A ‘Cottage’ for Aging Boomers

We’re highlighting small businesses from around the country as nominated by you, our readers. If your favorite small business is using Twitter to communicate with customers, let us know about it @fbsmallbiz with the hashtag #mysbc, and it may be featured as an upcoming Small Business Spotlight.

Small Business Spotlight: N2Care

Who: Ken Dupin, president and CEO, @MEDCottage

What: The MedCottage, a portable hospital room

Where: Blacksburg, Va.

When: 2010

How: The MedCottage was designed with help from experts at Virginia Tech, and is up and running in a market that is preparing for baby boomers to retire. The “granny pod” has surveillance cameras, as well as Web portals that can monitor the patient’s vital signs.  Dupin says his six employees deal with two distributors, in order to minimize risk.

“[The business] is doing extremely well. We have a lot of demand for the product,” he said. “The cost varies from $55,000 to $125,000.”

Because the structure is about the size of a shed and sits outside the property, he said the company has hit some bumps with zoning laws in certain areas that prevent the structure from being built.

Quote from the owner:  “We are still in what people call the ‘angle phase’ of the business,"  he said. “The problem that we are having getting financing is that this doesn’t fit any category the banks use for financing.”