Nurse Entrepreneur With A Passion For Building Care Businesses – Interview With Julia Akinyooye

Julia Akinyooye is the Chief Operating Officer at Emmanuel Consulting Agency Inc, a premium business consulting firm based in New York. Julia is a masters prepared professional Registered Nurse with over 15 years of experience serving the home care community as an operational consultant, homecare business owner, & serial entrepreneur. Her mission is to provide healthcare entrepreneurs, start-ups, & established businesses with premium training & education to ensure compliance with state regulations. She has developed & implemented frameworks & strategies to set owners up for success through hands-on execution of all necessary business tools to ensure a seamless & efficient run of business.

Julia Akinyooye RN MSN, Business and Clinical Consultant

Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better. 

Hi, I’m Julia! I am the Chief Operating Officer at Emmanuel Consulting Agency Inc, a premier business consulting firm based in New York. 

I'm a registered nurse with 16 years of experience. My background includes clinical and business consulting.

I started off as a bedside telemetry nurse at a NYC hospital and over the years, I have transitioned in the entrepreneurial space. I have owned and operated several businesses including home care agencies, fashion boutique, and a bed and breakfast. I have a passion for entrepreneurship and building businesses.

What is your business name and how do you help your clients?

The name of my company is Emmanuel Consulting Agency. We help businesses start-up, obtain licensure within their state, help cultivate their business and adhere to regulatory compliance.

What kind of audience do you target your business towards? 

We help all entrepreneurs whether they are non-clinical, clinical, individuals, corporations, or established business. Are specific niche audience is catered to. Health care organizations, home care agencies, and nurse led businesses. We serve all home care entrepreneurs, and we have a natural affinity to helping BIPOC home care business owners.

Do you have any upcoming events or program?

Yes, actually we are celebrating 8-year company anniversary today and in honor of that we are hosting a one of a kind round table conference called the NY LHCSA DPS conference in May 2023! The conference will be dedicated to sharpening home care agency Directors and Administrators. It will be a powerful event that will provide clarity for many and allow agency owners to build, connect, and collaborate. 

Where can they find more information about this event?

The details of the event is posted on our website. 

Who inspires you to be the best that you can be? 

That’s a great question. I would say God has been the push behind all my endeavors. He continuously propels me to do and be better. My family legacy has also propelled me. Knowing where I came from and the values that my family upholds it has inspired me to keep going. 

What is your work inspired by?

My work is inspired by the core values my company was founded on Quality, Transparency, Professionalism, Efficiency, Diligence, Knowledge, Trust, Honesty. Even when I worked for other companies as an employee, I have always held true to these values.

Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.

Honestly, there are so many. To say one is or was the greatest would be unfair. I do not necessarily feel one is greater than the other. I have helped so many agencies, and entrepreneurs make a living, create a legacy, and become financially free. I believe my dedication to the industry I serve, the value and solutions I provide for clients every day is my greatest career achievement. In helping my clients practice good business it trickles down to the patients which improves the quality of care they receive.

If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?

Hmm. That is a great question! I definitely have a pet peeve with the home care industry. I would say that I wished the industry was more proactive instead of reactive. I see so many agencies that operate out of compliance, out of fear, built on faulty foundations, and wait until the last minute to get their ducks in a row. It doesn’t have to be that way. It creates high stress for all parties involved. My clients know me for one common phrase I have shared over the years and that is ‘be audit ready at all times and not just when the state comes to audit”. I really just mean, do the right thing from the beginning and always do the right despite who is there or not there. When you operate that way you can sleep at night, your clients, employee, and business partners will be happy, and your business will prosper. Slowly but surely, we have been able to change this narrative as we have service offerings that we offer that solves this issue. our annual LHCSA compliance subscription model offerings help our clients seamlessly manage their compliance. The model makes it easy and simple to track and maintain compliance and saves our clients thousands of dollars every year and increases their profits in return. 

Our NY LHCSA DPS and Administrator’s Training Program for C-level executives gives C-Level executives the foundation and training to run a complaint agency, learn the rules of the industry, and effectively manage their teams.

Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve held a deep passion for nurturing and caring for people in the community – which is what led me into the homecare industry. My introduction into business and clinical consulting started in 2013 with helping an acquaintance with setting up his first home care business, which was motivated by the need to provide proper care for his aging mother. In that role, I was tasked with learning and understanding the rules and regulations of the homecare industry and I spent endless hours researching and working with state departments to understand the step-by-step process of how to build and properly operate a homecare business in New York State.

​During the build-out, in combination with my time as a nurse, I couldn't help but notice a great void in homecare operations and management. I’ve worked for several different agencies, including licensed homecare, certified home health agencies and managed long-term care insurance plans; where I noticed a consistent lack of homecare service delivery, quality of care, proper management skills, executive training and poor policy and procedure implementation. I got tired of witnessing the poor execution of business operations that were directly impacting patient care. So, I quit my job as C- level Director and Administrator and took a chance on myself. I applied my knowledge and expertise to establish my own business to help others who struggled in this space.

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