10 business ideas that are perfect for nurses
Are you an aspiring NursePreneur looking for inspiration? Here are 10 business ideas that are perfect for nurses.
Are you a nurse, and would love to start your own business, but are stuck for ideas? There are an infinite number of business idea combinations that will complement your nursing degree.
But, despite this, many nurses and NPs get tunnel vision, and get stuck on the same three ideas that they think they are limited to:
- Start up an NP clinic.
- Start a nursing recruiting agency.
- Start a home health agency.
So what else can you do? After reviewing my 10 ideas below, I would challenge you to come up with business ideas you CAN’T do, because that list will be much shorter! So let’s get started.
10 business ideas that are perfect for nurses
I’m going to list 10 hot areas and pair them up with NursePreneur ideas that have the potential to be profitable.
Obviously you could exchange just about any specialty in my suggestions. For example, instead of spine patients and personal training, you could work with cardiac patients, ortho patients, any elective surgery, post rehab, etc (you get the idea).
All these ideas could create an amazing niche for a nurse and, as you’re a nurse, it gives you the X Factor.
Because people know, like and trust nurses, your profession gives you a major boost in marketing. Anything you decide to do needs to be paired with your nursing expertise for added authority and credibility. So, here are 10 quick ideas to inspire you.
1) Personal training
Specialize in personal training for patients with brain injury, degenerative spine disease such as spinal stenosis, osteoporosis.
2) Weight loss
Offer specialized nutrition, weight loss or meal plans for cardiac patients after surgery.
3) Financial planning
Help nurses learn how to manage their wealth, or help families navigate the insurance world (not for the faint of heart)!
4) Meditation
Offer nurse-to-nurse training on meditation techniques to reduce work stress. Or help the general public with this training,
5) Women’s health
Become a wellness coach for women after breast cancer treatment, or after any life-altering event.
6) Healthcare consulting
Provide specialized training to nurse practitioners on the ins and outs of billing or teach hospital admin how to bill for nurse practitioners. Also for non-NPs set up a consulting service to teach units how to orient new grads, streamline waste, improve processes, set up new centers, etc.
7) Editing
Help students, graduate and doctoral students edit papers, write introductions, format papers, sell templates for writing research papers
8) Volunteering
Document and organize medical missions for nurses and other medical personnel.
9) Telemedicine
Start a company that specializes in transitional care for stroke/cardiac/COPD patients in the first 30 days after leaving the hospital.
10) Fashion
How many fashion outlets have you seen for nurses? Design nurse fashion wear in scrubs or for an office. Or design clothes for patients after breast surgery, abominal surgery, with loss of flexion from back surgery.
Most passions can be turned into a business
Are you starting to get the idea? There really isn’t much that you could tell me that you are passionate about that couldn’t be turned into a business model.
I do this exercise all the time with my financial management students. They all want to write proposals for grants. So I make them re-envision their grants as business proposals. It’s quite easy to do, again with just about any interest you may have.
This list could go on and on forever and is really just limited by your imagination. I can only tell you that you are an expert so many times. Ultimately, you have to believe that you have something to offer.
Finally, just remember no matter what you offer, because you are a nurse, your product or service is already that much better than everyone else who is out there!
Catie Harris, PhD, MBA, and Registered Nurse is the NursePreneur Mentor. She’s empowered hundreds of nurses to monetize their knowledge and skills in business, while inspiring them to change the way healthcare is perceived and delivered.
Through her intensive mentorship programs, Catie shows nurses how their nursing knowledge can transcend the hospital system into a profitable business.
Photo by Elijah M. Henderson
