Why a Recession is a Great Time to Start a Nurse Entrepreneur Business

LeaRae Keyes, an RN and founder of the Nurse Entrepreneur Network, wrote an interesting article on her web site about the benefits of starting a nurse entrepreneur-related business during a recession. Within her article, she cited 7 reasons why a recession is a good time to start a nursing-related business, and we’ve included them here for our Factoring Blog readers:

  1. Companies are more likely to be looking for lower cost alternatives to their current providers.
  2. Business supplies are often discounted so it doesn’t cost as much to start a business.
  3. Companies do more outsourcing to decrease their bottom line which will benefit you if you can fill the gap.
  4. The marketplace is less crowded and this means less competition. It is like taking a vacation during the off season.
  5. Money is not lost in a recession. Wealth is transferred. Follow the money. Sell to those that have the money.
  6. People spend more time at home. Grab their attention by using 2.0 technologies.
  7. People working longer hours to hang onto their jobs are willing to pay for services because they have less leisure time.

And if you’re worried about securing financing in this bad economy, you don’t have to. Teaming up with a nurse staffing factoring firm, such as PRN Funding, provides nurse entrepreneurs immediate cash to meet payroll and pay taxes, without having to muddy the company’s balance sheet.

Click here to read LeaRae Keyes’ entire article: Why is a recession a great time to start a nurse entrepreneur business?

More Hospitals Hiring Temps

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal discussed how more and more general surgeons are shifting from private practices to temporary assignments as a result of the economic downturn, rising overhead costs and declines in reimbursements.

So much so that “general surgery is now among the fastest growing areas of a temporary medical staffing undystry that’s expected to double to $2.1 billion in 2009 from five years ago, according to Locumtenens.com.”

The WSJ article, Surgeon Shortage Pushes Hospitals to Hire Temps, goes on to say that “temporary surgeons used to be mostly older physicians who wanted a lighter workload, or those fresh out of training, still deciding where to put down roots. But today, more are midcareer people.”

The WSJ estimated that it can cost a hospital up to $1500/day, plus travel and lodging expenses for a temporary surgeon to come in and perform scheduled procedures and emergency operations. But as hospitals continue to face a shortage in nurses and doctors, utilizing locum tenens staffing is quickly becoming one of the only options available.

Multiple States Face School Nurse Shortages

In the past couple of weeks, there have been a number of news reports covering the shortage of nurses in schools.

According to WKSFY.com‘s web site, in the state of South Dakota, there is only one school nurse for every 1354 students. State leaders blame the lack in school funding as the cause. Meanwhile, CampusRn reported that school nurses in West Virginia “are confronting an increasingly complex batch of patients who require more specialized treatment.” Kanawha County’s 33 school nurses are dealing with hundred of cases of asthma, anxiety, ADHD, heart problems, seizure disorders, clinical depression and lifethreatening allergies.

Q: Some schools are starting to use nurses from temporary staffing agencies to help fill the gaps and administer ongoing care. Have you considered staffing nurses to local school districts?

Common Obstacles to Nurse Entrepreneurship

President of the National Nurses in Business Association (NNBA), Pat Bemis, wrote an article in December’s edition of RN entitled, Obstacles to Nurse Entrepreneurship. In her article, Bemis discussed three mindsets that nurses have when making the transition from employment to entrepreneurship:

1. The instant response mindset – Bemis says that nurses are used to getting an immediate response to their work, however, it’s important to break out of that “instant gratification” mindset because it takes time.

2. The “I can do it myself” mindset – Out of fear of criticism, nurses tend to have the mindset that to “gather all the information and put it into a certain arrangement…before involving another team member.” Bemi suggests for nurses to involve business support team members early on in the start-up process.

3. The desire for perfection mindset – Bemis also advised for nurse entrepreneurs to deviate away from the need to do everything perfectly because “this mindset leads nurses to overlook opportunities that arise while seeking that elusive perfection.”

Click here for more information about Pat Bemis and the NNBA.

AnyNurseCan.org Sponsors Pitch to Nurses

Prompted by the dwindling economy, the two nurses who started the Any Nurse Can consulting business, started Pitch to Nurses about a month ago. Pitch to Nurses is a foundation is for disable, financially distressed and retired nurses who need a helping hand to those in need when the government and the financial institutions are willing to. Pitch to Nurses is designed to provide financial help and security to all the Nursing community.

Click here if you want to donate to the Pitch to Nurses program.


Ways to Get Paid Quicker in a Bad Economy

Scott Love of RecruitingMastery.com, wrote an excellent article in Net-Temps Recruiters e-newsletter that gave recruiters tips on how to get quick-paying clients.  More specifically, he advised recruiters to use “fear of loss” as a motivator.  Translated to healthcare vendors like medical staffing agencies and medical transcription services, threatening to pull your nurses or ceasing your transcription services until until a check is received is a good attention-grabber and lets the medical facility know that you mean business.

Love also highly recommends putting your terms directly on your invoices, which is something Phil Cohen (president of PRN Funding, LLC) suggested to temporary nurse staffing business owners in part two of his article series: How Nurse Staffing Agencies Can Get Paid Quicker.

Not to mention, another way for business owners to get paid quicker during a bad economy is to utilize invoice funding.  Selling your invoices to a factoring company is a great way for you turn your receivables into cash immediately.

Rapid Response Nurse Staffing Firm Seeks New CEO

Reliant Health Care Professionals, a medical staffing agency who specializes in staffing nurses on short notice, announced that it’s searching for a new CEO earlier this week.  The current president and CEO, Gregory Mikkelsen, will step down and serve as the executive VP and vice chair of the Denver-based healthcare staffing firm.

“There are some other things I would like to do professionally and personally,” Mikkelsen said.  He began speaking to the Reliant Health Care Professionals’ board about his succession plan last year.

Click here to read the entire briefing via Staffing Industry Analysts: Reliant starts search for CEO.

PRN Funding Accepts Credit Cards

As an account receivables factoring firm who specializes in funding medical staffing companies, factoring invoices for medical transcription services and providing financing to medical coding companies, we (PRN Funding, LLC) made a big announcement today.

In order to serve our clients to the best of our ability, PRN Funding is now accepting VISA, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards as a form of payment on its clients’ invoices.  Traditionally, PRN Funding has only accepted checks and direct deposits.

Click here to read the entire press release on PRN Funding’s web site: PRN Funding Now Accepting Credit Cards.

IRS Files $80 Million Claims Against Chimes’ Debtors

It’s been almost a year since we first blogged about Ensemble Chimes Global vendor management system filing for bankruptcy, and bankruptcy trustee, Howard Ehrenberg announced last week that “they are pretty close to making claims against certain third parties.”

In a Staffing Industry Analyst’s post, Ehrenberg also mentioned that the IRS made $80 million in claims against the debtors in the Chimes bankruptcy case, including $50 million as a priority claim ahead of unsecured creditors (i.e. temporary staffing agencies).

In regards to temporary staffing firms who utilized Chimes’ vendor management system, Ehrenberg said that a few customers are continuing to dispute a court order to pay management fees.  “If those customers don’t pay, the court has allowed the fees to be collected from staffing firms involved.”

Click here to read the entire post: Claims may soon be filed in Chimes case.

Haley Marketing Group Announces New Web Site

The Haley Marketing Group dispersed a press release this afternoon announcing the launch of their new web site.  As a marketing and web design firm dedicated to the staffing and recruiting industries, The Haley Group’s new web site offers staffing and recruiting professionals the following:

Apparently, PRN Funding is not the only organization who has upgraded to a newer version of its web site.  Click here to see PRN Funding’s new web site.