Staffing Agency Contract Help

[NedRN]

Contacts? Perhaps you mean contracts. Every single hospital will tell you that they have enough vendors to meet their needs. Other than being an already large established agency with experienced sales people, the best way in is to do a side run. Your contracts are not a selling point in any case, it is your profiles. In your case, your wife has a hot specialty, one that is in high needs. I'd recommend that she calls L&D managers directly and telling them she is interested in working there. That should turn into a mini-interview (managers like to save time), and prime the pump by telling her you have a favorite agency and do you care what agency you use? The manager could not care less, she just wants staff. Now when you contact HR/staffing, you can tell them that manager so and so wants to use one of your staff. Send them her profile and go from there with a rate and contract.

By the way, the easier path is not to cold call, but to call a previous manager who likes you. That smooths the conversation a lot. By the way, your wife's agency may have a do not compete clause in her contract prohibiting her from working at their client facilities for some length of time, usually 6 or 12 months. If they find out that she is working for their clients, they may have a legal case to enjoin her to stop.

This industry has a very low barrier to entry, which is why there are so many agencies. I've never done local agency, just travel, but fundamentally the two are very similar. With local though, I think you need to have nurses signed up ready to work for you (and perhaps willing to go through the same process as above) to get some critical mass. With travel, one traveler is enough. There may be local or state based regulation, especially if you will be doing home health. Except for maybe two states, there is not much regulation for travel nurse agencies.

If you Google my screen name and "independent nurses FAQ 108" you will find my description of starting a travel nurse agency. While it is a bit dated, this resource is still pertinent and better than the $100 to $500 "start your own agency" scams. It should give you a good framework for going forward.

Good luck!

[NedRN]

Just a professional hint, don't use phrases that some might take offense at. That includes "blessed". Keep your religious, ethnic, sexual and political thoughts completely opaque. Business is hard won, and easily lost and you may never know why you didn't get a contract. No big deal on an anonymous internet post, but even things you believe to mainstream said to a manager, HR, peer, doc, or patient can can circle back to bite you. By all means, in conversations that cannot be overheard by others, mirroring your client/patient/whoever is OK and even a good thing, but you don't want to force them to mirror you or be uncomfortable.

I say this as someone who knows this well from both sides. I'll leave it at that.

[NedRN]

I'm lost with the whole Business type I know that the S corp is one that a lot of small business owner use, but how do you set it up?

Have you ever used Google? In the search box, put your state and S corp, how to start. Ignore all the sites who want to charge you, they are all ripoffs. It is exactly the same amount of work to file the forms yourself.

[ryanstum15]

I searched for you on google and a couple of links pop up. How do I find this independent nurses FAQ 108 that you are talking about? Maybe I misunderstood the instructions. Thanks in advance for the info.

[ryanstum15]

I found it. Nice page. Now, I have 2 questions. 1 - When contacting the hospital to start a contract, do I openly mention that this is MY AGENCY that I desire to gain a contract with, or do I simply leave that out and just say I work for a small agency who does not have a contract with them yet? I just wasn't sure if hospitals mind you working for yourself. 2 - it seems there are a lot of requirements and things you must do to start your own agency/become an independent contractor. After paying for all these costs, I assume you still come out way ahead compared to allowing a travel agency to eat into your profits? And for argument sake, let's pretend that it is easy for me to get contracts. With that hypothetical, would I make a larger salary than an average travel nurse with an agency?

[NedRN]

The first query is a matter of style. I used my sister as a recruiter when I first started because I thought it unprofessional to do both. Yet I've never had a hint of negativity from hospitals that knew (impressed is the usual reaction) and it has helped me gain vendor manager contracts rather surprisingly. But on the other hand, I see nothing but potential downsides to staff knowing that you own the agency. Similar to talking about pay.

The second query is common. Your expenses are far lower than the industry's average gross profit margin of 24% and you are negotiating only for you. Does that answer that? On top of that the IRS treats businesses far better than employees.

[ryanstum15]

I really wish I could contact you someway easier and really pick your brain on this haha.. Every time I post on here, I always find your replies helpful. My next question is billing. How many months worth of funds should I have saved? For example, let's say I work 36 hours the first week of August. When will I receive that pay or what is the average time it takes to get paid? So for example if you say "nearly every hospital pays out monthly" then that means to be safe I should have 2 months worth of living expenses saved up.

2nd question - has there ever been a situation where a hospital just forgets to pay a lot or flat out doesn't pay at all, and if so, what do you do as your own travel agency? Sue? Bug them? Thanks in advance for all your help.

[NedRN]

Most questions are fine in the public forum and will benefit more members. I tell most private messengers to post their questions online. Some are offended, but as you can see, I do put some work into my posts and I like the idea that they may benefit more than just one person.

Also there is also a possibility that someone else will contribute a reply adding to the answer or pose an important related question that you didn't think of. I'm oldfashioned I suppose, but I see real value to public forums that you don't get with facebook or networking privately.

I invoice weekly on Monday for the prior week 30 days net. So you are at most, on average, only three weeks behind a weekly employee check.

A financial cushion of several months is a good idea even as a regular traveler. If you are ever terminated for any reason (including illness) it will often be a month before you have cash flow again.

I was a frugal and well paid traveler for 8 years before going independent so cash flow has never worried me.

Yes, even two months of delinquent accounts receivables is a concern for small fry like us. A lot of money in one basket. I declined to work at one hospital that had just declared bankruptcy as too much risk. A simple Google search for hospital name news is prudent due diligence.

I did a lot of work for a vendor manager that had previously declared bankruptcy. They had an escrow account to help soothe agencies and I've worked for one other hospital that had a secured account of some sort.

For my own contracts that I write, I use business standard terms of 30 days net. Late payments are contractually required to add 1% per month interest in late fees. That's good money so I'm always hopeful but I've never collected interest.

In general, hospitals have deep pockets so you can usually collect (in theory). I'd be wary of contracts with public hospital. While they have the backing of taxpayers and can't really go broke, it can take years to collect sometimes (I hear). Late payment seems to be the norm.

[ryanstum15]

Haha that's fine. I can make all these questions public, since I didn't really think about my questions helping anyone. Good idea. When I read that response, it almost sounded like sometimes hospitals don't pay? Is that a rare thing or nearly never or very often? For example, the job I want I have worked as a traveler there in the past and would like to get a contract with them as my own agency. I just don't want to go into this expecting it to be a safe living and it be very risky and me possibly work a month for free.. Lol Hope you get my concern. I have the drive and desire to do it, I would just like to pick your brain for the next week after each step you posted on your forum. Is it ok if I continue to ask questions as I get farther into the process?

[NedRN]

You are certainly in the right position to get a contract somewhere where they already know and like you. That is exactly how I suggest in the blog to do it.

There is always a business risk. That is why contracts exist so you can go after assets (a very long road) in court. As I said hospitals have deep pockets and assets so unless there is a bankruptcy involved you will always get your money. Hospital profits are booming so with a minimum of due diligence, there isn't much risk. But it is most certainly higher than employee status - they are first to be paid in a bankruptcy.

[ryanstum15]

Awesome. You're making all my thoughts about this seem logical. I'm going to do it for sure. I always tell myself, "Why am I using a middle man? Just go do it yourself." I sent you a direct message as well (only 1 I promise). Thanks a lot for your help.

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

Welcome to allnurses.com

We moved your thread to the Entrepreneur forum where you will receive the best responses.

Good luck with your plans.