How to Promote Yourself and Attract Clients as a Nurse Entrepreneur

Sep 10 / Teresa Sanderson, RN, CCM
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As nurses, we're accustomed to shining the spotlight on others, rarely turning it on ourselves. However, when it comes to entrepreneurship, promoting your business is crucial. This week, during our continued Nurse Entrepreneur Q&A Series we'll explore effective strategies for nurse entrepreneurs to promote their businesses and attract clients. So, let's talk about how to make this different.

Shifting Your Mindset

When we talk about promoting yourself, it's important to reframe your thinking. You're not necessarily promoting yourself. Instead, you're building a brand. You're talking about products and services. You are the face of that brand - the embodiment, voice, and representation of it.

Building Your Brand with Authenticity

Building and promoting your business in the online space requires that we show up with authenticity. We need to show up in a way that adds value, so that people want to come closer to us and recognize that we have authority and expertise in the field. This requires consistent and meaningful messaging so we can organically attract our audience.

Visual Identity

The first thing to focus on is building your brand. It's really important to have:

  • A logo
  • Brand colors
  • Brand fonts

These elements create continuity and help people associate you with your brand. Think about the Coca-Cola logo - everybody knows those white letters on a red background. You want to build the same kind of brand recognition.

Values and Mission

Highlight your values, mission, and the impact you aim to make with your business. For example, at Nurses Feed Their Young, we focus on three pillars:

  • Cultivating nursing leaders
  • Innovating nursing continuing education
  • Developing nurse entrepreneurs

If you haven't done so already, clarify your mission, vision, and values. What is the ultimate goal or impact you'd like to make on the world? Be really clear on these things as they'll help you with your messaging.

Share Your Story

People connect with stories. As the saying goes, "Facts tell, stories sell." For instance, I can tell people all day long about the value of nursing continuing education, but it becomes more impactful when I share how I got started:

"When my husband and I opened a hospice nursing agency years ago, we used nursing continuing education program as a means of increasing hospice length of stay in our rural area. We grew our hospice to $3 million from a $6,000 investment and served more patients than we ever dreamed by using a nursing continuing education program as a vehicle for marketing."

This story brings the facts to life and helps people understand the real-world impact of what I do.

Networking and Collaboration

I cannot say enough about networking and collaboration. A big part of the Nurses Feed Their Young movement is recognizing that there's space in the world for success for all of us. Just because someone else is a continuing education consultant or a nurse entrepreneur doesn't mean we can't work together.

  • Consider these collaboration strategies:
  • If you have a podcast, invite others to be guests
  • Look for podcasts where you can be a guest
  • Participate in or organize online summits or seminars
  • Put on your own webinars weekly or monthly

When we form great collaborations with like-minded nurses and nurse entrepreneurs, we expand our network exponentially. You're in front of someone else's audience, just like they're in front of yours.

Public Speaking

Public speaking is always a great thing. Look for opportunities in your local community, online summits, or seminars. One of my simple strategies for growing my business is to offer at least one complimentary continuing education program. This allows people to learn more about me, my business, what I do, how I do it, and the problems I solve for them.

Content Creation

Creating relevant and high value content is crucial. When my business wasn't gaining traction and launches weren't successful, it was because I didn't really have a marketing plan.

When we're launching a new product or service, we need to give people an opportunity to:

  • Become aware of it
  • Learn about what it is and what it does
  • Understand why we're doing it

Here's a tip: We don't want to have content out there that is 80% "buy my thing" and 20% value. That doesn't work. We need to be 80-90% value-added content - something that's really meaningful, really valuable, really helps your people - and only 10-20% that says, "Hey, sign up for my thing or buy my thing."

Client Testimonials

Client testimonials are a great way to grow your social currency. When you have a client share their experience with you, it goes a long way. It's not you having to say it - it's what your clients are saying about you and what it was like to work with you.

  • These testimonials could be:
  • A recorded video
  • A nice little snapshot of somebody's Facebook post
  • A written testimonial

All these things are perfect to use to promote yourself.

Final Thoughts

The biggest tip I can share with you is to serve as you promote. I don't even necessarily think of it as promoting myself. I think about how I can best serve my clients with the content I'm going to create. Your business success is just a reflection of the value you provide to your people.

Take Your Nurse Entrepreneurship to the Next Level!

Are you ready to level-up your nursing expertise into a thriving business? Join us for the upcoming Business Care Plan Workshop for Nurse Entrepreneurs!

What You'll Get:

  • Expert guidance on creating a comprehensive business plan
  • Strategies to identify and leverage your unique strengths
  • Tools to overcome common challenges faced by nurse entrepreneurs
  • Networking opportunities with like-minded professionals
  • Actionable steps to take your business to new heights

🎁 FREE Business Health Assessment 🎁

Before the workshop, get a head start with our complimentary Business Health Assessment. This valuable tool will help you:

  • Identify your business's current strengths and weaknesses
  • Pinpoint areas for immediate improvement
  • Determine if the Business Care Plan Workshop is the right next step for you

Don't miss this opportunity to invest in yourself and your business!


Remember, your success as a nurse entrepreneur starts with a solid plan. Let's create yours together!
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