15 Business Ideas for Nurse Entrepreneurs
These best business ideas for nurses can inspire ways to leverage your medical expertise into a company you own.
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Updated · 11 min read
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Managing Editor For those with an entrepreneurial mindset, there’s no shortage of business opportunities and side hustle ideas. One of the keys to launching a successful enterprise is playing to your strengths. If you have a nursing degree, you’re uniquely positioned to explore business ideas that allow you to leverage your clinical training, hands-on experience and professional skills.
Not sure where to begin? In this guide, we’ve rounded up 15 of the best business ideas for nurses, along with tips for choosing the right path to match your goals and expertise.
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Top business ideas for nurse entrepreneurs
There are plenty of business ideas for nurses—whether you want to work from home or travel to clients locally, you’ll find options that can match your skills, interests and schedule.
1. Legal nurse consultant
For nurses who are detail-oriented and enjoy analyzing patient files, becoming a legal nurse consultant (LNC) could be a viable business idea.
An LNC is a consultant who offers expert advice for legal cases. Legal nurse consultants can operate in a variety of capacities within the legal system. An attorney might consult with a legal nurse consultant to better understand the facts of a case or an LNC may analyze testimony in a legal case to find errors.
One key benefit of this path is flexibility. As a business owner, you choose which cases to take on. This makes it a healthcare business idea that offers both autonomy and control over your workload.
2. Nurse health coach
Many nurses work in a clinical setting where they’re part of a team that treats and diagnoses patient symptoms. For some, this can feel limiting, as you only have so much say in how a patient is treated.
If this applies to you, becoming a health coach might be one of the best nurse entrepreneur business ideas for you. A nurse health coach is someone who helps people assess their health goals, and creates a plan to achieve them. This type of work takes a holistic look at a patient’s health, focusing on symptoms and overall well-being.
You might consult with doctor’s offices or hospitals, but many nurse health coaches run their own practice and see patients on a one-on-one basis.
Seeing the long-term outcomes in patients’ health can be highly rewarding and is ideal for nurses who want to work closely with their patients to help them achieve their goals.
3. Specialized care provider
Becoming a specialized care provider is a great business idea for nurses who have learned a specialized set of skills throughout their career and want to apply those skills in their own business. Similarly, becoming a specialized care provider can be one of the best small business ideas for nurse practitioners as well — especially if they want to branch out on their own and work in-depth in one area.
Some examples of specialized care provider businesses include:
- Childbirth training.
- Fertility consulting.
- Lactation consulting.
- Telehealth.
- In-home care.
- Holistic or alternative medicine services.
- Mindfulness and stress reduction.
There are a number of ways to take a nursing degree and pair it with a passion to turn it into a business. If there’s a specific aspect of nursing that you love or have extensive experience in, think about how you can turn it into a business. All you need is passion and the time and patience to turn your idea into a reality.
4. Wellness coach
As more people seek alternatives to medication, demand is growing for holistic, lifestyle-focused health solutions. With a nursing background and some additional training and certification, you can transition to a wellness coach. Your clinical knowledge gives you a strong foundation to guide clients safely and effectively.
When it comes to business ideas for nurses, becoming a wellness coach fits the belief system and knowledge base of many nurses, making this a simple transition.
A wellness coach is a great home-based business idea for nurses. You can opt to work with and see clients in your own space, or, if you choose, travel to meet them. Plus, a large part of wellness coaching often involves building and maintaining an online presence, something that can also be done from home.
5. Nurse blogger
Many people turn to the internet for information on medical ailments. And while there are plenty of helpful resources out there, there’s also a lot of misinformation — and in the medical field, this can be especially dangerous. Starting a blog is a great way to share your professional insights, educate the public and build a personal brand around your expertise.
This is an easy business to start as a side hustle alongside your full-time job as a nurse. You might offer commentary for media outlets, write about industry trends, or share first-hand perspectives on the nursing profession.
6. Freelance writer or editor
Many health-focused websites, hospitals and medical organizations seek freelance writers or editors with clinical backgrounds to create accurate, credible content.
You might also find opportunities from medical journals or academic research publications.
Once you've built a client base, you can expand into other areas like content strategy, medical marketing, or health communications to grow your business further.
7. Hospice caregiver
As the baby boomer generation ages, demand for in-home senior care and end-of-life care continues to grow. Although the work of a hospice caregiver deals with the end of someone’s life, it also requires emotional intelligence, compassion and the ability to care for both patients and their families.
Starting a business as a hospice caregiver can be hard work, not only as a business owner but as a person — as you might expect, the work of a hospice caregiver takes an emotional toll.
Before you pursue this business idea, it’s important to assess both the business responsibilities and the personal impact. But if you find fulfillment in easing others through life’s most difficult transitions, this could be a rewarding and impactful business opportunity.
8. Childbirth educator or doula
Many nurses choose to build a business around childbirth support, either as doulas or childbirth educators.
As a doula, you might work one-on-one with expectant mothers, offering guidance throughout pregnancy and being on-call to provide support during labor and delivery. Alternatively, you could focus on teaching group or private childbirth education classes, helping individuals and couples prepare for the birthing process in a less time-intensive setting.
Both paths allow you to utilize your medical background, as well as participate in a rewarding part of life — without requiring the strict, intensive schedule of a hospital or doctor's office.
9. Fitness nurse
Becoming a fitness nurse involves working with clients to create a personalized health plan that includes exercise, nutrition and lifestyle changes. This type of health care business is focused on preventing disease instead of treating it.
This type of nursing might be the right way to combine your skills with a passion and start a business — especially if you're enthusiastic about fitness and exercise. To best serve your clients, you may decide to obtain additional certifications for nutrition and personal training, specifically. Alternatively, you may decide to hire and work with people who specialize in these fields.
10. Medical product sales
Nurses can leverage their industry knowledge by starting a business in medical product sales. This might include selling scrubs, medical accessories, equipment or even over-the-counter health products.
Starting a business in medical product sales is a great way to use the skills you already have as a nurse. Familiarity with the tools used to treat patients and medications gives you firsthand experiences to help sell products.
Launching a medical sales business lets you tap into your expertise while enjoying the flexibility of entrepreneurship, including the freedom to set your own hours and be your own boss.
11. Telehealth consulting
Telehealth is becoming more popular, allowing patients to converse with nurses and doctors through phone or video calls. This means patients don’t have to leave their homes to receive diagnoses and prescriptions, and medical professionals can see more patients in a day.
Starting a business as a telehealth consultant can allow you to practice as a nurse, just like you do now, but without the commute. As a telehealth consultant, you can also set a schedule that’s more flexible for both you and your patients — including early mornings or later at night, when regular doctors’ offices aren’t typically open.
12. Education specialist or course creator
If you have an affinity for teaching, you might consider becoming an education specialist or online course creator.
As an education specialist, you might work as a teaching assistant at a nursing school, acquire credentials to become a full-time professor or work with schools, childcare centers or local government agencies to teach health classes or seminars.
Alternatively, you might develop and sell your own courses related to nursing, medicine and wellness. If you have particular expertise, you might be able to create a series of lessons dedicated to that subject.
13. Medical billing and coding contractor
If you're looking for a small business idea that's a little different, but still related to the medical field, you might become a medical billing and coding specialist. These individuals work with hospitals and doctor's offices to translate medical records for billing to insurance providers and other payers.
Although some employers may require a specific medical billing and coding certificate, as a nurse, you'll likely be familiar with the processes and be able to pick up the required skills very quickly. Additionally, medical billers and coders can operate as independent contractors, as well as find part-time or full-time positions with one employer.
14. Career coach
As a medical professional with experience in the field, you'd be able to serve as a great resource to those also looking to become nurses, nurse practitioners or doctors. Similar to any coaching business, you'd work with students, young professionals and other clients to help them apply for jobs, plan their career paths and prepare for interviews.
You'll be able to offer general career and professional advice, as well as clue your clients into the details and nuances of the medical field.
15. Child care provider
As a medical professional, you could start a variety of childcare-related businesses — you might start a daycare center, become an in-home caregiver for children with specific medical needs or serve as a medical consultant or resource for other childcare businesses.
Certain paths, like starting a daycare, will require special licenses and permits, whereas others may be easier to start from home or as a side hustle.
Your credentials as a medical professional may make it easier to market your services and work with different parents, caregivers and organizations.
How to choose the right nurse entrepreneur idea
There are a variety of business ideas for nurses, but before you invest time and money into a specific idea, you'll want to think about these three things to help you determine which idea is best for you:
Assess your skills
Ask yourself these questions to figure out your skills and passions:
- What aspects do I like most about my current job or the health care system?
- What aspects of my current job do I enjoy the least?
- Is there a specific population of patients that I prefer to work with?
- Do I enjoy sales?
- Would I prefer a job that deals less with people and more with the background and administrative tasks of the health care industry?
- Am I good at noticing problems and finding solutions?
- What weaknesses slow me down at my current job?
- What types of tasks am I best at and do I enjoy?
These questions are a good way to get a better understanding of what types of work you enjoy and what you’re especially good at. Use this information to inform what type of business you choose to start.
Align your schedule
Do you want to start your business as a side hustle or invest in your idea full time? If you're going to start a side hustle, you'll need to take your current schedule into consideration.
Starting your business as a side hustle and building it into a full-time endeavor is a good way to determine whether there’s enough demand for your business, as well as to work through any workflow or operational issues before you completely dive in. This way, you maintain the income from your current job while building your new business.
On the other hand, of course, you might decide to go all-in on your business idea — and in that case, you'll want to make sure you do your research beforehand so you have an idea of the amount of demand you can expect, who your market is, how much startup capital you’ll need, and more.
Feed your passion
While there are many reasons to start your own business, an important one to focus on is doing something that you’re truly passionate about. Operating your own business can certainly increase your income, but that shouldn’t be the sole reason you go into business for yourself. Focus on picking a business that will allow you to do more of the things you love and less of the things you don’t.
Choosing a business idea for nurses that meshes with your passion will make the long hours that you’ll inevitably work (at least when you’re first getting things off the ground) just a little bit easier.
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