| Sometimes we really need business advice, but even when that advice is readily available we don’t take it. For this blog I asked the CLNC® Pros to share the “best advice they never took” but wish they had. WARNING: Failure to follow this “best advice” is hazardous to the health of your legal nurse consulting business. |
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| ▶ | One of the first things I learned when I took the CLNC® Certification Program is the importance of writing a business plan. I thought I knew a better way and that I could accomplish my goals and grow my CLNC® business without a formal plan. Eight months into my business, I felt I was floundering, running into brick walls and just stagnating. I went back to the Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting® textbook and re-read the sections about starting my CLNC® business. I finally sat down and wrote a formal business plan as Vickie recommends. I put it on my bulletin board in front of my desk so I could see it every day. Within a month, I was really wondering why I had not followed Vickie’s advice sooner. My business began to blossom. Within four months of writing that business plan, I stopped all other nursing and focused only on my CLNC® business. I was amazed by my success and now know that I should have followed Vickie’s advice from day one. |
| ▶ | Probably the best advice I didn’t take so many years ago was given to me by a very wise and successful lady. She told me and about 100 of my RN colleagues to go out there, get started and have a plan. Yes, you guessed it, her name is Vickie Milazzo. Years ago when I took the CLNC® 6-Day Certification Seminar, we were encouraged to complete a marketing plan and get started on our business when we returned home to become successful CLNC® consultants. Well I went home and found every reason in the book why I couldn’t work on starting my success. I had kids, work, a husband, volunteer work, cleaning, cooking, laundry, a case here and there and just being a mom, wife and nurse. Notice I didn’t mention myself. I didn’t have time for myself. |
| After attending one of the annual NACLNC® Conferences, I came home and asked myself, “Why haven’t you started aggressively marketing your business? Why haven’t you started on the road to your CLNC® success?” Well, I sat down, wrote my marketing plan and got started becoming a successful CLNC® consultant. | |
| Had I taken the advice of that wise lady I spoke about, I would have become a successful CLNC® consultant many years earlier. | |
| My advice to you now is, go out and do it. Become successful. Do it for yourself. Don’t wait. As Vickie says “We Are Nurses and We Can Do Anything!®” | |
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Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, CCE, FMC, CLNC |
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| ▶ | The best advice I never took (for a year and a half anyway), was Vickie’s advice that, as a nurse I really can do anything! After completing the CLNC® 6-Day Certification Program back in 2000, I procrastinated for nearly one and a half years out of fright that if I got a case to work on, I would most assuredly screw it up somehow or miss an important case fact or worse yet would not have a clue as to where to begin. After getting and completing my first case however, I realized just how well Vickie Milazzo had prepared me. Astonishingly, I also came to realize that writing a case report was actually enjoyable and not the dreaded nightmare I had imagined it would be. Looking back, I realize that I lost one and a half years of my CLNC® career due to my own stinking thinking! Don’t fall into the same mind trap that I did. As nurses, we really can do anything! |
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Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC |
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| ▶ | I attended the CLNC® 6-Day Certification Seminar in Orlando 2001 and left there ready to roll. I followed what I learned in the program and took my one action step a day. I continued to work at my nursing job 24 hours a week while I was growing my CLNC® business. I made phone calls and mailed out my marketing packet on my days off and in between driving my children to their various activities. I received work from attorneys. I was so excited as I completed each assignment. Each case was so different – I was never bored. I just loved my new adventure! |
| When I had to work at my nursing job on the night shift, I would dread it all day and for a few days before. I was holding on to that job because of security and I knew it. I thought that I had a solution. I decided to cut back on my hours and work per diem. My hospital had a policy that in order to work per diem, we were required to work four shifts a month. I worked only my four shifts a month and continued to grow my CLNC® business. I could now put in as many hours as I wanted in my business because I had the work and I was making more money from my CLNC® business than I made at the hospital. My hospital job was actually affecting the growth of my business. I knew that I needed to cut the ties completely. After months of this nonsense, I finally took Vickie’s advice and let go of my “security blanket” – I quit my nursing job. I told my director of nursing that I was resigning my position after 10 years and gave her a month’s notice. Saying goodbye wasn’t easy for me, but I knew that I was making the right choice. | |
| I don’t have any regrets about leaving my hospital job. I only wish that I had taken Vickie’s advice sooner and left the hospital much earlier. | |
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Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC |
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| ▶ | The best advice I never took (actually I did end up taking it, but I was in business for several years before I did), was when I first started my business 16 years ago – I failed to market to attorneys in larger cities. I was living in the Midwest and I concentrated on marketing to local attorneys. At the time, I didn’t think I was experienced enough to market myself to attorneys from larger cities. I did manage to talk a couple of local attorneys into using my CLNC® services, but it took quite a while before I started marketing outside of my area. Once I started marketing my CLNC® services outside my area, things really started to happen. I guess I should have had more confidence in my abilities earlier in my career because I ended up providing exactly the same CLNC® services to the new big-city clients as I did for my original clients in the boonies. |
| ▶ | When I took the CLNC® Certification Program in 2004, Vickie advised us not to underprice ourselves. I was so eager to land my first case that I allowed myself to be talked into charging a lower fee. I fell for the attorney’s argument that I had not done this before. |
| By the third case I was wise to the deal, quoted my original full fee and was fully prepared to walk away from anything less. The attorney agreed to my fee. I no longer underprice myself. | |
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Camy Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC |
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| Thanks to all the CLNC® Pros for sharing their “best advice they never took.” | |
| Success Is Inside! | |
| P.S. |
Comment and share the best advice you never took or to thank these CLNC® Pros for their candid advice. |
| P.P.S. |
To receive your best advice, sign up now for the 2010 NACLNC® Conference where you’ll Take the Stage for Legendary CLNC® Success in Nashville, Tennessee. |
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Okay, I’ve got to admit something. You’ve heard me brag about my dual 20″ monitors on my desk. Here’s the confession. I’ve gotten to the point where I cannot work without two monitors staring me in the face. In my office, I keep my email open on one monitor (the right) so I can do the ADD thing as soon as something important that requires me to drop what I’m doing and immediately attend to someone else’s problem, drops into my email box. I do turn off the sound so the pinging doesn’t drive me totally bonkers.
The left (really center) monitor is my workspace. This is where I do the important things (write my Tuesday Tech Tips, surf the Internet and occasionally some real work). I’m constantly mousing back and forth between the two monitors. If I’m editing documents, I’ll keep one document open on one monitor and drag another to the other. I even accidentally discovered that in Outlook you can right click the calendar or email icons at the bottom left and open either in a new window! That way when I’m putting a deadline from an email into my calendar or preparing another list of my availability dates to send to President Obama, I don’t have to depend on my bad memory, I just look back and forth.
Legal nurse consultants, if you haven’t tried duals you’re missing out. These are even more fun than using tabbed browsing in Firefox to look at multiple websites. The possibilities are endless. I haven’t tried spreading a spreadsheet across the two… maybe later. Think about working on your reports for your attorney-clients. You can have the scanned medical records on one screen and your report on the other while doing research in the background.
“Tom,” you might be wondering, “you’re a lowly laptop user – how did you plug two monitors into a laptop?” Well the answer is simple. I’ve got my dock, and my dock has two different outputs on the back for monitors – a standard VGA output (old school) for the monitor I put on top of the dock’s built-in stand and a DVI output (modern). Probably the designers figured people would have one type of monitor input (VGA or DVI) so they were building-in choice. By buying a second monitor with the DVI output, I was able to plug in a second monitor!
Newer docks are already on the DVI bandwagon and often come with two DVI outputs as well as the one good old VGA output. Check carefully before you buy. After you get your dock, you simply match your monitors to the output and away you go!
If you don’t yet own a dock (or port-replicator in geek-speak) you can still run duals on your laptop. You simply plug a second monitor into your laptop’s output (VGA or DVI) then boot up the laptop keeping the screen open. Once it’s booted, right-click anywhere on the screen (desktop in geek-speak). Click Properties, click Settings and tell it to Extend my Windows Desktop onto this monitor or specify both monitors as Attached depending upon what you see. If you plug a keyboard and mouse into the laptop, you don’t have to keep it up close and can even mount it on a laptop stand
Now it gets cool. You can drag the monitor icons on the Settings screen left or right. This allows you to place your second screen to the left or right of your main and then roll your mouse off the left or right (depending upon where you place your monitor) of your screen and right onto the second monitor. Your cursor can fly through the thin air between two monitors!
Desktop owners, don’t start crying in your beer (or Perrier) yet. You may be able to do the same trick since most newer desktop computers support dual monitors right out of the box. You could be ready and not even know it. Look on the back of your computer (don’t sneeze from the dust). If you can find more than one VGA or DVI outputs on the video card that sticks out from the back of your computer, then you’re ready to go. Buy a second monitor with inputs that match your free output, plug it in and follow the steps above to activate it.
If you only have one output (VGA or DVI) you can haul your computer to the local geek store and they can drop in a second video card or replace your current one with a card that has dual monitor support for under $100. If you really want to create monitor envy in your friends, instead of replacing your old single card – add the second dual port card. Then, if you have the wall space, you can have three monitors! You’ll triple your work output.
There is one other option for the spacially challenged. At home, I don’t have the desk space for duals, instead I had to compromise and install just one freakin’ huge 26″ wide-screen monitor. YEAH, BABY! It’s like sitting in the first row of a movie theater and I love it. It’s big enough that I can open two slightly narrower versions of the dual windows I use at work without feeling (too) compromised by the smaller space and it keeps me from getting claustrophobic. If you don’t have enough desk space for duals, take my advice and do the next best thing, “Go wide, young CLNC® consultant!”
Time to tech-out here, so think about the duals. I’ve got to warn you – they’re addictive. Now, when I’m on a plane, train or automobile and I’m working from my laptop’s single (but wide) screen I can just about scream from frustration when I can’t work in the dual manner and style to which I have become accustomed.
Keep on techin’,
Tom
P.S. Comment and share your experiences with dual or more! monitors.
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