Roadblocks are imagined obstacles that prevent or delay individuals from becoming entrepreneurs. They are part of the individual’s mindset and not actual physical barriers. Certain roadblocks are unique to nurses and are developed over years of working as a nurse in a healthcare facility. These roadblocks can cause anxiety and fear that lead to procrastination. Some of the major roadblocks are defined as follows.

Big Business Roadblock

Thinking that becoming an entrepreneur means moving directly from staff nurse to an owner-operator of a big business can be a roadblock to starting a business. The fear is real and justified. No one can successfully move from being an employee to an owner of a big business in one leap. More knowledge about business and the business stage lifecycle is needed to recognize that all businesses start small. When nurses learn the steps to building a small business, the fear subsides, and the transition can be made more easily.

Instant Response Roadblock

Thinking that you will see an instant response when you start a business can be a roadblock. Nurses get used to seeing rapid responses, like popping nitro and the chest pain is gone or giving a bolus of diuretic and the patient breathes easily. Business is a process and has stages just as human development has stages. It takes time. You need to move consistently in the direction of your goals and remain flexible in your approach.

I Can Do It Myself Roadblock

The National Nurses in Business Association, (NNBA) provides support and bridges the gap between nursing and business. The NNBA provides information on nursing business opportunities, offers business education, acts as a national voice, and maintains a national networking arena. As the premier nurse business owner network, the NNBA provides business leaders, role models and mentors interested in helping nurses succeed in business.

Specialty associations, such as the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants, The American Association of Nurse Attorneys, American Association of Holistic Nurses, and American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, provide specific knowledge related to the service provided. Thinking you can do it by yourself can slow your progress. Nursing businesses have two distinctive and separate elements—the nursing and the business. A strong support system for both elements is essential.

Feeling Unworthy Roadblock

Thinking you are unworthy and discounting your value is a roadblock. The career of nursing is perceived as requiring creativity, providing independence, and offering a variety of work options. It attracts creative, independent, and option-oriented people. Unfortunately, nursing is traditionally a profession in which nurses must take orders and follow procedures, standards, and clinical pathways. A nurse’s self-worth suffers as he or she is asked to perform repetitive tasks and is penalized for creativity and choosing options other than the written procedures. This mismatch leads to burnout, dissatisfaction, and feelings of low self-esteem.

Once you become aware that you may be suffering from a feeling of low self-esteem, you can develop a plan to remedy that. As a nurse, you are highly skilled, college educated, highly knowledgeable in medical and supportive fields, and possess a great artistic talent – the art of nursing. All business skills are learnable, and nurses make great business owners.

Desire for Perfection Roadblock

Thinking everything needs to be perfect and we need to have all our ducks in a row before beginning delays startup. As nurses, we are taught that one deviation from perfect can mean a patient’s life. Once we recognize we are striving for perfection and realize that we don’t have to be perfect to start a business, it’s then we are able to make progress and move forward.

There is no perfect business name, no perfect location, and no perfect type of business entity. When we strive for perfection in everything we do, we miss opportunities that arise while we are striving for that elusive perfection.

Since I believe this is a big area of concern for nurses, I want to relate a story of when I had an IS department of about 20 programmers. Our business was very dynamic since we developed software that processed Worker’s Compensation medical claims and there were frequent state regulatory changes. Many times, the programmers would get into a debate on the algorithms to interpret the changes. I would tell them to decide and move the software to the customer, “Good on time is better than great late” I said this so often that several of the programmers framed my quote and had it hanging on their wall. It was critical for us to deliver our software on time and if needed, we could always go back in and tweak the software.

Overcoming Barriers

Once roadblocks are recognized, a plan can be developed to overcome that barrier. Educate yourself in all aspects of business. You will see that much of your skills, knowledge and experience as a nurse are transferable to your nursing business. As we highlighted earlier, nurses have an advantage in starting their own business.

The rewards of nurse entrepreneurship are professional satisfaction, respect, independence, and the opportunity to create a higher income. By learning more about roadblocks, nurses can identify and eliminate their personal roadblocks, begin the journey from employee to entrepreneur, and reap the rewards.

© NNBA Nurses Business Training Center, Excerpt Module 1 | Lesson 1.6