Budget season is a stressful one for senior living communities. But in our latest SHIFT webinar “Navigating Budget Season-Essential Tips for Senior Living Operators”, Lindsey Daugherty, head of community at Sage, spoke with four senior living leadership experts about strategies to turn budget season from a headache to a strategic growth opportunity.
The panelists spoke about preparing for the unexpected, creating open communication lines between departments, using tools to understand the changing local market landscape, and more. Lindsey spoke with Atlas Senior Living’s Angie Surls, Life Care Services’ Shaleen Sorgen, and Phoenix Senior Living’s Summer Blizzard and Serina Durrah. With decades of on-the-ground expertise between them, spanning from caregiving to the C-suite, the panel of experts delivered actionable insights and gave attendees a new toolbox for building their 2025 budget.
This webinar was hosted as a part of SHIFT, a Sage series about how senior living operators can shift into a tech-forward mindset. Check out some highlights below or watch the full panel here.
Angie Surls: “Really analyze the past unexpected emergencies that came up. Obviously, if we've repaired a sprinkler system so many times, that might be something that we need to put into our CAPEX planning for the coming year, so that we can better anticipate those seasonal, unexpected expenses that come up.”
Shaleen Sorgen: “One of the things that we have done is partnered with TELS and Direct Supply to do asset tagging. I think a lot of organizations that haven't put that into their budget, I would say that that's something I would definitely consider exploring. It has allowed us to really understand the age and wear-and-tear of all the mechanical systems throughout our buildings, and really be able to have a more accurate forecast.”
Summer Blizzard: “What does the landscape of the market itself look like? Do we have a new Volkswagen plant coming in? Is Amazon coming in and going to encroach on our labor pool? And what does that look like? So I find that your really good EDs and your good sales directors, they're going to be really active in the local community networks.”
Serina Durrah: “The key is communication and budget process planning. I'm very fortunate to work alongside Summer and Craig, and they have done a phenomenal job of planning our whole budget process for this year. We have specific timelines to get everything in. And one of those pieces is collecting the cost of any planned initiatives from each department. When we're talking about potential expenses for the coming year, we have to communicate really well between each department. We have to make sure that we've gathered all of that information rather than working in silos to do the budgets.”
At the end of the Webinar, Lindsey opened the floor to questions, and an attendee asked a great one: “What is the most important piece of technology to invest in when you’re opening a new community?”
Shaleen Sorgen jumped right in with her answer: a nurse call system.
“If you don't have a good way to communicate with your residents, if you don't have a good way to react to their needs, I think from a customer service hospitality stance you're never going to win,” she said. “And the risk associated with that is too large to not invest in the right program.”
We couldn’t agree more!
Sage is committed to transforming the senior living industry with the relevant data and tools they need to optimize their communities. Watch the full webinar here and stay tuned for future SHIFT sessions.
