3+ Sample Nursing Business Plan

What IS a Nursing Business Plan?

Registered nurses who went out of hospital practice to set up their business practice need a tool that can guide them in their business venture. This is where a nursing business plan comes in. A nursing business plan is a documented roadmap that guides nurses on how to run their business successfully from the financial, marketing, and operational view. It lays out the structure on how to go about achieving their goals and objectives for their business. There are a lot of choices of business ventures for the nursing skilled profession. They can do private care for the elderly, the disabled, holistic or alternative medicine services, hospices, and even telehealth consultation, and so on. To make their nursing business work, not only do they focus on the quality of nursing care that they provide as part of their work, but they also have to focus on creating that revenue to be able to support the operation of their business. Whether it is just a one-man show or an agency-led nursing business, revenue and cash flows remain significant if they want their nursing business on top and competitive in the current market. After all, a nursing business is also an in-demand type of industry since theirs is a specialized care business provider.

Types of Nursing Business Ventures

As we have mentioned, there are a lot of business opportunities for a nurse to go into outside a hospital practice. Although going into private practice or venturing into private business might be challenging, and at times daunting if you do not have any business background or experience, still, the specialized care business provider industry can also be very lucrative if you know the ins and outs of doing business. It might be that the reason you wanted to venture into a nursing business is that you wanted to own the time that you have when working, flexibility in schedule that is not found when working at hospitals. Or, you have specialized training that you are frustrated with and were not able to apply at all at the hospital where you were working. Or, you just simply wanted to make that revenue that is consistent at your own pace and with your lifestyle. After all, hospital compensation and benefits are already fixed once you sign your hospital job contract. But before delving into the business side of the nursing profession, you first need to understand the different types of nursing business so that you can focus and specialize in that particular trade. So, what are the different types of nursing businesses?

Senior Care: There has been an increasing demand in the market for in-home senior care, and nursing businesses or agencies are scrambling to look for the right seasonal, skilled nursing practitioners to come on board and join their team of senior care specialized providers. With the trend of more and more seniors or elderlies, receiving care at home, so does the market for senior care businesses continue to be on the rise. With in-home senior care services, families get to save money from costs compared to if they will send their seniors to nursing homes, where room and board daily average is somewhere around $200. So, what happens in a senior care service provider business? The nursing agency sends their professional nurses to do regular checks and visits with their patients at their homes helps them with their regular daily tasks such as taking a bath, showering, getting dressed, preparing their meals and helping them eat, tending to their medication, or any specific medical needs or procedures, and so on. With senior in-home care services, patients won’t need to go out anymore. Everything is done at their home, with the nurses on hand ready to assist and help with their everyday needs.Hospice Care: Hospice care is another type of nursing trade to get into. Hospice care focuses on providing specialized care for terminally ill patients through the management of symptoms by optimizing the quality of life and mitigating any sufferings associated with their illness. The nursing care provided can be focused on physical, emotional, social, or spiritual that are affected by their complex illness. Medical and social services are also available in hospice care, while treatment is not usually considered curative, although patients can choose to prolong their life through immediate assistance such as CPR. A hospice business can be a competitive business, with lots of different non-profit, for-profit, or commercial providers entering into the arena of hospice care. To receive revenue from hospice care, a hospice has to be registered and certified under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Although, some hospices do not seek certification, where their funding comes from donations, or else their staff workers are composed of volunteer nurses looking for work experience.Child Care: Another popular nursing venture to get into is the child care business. Working parents are the most common customers for child care services, especially as the number of women working increases. People feel more confident and comfortable if they would be leaving their children in the care of medically trained professionals. Child care is one of the most profitable types of nursing business. You can open up a child care business by setting up a daycare center, or a child care center, offering babysitting services for a specific period. Another form of child care is the in-home child care service. Instead of the parents dropping off their kids in a different place, the nurse could go instead to their homes and watch over their kids in the safety and comfort of their own house. Similar to babysitting, but the plus side is, you have an actual medically trained professional watching over your kids!Wellness and Fitness Care: Wouldn’t it be great if someone could take charge and personalize your health and fitness program? Well, a professionally trained nurse could do that for you. One of the rising nursing ventures is the wellness and fitness care provider, where nurses could go to your home and design specialized lifestyle care for you, including your diet and exercise, nutrition to address your health and fitness problem, or simply just to aid in weight loss. Akin to nutritionists, trained nurses also have a lot of knowledge when it comes to diet and nutrition. The best part about this is that wellness and fitness plan care is provided not only for physically abled individuals, this can also be availed by physically disabled or even elderlies that are on a strict nutrition plan diet. So, you have a medically trained nurse who helps out with your other medication needs, helps out in the dressing, showering, eating, and even exercise, you also have a nurse that watches over your diet, making sure that you’re taking in the right nutrition that you’re supposed to be getting to stay healthy!

Creating the Nursing Business Plan

Once you have an idea of what kind of specialized nursing business you want to get into, the next step is to come up with that business plan to help you run your business. Having a good business plan can help you run your business efficiently and smoothly. Depending on your purpose, business plans usually are created to help you achieve whatever your plans and goals are for setting up your nursing business. It could be for a change of career lifestyle, for revenue purposes, or even for philanthropic reasons, a business plan helps you get an idea of the dos and don’ts of entering into a business. Business plans are also created to secure start-up capital from financial lending institutions or investors, that is why business plans should be carefully and meticulously prepared. A nursing business plan should also be created as flexible as possible to fit in the business’s needs, plans, or goals. To create an effective business plan, the following essential elements must be included.

  • 1. Executive Summary

    A nursing business plan executive summary provides an overview or a background of what the nursing business is all about, including what are its goals and objectives. It gives a quick depiction of the business plan and an outline of how you are planning to achieve your business’s goals. An executive summary should also be interesting enough to make the reader want to go through the whole business plan document, especially if the reader is a potential investor. Executive summaries most of the time contain a mission and a vision statement. A mission statement states the reason or purpose for the creation of the business plan, while a vision statement provides detail on what the business would like to achieve within a given time frame.

  • 2. Nursing Services Offered

    In this section, you need to identify and go into detail about the type of nursing service business you are planning to get into. The types and kinds of services should be listed down here, from in-home, hospice, respite, wellness and fitness, and so on. Pricing of each service should also be included, as well as any added-value services. Another item you need to mention as well as the number of staff providers you have, if applicable. The purpose of this section is to highlight the services that are unique and which make your business stand out from the competition.

  • 3. Market Analysis

    A market analysis is done to show how the nursing business is ready for the current market situation, or even vice versa, such as if there is a need for the type of service you are bringing into the market. The analysis looks into the market trend of nursing specialized care services, how feasible the market condition is, and even looks at the existing competition in the market. A market analysis can also be used as the basis for creating and profiling your nursing services and creating your marketing strategies later on. Doing a SWOT analysis first can help you set up your service and marketing plan. SWOT means identifying your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats aspects. Strengths are those unique services offered by your business. Weaknesses are those features in your business that need to be improved or even lack support, such as lack of manpower, resources, equipment, and so on. Opportunities are those factors that you can use to further boost your business in the market. It could be in the form of social media marketing, using an influencer to promote your business, and so on. Threats are those aspects that could potentially harm your business, such as an increase of competition in the area, lack of funds, peoples’ loyalty to competing nursing businesses, et cetera.

  • 4. Market Strategy

    A good business plan should always contain a good marketing strategy. A marketing strategy is how your nursing business reaches out to potential customers, making them into actual, service-availing customers. An effective marketing strategy could be social media marketing or leveraging the popularity of social media or social networking sites to boost your business’s visibility in the market by posting creative advertisements. Another strategy is hiring influencers to promote your nursing business. Enhancing your online visibility through website creation and development is another strategy. Search engine optimization or SEO marketing is usually applied. SEO marketing means ensuring that your nursing business website comes at the top of the internet search results whenever keywords related to nursing care are used. Affiliate marketing is another strategy where you use third parties, whether individuals or other businesses, to generate leads or boost traffic towards your business. It can be done by posting affiliate links of your business on their website so that whenever a person clicks on your link, they are routed over to your business website. At the same time, the third parties earn commission through those affiliate links.

  • 5. Financial Statement

    A business plan should also contain a financial statement section. The financial statement should contain a cash flow statement (estimated cash flow for start-ups), and a balance sheet. A cash flow lists or estimates the money coming in (in the form of start-up capital or revenues estimated coming from the services), and the money going out in the form of operating expenses. A balance sheet shows what are your business’s assets and liabilities. This section overall will determine how financially stable your business is, if the expenses are relevant, or if the costs are feasible to cover your operating expenses. This section should be well-prepared because this usually is the deciding factor for any investors if they will invest in your business or not.

FAQs

What are the services often found in nursing facilities?

The services often found in nursing care facilities are personal care, which includes grooming and hygiene; room and board; emergency care; room and board; medication and monitoring; social, recreational, and even religious activities.

What are assisted living facilities?

An assisted living facility is a housing designed to cater to the elderly and even sometimes the disabled. They service the patients on a personal and medical care level.

What is a Doula service?

A doula service is provided by medically trained professionals who provide physical and emotional support for mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, and even through the postpartum stages.

There is more to a nursing profession than what comes to mind of stereotyped images of nurses working in the hospitals. The nursing profession is one of the most flexible professions that you could fit in in any kind of industry where there’s a need for health and wellness services. They are found in the clinics of the hotel and restaurant industry, clinics of educational institutions, production, manufacturing, and even in the entertainment industry. So, if you plan to venture into a nursing business trade, you’ll certainly find lots of opportunities available for you! 

Need help in creating a nursing business plan? Download our nursing business plan templates, and start planning those steps that will make your business thrive and flourish!