This week, Nurse Practitioner Interviews (www.NPInterviews.com), will be talking with Jyll K. Green, ANP from Anchorage, Alaska.  She completed her MSN in 2004 and opened her immediate care and family practice office in 2007, adding a second NP in 2009.

Join us on Sunday May 16, 2010 @5pm Pacific (www.time.gov for your time zone). If you are already on our notification list, you’ll have the special link to the webcast in your email. If you’d like to be on our notification list, visit www.NPInterviews.com and sign up today.

Savvy Nurse Practitioners will do well to pay attention to marketing.

But what is it? Marketing is a term that is thrown about rather easily, yet not well understood.  Many of us think of marketing as advertising.  In truth, advertising is only one vehicle of the marketing pie.  Some people use the term marketing to mean the message that you are trying to convey.

The broader definition however, is that marketing is a system that includes various things that you would do to market your business.  In other words marketing is a way for you to get the message out about your product or service to those who are your potential and/or current clients. It is EVERYTHING you do to bring potential patients and clients into your business.

A marketing system needs to have several components to it.

You need to first and foremost identify who is your ideal client or patient.  Who is it that you want to see in your practice more than anybody else?  For example, a women’s healthcare NP will likely say that women are her ideal clients.  It’s a good start, but it’s not specific enough.  So when you think of your ideal client you need to get a picture of them in your head. You need to know where they hang out and most of all, what is their most pressing concern.

With marketing, you need to be aware of your goal.  Is it just to bring in more patients?  Are you looking for a particular patient?  Are you running a particular campaign, for example, back-to-school vaccinations? Knowing your goal will allow you to tailor your campaign to match.

Your marketing needs to include several vehicles in order to get your word out.  For so long many of us have relied merely on the phone book.  Indeed, marketing vehicles will include things such as:

• Advertising: websites, phone book ads, newspapers, brochures, and more
• Public-relations: this will include things that you do to help patients understand your practice.  This can include articles and columns that you may write for the local paper, magazine, or even TV. You can also include in this particular category, listings of nurse practitioners on say insurance websites.  They are letting their clients know who the providers are that are available to them.
• Publicity:  this can be good or bad and including mentions in the press and even word of mouth comments and testimonials.

Marketing  is something that we cannot do you just once a week when we get around to it or when we don’t have enough people coming through our door.  Marketing is something that needs to be engaged in on a daily basis. This is how you keep your funnel full and patients walking through your doors.

Of course, marketing is so much more involved than can be explained in this one tip. Future tips will explore information on how do you pick an ideal client or patient, have a right an ad for the phone book, and what information you should include on your website.

NPBO™ Action Step:

• Write down how you are currently marketing your business?
• Where are the holes in your plan?
• Which of the vehicles stimulated an idea for you?
• How and when will you implement it?

(c) 2009-10 Barbara C. Phillips, NP

Why am I sharing a non-business related item here on this Nurse Practitioner business blog?

It’s simple. Breast cancer affects both men and women. Breast cancer affects health care professionals, business owners, families, friends and our patients. And I know Rochelle and I know just how much heart and soul she is pouring into this. I know how much she wants to be of service to women. I encourage you to check out her website and share the information widely.

Social Media is something that health care providers are talking about. So are the medical-legal folks!  We @ NPBO ™  are working on information about how Nurse Practitioners and other clinicans can best use this media for communication and marketing – and do so in a safe and ethical manner for ourselves as well as the health care consumer.

As such, we have created a survey for health care providers to give us feedback about their current use, their concerns and their questions. We invite you to participate. You can find the survey at this link:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/29P7SPP.  Thanks for participating!

What do you do when you are suddenly without a job, and have no prospects of any acceptable employment? And you need to make it happen within weeks? Oh yes, and you are trying to do this post hurricane?

You do as Nike® says…”Just Do It”! And that is exactly what our next guest on NP Interviews did. Learn how this Nurse Practitioner, who was not thinking about being an entrepreneur, just picked up the pieces and ran with it, developing a very successful practice.

Join us Jan 10, 2010 for the first NP Interview of the year when we talk with KC Arnold, ANP . You’ll be inspired and will be sure to come away wth some ideas for your own practice.

All Nurse Practitioner Interview begin at 5pm Pacific/8PM Eastern. If you have not already signed up to get your special link to this call, you can do so at www.NPInterviews.com.

Many Nurse Practitioners dream of owning their own practice. However, not everyone is cut out to be a practice owner.

Here are some questions for you to think about before you make the leap. Doing so now may save you tons of headaches, or it may fan those entrepreneurial fires even brighter!

1. Why do you want to be in practice? Really look at your reasons why. Your reasons must be strong enough to sustain you through the challenges.

2. What needs can you meet that you cannot meet as an employee? (These can be your needs or the needs of your patients.)

3. Do you want to work alone, or have partners?

4. What are your startup cost, and where will you get the funding? What are your alternatives?

5. Are you okay with having less time off? Few benefits? Especially in the beginning?

6. How much do you want to make? How many patients will you need to see per day in order to meet that goal – minus all the overhead?

7. Can you reasonably go without a pay check in the beginning if you don’t have adequate funding? Do you have another source of income or support?

8. Does the idea of being completely responsible (th buck stops with you) thrill you or fill you with dread?

9. Most importantly, what is your exit strategy? Do you want to run the business/practice until you retire and just close the doors? Do you want to sell it? Are you turning it over to a child who is currently in NP school? Your exit strategy will determine how you set up the business in the first place.

Take the time to think this through. Write down your answers. Discuss it with other business owners and friends and family. Only you can answer these questions and clarify your desires. Doing this now will help you focus and create the path that is right for you.

(c) 2009, Barbara C. Phillips, NP is the founder of NP Business™ and Nurse Practitioner Business Owner™ and works with NPs to get started and grow their own business. To get your copy of these tips in your in box, as well a gift just for reading, visit http://www.NPBusinessTips.com.

I spoke with a Nurse Practitioner the other day who was able to get credentialed (after months of following up) – the first in her state. What surprised both of us, is that the insurance company told her no one had asked for independent credentialing before.

What have you not asked for?

I see this a lot in my family, friends and colleagues. We often assume we know the answer we’ll receive, therefore we don’t ask the questions. Stop and think about this!

• What opportunities are you missing out on?
• How much money have you left on the table?
• What experiences have you had to forgo?
• Who have you not been able to meet?
• What goals have you not met?

All of this can be directly attributable to what we don’t ask.

The next time you find yourself saying, “oh they’ll say no anyway” or “I don’t want to bother them”…I’d like you to stop and think about this. Are you denying them the opportunity to say yes to you?

Be respectful and ask. You just never really know what the answer will be.

A while back, I established my own profile on Facebook. It’s been a great experience to be able to network with more NPs and various NP groups around the country.

I’ve now taken it a step further and have established a group for Nurse Practitioners in Business. It’s new and there is more to add, but please consider joining the dicussion there. While on the blog you are able to respond to a post, in the Facebook NPBusiness group, you’ll be able to post your own thoughts and questions for feedback.

We’ll see you there.

Shirley A. Saunders RN, MSN, APRN-BC warned U.S. heads of household, “If you do not adopt simple wellness practices, you will continue to fight allergies, sinus infections, colds, and many other types of antibiotic resistant infections that spread rampantly through many American homes. Many preventable infectious diseases are spread throughout the U.S. because of ignorance and careless household practices.”Mrs. Saunders, nurse practitioner and entrepreneur, launched her book, “The Sole Truth about Those Soles,” and her companion website http://www.noshoeshouse.com to show the American public how adopting a custom like “No Shoes in the House” reduces the spread of disease in American homes,
and saves time and money for homeowners.

As a health care professional, “I observe many sick people who are really making themselves sick because of their intentional neglect of their environment, both internal and external.” In Europe and Asia people remove shoes before entering a home out of respect and to promote cleanliness and
good health.

In her book, “The Soul Truth About Those Soles” she explains, “Children are especially vulnerable to toxic dirt when they walk or crawl around on the floor. Since they are low to the ground, it is easier for them to breathe in toxic dust particles or absorb them through their skin. Worse yet, these little ones instinctively put their fingers in their mouths. By doing so, they get a mouth full of whatever was tracked in on the soles of everyones’ shoes. It’s not long before their little systems are loaded with contaminants.”

Studies completed by the Environmental Protection Agency, Air and Waste Management Association, National Resource Defense Council support Mrs. Saunders’ claims.

Mrs. Saunders takes her No-Shoes-In House cause to the American people in her new book. She provides advice through actual facts, personal stories and professional observations. At the very reasonable price of $15.99, it costs less than most medical office co-pays. An added bonus: In addition to improving family health, the no shoes philosophy reduces the need for frequent floor and carpet cleaning in homes that adopt the no shoes practice.

New Book Title: “Sole Truth About Those Soles”
Price: $15.99 Paperback: 60 pages.
Web site: http://www.noshoeshouse.com ISBN# 978-0-9799998-4- 0

Like many people in the US, I’m terribly excited about our recent election. I feel it was a clear message that “we the people” want our government to conduct it’s business differently. But more than that, it says we are ready to move beyond a “tolerance” (though sometimes it’s barely that) to acceptance that while we are all different, we are all the same.

Obviously, not everyone in the US feels this way. One just needs to look around at news reports, blog posts, the talk in the local diner, and email. Take my email for instance.  There are people who love to forward all sorts of stuff…anything from jokes to opinion pieces. While some are cute, there are many that are internet “hoaxes”. Then there is another group…essentially hate mail for lack of a better term.

Those sending and forwarding this stuff come from all walks of life, and include, yes…even Nurse Practitioners.

This got me to thinking…how do your beliefs and values shape your business and practice?

Who are your clients and customers? What message are you giving them? Is your behavior, and the behavior of your staff, consistent with the ideals you have set forth? Do you have a mission statement and is your office culture congruent with it?

We as Nurse Practitioners, as health care providers, often speak about the need for health care to be available to everyone. Unfortunately, those are not the actions I often see or hear about.

For example, I was recently told that I am the only practice in town that will welcome those with HIV disease. In addition, I have patients who tell me they are more comfortable in my practice because they feel they are apart of “we the people” regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, ability to read and write, the language they speak or their view on the pro-life/pro-choice debate.

I was taught from an early age that we are all the same…regardless of our differences. My practice and business – indeed my life – reflect this. It’s a core value for me. We don’t have to agree with every view, but we don’t have the right to spread intolerance and hate.

What do you clients, patients and customers feel about your business? Is it inclusive or exclusive?