Have you thought about creating an LNC business?
Do you want to be an entrepreneur or expand your LNC business? Do you wonder if you have what it takes?
I have some good news for you.
Science has yet to discover an entrepreneurial gene. Do you have the drive and passion to start and grow a business or practice? If you say ‘yes’ and have the vision to guide you and use smart business practices, indeed, you can succeed.
I mentor people who have ZERO experience in running an LNC business. They didn’t have parents with entrepreneurial backgrounds. They didn’t even have lemonade stands as children. Despite these supposed drawbacks, they became outstanding successes in their chosen fields.
You can, too. Your determination, dedication, commitment, and creativity will decide whether you succeed with a business.
Don’t become discouraged if you feel you lack some of the traits of good entrepreneurs. List those you feel you lack and work on them. At the same time, list your strengths.
Focus on these.
- Take every opportunity to read about business practices, success stories, and memoirs of highly successful people.
- If you need to, get a business coach or participate in group coaching.
- Join a mastermind group.
- Surround yourself with like-minded people.
Creating an LNC Business for Success
You have the ability to succeed. My goal with my book, Be the Boss in Your Own Business, is to give you some mental and psychological tools you need for success.
You’ll also get the opportunity to immediately put these principles into practice by thinking and writing about them. Each chapter ends with a section called “Your Turn,” a series of questions to answer. I recommend doing this as soon as you finish each chapter.
Dedicate a special file/folder to your answers. Don’t censor the thoughts that come to mind. When you allow your thoughts to flow freely, you will make surprising and often powerful discoveries. This is the voice of your intuitive wisdom.
The more you listen to this voice, the more it can guide you, not only in writing down your thoughts but in making sound business choices. Intuition can give you answers that reason and logic will never provide. When you blend intuition with reason and logic, you use your brain as it has been designed to be used.
Come back to read what you’ve written when you’re discouraged or aren’t sure what should be the next step in your entrepreneurial journey or what might be preventing you from taking it. You may also want to add new insights to your answers.
Creating an LNC Business?
Do You Want to Become an Entrepreneur?
What motivates you to quit your steady job to start a legal nurse consulting business? Why do you want to become an entrepreneur? Only a small percentage of the population are entrepreneurs. It is not an easy choice.
Independence
Do you want to be your own boss? To be in charge of your destiny? No longer dependent on the whims of others, the politics of your workplace, or the schedules of others?
One of the reasons I left my last job in 1987 was the desire to escape the politics of working within a hospital. I discovered, though, that as a legal nurse consultant, I depended on my client’s whims, the politics of case selection, and the schedules of others.
The needs of others and the unpredictability of life, in general, will always influence the degree to which you have freedom. However, as an entrepreneur, you can set up your business according to your standards, needs, and preferences. You have the opportunity to succeed in a field that you love.
Wealth
Are you motivated by chance to make an income higher than you could earn as an employee? Wealth is a potent motivator. Your income is capped as an employee.
Your income is not capped if you own your legal nurse consulting business. Maybe you have a child in college, a retirement fund to build up, and bills to pay. You hear the hourly rates of LNCs and find them appealing. Although the outside world may deliver unpredictable challenges (like a pandemic), you at least don’t have to depend on a boss to decide you deserve a raise.
My income from just one of my clients was enough to put my oldest son through an Ivy League college education.
Recognition and fame
Does the desire for recognition and fame motivate you? You enjoy getting rewarded for what you know, for the excellence of your work product, and when you hear about your clients’ successes when they use your services. Do you want to be more than “just a nurse” in a job. You may have been unappreciated in your previous job. I know I was.
Contribution
Do you want to contribute? You enjoy using your nursing skills differently to make a difference in the life of a plaintiff or a defendant. One of my happiest days took place after my first trial when I learned the nurse I was hired to help defend was found not liable by the jury. I was also happy when a client got a $17 million settlement on a case I helped him with.
These factors may change with time and assume different levels of importance in your life. The key is to focus on why you started your business and how it rewards you. This knowledge helps you through the rough spots of being a business owner.
This list of factors is based on a fascinating book I read called Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur. Ryan Blair went from being a gang member to a multimillionaire entrepreneur.
Your Turn
I’ve listed some of the motivators for becoming an entrepreneur:
- Independence
- Wealth
- Recognition and fame
- Contribution
Some other areas might include:
- Creative expression
- Self-direction
- Self-confidence
You can use these categories as starting points to explore the roots of your desire to become an entrepreneur. The more you understand what inspires you, the deeper that inspiration will become. Your inspiration embodies your values, and when you live according to your values, your life becomes worth living.
Risks of Creating an LNC Business
Do You Embrace or Avoid Risks?
When you consider the risks of becoming an LNC business owner, do they invigorate you or paralyze you? Some people love risk. Others are risk averse. I am reminded of an article I read many years ago written by a nurse who decided her way of managing her stress was to go skydiving. The article’s title was perfect: “Never jump out of a perfectly good airplane.” She found she got a rash every time she contemplated going skydiving.
I know I’d never get a rash because I’d never jump out of a perfectly good airplane. I’ve worked on several legal cases involving parachute accidents with bad endings.
Plan for Overcoming the Risks
How did you plan for risks? Some business advisors recommend a conservative approach to start a business. “Don’t quit your day job.” Continue your full-time job while you start your business, and then ease out of your full-time job. Or take a part-time job and use the remaining days of the week to market. I mentor several entrepreneurs who are doing that.
What are you willing to risk? Depending on how you start your company, you may need to invest large amounts of money in education, mentoring, marketing, and setting up your business. Do you have enough savings to last if you cut yourself off from income and jumped right into getting clients?
The Best Laid Plans…
If you are married, how supportive is your spouse? How secure is his or her job? When I was partway through my Master’s degree in Nursing, my husband lost his job. The money we had been about to spend to buy land supported us for a year while I finished my education. For an entire year, we did not use a deposit slip. There was no income.
When I graduated from my master’s degree program, we had $120 in the bank. Luckily, I had a job lined up, which I began a few days later. A year later, my husband started his own business, which failed after five years, and we narrowly avoided having to declare bankruptcy. I know a thing or two about overcoming risks.
How far are you willing to go to establish your business? How much time will you spend; how much discomfort will you endure? The process of learning something new is always accompanied by discomfort. The process of overcoming the risks can be exhilarating – or uncomfortable.
Creating an LNC Business Knowing the Risks Up Front
Benjamin Franklin said, “Most men die at 21. We just don’t bury them until age 60 or 70.” Are you willing to take risks for a better life, or will you be like my husband’s friend, who has said for 25 years, “Someday I will start my business.” Now he is retired from his job. He will never start a business.
Nothing will remove all risks from your life. There is risk in being an employee and being laid off. There is a risk in crossing the street. Entrepreneurs love the headiness of being in charge of their business and taking calculated risks. Is your fear of risk holding you back? Are you actively overcoming the risks?
Write About How You Feel About Risks
How cautious are you in everyday life? What areas of life do you consider most risky? In a risky situation, do you step back or face the situation and come up with solutions?
In addition, list and evaluate your financial and material assets and resources. It’s fine to be brave; don’t be foolhardy. Also, consider other resources. Will your spouse support you? Your children? Other family members? When you take risks, you need a team to stand beside you.
Finally, take a long-term view. Where do you want to be in ten, in twenty years? Do you want to get a gold watch and a pension? Or do you want the satisfaction of having created a thriving business? Neither of these answers is wrong.
Creating an LNC Business? Know Your ‘Why’ and the Risks to Avoid in my latest book, Be the Boss of Your Own Business. Grab your copy today and be ready to take notes.
Pat Iyer is president of The Pat Iyer Group, which develops resources to assist LNCs in obtaining more clients, making more money, and achieving their business goals and dreams.
Pat’s related websites include the continuing education provided on LNCEU.com, the podcasts broadcast at podcast.legalnursebusiness.com, and writing tips supplied at patiyer.com.
Get all of Pat’s content in one place by downloading the mobile app, Expert Edu at www.legalnursebusiness.com/expertedu. Watch videos, listen to podcasts, read blogs, watch online courses and training, and more.