Venus Ricks—Residential & Personal Care Services
Mabel’s House Assisted Living & Vital Sign Home Care, Baltimore, MD
Year founded: 2017
CNPP Assistance: Law, human resources, accounting and marketing
Additional Partners: Will Holmes Consulting (WHC)
Before opening her businesses, Ms. Ricks was a Registered Nurse working in hospitals across Maryland. Inspired by her desire to do more to help others, she launched Mabel’s House Assisted Living in honor of her grandmother Mabel, serving the elderly and vulnerable population. Simultaneously in 2017, Vital Sign Home Care was also launched, serving the same population.
In 2018, Venus had a stroke and was left with no movement on the right side of her body. She was unable to speak, and she was bedridden for a year. Over the past 3 years, Ms. Ricks fought to regain her ability to walk and talk, all while leading her business. She has the support of her adult children and her dedicated staff.
Venus applied to NDI-EGA, funded under the CNPP, because she wanted a plan for growth. She currently has 10 full-time employees, 45 part-time employees and 3 contractors. During Cohort 1 of NDI-EGA, Ms. Ricks participated in each of the 8 classes and attended all mentoring sessions with our law, human resources, accounting and marketing mentors and scheduled 8 or more weekly sessions with our operations mentor.
It is still challenging for Venus to speak and it takes a bit longer for her to express herself, but she is making incredible progress each day. She utilized a helper during her final presentation so that she could give a detailed overview of her business in the allotted 15-minute time period. Ms. Ricks stated “I wanted to relearn everything again to retrain my brain after having a stroke four years ago. I want to understand the most effective ways to run my business. I wanted to learn about KPIs.” With the program, Ms. Ricks has a better understanding of financial projections and a 12-month plan for growing her business.