Today I’ve got a question from Nurse Practitioner Dwayne.  Dwayne asks the best strategies for marketing a specific type of healthcare model to other practitioners and providers. Dwayne has a diabetes clinic.

Here are a few ideas for you and other NPs that you can do right now.  First thing I would suggest that you do is figure out who exactly are the people that you are serving.  You say diabetics.  Is that Type I, type 2, is it adult, is it children, is it adolescents or is it all of the above?  So, once you have that really narrowed down you’ll also know where these people hang out because you’ll want to get your name in front of them.  So, that will be a good thing to do.

Next thing that you’ll want to is go ahead and let the Emergency Rooms know and the Discharge Planners because often times these people show up in the hospital, and they do not have a provider, and they’ll be able to send them your way.

Then I want you to target the primary-care providers.  I would love it if you were in my area and you were taking diabetic patients because right now those that do have a specialty in diabetes—they are not taking new patients because they are all overloaded.

The next thing you want to do is call those offices.  Call the other endocrinology offices and diabetologists and say hey, you’re opening up and that you have openings and you can see patients because most of them are overbooked and they’d be glad to refer people to you so that you can see those patients.

And then the last thing I would do is make sure that you get online.  You want to go to local.google.com and enter in your practice information because what happens is somebody maybe in San Francisco looking up a diabetic specialist in the San Francisco and your name will pop up in Google, and more patients are doing that.  Be sure and do that.  That’s for everybody in any kind of a practice situation.

So, until next time for the next NPBO Minute, you can visit www.NursePractionerBusinessOwner.com or you can visit www.NPBusiness.org and leave a comment in our blog.

Nurse Practitioner Business Owner, hosted “Getting Started in your OWN Practice” teleseminar on Sunday April 25, 2010. There were RECORD numbers of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants in attendance.  The questions sent in before and during the event were fantastic. I did not get a chance to answer all the questions, but watch this blog for updates and answers to questions.

If you missed it, you can listen to it here:  www.nursepractitionerbusinessowner.com/startupsystem-replay.html

On this teleseminar, we introduced the NPBO™ Practice Startup System Program which starts Wednesday May 5th. I’m so excited to be actually teaching this course – I’ve had so many requests for something like this, and I believe it will make a huge difference for the NPs that are already participating! You’re invited to check it out, but you’ll want to do so before May 1st at 12 midnight Pacific (hint: the special pricing ends then).

Hope you’ll join us on May 5, 2010!

As 2009 comes to a close, I’ve been looking back and reflecting on these past 12 months.

On a personal level, it’s been a year of change and thus, growth. As is true for most of us, there have been some wins and some loses.  Often those loses are lessons in life, giving us strength and direction as we move forward.

There are many, many things and people in my life that I am grateful for. NPBO™ has grown tremendously this past year…and it’s all because of YOU!

I value the connections I have made through the newsletter, interviews, Facebook, and most of all through our interactions on the calls, in the forum and in private. In some cases, I had the tremendous opportunity to meet you and share coffee, exchange ideas and leave with a hug.
It’s been truly a blessing to watch you spread your entrepreneurial wings and grow. I so look forward to continuing our journey together in the coming year!

On a professional level, I’m committed to working with more of you to assist you in your business development and growth. Recently the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) published their predictions for 2010: among them was the expected growth in NP run clinics and retail health.

In other words, we need to be ready to assume a greater role not only in the clinical arena, but also in the business of health care. This includes those of us with entrepreneurial spirits, AND those of us who wish to remain employed – we will all need savvy business skills in order to thrive in the coming year.  Will you be ready?

My wish for you in 2010 is to experience an abundance success, fulfillment and joy in your personal, spiritual and professional life. I look forward to continuing this journey and appreciate you being in my life.

Peaceful blessings,

Barbara

For many Nurse Practitioners, breaking the rules is something new. We have been educated and trained that we need to follow the rules. Granted, there are rules that are there for our protection as well as for the healthcare consumer’s protection. There are rules about safe medication administration, privacy rules, infection control rules, and unspoken rules about what to do when we don’t know something.

There are rules that society puts into place for the good of society. We have rules about what it is to be honest and kind to others. And there are consequences when we take from others breaking the rule of thou shall not steal.

However, there are rules that we make up. This is particularly important, not only for our personal lives, but for our business lives as well. These common rules are ones that you may have decided are true for you, or perhaps they’re not. Either way we all have rules we subscribe to, and often times they are standing in our way.

Some of the common rules that I see mentioned are as follows:

1. 1. Starting a new business is hard.
2. I am taking advantage of this patient if they charge them.
3. I can only start this practice with a loan of $150,000.
4. They won’t credential me.
5. They won’t want to see me because I’m a Nurse Practitioner.
6. I have to work really hard.
7. I don’t have enough credentials (degrees).
8. It’s happening too fast/too slow.
9. It’s suppose to look “this” way.

The truth is, none of these rules are real. They often come up when we are striving to move our business to a new level and our “egos” want to keep us where we are. So much of this is what is often referred to as an illusion. None of it is real.

Your job is to figure out what rules you are making and following that are keeping you where you are. Really look at them and decide what is and is not real. Then simply break the rule and get ready to move forward.

Feel like sharing your rules? We’d love to hear them.