Is Franchising Right for You?

There are a growing number of people who are finding viable and attractive business paths in franchsing, according to the cover story, Franchise Enterprise, in the February edition of The Costco Connection. In fact, according to the International Franchising Association (IFA), there are more than 760,000 U.S. businesses that generate $1.5 trillion annually and supply one out of seven jobs. With impressive numbers like these, it’s hard for a smart entrepreneur to pass up the idea of franchising a medical staffing company or a medical transcription service.

 

Aside from sharing the success and failure stories from business owners who have decided to franchise, the article shares some of the advantages and drawbacks of opening a franchise.

 

Of the many cited advantages, the Small Business Administration (SBA) points out that “franchising is an attractive choice for many entrepreneurs because it eliminates the painstaking work of starting a business from scratch. When you buy a franchise, your new venture comes with systems in place to help run it, including marketing, accounting, and business training and coaching on how to retain employees.”

 

However, franchising also has some not so tempting drawbacks. The biggest disadvantage–Although you are the owner, you don’t control your business. Business owners have to follow the processes and procedures without variation and contracts usually last for a whopping 10 years or longer.

 

So the bottom line is whether you are looking for a way to grow your nurse staffing agency or increase the profits of your medical transcription service, franchising involves an element of risk, so make sure to do your homework.

Check out the article here: Franchise Enterprise.

 

Cleveland Clinic Teams Up with Google for National Medical Records

On February 20, Google and The Cleveland Clinic announced that they were collaborating on an electronic personal health record (PHR).  There are plans to enroll 1500-10,000 of the Clinic’s patients to use the pilot version of Google’s password protected online medical record system.

Cleveland Clinic press release explained the new project “will test secure exchange of patient medical record data such as prescriptions, conditions and allergies between their Cleveland Clinic PHR to a secure Google profile in a live clinical delivery setting.”

The Cleveland Clinic view this partnership as a strategic step to help create national access to electronic medical records for free, putting the power and the responsibility back in the patients hands.

Expanding Business Owners Should Learn to Let Go

According to members at the Edward Lowe Foundation, a Michigan non-profit organization dedicated to helping second stage entrepreneurs, one of the biggest reasons why business owners cannot transition into the next level of operations is because they don’t want to delegate job responsibilities.

In our line of work, PRN Funding comes across a number of startup health care staffing companies, growing medical transcription services and medical coding companies trying to get ahead in their respective industries who open their doors with 1-3 people.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this when you are just starting out, but if you ever want to make it to the next level of operations, the Edward Lowe Foundation says it’s mandatory to hire additional people and delegate the responsibilities.

To learn more, visit BusinessWeek.com and read: Are You Losing Control of Your Business?

Public Relations for Entrepreneurs

For those of you entrepreneurs who are local to the Cleveland, Ohio area, there is a series of courses offerdc by Tri-C’s Corporate College that targets small business owners. 

 

For only $39, the Public Relations for Entrepreneurs course will deliver 12 Insider Tips to Attract Free Publicity for Businesses.  Although designed for any business entpreneur, we thought it might be of particular interest to our temporary nurse staffing readers, medical transcription service owners and outsourced medical coding companies. 

 

According to an e-advertisement, Public Relations for Entpreneurs will teach small business owners how to:

  • Quickly, successfully and inexpensively promote your business.
  • Discover how to get media coverage.
  • Learn to write press releases that get you noticed
  • Generate buzz within your profession and among your peers

Click here to learn more about the Cleveland Corporate College Small Business Course.

AHDI Releases Third Addition of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription

As early as March, the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) will release the 3rd edition of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription.

The most recent edition of this widely acclaimed medical transcription industry standards manual comes with a boatload of new features.  Among the many changes, the AHDI web site highlights a reorganized layout for easier reference lookup, enhanced explanation of standards and practical application, robust examples taken from clinical medicine settings, and so much more.

Orders for the latest edition of the medical transcription stylus book are being taken now, with delivery dates occurring in March 2008.  AHDI also anticipates a subscription-based electronic release of the edition by the end of the year.

Click here to learn more about The Book of Style for Medical Transcription and how to pre-order it.

JustCoding.com Revamps its Web Site

HCPro, Inc. distributed a press release announcing the new additions to their Web site design.  Updates that affect the medical coding industry are constantly tracked and explained to medical coders on the new Web site www.JustCoding.com

 

The new web design also boasts enhanced search capabilities, faster access to critical coding information, and improved graphics and navigation which translates into meaningful improvements in users’ ability to access articles and updates offered on the site. In addition, improvements to the on-site search will enable medical coders to easily locate and identify numerous items offering continuing education credits, which are critical to maintaining users’ coder certification.

 

Visit HCPo, Inc’s web site here: http://www.JustCoding.com.

 

Read the entire press release here: Redesign of Healthcare Coding Industry Website Provides Medical Coders Better Access to Key CMS Changes.

 

 

 

10 Tips for Attracting New Business

Scott Wintrip from StaffingU delivered another great tip sheet in last week’s Net-Temps e-Newsletter.  This topic included tips to help business owners attract new business, which we thought would be interested to our current clients as well as readers who own their own medical staffing business, medical transcription service or medical coding company. 

 

  • Work less
  • Always ask for what you really want
  • Automate, delegate, or integrate
  • Pay with your business card
  • Continually add value to your services
  • Make yourself a resource for referrals
  • Maintain a strong support system
  • Install upgrades often
  • Have a vision and clear goals
  • Fully express your sense of humor

 

Click here to read the entire tip list: 10 Tips for Attracting New Business.

 

 

Tips for Starting a Business

Scott Shane, author of The Illusions of Entrepreneurship, shared 10 tips on BusinessWeek.com for starting a new business.  We wanted to share some of the information with our business owner readers, including nurse staffing entrepreneurs, medical transcription service owners and medical coding business owners.

 

Pick the right industry. Entrepreneurs “tend to choose industries in which they are most likely to fail,” Shane writes. Many never look outside the industry they used to work in, even if they don’t have any competitive advantage over their former employer. Pick a sector with a growing market where you can differentiate yourself from the competition.

 

Evaluate your ideas. Research shows “42% of new-business founders decide to start a company before they have identified a business idea,” Shane writes, and 28% never consider more than one idea. Think through lots of opportunities and pick the one most likely to succeed.

 

Start with a team. More than half of new businesses are started by individuals, “even though the performance of new businesses founded by teams is better,” writes Shane. Going in alone lowers your chances of success.

 

Sell to businesses, not consumers. “Most startups sell products or services to individual consumers, even though 90% of the fastest growing private companies in this country sell to businesses,” according to Shane. Founding a business-to-business company will raise your odds.

 

Launch full-time. Even though there’s lots of evidence that full-time ventures are more likely to survive, profit, and grow, Shane says, most entrepreneurs launch their companies part-time.

 

Click here to read the rest of the tips: A Better Way to Start a Business.  Click here to the BusinessWeek article on Scott Shane’s book, The Illusions of Entrepreneurship.

 

Advice for When a Client Files for Bankruptcy

Karen E. Klein of Businessweek.com wrote a small article giving some advice on what to do when a client files Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  Given the recent events with Ensemble Chimes Group (Chimes) declaring bankruptcy, we thought it might be useful to our readers.

Some key advice from the article is here:

“You should not do any more work for the larger corporation until you’ve got a payment for the outstanding amount and a new contract directly with the big firm, says Donald King, a bankruptcy attorney with Odin, Feldman, Pittleman in Fairfax, Va. You should also ask for administrative priority in the subsidiary’s bankruptcy case, meaning your claim will get higher priority for repayment.”

Click here to read the entire article: When a Client Files for Bankruptcy.