Coaching and consulting businesses make for a great part to full time business for someone who believes they are an expert in a particular specialty. For the nurse practitioner or RNs, your expertise lies within the valuable knowledge and skills you have developed throughout your education and career. Outside of nursing, there is a reason why many well-seasoned professionals go into consulting and coaching during their career: it makes for a great income stream and allows the professional to help other individuals through specialized one on one support. Now is the time for the nursing profession to venture out and share our expertise with the world through online coaching and consulting. Far too many unlicensed individuals are providing health coaching and do not have the credentials to back it up, but NPs do!

Coaching vs. Consulting

Coaching and consulting are different types of services, but the principles and value delivery are the same: helping an organization or an individual solve a particular problem. Consulting is focused more on providing instruction, whereas coaching focuses more on providing guidance. But the end goal of solving a clients problem is all the same.

With this in mind, a consultant will typically assist in providing technical and professional advice to clients based on their understanding of a particular subject matter (medical billing, nursing management, hospital workflow, wellness practice pricing, business creation, EMR integration, etc.). Essentially, they are an expert at something that is “technical” in nature.

The coach on the other hand helps clients achieve certain goals, grow personally, and reach conclusions by asking the appropriate questions and providing clients guidance based off their own personal experience (social needs, health needs, relationships, family matters, career issues, spiritual concerns, etc.). A coach is usually an expert in matters that affect the mind, body, relationships, and careers.

The great news for those within the nursing profession is that it’s possible to do both consulting AND coaching! Those in this field understand both the technical aspects of healthcare and the holistic needs of individuals. Because of this, the nurse practitioner has a powerful assortment of skills and knowledge to make an impactful difference in their clients lives. There are countless organizations and individuals that are in need of specialized skills that NPs possess!

What should my coaching/consulting specialty be?

Every NP is an expert at something. All you need to do is look back at your career and ask yourself “Where was it that I shined?” Think over these questions:

• Were you great in school?
• Were you great at delegating tasks to others in the hospital?
• Do you happen to have a knack with helping diabetics reach their A1C goals?
• Can you help motivate people to lose weight?
• Do you understand how nutrition can help someone suffering from chronic fatigue?
• Can you help people stay organized?
• Do you provide relationship advice to friends having marital problems?
• Have you helped family members cope through a loved one battling cancer?

Sometimes it just takes a little introspection and self-reflection to find out what your specialty is. Once you do, you have found your coaching and consulting niche!

Benefits of healthcare coaching/consulting

The demand for coaching and consulting continue to grow! Consulting and coaching are multi-BILLION-dollar industries and are expected to grow exponentially over the next 5-10 years. Organizations, businesses, and professionals are constantly in need of professional consulting to help solve their problems. In terms of coaching, more and more individuals are looking to coaches for one-on-one support for a multitude of needs in their life, which can be anything from their general health needs to relationship problems. Who better to help people gain insight than a nurse practitioner?

For the astute nurse practitioner entrepreneur, it makes for a great income stream to add to an established business or start as a stand-alone business. It can easily result in multiple thousands of dollars per month in extra income on a very part-time basis. If you put the necessary work into it and build a large audience, it could turn into a healthy six-figure income that can still be done on a part-time basis.

Flexibility

Besides the income potential, I believe one of the most attractive aspects of starting a coaching and consulting business is that it can be done in ANY state. You do not need a license to provide health coaching, life coaching, relationship coaching, or healthcare consulting. You can do this from the comfort of your own home and see clients across the country. It really is one of the most freeing professional endeavors.

Elite NP founder Justin Allan says, “I absolutely LOVE consulting with nurse practitioners and coaching my Elite NP Inner Circle members with their financial and business needs. It actually gives me energy vs. stealing it like when I work a busy urgent care shift. I think for many of you, it would actually give you energy as well because you are doing something you are very passionate about vs. seeing a high volume of patients within the conveyor belt of modern healthcare.”

Cheap to start

Another great aspect of a coaching and consulting business is that the startup costs are very low. This is probably one of the cheapest businesses a nurse practitioner can start. You are simply selling your knowledge and time; therefore you need little in terms of supplies. The biggest initial startup expense will be getting a quality website built and the biggest operating expense will be marketing. Marketing is the number one function of a coaching and consulting business, just as with any business. You can get a coaching and consulting business setup for $2,000-$5,000 depending on the website creation process and how much you want to advertise.

Low liability

There is very little liability and regulatory burden for coaching and consulting businesses. As long as you are not utilizing your license in a state you are not licensed in, there is little to worry about. As a licensed professional, you must walk a fine line when providing health coaching as you do not want to accidentally utilize your license, but as long as you take the appropriate precautions, there is little to worry about. Outside of health coaching, you don’t even have to worry about it! It is very refreshing to generate income outside of healthcare and it also builds your financial redundancy.

Overall, providing coaching and consulting as a nurse practitioner is a very solid investment of your time and makes for a GREAT side business that is location independent. You can do this from anywhere in the world and see clients anywhere you would like!

“I actually had a men’s health clinic in England reach out to me for a consultation because they wanted to see how we did it “over the pond.” It blew my mind!” Justin says. “I was helping someone from a different country while not having to worry about licensure or regulation. It truly was eye opening and any one of you could build an online coaching and consulting business as well! All it takes is getting started and making yourself available to help people from all around the country.”

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