Nurse Entrepreneur Roll Call!

Nurses Entrepreneurs

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I would love to get an idea of what other nurse entrepreneurs are up to. Would anyone be willing to share what their business is? Even if you haven't yet implemented your business plan, I'd love to hear from you!

Please include what your business (or planned business) is, your location, how long you have been in business, and any other information that may be helpful.

Thank you!

Hi! I started a home care business in January. It has been pretty slow from the start but it seems to be slightly picking up. I provide non-medical companion and personal care to seniors in California. There are lots of regulations so it have a a little difficult finding my way through , workers comp, payroll taxes, etc. I have learned a TON, I just hope 2018 is the year I can earn a paycheck! LOL I am paying for the name through my cousin but plan to make my own brand when the contract is done in a couple years. Anyone else doing this?

How is your business going? Did it get off the ground? I started one this year and so far it's slow.

Hello JulsGirlBoss ,

I too am in CA and have been looking for ways to become an entrepreneur, specifically in home care. However I am not yet an RN (applying this Fall) just a CNA at the moment. But I was hoping you can share with me the process it takes to open such a business? Resources, cost, California laws, policies, Insurance etc ? I am pretty much planning my long term goals and would appreciate any info you may have :)

Hello JulsGirlBoss ,

I too am in CA and have been looking for ways to become an entrepreneur, specifically in home care. However I am not yet an RN (applying this Fall) just a CNA at the moment. But I was hoping you can share with me the process it takes to open such a business? Resources, cost, California laws, policies, Insurance etc ? I am pretty much planning my long term goals and would appreciate any info you may have :)

Hi Angel_11,

Honestly, because this business has not taken off after 18+mos., I have decided to close it in June. It has been way to expensive here in CA for me to continue, having had the same 2 clients for the past 7 mos. and no more. My community just can't support this since it now seems that most of the seniors here in the Central Valley are on gov. assistance and cannot afford care. There is a lot of private care here which costs a lot less. It is very sad as there is no other agency here in town or within 45 min.

The state has raised the licensure fee $500 and I can't afford $5600. Payroll taxes are also awful. Make sure you do your research. Depending on where you are at, it could be a very lucrative business! I have a great scheduling system that was pretty expensive but so worth it. Quickbooks cost money for bookkeeping but makes things very easy. Advertising costs $$ as well (newspaper and Facebook) and to keep some costs down, I went to all the churches, hospital, rehab, hair salons, doctors, PT, chiropractic, social workers, and lawyers in town to distribute a folder of info. I only received 4 clients from all that marketing. Neither are my current clients.

Other factors involved in start up are your phone service(I used an Ooma phone - internet based), website, your , surety bond, and workers comp ($$$). And hiring costs a fair amount to be considered as well: I spend around $150 per person which includes finger printing, drug screen, TB test, and uniform, not to mention supplies, paperwork, locking file cabinet, etc. The license app itself is about a 20 page app and must include your paid insurance, w.c., LLC, policies/procedures, etc.

I got my biz name from my cousin in MI and am paying her for the use of the name. MI has no regulations at this time so it was tons easier for her to get going. She's got a great business going! But it has been an incredible learning experience and I wouldn't have changed a thing! It was a big risk and I wouldn't have known if it would fly, had I never tried.

So, if you still have questions, feel free to email me :)

Julie

[email protected]

1 Votes

Pfiesty, I would love to get some advice about how you started your DME company.

On 11/21/2017 at 4:02 PM, Nurse Elisha said:

I started my own foot care nursing business and my own nurse consulting business. I built these up and sold them after 3 years. What I do now is Nurse Elisha. I help the aspiring nurse entrepreneur start their own businesses. It is great ? I love the nurses I work with. I help them gain clarity and direction and provide actionable steps that get their business up and running.

How is your foot care business going? How did you gain clients? I would love some marketing tips for a foot care business if you have any!

Thank you in advance!

@Narukersand she said she built it up and sold it after 3 years.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Burn/Trauma, Med-Surg, Nurse Education.
On 4/14/2016 at 5:35 PM, TeaCea said:

I am surprised by the lack of nurses who responded...I wonder if a lot of nurses shy away from business because they are truly not interested or because they don't have the support and/or know how.

I definitely think it's the latter. I've been a nurse for almost 10yrs and am now seeing how opportunistic it is for entrepreneurship in nursing.

1 Votes
Specializes in Home Care, Palliative Care, Elder Care.

I started a private home care business for seniors in 2010 and have been running it since then. It took me a while to consider myself an "entrepreneur" and I'm Canadian so anything to do with private health care is a bit tricky here....but there is such a need for private care at home. I stuck with it and it's been very successful!

I have such a great team now, that I actually started a new business! Now I run a website on the side that is focused on helping other people start their own private home care business with forms, documents, templates.

2 Votes
Specializes in Community Integrated Svcs, PeriOperative Svcs..
TheSocialMediaCoach said:

My two cents. ( unasked for ha!)...It amazes me that Nurses, Lawyers, Accountants and others....are taught how to do their very important job....yet they not taught how to Brand + earn money for themselves!

This would be shooting big business, corporations, entities in the foot though, wouldn't it!? ?

1 Votes

Well, no. Established and efficient businesses have nothing to fear from entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs only make up a small fraction of one percent of most types of workforces. 
 

Using myself as an example, I set up my own travel nurse agency to cut out the agency. That's just one nurse out of some 50,000 + travel nurses. I'm going to guess no more than about 200 nurses do the same thing as me. No agency is losing sleep over these numbers. 
 

To extend this example, of these 200 travelers will go on to establish an agency with a critical mass of travelers. The travel industry has what is called in business a low barrier to entry. In other words, it is easy to start an agency on a shoestring. As such, the industry is very fluid with about 10% of agencies failing every year and a similar number of new agencies starting up. 
 

However, few of these 200 travelers are in that number. Most come from industry insiders at agencies with industry contacts (and address books) and experience running an agency that makes reaching critical mass far faster. 

2 Votes
Specializes in Community Integrated Svcs, PeriOperative Svcs..

There are many options out there for nurses as an alternative to the bedside... far more than there used to be. And with our system(s) at such critical mass for nurse burnout & disillusionment, we cannot afford to lose any, truly. And yet that's exactly what's happening. More & more nurses are looking at alternatives to the bedside, even leaving the industry altogether. I'm one of them, which I never anticipated. So, I do feel that teaching nurses how to brand themselves & giving them business (nurse-preneur) options could be somewhat detrimental from the viewpoint of the health systems. Just my 2¢. 

1 Votes
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