Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed Stacey Bilodeau’s Entrepreneurial Spirit and judge’s choice awards to Bay Path College. It was from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative.
As a 13-year-old growing up on welfare, Stacey Bilodeau used to work a 50-hour week babysitting to pay for her school clothes and food. She was the first child in her family to attend college.
Today, the Manchester resident is the founder and CEO of Independent Solutions, a business she launched in 2007 that offers professional home care to people with traumatic and acquired brain injuries. In only two years, Bilodeau has grown her company from $70,000 to over half a million dollars in revenue.
Besides being an entrepreneur, Bilodeau is a psychology undergraduate in Bay Path College’s One-Day-A-Week Saturday Program. She recently received the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award and a judge’s choice award for best presentation from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative.
“The key to my growth was the high quality of work from my employees and my high expectations I have for each case,” she explained. “I personally hire and train each staff member. I am hands on in each case to assure everything is being done for the clients’ needs. I was able to pay back any overhead in which the agency has none. I am also able to give back to the community and to go back to school,” Bilodeau said, noting she plans to take on a number of new clients this year and increase her staff from 15 employees to 30.
Bilodeau discovered her passion for helping people with brain injuries after she worked for a large home care agency. She became frustrated, she said, with this particular company’s lack of communication and care that it was able to offer to its patients. She left the job and after a year of working as a private provider to an individual family and decided to open her own agency. A family lawyer and accountant helped her through the financial process of launching a business. Her first employee was her best friend who is still with her today.
“In 2007, my goal was to have a couple of clients and a few staff. With word of mouth between the social workers and neuropsychologists, Independent Solutions became known for individualized quality care and an agency that you want to be part of. Since 2007, we have tripled in cases,” she said.
Bilodeau says the most challenging parts of owning her business are high taxes, Social Security and worker’s compensation. Her greatest lesson learned so far is that she can’t do everything herself.
She says she is grateful to her husband who helped inspire her along the way, especially since he supported and trusted her when she first ventured out as an entrepreneur.
As driven as she may be, Bilodeau enjoys owning a small company and intends to keep it that way.
“My plan is to never get so large that I cannot keep track of each and every home,” she said.
Joanna Smiley writes the weekly Local Insight column. Reach her at jsmiley@HartfordBusiness.com.
