“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” Kurt Vonnegut Maximizing Your Efficiency I work all the time. I have been working all the time since I helped start our home care agency in 2011. Creating your own business is a business itself of fits and spurts – at the beginning you spend a considerable amount of time on paperwork, creating policies and processes, and getting your name out there. But then you hit a bit of a lull while you still continue to market yourself, all while anxiously awaiting your first client. Once you get going, you occasionally still have the lulls, during which you learn to tighten up procedures, pursue education, and shine up those marketing tactics which may have dulled over time. When you finally get comfortable with what you are doing, you start to dread and crave those lulls. Lulls are bad for business, but allow you a moment to breathe and make improvements. This difficult lesson is what I have learned – lulls are uncomfortable and scary, but if you are patient and persistent, you can use these times to shore up your resources and re-charge for […]
If you had told me ten years ago that I would be a nurse owning my own business, I probably would not have believed you. It is incredible how much can change over ten years (in fact, it is incredible how much can change in 24 hours) and I cannot even fathom where I will be in the next ten years. As a nurse and small business owner, I have learned so much, taking on more roles than I ever thought I could. My role as Chief Nursing Officer involves hiring new staff for Nurses With Heart Home Care – mostly caregivers, who assist our clients with everything from bathing and grooming to errand running and companionship care. Sitting on the other side of the hiring desk is a far cry from sitting in the chair as the interviewee. When we first started Nurses With Heart seven years ago, I was extremely nervous while interviewing potential candidates. I had set questions to ask, including the ridiculous standards of interviewing: What is your biggest weakness? Why did you apply for this job? If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? (Well, not really for that last one, […]