By Steve Moran

We Are Not Good Enough

And this is great news!

This morning while out walking I was listening to an interview with “Gary Vee”. There was a discussion about how young entrepreneurs come to Gary and tell him how awesome their content or product is but they are totally frustrated that they have no followers, no customers. His response is always the same: 

“It’s Not Good Enough”

At this point you might be calling foul, saying that it is too simplistic and the problems are much more complicated than that. There is no question that solving the occupancy and business problems of senior living, particularly with the Covid-19 overhang, is a complicated puzzle. But at the end of the day, the idea that we are not good enough resonates with me.

Starbucks rolled on the scene and very quickly made mincemeat of local coffee offerings across North America and around the world. Now, today in the western US, Dutch Brothers, a mostly drive-up coffee shop has lines at nearly every location at all times. Take a look at what they are doing:

Not Starbucks coverage yet, but expanding rapidly.

Are There Enough Prospects?

The first question worth addressing is whether or not there are enough older people who could benefit from senior living in North America. Given the market penetration of senior living today, it seems pretty clear the answer is yes. As touted over and over again, we have a massive influx of older boomers on the horizon that would seem ripe for the picking.

This age wave terrifies me because I believe many, many senior living providers are counting on it to fix their occupancy woes. And I think they are simply wrong about this, which is something I wrote about recently in an article titled Demand for Senior Living Impossible to Meet; Hmm. and brilliantly illustrated by this infographic created by Dan Hutson:

Good News

The reason this is good news is that as boomers age, many of them are going to want to live someplace that will give them the best possible purpose-filled, relevant, meaningful life. Whoever gets this right will make the world a better place for us boomers and make buckets of money along the way. Will it be senior living? It is simply hard to know. Right now I am not optimistic.

Because right now . . .

We are not good enough. But we could be, but will we be is the big question.