You’ve worked in the medical field for several years now, but you’ve realized that you can’t reach your full potential while working for someone else. You’re curious about running your own business, yet you’re not sure where to start. As a medical professional, you can apply your expertise to your new business. Here are a few tips from Femto Medicine to help you launch your own wellness business.
Outline Your Idea
First, you’ll need a concrete business idea. Maybe you've been bouncing around a few possibilities right now, but it’s important to choose one specific product or service to focus on at first. If you want to continue working in the health and wellness field, Make In Business recommends offering personal training, yoga instruction, aromatherapy, or nutrition coaching. You could also design wellness products.
As you consider different ideas, think about your skillset and personal interests. What do you feel most passionate about in the medical field? Are there any underserved niches you could fill?
Form an LLC
As a new business owner, it’s a good idea to register your business in your state with the appropriate structure as soon as possible. That way, you can reap the benefits early on! By filing for LLC status, you’ll be able to maintain a flexible business structure, save money with tax breaks, and ensure that your personal finances will be protected with limited liability. To save time and money, you can file through an online formation service rather than handling the process on your own or hiring a lawyer.
Secure Funding
Perhaps you only have enough money in your personal savings to cover a portion of your startup costs. If this is the case, you’ll need to seek funding elsewhere. When it comes to finding funding, you have a few options. Some recommend applying for a small business loan or crowdfunding to finance your business idea. Crowdfunding will also give your loved ones the opportunity to contribute to your new pursuit.
If you intend to seek outside funding, it’s practically necessary to have an integrated bookkeeping system in place. Potential lenders and investors will want to see financial statements and business records, and proper accounting software can generate them for you painlessly. And your bookkeeping system can grow with your business, allowing you to scale up users and functionality when you need to.
Marketing and Advertising
You’ve created a business plan, you’ve gotten the funds you need in order to fund your business in its early stages, and now, you’re wondering how you can reach your first customers. You’ll need to put your marketing plan into action!
Since you have experience in the medical field, you can use your credibility and knowledge to build up your reputation in your industry. Center your marketing materials around education, and consider how you teach your customers about how your products and services support their overall wellness. Content Marketing Institute recommends finding ways to include educational videos, infographics, and case studies in your materials.
Last but not least, make sure you have a strong, striking logo that accurately represents your company and reflects your messaging. The wrong kind of logo can confuse would-be customers and clients and lead to a loss of business. If you don’t have the money to fit this expense into your current budget, use free business logo design apps and software to create an eye-catching logo using customizable templates.
Focus on Growth
Growing a business can be complicated — trying to take on more customers and boost your sales with a small staff is a recipe for burnout! Therefore, it’s important to approach hiring with sustainable growth in mind. Perhaps when you launched your business, you only hired a part-time assistant or marketing contractor, but now, you need more hands on deck.
If you’re looking for new hires, get the word out amongst your professional network - your former colleagues might be able to send some references your way. Your new employees can support your company’s growth by suggesting new ideas, helping you update your systems and processes, and identifying other markets to tap into. The investment for hiring qualified, committed team members is definitely worth it!
Plenty of medical professionals feel limited by the constraints of traditional employment. You can break out of this box by opening your own business. With these tips, you’ll be ready to transition from your current job into entrepreneurship!