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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to speak with Pat Bemis, president of the National Nurses in Business Association (NNBA), and she gave us the inside scoop on the new location for the 2008 19th Annual Education Conference.

Previously set for Orlando, FL, the conference has been moved to Daytona Beach, FL.  Contrary to previous years, the NNBA has negotiated discounted room rates in two side-by-side hotels, The Plaza Resort and Spa and The Plaza Ocean Club Hotel.  (The conference will take place in the Plaza Ocean Club Hotel.)  Although the conference is scheduled for November 8-9, 2008, group rates apply from November 5-10.

If you are a nurse entrepreneur or if you have ever thought about starting your own nurse staffing agency, we encourage you to attend the NNBA meeting in November.  Not only will PRN Funding be in attendance, our company’s president, Phil Cohen has been asked to speak to attendees about the financing options available to nurse staffing startup businesses.