Creating a Legal Nurse Consulting Business – Interview with Pat Iyer Part 2

Ryan James of the Startup Savant asked me these questions about my process of creating a legal nurse consulting business. Read part 1 here, and check out these additional insights.

1. What do you consider the biggest milestone that you have hit with your business? What was the biggest thing you did to get there?
At the time I sold my legal nurse consulting business, we were billing over a million dollars a year for the previous 5 years. We focused on making sure attorneys were provided with well qualified experts. We took complaints very seriously, did an investigation and informed the disgruntled client of how we resolved the issue or changed our system to eliminate the problem from recurring. We practiced with integrity and did the right thing instead of the expedient thing. Attorneys trusted us.

2. What does your day-in, day-out look like? Is there any specific habit that has helped you become a better person?
Since selling the company, I coach and educate other legal nurse consultants, and have an opportunity to fulfill my other passion, which is editing, writing and ghostwriting. On a weekly basis, I hold coaching calls, talking to people who want to build their businesses and are considering working with me. It is so exciting to me to see people putting into action what I recommend they do for their businesses, and getting results.

Blogging is the habit that has helped me the most in terms of demonstrating my expertise to prospective clients. I have written thousands of blogs and repurposed them for tweets, books, podcasts and webinars.

3. Who has been your greatest influencers along your entrepreneurial journey? How did they shape your legal nurse consulting business?
I am a perpetual learner. Probably the 2 biggest assets for my success in business in creating a legal nurse consulting business are 2 resources:

A. National Speakers Association: This group focuses on two parts of being a great speaker: platform skills and business management. The business management concepts are applicable to many types of small businesses. I have learned so much by attending conferences and listening to the recordings of all of the presentations.

B. Marketing conferences and coaches: I’ve invested a lot of time and money learning how to market, and applying the principles in creating a legal nurse consulting business. The connection to other entrepreneurs has enriched my life.

4. How do you balance life and work to remain connected and available for your loved ones? Any advice for me? Currently my husband and I divide our time between our homes in NJ and FL. Each offers cultural and recreational activities. I feel I have the best of both worlds.

But I was not always so balanced when I was intensely building my business. It is so easy to self-righteously tell children that you are busy with the business and cannot give them attention, particularly when you work at home. If I could do it over, I would have hired assistants sooner instead of trying to perform all functions myself. I would have stopped work before dinner and not been lured back to my computer after dinner. When you have small children and people tell you they will be little for a short period, it is easy to ignore that advice. The advice is true.

Both of my sons have entrepreneurial streaks and appreciate what they learned from being the children of two entrepreneurs.

10. What advice would you give to our readers who want to start a business today? Where should they start?
I recommend looking before leaping into a business. Make sure that what you have to offer meets a need that others have. It is far easier to meet a need than to create a demand when people don’t feel the need for what you want to offer. If at all possible keep the security of a job and start the business part time. Then pull away from the job when you have consistent, reliable cash flow from the business. Learn as much as you can about running a business, network, make friends of other business owners, and watch your business soar.

Pat Iyer MSN RN LNCC is a legal nurse consultant, coach, author, ghostwriter and editor. She built a large and successful legal nurse consulting business which she sold in 2015. Pat is a prolific author. She has written, edited or coauthored more than 800 chapters, books, case studies, online courses or articles. Check out Pat’s coaching program for legal nurse consultants at LNCAcademy.com