Since my first semester of nursing school, I knew I didn't want to be a bedside nurse for the rest of my career. But not knowing any other way, I stuck with the traditional path of a new grad. I got a job in medical surgical nursing to gain "experience," but once I got there, I still had no idea what direction to take my career.

As a bedside nurse, I struggled with wanting to help people and feeling like I wasn't really helping anyone.

It took many more years of acute med-surg nursing, outpatient med-surg nursing, and travel nursing to convince myself I had to try something new to maintain my mental and physical health.

After some particularly difficult shifts, I started to write. My writings became therapeutic, and my research showed me that other nurses were in the same struggle as me.

Then my writings turned into a blog, my blog led me to copywriting, and I finally decided to pursue a career as a nurse entrepreneur.

While my brand is still a work in progress, I have been able to differentiate myself from the competition and create an online presence that has helped me to attract my target audience and convert them into a community of loyal readers and business opportunities.

By building my brand as a nurse entrepreneur, I continue to achieve my professional goals and provide valuable services to other nurses and nurse entrepreneurs.

Let me tell you how I did it.

So you want to become an entrepreneur?

Becoming a nurse entrepreneur means taking the traditional role of a nurse and using it to create a business that can help others. Nurses in an entrepreneurial role use the skills, knowledge, and experience they have gained from working in the healthcare industry to create innovative and successful businesses.

As a nurse, you already have everything you need to run a successful business. You just have to learn how to leverage those skills, knowledge, and experiences in a way that presents you as an expert in the industry of your choice. As a result, you will be the go-to resource for information and advice in your industry.

That's why building your brand benefits your business — it will help you get in front of the right audience, stand out from the competition, and ultimately lead to more business opportunities.

Your brand should reflect your business purpose, mission, and values and be unique to you. It should also be consistent across all of your marketing materials and communications. A consistent and recognizable brand will attract your target audience and keep them returning in the future — and that's good for your business's bottom line!

A well-designed brand also allows you to create an online presence, an invaluable tool in today's digital world. A website or social media presence engages your target audience, enabling them to get to know you, your brand, and your mission.

As an entrepreneur, you can use your nursing skills, knowledge, and expertise to provide valuable services to others and still feel proud of your career while keeping your mental and physical health in check.

Like anything worthwhile, becoming an entrepreneur won't necessarily be straightforward, and it certainly won't be an easy way to make money. You'll have to work hard on your path to entrepreneurship, but in the end, it will be so rewarding for you to craft a career you genuinely love.

How to Build Your Brand

Identify your goals

Identifying your personal, professional, and business goals is essential in becoming a nurse entrepreneur and building a brand for your business. Goal writing is often a step that gets overlooked because it feels cliché and unnecessary, but your goals will serve to keep you, your career, and your brand aligned with your purpose.

Make a list of your professional goals and see how they relate to your desire to become an entrepreneur. This list could include starting a business, gaining more experience in the industry of your choice, or figuring out a way to offer unique and valuable services relative to your experience.

Creating a list of goals specifically for your business is also important. These goals could include increasing visibility, building relationships with potential customers, or creating content that resonates with your target market. Your business goals should be tailored to your target audience and focused on providing value.

By identifying your goals, you will be better able to create a plan of action, set yourself up for success, and stay on track. Review and adjust your goals as needed, as your business and the needs of your target audience may change over time.

Research your target market

Identify your target audience, what they need, and how you can help them. Understanding the 'who', 'what', and 'how' will help you to create messaging that resonates with an audience and makes them more likely to engage with your brand. It will also help you create content tailored to their needs, providing value and encouraging them to return for more.

When researching your target market, it is vital to consider their demographics, interests, values, motivations, and how they make decisions. This information will help you better understand your target audience and turn your audience into paying customers — because, like it or not, you need paying customers to continue doing business.

Use data analytics to understand your target market better, including analyzing website visitor data, using keyword research tools, and monitoring news and social media conversations. By using these tools, you can gain valuable insight into the needs and interests of your target audience and not only create tailored content for them but also help build relationships and establish brand loyalty with your customers.

Outline your purpose

After you have identified your goals for your business and researched your target market, the next step is to create a purpose statement and fully understand your "why."

Your purpose statement should be a concise statement that reflects the values of your business, explains why your business exists, and how it is different from other businesses in the industry.

Your purpose statement is the heart of your business.

Once you have created a purpose statement, ensure it is reflected in all your marketing materials and communications to stay consistent across all platforms, including your website, social media, email marketing, and any other channels you use to promote your business.

Use your purpose statement as a guide when creating content and engaging with customers. This will ensure all of your communications align with your values and that you continue providing valuable resources that your target audience actually wants to read.

Establish a brand identity

Take notice — I didn't list "brand identity" as the first step in creating your brand. But it is still essential in the overall process because by creating a strong brand identity, you will be able to differentiate your brand from others and attract all the right customers.

Create a business name, logo, website design, color palette, and brand messaging that resonates with your target market. A well-designed and incorporated brand identity helps your business stand out from the competition and keeps your customers coming back to your business time and time again.

Once you have established your brand identity, promoting it and staying consistent across all your marketing materials and communications is VITAL.

Remember! When your brand identity is thoughtful and consistent, it will help search engines ensure that your website and content are visible to your target audience.

Offer value to your audience

Create helpful content and resources for your target market, so your business stays relevant and top of mind. Focus your value-add content on your audience's frequently asked questions and problems your business can solve.

Creating valuable content for your target audience adds to your brand's authenticity and credibility. Valuable content could include tutorials, tips, advice, products, services, and other resources to help them grow and solve their problems.

Staying consistent with your content and posting regularly builds a platform for your brand and establishes your brand as an expert in the industry. As a nurse, trust me, you already are the expert! You just have to learn how to market yourself as such by offering your valuable knowledge to your audience.

Be active in your community

Get actively involved in your industry's community and the community you're creating for your brand.

By getting involved, you are telling your community and customers that they are actually important to you and your business. You're proving to them that you're willing to invest in them rather than just trying to make a quick sale.

Your brand will attract the right audience for you, and once you've attracted your audience, you have to learn how to keep them engaged and loyal to you and your business.

So though you may have heard it before, I'm telling you one more time — being active in your community is a great way to build relationships and create connections with your audience and industry professionals.

Develop social presence

Social media is not a necessary step to building a successful brand, but it can be a super handy tool for increasing visibility, building relationships and trust with your target audience, and establishing yourself as an expert in the field.

Social media is also a done-for-you website if you think about it. All you have to do is create your brand and marketing for your account, and the algorithm will push your content to its millions of accounts worldwide. Compared to a stand-alone website where you have to go out and find your audience through other means, like Google, Pinterest, and SEO optimization.

As you may know, social media is a double-edged sword because while it will help build trust between you and your target audience, it can also be incredibly draining and time-consuming. So determining why you want to use social media for your business and finding a balance between your energy and the usefulness of social media will be invaluable to developing a routine that works for you.

Create a blog

Blogging can help your business build relationships with other professionals in the industry, setting you up for potential collaborations, sponsored posts, and brand partnerships. If writing isn't your thing, you can totally outsource that part and make room for the aspects of your business that you love to do.

Use blogging to build a platform for your brand and offer valuable resources to your target audience. You can market yourself as a thought leader and content expert. Even better — blogging also allows you to be creative while boosting brand loyalty and inspiring your audience to make changes in their lives.

Remember! While having SEO optimized blog content is beneficial, it isn’t the end-all-be-all solution for low traffic to your website. SEO will help to push your website and blog's content to the right people ensuring that your blog is visible to a broader audience and potential customers, but you have to do your due diligence to research what your ideal audience actually needs and wants.

Network with other nurses in business

As an introvert myself, I admit I struggle to network and connect with other business owners in my industry. So don't feel bad if this doesn't align with who you are, your brand, or your business. You can still be successful; it may just be a little harder for you since you'll be doing everything on your own and with little to no support.

By joining relevant professional groups and organizations, you can connect with other nurses and build relationships with industry professionals and even potential customers. Networking with other nurse entrepreneurs is a great way to build connections, gain insights, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in your industry.

Promote your brand

By promoting your brand and leveraging the right tools, you can grow your business and be extremely successful as a nurse entrepreneur. Learn how to utilize search engine optimization (SEO) and other promotional tactics (like Pinterest, social media, blogging, and email newsletters) to get your brand in front of a wider audience.

Promoting your brand and getting it in front of a wider audience is obviously necessary for your business's growth. Utilizing SEO is a great way to do just that. If you learn how to master it, SEO will ensure that your website and content are visible to your target audience.

You can also use social media and email marketing platforms to promote your brand. Creating content and resources tailored to your target audience and providing them with value can help engage with them and make them more likely to like you, trust you, and convert into customers.

Say yes to taking back your career…

By building your brand as a nurse entrepreneur and effectively reinventing what it means to be a nurse, you can achieve your professional goals and provide valuable services to your audience at the same time.

You can differentiate yourself from the competition, establish yourself as an expert in the field, and create an online presence that will help you to attract your target audience and turn them into potential customers and business opportunities.

A strong brand and consistent marketing are a must-have for any business in this digital world; without them, you won't reach your target audience or connect with them.

And if you need a little extra inspiration to gain clarity, push past your mental blocks, and prove to all the haters you’re more than “just a nurse” then download my FREE resource or subscribe to my newsletter where I drop in your inbox every Wednesday like the internet besties we are.

How to Build Your Brand as a Nurse Entrepreneur

So you want to become an entrepreneur?