Why Being A Healthcare Professional Can Help You To Be An Entrepreneur

“Me, an entrepreneur? No Way,” I hear you say.

Some people might feel that being in healthcare and being an entrepreneur is bad…That it only means making money from ill-health. But does it solely involve a profit mindset?

No, I don’t think so!

Entrepreneurship in my opinion is about leading change instead of resisting it, offering value to customers and excellent service, innovation, making the most out of limited resources and doing something that people really want or need. All of these are essential to healthcare but equally useful elsewhere. Here’s why being a healthcare professional gives you a solid start in becoming an entrepreneur:

Experiential Learning: We learn from our patients. This clinical experience supplements our years of studying. This clinical experience allows us to make better clinical judgements based on previous cases through pattern recognition and even from previous mistakes. We raise significant events if mistakes occur and learn to prevent them in the future. This type of thinking is vital in being an entrepreneur. Mistakes happen, learning from them is key to success.

Maximising Resources: In many healthcare systems around the world funding is limited. Doctors and other healthcare professionals often do their best to make cost-effective decisions while making sure the risk-benefit ratio is favourable for the patient. This mindset is equally important for start-ups and businesses.

Decision Making: Healthcare professionals are used to dealing with situations where there can be uncertainty around the diagnosis or outcome. However, they do their best to gather information through examinations, investigations, and share decisions with other professionals or patients in their best interest. Gathering the best possible information and making decisions i.e. researching and acting is crucial in entrepreneurship.

We Build Relationships: We are privileged to learn about the stories of our patients – Their lives, families, jobs, hobbies, and of course their health concerns. These relationships help us provide a good service to patients. This curiosity and desire to communicate effectively with others is valuable beyond healthcare.

Problem Solving: We use our skills to solve health problems and ultimately treat our patients. We are willing to use our skills and clinical judgement to try new ways of dealing with problems when possible.
The best products and ideas in the world solve problems, something we do throughout the day. Repeatedly.

Whether you are a doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, optician, physiotherapist, or other type of healthcare professional don’t be afraid to innovate and work with your ideas. You can learn more about using your unique skills and expertise in the initial sections of my free ebook.