Starting a Nursing Agency

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Hello all and Happy New Years!

Well I am not too sure on where to place this thread, so if it is in the wrong forum, I apologize.

To start, I am still in school, this will be my 3rd semester. I am currently in the pre-req stages and coming into my Algebra and Sciences, so I still have a bit to go before I start with any of the Nursing classes.

Anywho, I have been giving it a lot of thought on starting a Nursing agency. My mother is a LPN and seems to like that more over than working as a perm. I have owned a few business in my past that made me a VERY good deal of money, but also in the end, left me in financial ruins (not on my personal part & hence the reason of starting school again at 37) and it is such a difficult thing to get back into when there is no money or willing lenders, but I so desperately want another business. With something like a Nursing agency, there is very little start up and you can work from your home, so in theory this is perfect for me.

What I would like to know is if there is any info out there that someone here has read or can give a legitimate thumbs up on. If you google " I want to start a Nursing Agency " or the like, you will find yourself in a sea of books, CDs, and services; it is almost sensory overload, lol. I just want to know what would be the "BEST" info out there to read/buy that will give it to you STRAIT and TRUE. I know how to run a business, but I am sure there are certain "INs and OUTs" that one must know about when dealing with staffing for Health Care; this is what I need.

Well if anyone has any insight, views or opinions please feel free to post ;)

Ciao,

Eddie

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

You're going to need a lot of contacts at local hospitals and nursing homes.

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You're going to need a lot of contacts at local hospitals and nursing homes.

This I know, lol, and am not too worried about; I can sell Snow to Eskimo:smokin:

Thank you for your reply!

Eddie

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This I know, lol, and am not too worried about; I can sell Snow to Eskimo:smokin:

Thank you for your reply!

Eddie

I am just saying, you know you have to be honest and truthfull as a nurse. You can not sell them good healthcare as a nurse, you have to provide it. I must say, if I were going to open a business, healthcare is where it would be. Good Luck

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

moved to entrepreneurs in nursing forum...check previous discussions here.

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I am just saying, you know you have to be honest and truthfull as a nurse. You can not sell them good healthcare as a nurse, you have to provide it. I must say, if I were going to open a business, healthcare is where it would be. Good Luck

I agree 10000%!!! Thank you :)

Eddie

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moved to entrepreneurs in nursing forum...check previous discussions here.

ahhhh....

i was sure that there would have been a specific forum for this, but i did not see it. thank you for moving :)

eddie

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Specializes in CVSICU, case mgmt., Psych, education.

Quite frankly I don't think being a nurse is a requirement to running an agency, but it will certainly give you an advantage once you become one. If you are an entrepreneur and a nurse, both of these will help you in your endeavors. Your eyes will be more open to what a hospital wants as an organization and what a nurse wants as an employee (contracted or perm.).

Pick the brains of nurses who have used agencies for temp.-perm. placement. This is a good start. The hard part is finding someone in HR, specifically a hospital, but they are good resources also. It would be good to have some back office software for tracking time and employee information. Quickbooks does a good job with a variety of tasks, but I think something more specific to nursing would be better about tracking specific jobs/hours worked.

Look for specific business plans that outline the nursing agency process. There are plans that you can view for free, some you have to buy. I don't really have any specific ones right now. I am currently an IC and looking to write a new business plan for a small nurse agency. The one tricky thing I am trying to figure out in my negotiations will be payment. I think being an IC is a good thing in this economy, but sometimes getting paid for the job might take longer than before. Everything I do now is net 30 and all of my smaller clients pay me within a week, but some of these larger institutions tend to drag their feet a bit. Their employees get paid first, but if I can underbid the other agencies by a significant margin then my hope is that they will want to pay me within that 30 day time frame since they will essentially be saving money. It's going to take some selling and a strong contract to back up my assets.

I don't have any books I have read specifically on this, but one book I like right now is Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki. Nothing to do with the nursing business, but it really helps you cut to the chase on many different levels.

Still....I think it's a great time to start.

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Phatlipboards,

Thanks for the info, I am sure it will come in handy at some point :)

While I was searching for info, I stumbled across some GREAT info, which led me to MORE Great Info, lol...

For one, did you know that per the IRS, it is ILLEGAL to employ a Nurse as an Independent Contractor. A lot of these book and CDs you find on Google are giving BAD and sometime Illegal information. I talked to a woman by the name of Pat Bemis and she, a very nice lady, enlightened me on some things to say the least. In fact, she is professional witness in a court hearing regarding some kind of issue about the 'CRAP" being sold on the Internet.

One thing that has discouraged me was that she said that it takes aprox. $180K to start a Nursing Agency. I was hoping that something like this would be a LOW COST home/internet based business. Well need less to say, I don't have $180K let alone half that even. So I guess it is another slap in the face, but I still don't see why it would cost that. I don't know....

Well here is the info that I found. Enjoy ;)

http://www.nnba.net/facts-nursing-agency.htm

With this next link, Mrs. Bemis said to pay attention to the "HEALTH CARE SERVICES POOLS" section all the way at the bottom.

http://ahca.myflorida.com/mchq/health_facility_regulation/Home_Care/definitions.shtml

This Next Link is AWSOME, I just wish it was not such a PITA to find, lol.

http://www.nursefriendly.com/nursing/directory/nursingentrepreneurs/starting.a.nursing.agency.htm

Well I hope this helps someone here ;)

Eddie

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Specializes in CVSICU, case mgmt., Psych, education.

Thanks For the links Eddie. I have actually visited Pat's site. Sorry I didn't post that before.

As far as the IRS is concerned, yes, a business owner has to be careful on how this is set up. When I do a contract for someone or client basically hires me, they are hiring my corporation. Essentially they are subcontracting my services. I bill through my corporation and receive payments made out to my corporate name. I then pay myself a reasonable salary, which I pay taxes, FICA, medicare, and unemployment on each check I write to myself (I pay myself monthly). I then pay quarterly estimated taxes to the IRS and to the state of Colorado electronically. It's fairly easy once you get it set up.

I keep corporate records, meeting minutes, etc. so that if the IRS ever audits me, then they can see that I am actually a true corporate entity. Quite frankly I just think they are happy as long as someone is paying the taxes for the work I am doing. It is just like any service that I have provided in other industries. If I am consulting on something, giving billable advice, or just providing some type of service, I send the company a bill. It is up to me to then follow the IRS rules when I pay my employees or myself.

Also, on the agency startup. I have heard of folks starting up for much much less than that. The biggest concern is having enough cash on hand to pay your employees. Even if you are net 30 with a hospital, that of course doesn't mean you'll get your check at the end of the month. There is a possibility that it could turn into a billing nightmare, but once you start getting in some of that revenue you just start building up that "bank" of cash for when it happens again.

I did just talk to a nurse briefly the other day and she actually said that she is an IC and has a couple of contracts in Denver. Once you get your foot in the door then of course it becomes a little easier. She basically does the same thing except she incorporated her own name. She bills, gets a check, deposits it into the company account and then writes a paycheck to herself taking out the necessary taxes, etc. just to keep the "wolves" at bay.

I'm going to read through some of this info. Thanks again.

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it definitely did help eddie. i did a google search also and ran across a couple sites selling start-up books, don't know if they're legit though. anyone mind telling me which ones are legit and actually helpful with running an agency..

http://www.nursingagencybook.com/

http://www.125aday.com/books/284/start-nursing-agency.cfm

http://www.nursingagencybusiness.com/

http://www.nursingagencysuccess.com/

http://www.independentrncontractor.com/

http://www.nurseagencystartup.org/

and then there was this blog that was also had a book attached to it.. http://healthcarestaffingagency.blogspot.com/

found a couple other ones too but these are the ones that popped up the most and seemed 'popular' . let me know what you think

oh and btw if you happen to come across any more sites with some more insight keep me posted.

thanks again guys, talk soon.

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Trnurse,

Well I am glad it was helpful for you :)

When I talked to Mrs. Bemis, she said that 99% of the books on the Google Market are not good, they give false, old and sometimes illegal info. Deff do your research, but I would stick to the links I posted for some real help. You can call Mrs. Bemis, she will answer your questions.

Good luck!!!

Eddie

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