Side hustles and how to start a business are among the top three most searched terms in the last several years.

Now more than ever, people want to create multiple streams of income so that they can have more autonomy in their careers, pay off their student loans faster, and financially prepare for the next chapter in their lives!

Today, I’m talking all about business and entrepreneurship, sharing:

• My own entrepreneurial journey – from nurse practitioner to side hustle to CEO and founder of a business that I love!
• Good (& realistic) side hustle job ideas to explore
• Types of jobs that an NP can open independently

I’ll also be answering questions that were sent in on Instagram, like:

• Can I start a side hustle without social media?
• How do I decide on my niche?
• How do you find the time to work on your business?
  
  And more!

LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY: 

• Click Here To Read The Full Transcription for this episode!
• The Dream Podcast
• LuLaRich Documentary
• Brian Mohika, founder of CathWear
• Want to brainstorm with me about your current or future business? Sign up for a Strategy Day with me!

Listen to more episodes here!

Should You Start a Side Hustle Business?

I don’t love the term, “side hustle”. I don’t really promote hustling, but I know that that’s kind of a common phrase. So you’ll hear me use it throughout this blog post.

So, why might you be looking for an additional income stream? Well, first of all, full time work is exhausting! And whether you’re working as a nurse, or an NP, or another health profession, you can probably relate to the exhaustion, especially if you have other obligations outside of work, whether it’s hobbies or family, etc. 

Student loans are another reason to explore side business income. For me, I graduated from NP school with six figures of debt, and that’s not uncommon. You of course have options to pick up Over Time in the already exhausting work that we do to help pay off these bills and these liabilities, or you can explore other ways to have a more comfortable or more enjoyable way to make money. 

Burnout from COVID has been tremendous. There are nurses, NPs, health care professionals, leaving the profession left and right or at least looking for ways to cut down or cut back from the job that’s really not bringing them a ton of joy anymore. 

Other reasons why you may be interested in starting a side business is that you may want to explore a different interest or prepare for a life change such as a growing family. 

What To Do And How To Start Your Side Business

If you have an interest in starting a business or starting a side-income business stream – A really great place to start off is to reflect on what your goals are and what you want.

What is your ultimate goal or reason for wanting to do start a business? Is it just to make some side money? Is it to cut back your clinical hours? Is it to retire from clinical work completely? Starting here will really help you determine your motivators, and also help you assign a monetary goal to where you’re going with your side business. 

Keep in mind, your goals can shift over time. But I think that if you are wondering where to start, this is really the place to start. Identify what type of goal you have and why you have that goal. What sort of purpose will this side business or income provide you? At least right now, because this is what’s going to help you build your foundation of your motivation and also build the foundation of your financial goals for your business.

Decide What Type Of Business You Want To Start

Now you may be thinking, “I don’t know what type of business to have. How do I know what kind of business I should start?” 

Here are some ideas to help get you thinking about different things that you can do for a side business. (Keep in mind that most of these will be adjacent to healthcare skills, I’m not going to go into options like driving for Uber or delivering for Instacart because I want to provide you ideas as relatable to your skill set as possible.)

First, ask yourself, do you want to start your own platform or business on your own? 

For example, like mine, I have my own platform and my own business that offers a variety of items for sale- products, programs or services. Do you have a product idea? Do you have expertise or intellectual property that you want to package in a program or a service? Or do you have an actual physical or otherwise type of service to offer other people that they would pay you for? 

Another option is to be a consultant or to be a freelancer for another person’s business. An example of this is being a freelance writer, like a freelance medical writer where essentially you operate as your own business, but you write for other people’s businesses or other people’s platforms, and then they pay you to write for them. 

Another option is to have an influencer platform or a blog or some sort of social presence where you make your money through promoting other businesses products, either through ads, or affiliate marketing, or sponsored posts.

Hopefully one of these options resonates with you. There are other types of business I could list here, but these are really the options that I think are our best, because I think that they’re more sustainable and easier to scale, and easier to turn into money-making endeavours. 

For example, the MLM or networking marketing “business model” technically does qualify as a side business option, but I personally would not recommend participating in these in any way, shape or form.

How To Identify Your Niche or Skill Set

Ask yourself these questions to get started:

• What do you love doing that doesn’t feel like work? 

Keep in mind, you don’t have to have a business that is directly related to your credentials.

• What have you identified as problems that you can solve?

Maybe you have identified something in the workplace, that is a really big issue, that you have a product idea that you could solve, or a software idea, or just a knowledge gap that you feel like more people need to know about. 

A really great example of this is Brian Mohika, founder of CathWear. Brian saw a problem of patients who had really uncomfortable and difficult experiences wearing urinary catheters and foley bags, etc. So he developed a clothing option that makes wearing a catheter much easier. So he saw this pain point that patients experienced, and he had an idea for a physical product that could make that easier. 

• What questions do you get from other people?

Do coworkers come to you repeatedly with the same question, because they know that you’re the go to person for that? Maybe family members come to you with questions, because you’re the go to person for something unique. 

• What do you find yourself answering or talking about frequently?

This can really be a clue as to what your superpower or your special sauce is!

Action Item: Create Your List

Make a list of 10 to 20 things that you are knowledgeable in, or skills that you are good at, and run them through this two question filter:

1. Do people (your target potential customer) have the ability to pay for this?
2. Do people have the willingness to pay for this? 

Examples of Good Side Hustle Jobs for NPs

There are so many, and it helps to really consider what you’re great at and what you already love doing!

If you’re good at Instagram, you could be a social media manager for nurse influencer brands or any influencer brand. My personal social media manager, (shout out to Cassidy, who’s on my team for The Résumé Rx) she is our social media manager, she’s an RN. And this is her side business. She works as a nurse, but she doesn’t work full time as a nurse anymore, because she has a social media manager business now. 

If you are great at writing, you can consider being a freelance medical writer. You could also: 

• Offer one on one mentoring for other professionals
• Become a consultant for hospitals or clinics
• Start an educational platform or a test prep company
• Become a resume writer, a coach for nurses
• Start a podcast or blog
• Create an app or a software

Is it possible to start a business without social media? 

The short answer is yes, absolutely. It’s definitely easier to do it without social media if you are more of a consultancy, or a freelancer, as opposed to, you know, a business that has a large brand of itself. But even still, it’s certainly possible. 

How do you find the time to work on your business? 

Depending on what your goals are, you create the time. 

When I was first starting, I batched my time a lot. So I did a lot of my work while my twins were in preschool, they were in a short preschool program for two hours, two days a week. So I would drop them off,  I’d go to Starbucks, I’d work for two hours, and then I’d pick them up. And that was really the time that I had, it was four hours a week, essentially. 

In the beginning of starting a business, you create the time to work on it. And when you are smart and strategic about your time, hopefully, it then can turn into something where you can achieve this balance of cutting back your clinical time, if that’s what you want, because you are now earning funds that have replaced the income that you’re stepping away from. 

I hope that this has been helpful for you! If you have any questions related to business or entrepreneurship, definitely send me a DM on Instagram @theresumerx. 

And if you are at a point where you’re ready to invest a little bit to spend some time with me to brainstorm strategic questions or problems you’re having, remember that Strategy Day is an option for you. Sign up for a Strategy Day with me!

Let me know what else you want to know about business because I’m committed to teaching you everything that I know and supporting you any way that I can, as we all discover and deserve these new and exciting ways to have the wealth and success that we want!