Raising the Standard of Care: How Jannyell Hines Built HeartServ Home Agency

Jannyell Hines has served South Bend’s elderly and disabled communities as a professional caretaker since she was 19. Over the two decades she worked in the field, she noticed a persistent problem in local home care. While caretaking is a profession that requires personable and communicative service providers, caregivers hired to perform these tasks often do not strive to meet these basic standards of the profession.

“Many times, clients won’t even know the name of their agency,” Hines observed. “Caregivers must connect with clients to the point where they can make a long-lasting impression. Having them know who we are [as a business] is key. ”

Hoping to provide “services in excellence” to South Bend, Hines decided to launch her own home care firm in late 2024: HeartServ Home Agency. Initially, she lacked the financial resources and business knowledge to launch a full-scale venture. But she watched YouTube videos, reviewed social media and leveraged Google search to educate herself on Indiana’s policies and procedures for personal service licensing. To deepen her business skills, she eventually enrolled in the South Bend Entrepreneurship & Adversity Program (SBEAP), an 11-month boot camp that educates disadvantaged entrepreneurs on venture development. Hines credits the official program handbook with accelerating her path to success. The book, distributed to all program members, outlines the steps necessary to launch, manage and scale a profitable and sustainable venture.

“I can’t talk about SBEAP without mentioning 80 Steps to Sustainable Success by Dr. Morris and Susan McDonald,” she said. “This book allowed me to break down the entrepreneurial journey and build a deeper understanding [of the process].”

She learned, for example, that developing her money management skills would be key: individuals from low-income backgrounds often lack exposure to basic financial literacy. The planning phase explained in the book taught her about budgeting, fair wages and proper pricing.

After completing SBEAP, Hines dedicated herself full-time to developing HeartServ. To advance the agency’s mission (“help others lead happy and healthy lives”), she seeks not only to provide high-quality services but also address household resource gaps.

“We serve families who lack care and resources. We connect them with housing opportunities. For those who struggle with food security, we partner with vendors to bridge need gaps. We provide more than in-home care—we give them peace-of-mind. You don’t see that in this industry.”

HeartServ’s team has grown to include 15 caretakers. For anywhere from two to 16 hours a day, HeartServ provides and assists clients with companionship, housekeeping, transportation, errands and household chores. Each month, Hines leads in-office training sessions for her employees to ensure her company provides consistent quality across care. Determined to continue improving HeartServ by maximizing efficiency, she also drops by SBEAP’s Collaboration Hub weekly for business advice.

“I regularly visit the student consultants at the Collaboration Hub to learn what is working and what is not,” she said. “I like to take things I didn’t know before and use them to pivot so I can continue scaling.”

Currently, she is learning how to utilize online platforms for record keeping; at the moment, she is digitizing caregiver and client applications instead of relying on paper files.

In the future, Hines aspires to continue caring for South Bend through philanthropic efforts. By establishing a program that provides home care education, training and resources to impoverished individuals, she hopes to provide local opportunities for professional and entrepreneurial development.