The cameras have finished flashing, the festivities at the Hylton Performing Arts Center have long since been cleaned up and everyone is back to work. But for FirstLight Home Care, the Prince William Chamber of Commerce’s Emerging Business of the Year award winner, it is never business as usual.
Based in Woodbridge, FirstLight helps care for seniors, veterans and others with disabilities, and loved ones recovering from surgery. And though they won the Emerging Business of the Year Award, they were also nominated for the Innovative Business of the Year award.
Owners Paul and Renee Jones opened the company in 2016. To set themselves apart, FirstLight leverages technology to increase efficiency. One example is their cloud-based software that gives family members real-time care information about their loved one from anywhere in the world. That’s innovation.
But Paul will tell you what truly sets them apart is their attitude about caregiving and business in general.
“We experienced phenomenal growth in the second year of business,” he said. “That’s exciting. But one thing that’s very important to me is understanding why I do things and what our purpose is about.”
Business owners have to realize “everybody is not your customer,” he said. “If you treat people that way, your values disintegrate. We were determined not to do that. We are interested in building something that changes the world.”
Ask Paul what changing the world looks like, and he might tell you this story.
One of their caregivers had been caring for a male client for a long time, until the client passed. After that, the caregiver learned she had cancer.
“What we didn’t know is that the widow of the client started taking the caregiver to chemo,” he said. “That’s changing the world.”
A licensed clinical social worker for over 20 years, Paul attributes his passion for people to his mother, Wilena Jones, who passed in 2012. As an only child, Paul came from a small family where each cared for the other. His grandmother passed away from Alzheimer’s, and his mother cared for her, which made an impact on him. Later, Paul cared for his mother. “Our family had a great sense of community,” he said.
Things are not like that now, though, according to Paul. “We live in the 21st century where we’re connected with everything, but we’re more disconnected than we’ve ever been. People are divided against each other. That’s not the neighborhood I grew up in. We had front porches. We’ve lost that.”
Paul and Renee want to metaphorically rebuild front porches. And they are doing it through their approach.
“Our goal is to build extended family,” he said.
In 2016, FirstLight had ten employees. Today, they have 60. But more impressive than that is their almost-90-percent employee retention rate in an industry that suffers from high turnover.
According to Paul, FirstLight has such a high retention rate “because of the way [Renee] has relationships with the caregivers. She’s the one that makes the magic happen.”
It goes back to beliefs and values. Paul believes “we [people] exist to build relationships and make a difference. That’s why we’re here in the world.”
His secret mission, he said, is to change the way people think about their work.
“We believe people are called to care for others. It’s our job to find them.”
“And the Winners Are” is a series highlighting Prince William Chamber of Commerce business award winners.
