There are few niches that are as evergreen as healthcare. People will always need help to solve their health problems, manage their conditions, and live better lives. The field is also becoming increasingly diversified with the advent of new technology like remote health and wearables. There are so many opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs who are ready to innovate and know how to look for underserved markets. Let’s take a look at some healthcare-related businesses that could be profitable now and in the future.
Start a Healthcare Related Blog
Writing a blog is probably one of the easiest healthcare-related businesses you can start. All you need is a domain name, a platform to power your website, and a few good ideas of things to write about. If you’re worried about your writing skills, know that you can always hire a third party to write for you or learn as you go. Writing becomes easier as you do it and as long as you have basic skills, you can always improve.
The most important part is finding a good niche and being consistent. The trick is to find a niche that is specific enough to not be oversaturated, but still wide enough to have significant demand. If you want to write a nursing blog, for instance, don’t just make it about nursing. You could make it about nursing in a specific field and go even further by targeting demographics. If you’re a young single mother who’s in their first year as a nurse or are a nurse from an ethnic minority, you could write from this angle and attract people who are in situations similar to yours.
Starting a blog is extremely cheap. Buying a domain will cost you under ten bucks and you can find hosting for as little as $2.99 these days. The design doesn’t have to be complex either and many great blogs started with a generic WordPress theme. So, if that’s something you could see yourself doing and you have a genuine love and talent for writing, this is definitely something you should consider trying.
Become a Nurse Health Coach
Whether you’re a nurse looking for something new or someone who was always interested in nursing but wasn’t crazy about the idea of working the floor, you could consider working as a nurse health coach. As the name implies, nurse health coaches help their clients make better health decisions, self-manage chronic conditions and reach health goals. They look at their client’s lifestyles and see where they could improve their levels of activity, nutrition, or sleep habits, for instance. They might also be able to identify stressors in their lives they need to eliminate. They often have to work with people with conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes or people recovering from critical illnesses.
Nurse health coaching is a great field to be in if you like having a close relationship with the people you work with. Seeing people turn their whole lives around through your guidance can be extremely fulfilling as well.
If you’re already a nurse and have a bachelor’s, know that you don’t have to be certified to work as a nurse health coach, though it’s strongly recommended. If you’re coming from another field, there are ways that you can get your bachelor’s degree much faster and get certified afterward.
You could go for accelerated BSN programs and use the credits you earned from your previous degree to get your bachelor’s in a shorter period of time. Universities like Baylor have online accelerated BSN programs that can be completed in under 12 months. You will then be free to start looking at a certification or you could find a job as a nurse health coach straight after you finish.
Work as a Sales Rep
Working as a sales rep for the pharmaceutical industry or selling medical devices is another great healthcare business you could consider. You don’t even need to have experience in the field to start, though it certainly helps. If you’re a nurse or someone who has experience with drugs and various devices, you can expect medical supply and pharmaceutical companies to fight over you.
Nurses in particular do very well in this business because they have first-hand experience with the products they promote. They will be much more convincing when selling things like medical equipment, for instance. They will be able to point out some of the issues with previous-generation devices and demonstrate how the devices they’re selling are better. This is a great field to be in if you like being independent but still have some structure. You also have to be able to see yourself working as a salesperson.
Medical Device and Supplies Manufacturer
You could also decide to manufacture your own products instead of selling someone else’s. There is a constant demand for medical equipment like stethoscopes, surgery equipment, and ECGs, and supplies like protective masks, as we’ve seen recently. If you have the capital needed to start a manufacturing operation, this could be one of the most lucrative healthcare businesses you can get into.
Start a Supplement Business
We could advise that you start a pharmaceutical business, but there’s a lot of red tape involved and it demands a lot of capital. Starting a supplement business would be much easier. Supplements do not have to be approved by the FDA, which makes the barrier to entry much lower than in the pharma business. You can also use any experience you have in healthcare to create formulations that can help with a variety of conditions or help people achieve specific results.
The best thing about this business is that you don’t even have to manufacture the supplements yourself. You could work with a private label company that will create them for you. You could choose your ingredients or pick from their catalog of pre-made formulas. You can then slap your name on the packaging and have them handle the manufacturing, shipping, and inventory for you.
Healthcare is a great business to be in because of the high demand and the wealth of options. If any of these ideas pique your interest, you should look into them more in-depth and learn what it takes to be successful.