12 Things Nursing Taught Me About Owning a Business
If you’ve considered starting a business in your new career, it may be worth considering nursing as a potential career. Nursing happens to be one of the most satisfying and lucrative fields available, and I can personally verify that nurses are in high demand. Additionally, becoming a nurse lets you work for yourself without having to invest tens of thousands of dollars into the business before you even get started! And though this may seem like an obvious connection at first glance, there are some very real lessons we can all learn from nursing when considering our own businesses. This is because the two careers share similar traits that help make for successful entrepreneurship.
I have had a passion for all things healthcare since my childhood. My mother, who is also a nurse, still talks about the time I designed my very own “kid” hospital bed as a toddler (the quality construction techniques are still impressive). As I grew up in a household where nursing was part of our family lore and experience, I knew it was something I wanted to do for myself. Now, working as a nurse and owning my own business have both become areas of focus in my life. So when I decided to dive into the world of entrepreneurship and start my career on the business side, it was natural that nursing would feel like another piece of the puzzle that could fit perfectly into the picture.
Most nurses will tell you that they enjoy the feeling of helping people, and I always knew that I would feel right at home in a nursing position. What I never expected was how much working as a nurse would help me understand my own business. After all, in so many ways nursing is a business of its own.
As a nurse you have to perform your job not just for yourself, but for your patients. You have to take care of yourself, because if you can’t be healthy and push yourself to be productive then you won’t be able to take care of others or run your business efficiently and effectively. You have to treat your patients with the utmost respect and dignity, which requires you show your employees the same courtesy by empowering them and promoting their growth. You must be prepared for any and all situations, which means that you must properly plan for emergencies and have the training in place to get you through those difficult times.
You have to build strong and effective relationships with your peers in order to function as a team. You are constantly networking with others in order to get new leads, referrals, or keep yourself informed of new developments. And perhaps most importantly: you must understand how important it is to truly enjoy what you’re doing in order to be successful at it.
Why Should You Consider Nursing?
Now, I’m not trying to say that every nurse would be a good business owner. There are a lot of factors that go into the success of any type of business. However, what I am pointing out is that for nurses there are a lot of similar qualities required in running a successful business. These qualities can help nurses make their own businesses as profitable and lucrative as possible!
1. Networking Ability
We all know how important it is to network! This can be both personally and professionally beneficial to nurses who want to start their own businesses. For example, as a nursing student I was able to build relationships with professors and other students that have helped me throughout my career. As a nurse we not only learn how to talk and interact with patients, but we use our social skills every day in conducting business—especially if you are looking to start your own healthcare business.
2. Pricing Skills
One of the most important skills I learned in nursing school was determining the cost of healthcare for my patients. There’s a formula for calculating this but it revolves around one basic tenet: If you charge too much, no one will buy from you. If you charge too little, you will never make any money. This is true for all professionals, business owners, and leaders of any type of company. So even if you start your own career as a nurse or as a business owner in general and it doesn’t work out, at least you will be able to apply these pricing skills to your next employer—which is why it is so important to network with others in this way.
3. Customer Service Skills
All nursing professionals need to know how to speak with patients and treat them like people, not just another patient number on a chart. This concept is exactly what you will need in order to run your healthcare business. You are interacting directly with your clients on a regular basis and they are your number one priority—not some third party billing system. So I find it very important that you have a good understanding of customer service and how to respond to any issues, comments, or complaints you may have with patients.
4. Time Management Skills
Another thing that I noticed right off the bat being a nurse was the difficulty in managing my time, and this is something I’ve learned to be aware of when running my own business as well. When I was working as a nurse, there were always more patients than I could handle and often more than one at a time. Being an entrepreneur I am in the same situation. Both nursing and entrepreneurship require a great deal of multitasking. This is something that both groups need to keep in mind and always make an effort to improve upon over time. Time management is not something you will ever be perfect at, but you need to realize that in order to be successful at your business or job you must always continue to make improvements here. Otherwise you will never be able to manage those ever-increasing workloads.
5. Teamwork Skills
Some of the most interesting and exciting times that I can recall as a nurse were the times when I had to work with other nurses and nursing students during hospital shifts. We had so much fun and we developed bonds that remain strong to this day! And I see this same teamwork in all aspects of my own business life. Whether it’s working out at the gym or a business meeting or even just walking on the beach, I always find myself teaming up with coworkers and friends. So I would say it’s definitely one of my favorite aspects of running my own business—that and the fact that I love the work.
6. Communication Skills
One of the most important aspects of a nurse—especially if you are running your own business—is how well you communicate with others. Although communication can take many forms, such as using words, physical gestures, or tone of voice in order to convey your message (and this even includes written communication), it is still an important skill that all professionals need to master in order to be successful.
Conclusion
The skills that nurses need to become successful in business are not limited to just the ones mentioned above. There are many more that all nurse business owners should include in their own personal and professional development! However, when it comes down to it, I believe that these are truly the most important aspects of being a nurse. So whether you’re just starting out your career or you have been a nurse for many years, don’t ignore these important skills because they can make all the difference in whether or not you succeed as an entrepreneur.