Many aspiring nurse practitioner entrepreneurs get cold feet when starting a business. One fear is that they feel like they need to have 1000’s of patients to succeed. Let me tell you one thing right now:
THAT IS TOTAL NONSENSE!
You don’t need that many patients to have a profitable practice if you follow The Elite Nurse Practitioner Model. You are operating a cash practice, not an insurance patient mill. Yes, when you accept insurance you have to treat your practice as a conveyor belt to make ends meet. When you operate a niche cash practice, things are a little different.
My men’s health clinic has about 150 active patients. Yes, that is all! You want to know how much revenue is generated a month off those 150 patients? $20,000+ a month. The best part? It takes me 6-8 hours a week to run. That is a part time practice folks. This is no lie, here is what I made yesterday in 4 hours and the revenue from last month.
If I had 1000 patients, I could be a millionaire. Is this possible? Sure, but this is a part-time practice and unlikely in my area. I doubt it will ever happen because I choose for it not to happen. That would require me to be there 5 days a week. I don’t put all my eggs in one basket, I spread my risk among multiple side businesses and I still work part time. I have multiple income streams. I am MASSIVELY financially secure through the principle of redundancy. You can be too if you follow my advice. Most nurse practitioners rely on one source of income to sustain their livelihood. This is not smart… What happens when that one source stops?
A practice that has thousands of patients generally will require it to accept insurance. The only exception to this is if you live in a densely populated city. The problem there is that you have a lot of competition. Therefore, the argument is mute. If you operate a cash only practice, you need to treat it as a part-time entity only. If you do not, you will set yourself up for a lot of disappointment and probable failure down the road.
The best model for your business is to keep it as a small part-time enterprise. If you do this, you only need a handful of patients to keep the doors open.
I was able to achieve autopilot status with my men’s health clinic in just 3 months. Remember, autopilot in business means that your revenue covers 100% of your expenses. This is an awesome milestone. Once you achieve this, you know your business will eventually be profitable. I did this with just 20 patients. THAT’S RIGHT! I avoided debt, kept my business expenses low and did not pay myself a dime.
This was basically a risk-free business after 3 months. The only risk I carried was malpractice, and I had insurance and asset protection strategies in place to cover that. Plus, it is a low liability practice anyways. I was not that stressed out about it.
I started to make real money once I hit the 100-patient mark. I charge, on average, $125 a month with my men’s health patients. $125 x 100 patients = $12,500 a month. My expenses are barely $7,000 a month. Where does that extra money go? In my pocket (not really, I have a lot of business expenses like paying off my company vehicle, paying gas and car insurance, maxing out my 401k, taking business trips/vacations, cell phone bills etc. TAX FREE!).
When you operate a niche cash practice, you don’t need that many patients. The reason why is because you are keeping your business expenses low while providing a niche HIGH VALUE service. This is key. I am sorry, but general insurance accepting primary care is not a high value service. The worst part, is that there is so much overhead associated with insurance practices it makes it difficult to turn a profit. There are too many middle men who want your hard-earned money! When you operate a cash practice, it is very simple! It is you, the patient, and maybe a medical assistant. That is it!
If you charge each patient an average of $100 a month, which is very little if you are providing a valuable niche service, then you only need 20-30 patients to break even and keep the doors open.
Ask yourself this question right now: Is there 20 patients in my area that could benefit from a niche side business? I guarantee there is. There are probably hundreds.
I hope I made the math clear folks. It does not take that many patients to create a successful small side practice. Now imagine if you had 2-4 of these. That is a lot of revenue! Multiple side businesses will help you become financially independent, not your 401k (it helps). If you still don’t believe this is possible, here are my business account balances for each side business I own as of this week:
Remember, I also work part time at an urgent care which provides for my livelihood. My businesses sustain portions of my life while my part time job sustains other aspects. I practice The Elite NP Model 100%.
These are not bullshit numbers. These are all part time niche businesses/practices. This has all been achieved in 2 years utilizing the advice I provide. None of these businesses are high volume practices. The urgent care I work at is a high-volume practice. Screw that, I don’t want to deal with that headache. I like simple, cheap, and stress free.
So, get the idea that you need to have a high-volume practice out of your head. You don’t! All you need is to provide a high value service and have about 50 patients to start generating real profits. If you do this, you will be successful. I guarantee it!