Before I got into business, some women were quick to tell me how competitive and cut throat other women business owners were. I even had another nurse entrepreneur tell me that non-nurse business owners didn’t take nurses seriously in the business world. Yet from the first moment I put myself out there as a nurse business owner, I found nothing but support, interest, and encouragement. So when I hear others tell me the opposite, I am quick to share my own experience. I understand that some people have preconceived notions of how things are or automatically look for the negative. We see the world not as it is but as we are. In other words, we tend to find what we are looking for, whether negative or positive. So what are you looking for?
Keynote Speaker, Humorist, Master Motivator
I would argue that being a nurse puts us at an advantage in the business world. I tend to use the analogy of ‘the whole clinical picture’. As nurses, we have the ability to pause, take a few steps back, and look at people and even situations as not just a ‘patient with a room number’ or a ‘person with a diagnosis’. We see people from a holistic perspective which includes the mind, body, and spirit. I do not mean this as a put down to other business owners in any way, but most business owners are probably not trained to see people in that context. Being able to connect with people on a holistic level is an advantage As nurses in the business world, we will succeed!
As a Nurse Entrepreneur, one of the main issues that I see with other healthcare professionals who start their own business is the lack of business skills. We may know our skills, or the ins/ out of our product and service, but what we really lack in business is Sales and Marketing. Name one healthcare program that teaches nurses, therapist, and other healthcare professionals how to market their service or products?
Selling and marketing are skills we have to learn and develop in order for us to get from starting a business to growing and maintaining a flourishing business.