Have you noticed the increase in online businesses? I mean, there is a huge plethora of stuff out there these days. So whether it’s courses, education, training, lifestyle services, selling of physical products. Online businesses are never ending, far-reaching. The list is on and on and on and on of all the different services and things that are now online.
Why is that important and relevant to you? In my mind the creation of an online business is a very exciting and achievable project for a Nurse.
Firstly, there are a few really important advanced use of online businesses.
- You don’t need a physical premises.
- You can work on your project when it suits you.
- You can teach yourself how to do things and you can get instantaneous feedback from your target audience, if that’s what you want.
The restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic as we all know are having a really negative effect on many businesses out there – both big and small. In some sectors small businesses have fared better then big businesses because they perhaps have less overheads, are more able to adapt to change. But whatever way you look at it, we have seen a lot of businesses suffer badly during this time.
Online businesses however have grown and grown and really come into their own more than ever.
So if you are asking yourself now ‘OK but what on earth could I do right now?’
My answer is simply this. You tell me!!!!
Unless you’re a Nurse in management, I would guess that you spend probably a minimum of 50% of your time with your patients providing lifestyle advice, health promotion, wellness and chronic disease management. I would bet about 50% of your time is spent doing that, which makes you pretty much an expert in whatever field you are in. So who is that group that you educate? Where do you get your information so that you know that when you’re passing it on is reliable? How do they benefit from the information that you provide for them? So then tell me again, you’re asking me what you could do online?! I think you’ve just told me!!!
Let me give you an example. I just did a quick Google search on the management of Type 2 Diabetes, and I got 245 million hits on that question. I just looked on Amazon for books around managing Type 2 Diabetes, and I discovered 597 books on this topic. Now that research just taken me 60 seconds. I clearly haven’t delved into it in any great detail, but I think I have just established that there is a huge hunger out there from people who want information and support and guidance on how to manage their Type 2 Diabetes. Sometimes when you are tapping into your skills and experience every day, you just lose a sense of value of what those are. You don’t recognise them as valuable because it’s just what you do every single day.
The other thing we can be guilty of is assuming that your knowledge is simply stuff that ‘everybody knows! But this is simply not true!. I run some weight management groups within my business. And I’m astonished sometimes at the what I would consider to be quite basic information that people don’t know. Everybody does not know this stuff. That is the reason why you dedicate so much time at work, delivering these messages to your patients who come from all walks of life. These patients are not stupid, they are not ignorant, but they just don’t know what you know, because they haven’t trained and they haven’t educated themselves to the level that you have in your field of expertise and why would they when they have you?! What you are doing at work is repackaging that information and advice in a simplified format and tailoring it to the patient sitting in front of you.
I really do believe that the world of healthcare is changing, both in the way that it’s delivered and the way that it’s received. Nowadays people are keen, willing, interested to invest money and time in their health. Just look around you at all of the gyms, the nutritional services, the life coaching, the retreats. The list goes on and on. There are so many services out there that really, when you break it down, are quite simply aimed at preserving wellness, maintaining health, keeping illness at bay. The general public love that. As NHS workers we are so accustomed to working with a sickness model. That is how the NHS works. You fall ill, you go and seek help, you get it. Other than that really we pay lip service to health promotion and prevention of ill health because of the constant battle against expense versus outcome.
But what if you provided personalised lifestyle planning to people out there living with long-term conditions? What if you created a living resource for those who are keen to prevent the onset of long-term conditions? What if you developed a tool to support people who just want to live in a way that maximizes and potentiates their everyday physical health and / or their mental health?
What if you provided this kind of information on a group basis? So it was less individualized, but it was more on a group basis. What if you send out monthly information to people around these kinds of topics? What if you provided personalized one-to-one information and education to people that are out there living with long-term conditions? Or to people that are out there trying to prevent the onset of long-term conditions? Or to people that are out there just trying to live to their maximum health potential?
Now do you see how this could be a really exciting era? How you could be a trailblazer in developing these new types of business models. You with your built in credibility, you who are already seen as an expert.
If you think this is a great idea, get in touch to apply for the next EntrepreNurse Elite launch at the end of the year or to get a head start and book your complimentary kick start call.