Though not many people associate nursing with entrepreneurship, the two can actually go hand in hand. Healthcare startups can be fulfilling and lucrative enterprises and nursing expertise can help these ventures grow and find success.
However, much like any other line of business, it’s important to understand both the pros and cons of a specific venture before investing time, money, and other resources into its creation. This being the case, it’s important for nurses who are thinking about stepping into an entrepreneurial role to understand what they’re getting themselves into.
Here are the opportunities and risks for nurse entrepreneurs.
What Types of Businesses Can Nurse Entrepreneurs Create?
For nurses thinking about starting their own businesses, it’s important to understand what types of businesses they can create. The truth is that nurses can step into any realm of business that they feel confident and passionate about. However, health-related startups offer nurse entrepreneurs an advantage since they have specialized healthcare knowledge and expertise that they’ve developed over many years.
This being the case, stepping into a health-related venture is typically optimal for nurse entrepreneurs ready to make a name for themselves in the business world. In addition, health-related startups can be incredibly broad, ranging from product-oriented businesses to service-focused ones.
Before setting off on an entrepreneurial journey, however, nurses need to understand both the opportunities and risks associated with this type of venture. As such, doing key research before embarking on a startup venture is crucial to finding success in the health space as a nurse entrepreneur.
Exciting Opportunities for Nurse Entrepreneurs
Prior to choosing a startup path, it can be helpful for nurse entrepreneurs to get an idea of their options. During this process, it can help to be exposed to exciting business ideas that they can potentially pursue.
Some opportunities that nurse entrepreneurs can use their expertise to build include:
Nursing Informatics Service Provider
Nursing informatics is a field that is spreading like wildfire across healthcare facilities. In essence, the field fuses nursing and computer science to make data, such as patient data and medical research data, more accessible and useful for healthcare workers.
Given the rising demand for nursing informatics processes, nurse entrepreneurs have a chance to capitalize on this need in healthcare. By providing software solutions that harness the process of nurse informatics, nurses can help healthcare organizations improve their processes and ability to serve patients in important ways.
Nurses have valuable insights into how nurses function, their typical workflows, and the type of interfaces that are most conducive to their roles. This being the case, a nurse informatics startup is a great idea for any nurse entrepreneur with an interest in technology and improving healthcare facilities.
Health-Related Media
For nurses that are committed to helping others live healthy lives and want to share their specialized knowledge, a foray into health-related media can be an amazing startup choice. This type of business can take a variety of forms such as a blog website, a talk show, or a podcast. In addition, this type of media can cover many different topics ranging from tips to reduce healthcare costs to ways for nurses to avoid burnout.
In the case of media startups, the path to profitability often lies in advertising, which will come once one finds a following. To build a following, nurses have an amazing opportunity to share their specialized knowledge with either the general public or other professionals in the healthcare space.
What’s amazing about this nurse venture is that it allows nurses to utilize the knowledge they’ve gained throughout their nursing careers. As such, this is an amazing and accessible choice for any nurse with a desire to dip their toes into the world of entrepreneurship.
Risks Associated with Healthcare Startups for Nurse Entrepreneurs
While starting a business as a nurse can be an amazing and fulfilling opportunity, it can also come with its fair share of risks. While many nurse entrepreneurs may find it worth it to pursue the path of a founder despite these risks, it’s still important to understand what they are.
Some risks associated with healthcare startups and nursing entrepreneurship include:
Not Having a Proper Understanding of Business Processes
Though nurse entrepreneurs typically have strong motivation and specialized healthcare expertise, these don’t always translate well into business know-how. For many nurse entrepreneurs, this can mean failing as a business founder because of a lack of business understanding.
To avoid this risk, it’s vital for nurse entrepreneurs to be honest with themselves about their abilities and understanding of business. If one finds that one isn’t knowledgeable to start a business on one’s own, it’s important to enlist the help of people with business expertise.
Starting a Business That Has No Market
While there are many different businesses that nurse entrepreneurs can find success in, not all health-related businesses have a big enough market to be sustainable. This being the case, it’s important that no matter how enthusiastic nurse entrepreneurs are about their business vision they take the time to test their ideas.
When it comes to researching if there is a market for the product or service that one wants to provide, there are a variety of ways to go about testing the waters. This can be as simple as calling around to potential clients or as complex as hiring a specialized firm to perform research.
However nurse entrepreneurs go about it, it’s important to have certainty that there is a real demand for the products or services they wish to provide before starting a business.
Nurses Can Find Success as Entrepreneurs
Nurses have amazing insights into the healthcare space and the type of care that patients need to thrive. By utilizing this specialized knowledge, nurses have amazing opportunities to share their insights with the world and find success as business operators.
While there are risks associated with any entrepreneurial venture, taking the proper steps, and working hard to bring a vision to life can allow any nurse an opportunity to succeed as an entrepreneur.
