Assess Your “Why” Plus Your Strengths and Limits

When you first considered the idea of going into business for yourself, you probably had a general idea about what you’d do and how you’d do it, then you might have found that lining up the details can be tricky. The key to success is to distill your big, general idea into a specific one that leverages your strengths, honors your limits, and fulfills your goals. 

Find Your Why

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why. -- Mark Twain

When trying to discover your ideal niche as a nurse in business, the first question to ask yourself is WHY you want to go into business for yourself. Taking some time to dig into your motivations will help you create a business plan that leads to happiness and success. 

Nurses have many different motivations for being entrepreneurs. These usually include making a contribution to the well-being of others PLUS enjoying specific benefits for themselves, too. Examples include:

• Affiliation or a sense of belonging
• Autonomy or being your own boss
• Financial security
• Intellectual challenge
• Lifestyle or greater time flexibility
• Connecting people to resources
• Opportunity to grow
• Power to influence change
• Recognition or prestige
• Values
• Variety

What are the top 1-3 most important motivations for you? I invite you to jot them down and be as specific as you can. 

Once you have identified your top motivations, then complete the following statement:

“My WHY is to [make a specific contribution] so I can [1-3 ways I would benefit].”

For example:

“My WHY is to help women feel better about their body so I can be financially secure, set my own hours, and spend more time with my family.”

Or

“My WHY is to educate nurses to adopt holistic health practices so I can be part of a peer group in which we all enjoy increased health, wealth, and well-being.”

Identify Your Strengths

As you know, nurses have many skills beyond clinical ones. Nursing requires organization, planning, interpersonal skills, critical thinking, prioritizing, budgeting, and managing emergencies. 

Like motivation, strengths vary among nurses, and identifying your strengths will help you choose a path where you’ll be successful and fulfilled. If you’re having trouble picking out your greatest strengths, ask yourself the following questions:

• What aspect of my current job do I enjoy the most or find easiest?
• What is my greatest accomplishment? 
• What are friends and coworkers looking for when they come to me for help or advice?
• What results do I consistently get for others?
• What tasks seem to be easier for me than they are for others?
• What was one big challenge that I overcame, and what skills did I use to overcome it?
• If I could do just one part of my job every day for the rest of my career, what would it be?

Thinking about these scenarios will help you identify your specific personal talents so you can appreciate them and build on them. Then you can look for patterns. Are you best at giving direct care, coaching, teaching, organizing, managing, innovating, or something else?

Know Your Limits

The chances are good that you’re starting a business because you want a change on some level. So, you don’t want to launch a business and find yourself in the same situation you are leaving. You want to create a career that frees you from the bureaucracy, lack of input, long, stressful hours, or other frustrations of your previous job. Identify the parts of your current job that you dislike or struggle to complete, and plan to either avoid those parts or hire someone else to do them.

Of course, you’ll also have to consider and plan for your financial health, which will be as individual as everything else in your business plan. Some nurses have savings or investments to buffer the gap between leaving their employment and being profitable in their new venture. Others might have children, loans, or other responsibilities, so they will need to start by taking smaller steps and growing from there. Other limiting factors include how much traveling you’re willing to do, whether it’s essential to have your weekends and holidays off, etc. Be realistic when you assess your limits and honor them.

Your Next Steps as a Nurse Entrepreneur 

Hopefully, this article has helped you advance your thinking about what you want to do, be, and have as a nurse entrepreneur. The next question to ask yourself is WHO you want to help, work with, or serve, and we will look at that in the following article. In the meantime, you can start moving forward by talking with other nurse entrepreneurs or finding an experienced nurse business mentor. 

• The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) has a lively group of nurse entrepreneurs on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AHNANurseEntrepreneurGroup 
• Another lovely Facebook group for nurse entrepreneurs is the New Directions for Nurses group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/newdirectionsfornurses 
• All nurse entrepreneurs are welcome in these groups! 

If you’re a nurse who’s starting a business or dreaming of starting one, I invite you to schedule a complimentary Business Strategy Consultation with me, Sharon Burch, MSN, APRN, PHCNS-BC, APHN-BC, HWNC-BC. I am a holistic nurse educator, a board-certified holistic nurse coach, and a board-certified community health nurse specialist who's been a successful holistic nurse entrepreneur since 1984. I look forward to meeting you, hearing your questions, and shining a light on your best steps forward.