A Small Business Built Around Staying Put

With nearly one in four Moore County residents aged 65+, a home concierge service could fill a growing gap for seniors 

11:13 a.m. Sept. 11, 2026

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and final installment in a Moore Business series looking at small businesses that could fit Moore County’s size, workforce, traffic, and economy. The idea has not been to pitch growth for growth’s sake. It has been to look for gaps where a small operator could make a living here by solving a problem people already have.

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

Not every good business idea for Moore County needs tourists coming through the front door. This one does not need a storefront, a spot on the Square, or much foot traffic at all because the customers are already here.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, 23.3% of Moore County residents are 65 or older. That is nearly one person in four.

Moore County’s 2026 community profile from the Middle Tennessee Industrial Development Association shows one nursing home with 88 beds – no retirement home and no residential care or assisted living facility.

That does not mean somebody ought to run out and borrow millions of dollars to build one. There is a smaller business within the data.

Start with the house they already have

Most older folks do not wake up one morning hoping to move somewhere else. If they can safely stay in the house they know, plenty would rather do exactly that.

Keeping that house going is another matter.

A furnace filter needs changing. The smoke-detector battery starts chirping. A porch rail gets loose. Somebody needs to meet the plumber Tuesday morning or figure out why the television quit talking to the Wi-Fi.

None of those jobs is especially complicated. Put enough of them together, though, and they become a burden — particularly for someone who no longer climbs ladders, drives after dark, or wants to fool with an app just to make the thermostat work.

They can be a burden on the family, too.

That is where an aging-in-place home concierge could earn its keep: a trusted local company that handles the small stuff and keeps someone from having to find a different person every time something needs to be done.

The service could include routine home inspections, light handyman work, filter and bulb changes, minor safety improvements, technology help, and coordination with lawn crews or other contractors. Grocery pickup and transportation coordination might fit, too, depending on Tennessee licensing rules.

The point is not to become a home-health company in disguise. It is to make living at home easier.

The person paying may live somewhere else

The older resident may be the one receiving help, while the bill comes from an adult son or daughter trying to manage things from elsewhere.

A daughter in another town may gladly pay somebody she trusts to stop by once a week, look around the house, handle a short list, and tell her everything is fine. One phone number beats spending Wednesday morning trying to find somebody who can replace a porch light, check a leaking faucet, or meet the heating-and-air man.

She is not really paying for a furnace filter. She is paying for one less thing to worry about.

That could be a monthly charge for regular visits, with extra work billed separately. Some families may want a regular home check and seasonal safety once-over; others may need more frequent visits or somebody to meet contractors and make sure the work got done.

Either way, the owner starts the month with work already on the calendar instead of waiting on the phone to ring.

Trust is the product

This business would not take much real estate, but it would take something harder to acquire: trust.

You are going into somebody’s home. You may know where the spare key is kept. You may be the person an adult child calls when Dad is not answering the phone or when a storm rolls through, and they want somebody to check the house.

That calls for careful hiring and background checks. Insurance needs to be right, and customers need to know who is coming through the door. After a visit, there ought to be a plain record of what was checked and anything that needs attention, with a photo when it helps.

In a place the size of Moore County, reputation will do more selling than a stack of mailers ever could. Do good work, answer the phone, and show up when you said you would, and people will talk.

Miss appointments or send strangers into Grandma’s house without explaining who they are, and people will talk about that, too.

Know what you can offer

There is one wrinkle here, and anybody building this business needs to settle it before printing the first brochure. “Non-medical” does not automatically mean “unregulated.”

Tennessee regulates some personal support services, and that can extend further than most people might think. Depending on exactly what the company offers, things such as transportation or certain kinds of household help may fall under state rules.

So draw the service list carefully before opening the doors. Check it with the proper state office and somebody who understands Tennessee licensing.

There is still plenty of work on the home side of the line: checking a house, handling small repairs, helping with technology, meeting contractors, and making simple safety improvements. Just know where that line is before a customer asks for something beyond it.

Start small enough to learn the route

This is the kind of company that could begin with one owner, one vehicle, a phone, a set of tools, and a reliable list of local tradespeople.

There is no reason to start with six employees and four counties. Begin in Moore County. Build a route instead of scattering appointments all over Middle Tennessee. Learn how long the visits really take and which jobs keep coming back.

The first dozen customers would probably teach the owner more about the business than any consultant could. Home maintenance may turn out to be the bread and butter, while families living farther away may care most about having somebody check the house and send word back.

You learn that by doing the work, not guessing at it. Once the Moore County route is full enough to justify it, the same idea can move outward into southern Coffee County, northern Lincoln County, and Franklin County.

Rural geography works against plenty of businesses because customers are spread out. Here, a tight route helps. If the truck is already headed down that road Thursday morning, another customer a few miles away makes a lot more sense.

A customer measured in years

A restaurant sells supper tonight and has to sell another one tomorrow. A tourist may buy a shirt, head home, and never buy another thing here.

This kind of work can stick around longer. If an older resident trusts somebody to help keep the house going, that relationship may last years. The same is true for the son or daughter paying the bill and trying to keep tabs on things from somewhere else.

A small company does not need a crowd coming through the door every Saturday. It needs enough households that want dependable help and keep wanting it month after month.

Some customers may stay a year. Others may keep calling for five or more. If the work is good and the trust holds, there is no reason to go hunting for a brand-new customer every morning. And when the Moore County route gets full, the same truck can head toward another rural community where families are dealing with much the same thing.

Parents are getting older. Their children have jobs, families, and sometimes a long drive between them and home. Meanwhile, the gutters still clog, the batteries still chirp, and somebody has to be there when the repairman finally says he can come by Tuesday afternoon.

There may be a business in simply being the person who shows up.