Nurses are often unaware of how valuable their knowledge and expertise can be. They also don’t realize how much having experience as a nurse and thorough knowledge of the profession can help them pivot to an entrepreneurial career. Thousands of nurses each year decide to start businesses, and a good portion of them succeed. It all starts with finding an area that interests you and seeing if there’s a market for it.
Here are a few business ideas you could try if you want to get started as a nurse entrepreneur.
Nurse Health Coach
Many nurses may feel limited in their roles since they have so little say in how a patient will be treated. If you’d like to have a more direct influence on your patients’ everyday choices, you should consider starting a business as a nurse health coach.
Your role will be to sit down and assess the situation of your client. You will then look at a few health objectives they might want to reach or would be better for them. You will have to make sure to follow up and monitor their progress. Watching people’s health improve thanks to your recommendations can be very fulfilling, as can the personal connections that you’ll have with the people you work with.
Start Your Faculty
Lots of experienced nurses decide to become teachers at a later point in their career. However, not enough consider the option of opening their own nursing school.
The very first thing that you’ll need is credentials. In this case, getting a DNP would be your best option. Also know that you can find many accelerated online DNP programs that will allow you to fast-track your transition from a BSN or MSN all while you keep your current position.
The next step will be to secure financing. If you think that this could be a tall task, know that you could also try to find other nurses who are in your situation who may want to partner up to open a school. You can then seek outside capital to get enough seed money to start spending on equipment and a location.
Once you have everything in place and have prepared your curriculum, you will need to get accredited both at the regional level and with the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission. If you want to know which regional accreditation body you need to work with, you can find out on the Department of Education’s website.
Legal Nurse Consultant
The job of a legal nurse consultant is to help with a variety of legal cases. There are many times when a lawyer or law enforcement may need to work with a legal nurse consultant. This is especially common in cases of malpractice, but a legal nurse consultant could be asked to work on things like health insurance fraud, for instance.
This is a great option for nurses who have a great sense of observation and attention to detail. This is also a great field if you want to set your own hours and enjoy more liberty.
Specialized Care and Training
If you’ve gained a very specific set of expertise in your career, know that there are many ways that you can capitalize on it. You could become a specialized care provider and work with one specific type of patient, such as people going through fertility treatments, for instance. Or, you could provide in-home care for seniors or people dealing with specific conditions.
Starting a training business could also be a good idea. You could provide childbirth training, teach first-aid classes or work with businesses and help provide training to their employees.
Nurse Blogger
This one is a great option if you’re creative. This is also a great job if you just want to try something on the side. Being a nurse blogger is pretty simple. All you have to do is find a niche, hosting, a domain, and you’re pretty much good to go. The main issue, however, is monetizing it. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways that you can do that.
You can sign up for Google display advertising and have ads featured on your site. You’ll get paid every time someone clicks on one of the ads. You could also use your page to promote another business you might have, or a book. You could set up an e-shop, or become an affiliate and display banner ads on your site. Getting people on your newsletter list can also be a great way to get in contact with them if you want to promote something at some point.
If you want to be successful with your blog, you need to find a specific niche and diversify your outlets. Blogs should always be accompanied by a YouTube channel, as one will create visibility for the other. You also want to pick something that you’re passionate about and will want to write about often.
Fitness Nurse
As a fitness nurse, you’ll need to be a fitness trainer, personal coach, and nutritionist all at the same time. You will be in charge of looking at the current lifestyle and fitness level of your clients and come up with a personal health plan that will take things like nutrition, habits, and physical activity into consideration. This is another great job if you want to enjoy more independence and work either from an office or on the go.
While you’re not obligated to do so, it would be wise to seek other qualifications in personal training and nutrition if you want to show your expertise and be more well-rounded. This is one of the best ways to combine your passions with your business if you love nutrition and fitness.
These are just a few ideas of businesses that you could start as a nurse. We suggest that you consider all of these options and look at exactly what you need to do to start and be successful.
