The Best Advice Legal Nurse Consultants Confess They Never Took and Wish They Had

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.

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.

Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PHN, CLNC

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 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!^®”

Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, CCE, FMC, CLNC

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 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!

Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC

I attended the CLNC 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.

Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC

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.

Jane A. Hurst, RN, CLNC

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.

Camy Joyner, RN, CCM, CLNC

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.