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I am confident and comfortable at what I do now however, the thought of running my own business scares me – where do I start?!

Having your own business seems like a great idea but how do I go about the day to day? I know in my current role how the work flows and I have little to no idea how to set that up myself, you may ask yourself.

Let’s work backwards and see if you don’t already know?

Having a business model in mind and a more importantly a business plan and how to execute it are your first steps. How many clients do you need to see a day, and a how much are your costs?

Without this important information it is difficult to gauge what is required and whether it is remotely achievable…

Many people I have worked with in private practice have ‘winged it’ and hoped it would all come together, something would turn up, or the patients would just arrive… Procrastination is a gift we are all blessed with in many ways and it can help us get the right amount of pressure to take action or sometimes we can spend too much time in that state and be paralysed.

The most succesful people I have met in business have a business plan and model resolved, and they execute to it, they are proactive and have little to no spare time. To achieve the goals of the business much time is required to feed the funnels of that business as much as doing the work itself.

These business people know the following;

How much income they need to make each hour – engaging in activities that will pay the bills and keep the business profitable. Ensuring they do not become overly involved in projects that will work in the future to the point of excluding the necessary work that need to be done today.

Knowing the cost of doing business – being across the costs of doing business and minimising the surprises.

How to find business – to keep the business running there needs to be a source of clients and that takes work, marketing your business or prospecting for work. There will be a rate of conversion and better places to predate than not and ensuring time is spent in the productive areas only.

Allocating time appropriately– making the time spent ‘on’ the business and ‘in’ the business meaningful will prevent you being caught out or having surprises – scheduling your time to be successful.

To manage your own business is achievable and attainable, if you plan accordingly. It is within the reach of all of us. We all know what to do, ‘the devil is in the detail’ and having a plan, – and more importantly doing it.

Working in your own business is exciting and rewarding, but it does take a lot of work and energy to appear relaxed and for it to all fall into place.

Have you recently started in your own business, or have planned to, and wondered how you could make it all come together?

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Having credibility in business instills confidence and trust in your provided services and products. Prior to purchasing something today, most people will do some research. You need to have a profile and you need to exist in the right places to be found.

People need to trust you and think of you as a person they want to work with. Building a profile or reputation takes time and energy. Given that you may in business already or are contemplating it suggests that you will have a profile already.

Recognising your profile and knowing its influence already is one thing, what it can do is another thing. Being comfortable with who you are is necessary before you can market your profile to your potential audience.

This will require some rethinking of how your position yourself in your mind. People are your audience and with some reflection you will identify patterns in your audience. Appealing to your audience and understanding what they need will identify strategic direction.

When I reflect on some of the personalities I have met and worked with it strikes me the most successful people are those that are infected with doing all they can for their patients , clients or customers. Appreciating the market (audience) and where it is at currently and anticipating what the market needs is the key to being credible.

Building a profile that is in concert with those needs is critical. Being a person whose profile allows people to identify with and want to work with is the key.

Remove barriers to allow your audience to get to know you, and what sort of person you are, allow them to understand how you form your points of view. Give people opportunities to engage with you in a safe environment that allows them to fell comfortable. Vehicles that can assist you to achieve this are mediums like blogging, podcasting or vlogging or face to face events where people can meet you

The audience needs to recognise there is more to gain from the transactions with you than not working with you.

One business director I worked with recalled how she introduced herself to all her business partners and her network. All the people who worked with her knew her and did business with her, she wanted more. Hosting an evening in her rooms and putting on a ‘meet and greet’ evening allowed her network to get to know each other. This gave her credibility because those people that worked with her may not have realised all the other people that worked with her to and the amount of reach she has, and they were all together in the same room.

The effects were large, it not only gave more credibility to her profile it also gave comfort to others to see she had the trust of so many. This evening provided not only a great networking opportunity it also provided a great of confidence in her and her business. Needless to say the business grew subsequently because she had reduced people’s anxiety about what here business was all about and the effect it had others.

Building a profile can be done in lots of ways, you need to gain and build trust and be someone people want to work wiht and the rest will fall into place. Having a profile people can identify with, and find easily is the key and the internet provides limitless opportunities for people to get to know you are endless.

How did you grow your profile, are you easy to find for your patients and customers, what were your challenges to grow your business?

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Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash

People make decisions about where they want to go to purchase their goods or services that is usually based around value. Value can be mean many things to people, it might be the literal sense – money, or it might be around something unique, or a feeling, an emotion, geography…etc. the list could be endless.

To give yourself the edge in your business you need to have defined what your ‘edge’ or ‘point of difference’ is. It might simply be you, or it might be the speed you can deliver an outcome or product, or efficiency or expertise, or all of these.
The value of working with you or your business needs to be authentic and unique, to help you stand out and give you the opportunity to brand and sell that value.

This maybe a new way you look at yourself or your work, it is essential to embrace and harness this philosophy in promoting your brand and its value.

To attract business you need to have a way of raising people’s awareness of you and your business and brand. Aiming to be different in a way will help you stand out, and gain people’s attention to consider the decision to choose you over other competitors, that becomes your point of difference.

If you imagine you are one of your intended customers, what is available to them now? By analysing and assessing the current market and understanding what the level of service is or product offerings are. This analysis may help you identify opportunities where you might want to distinguish yourself and your business.

Be bold and dream big!

This provides you a great opportunity to demonstrate how your business can deliver efficiently and quickly. Being nimble and able make changes quickly will deliver an environment where great ideas can be executed into reality without layers of bureaucracy and review. Delivering the most up to date services will keep you at the forefront of the market.

Recognising your worth and point of difference is vital and equally marketing it, is fundamentally important. It can be easy to under-estimate that, what you perceive as ‘obvious’ may and in most cases won’t be, and will more than likely be unique and valuable. The value of being you, is something others cannot be, only you can be you. Importantly, do not to take that fact for granted when marketing yourself as a business. It may seem small, but it is huge, defining and very important.

Many great ideas are not realised because they seem so obvious.
Why would you waste your time doing that?…well the fact no one does it, or has done it, makes it so easy to do and set yourself apart from your competitors.
The best ideas are often the simplest, as the saying goes – simplicity is elegant.

What is your point of difference and how did you decide on it?

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Having worked with many nurses in private practice or their own business or enterprise, the biggest challenge I see, is that it can be difficult for some nurses to accept themselves as business people.

There can be a reluctance to accept that they are valuable business providers, and have a great deal of value to offer and sell.

Let’s look at some of the reasons nurses struggle with getting paid for their work directly from their clients. Some of the reasons may include:

• Not feeling comfortable with asking to be paid, a sense of embarrassment or awkwardness

This may be a new paradigm to some nurses. Doing business in the economy predicates on exchanging products or services for a reasonable fee. A business does not feel awkward or uncomfortable to request payment, the community as a whole willingly participates with businesses daily and understand and accept that fact.

Being a business yourself is challenging, especially when it is new, however you will notice that your clients’ expectations are probably not dissimilar to your own. Ask to be paid, and be reasonable. Do not avoid asking to be paid or be embarrassed, if you do not ask it can lead to people working for no fee at all. Your clients may even say to you ‘You can’t run a business like that, – charge me properly, I appreciate everything you do for me, please let me pay!”

• Running your practice as a business and not as a service.

Running a business requires you to drive activities that will lead to business. This maybe a change in workflow for some, you need to create a business opportunity and then deliver it, rather that just serving.

Either through promotion, or referral of clients to the business, this is one of the larger parts of running a business – promotion rather than service, this can be a paradigm shift  that is difficult for some nurses. Be that creating strategic partners with referrers or health care providers, your interest is vested, you need to sell your business to your market,-your clients both internal and external.

I suppose you are working ‘on’ the business, and less ‘in’ the business is one way you could look at it.

The dynamic with your patients now changes a little, this may lead to an awkwardness, which you will need to come to terms with. Familiarity will grow as you begin to see yourself as a business person, and you will begin to feel proud and less awkward as time progresses, leading to acceptance.

Being an innovator or disruptor can be a lonely place but it will be rewarding in the longer term, and doesn’t mean literally in the financial sense.

Appreciating the difference your business will deliver you and your clients, will change you and your perceptions, and others will sense that, and new understandings will be accepted as the everyday.

‘Do the things you fear most,’ and put yourself into the awkward situations to grow and challenge yourself to embrace the change.

Taking the first steps into running a business can be the hardest, the next steps are up to you.

Have you taken the first steps in starting a private practise or enterprise, what were your experiences?

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Welcome to the first blog at Entrepreneurial Nurse – Business Development for Nurses. It is my aim to provide a valuable forum for nurses contemplating transitioning from a traditional clinical nursing role to that of pursuing a private business or recognising an entrepreneurial dream.

I intend to use podcasting as another medium to interview others who have succeeded and share their experiences. Gaining insights from business people who have relevance and context to help nurses become stronger business directors and present alternate points of view.

Have you considered providing an alternate practice of nursing via a less orthodox channel?

Have you considered being a nurse entrepreneur or business director?

I am sure many people have considered it and have dismissed it , because they didn’t know how or didn’t think they could, maybe you can relate to some of this?

For example, a Diabetes Educator, may work in a large public hospital which has it attractions, and it may present opportunities to meet patient’s unmet needs. In order to deliver diabetes education services to those patient’s unmet needs there maybe significant challenges to overcome, heirachial structures and or policies that make it unachievable.

If that Diabetes Educator established their own enterprise, what are the limitations? Be bold with your ideas and dream large!

Why do people make this change, and how do you go about it?

These simple statements lead to so many questions and thoughts, that can occupy your mind for a lot of your time.

*Can I offer a better service for my clients via a different model?

*I would like to do more with my nursing career but do it different way

*I really enjoy Nursing and would love to have my own practice.

You might have come up with a great idea for a business or practice and then when you pursue your thoughts you get lost in the detail, or it might be a case of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know!’

I hope this blog helps you learn from others that have done it, what they may have done differently, and what they would never do again.

Establishing your business or practice in the right way in the beginning can make the whole process a lot simpler, I.E., making sure you partner with the right partners and don’t have to undo a lot of bad decisions and start again. Being strategic pays dividends…

I would be keen to hear your thoughts that help shape agassoc to be a useful and meaningful resource to you. I am here to serve you and provide you with the information you need, so please engage with me and join the conversation and share your experiences.

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