $5 of variable cost per visit ($3–$8: mileage, parking, small supplies) and about $180 a month in fixed costs ($120–$250: liability insurance and a fidelity bond, scheduling and invoicing software, phone, background-check renewals). That pencils out to roughly $1,000–$3,600 a month in profit before tax across the 15-to-30-hour range, around $2,100 at the base case — planning estimates under stated assumptions, never a promise; no income is guaranteed. Now the sentence that shapes this entire course: the single most important business decision you will make is what you refuse to do. Companionship, errands, meals, light housekeeping, and transportation are non-medical services. Bathing, dressing, toileting, transfers, and administering medication are personal or medical care — and in many states, offering them commonly triggers home-care licensure, training-hour requirements, and oversight by the state health department. Several states license or register even non-medical companion agencies. All of it is deeply location-dependent, which is why Module 4 — the longest legal module in this catalog — walks you through verifying your own state's rules with your state health department before you take a dollar. Expect background checks, bonding, and liability insurance to be table stakes: families are trusting you alone in a vulnerable person's home, and the professionals who refer clients (senior centers, geriatric care managers, discharge planners) will ask what screening you carry. You will also learn elder-abuse awareness and how mandatory-reporting duties commonly work, because a companion who visits twice a week often notices what no one else sees. One honesty note before you start: this is emotional work. Clients decline. Some develop dementia. Some die. Families argue, and you will sometimes be in the middle. Module 10 treats grief, boundaries, and scope creep as real operational topics — because they are — and the anti-fit list below is blunt about who should not take this on. If you want low-startup, deeply human, recurring-relationship work and you can hold a firm boundary with a warm voice, this is one of the most meaningful businesses in this catalog.

This blueprint is a draft under review — numbers and lessons may change before publication. All figures are estimates: these figures are not inherited from the Discover profile for senior companion care, so the course states its own base case and every money figure inherits its assumptions — a solo, strictly NON-MEDICAL companion in a typical U.S. market providing companionship, errands, meal prep, light housekeeping, and transportation only (never bathing, toileting, transfers, wound care, or medication administration), working 22 hours a week across 4 recurring clients (sustainable solo range 15–30 hours across 3–6 clients) at a $26 hourly average (market range $22–$35), with about $5 of variable cost per visit ($3–$8: mileage, parking, small supplies) and about $180 a month in fixed costs ($120–$250: liability insurance and fidelity bond, scheduling and invoicing software, phone, background-check renewals). Startup of $300–$900 covers insurance and bond setup, a background check, first-aid/CPR training, basic marketing, and forms. All profit figures are before tax and before anything you pay yourself; the roughly $1,000–$3,600 monthly range is a typical outcome under these assumptions, not a guarantee — no income is guaranteed, and your market, rates, client mix, and referral network decide where you land. The legal centerpiece of this course — where non-medical companion care ends and licensed home care begins, whether your state licenses or registers non-medical agencies, background-check and bonding expectations, and mandatory-reporter duties — is deeply location-dependent education only, not legal advice: verify everything with your state health department, your state board of nursing where medication questions arise, an insurance professional, and a tax professional before relying on it. Elder-abuse content is awareness education, not legal or clinical guidance; concerns should go to Adult Protective Services or 911. Nothing in this course is medical training, and completing it does not qualify anyone to provide personal or medical care.