Whether you’re looking for a side hustle to work alongside your nursing career, or you’re looking for a business idea where you can eventually transition into full-time (and leave the nursing profession), then you’re going to love this blog post.

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Whilst there are literally dozens of home business ideas, I’ve cherry picked a small handful which I believe are the best fit for nurses where you can use your knowledge and expertise and work alongside your nursing career.

So let’s get started…

My Top 9 Nurse Business Ideas

#1  Blogging

Once you have all the basic fundamentals set up, you can run a blogging business in as little as 1-2 hours per day, or say 5 hours per week. And on top of that, there is no income ceiling as you can make as much or as little money as you like from your blog.

The topic/niche of your blog is the most difficult to decided upon, but it’s always best to go with something you enjoy and have knowledge in. So in this case, you could choose a topic around your nursing profession to blog about.

Once your blog starts to get a decent flow of traffic, you can earn money from display ads, promoting affiliate programs and creating and selling your own digital products, such as an ebook and printables – which is what I do!

How To Get Started Blogging for Money

I’ve been blogging since around 2005; but I did take a refresher course last year called the Six Figure Blogger (it’s since changed its name). This is an advanced blogging course, so I would not recommend this course to get you started.

However, Lauren & Alex, the creators of this course have also created a beginners blogging course which I would highly recommend.

#2 Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is massive online as there are hundreds of thousands of solopreneurs, bloggers and small businesses who want other people to write their content for them, so freelance writers are in big demand.

You don’t need any special training as in most cases you simply write as if you were speaking to someone – just like I’m doing now. Of course, you need to have excellent English, spelling and grammar and be able to type at a reasonable speed with very minimal mistakes.

As a freelance writer it’s best to specialize in one or two specific topics where you have expertise in, so you could become a health care freelance writer or write about topics within your nursing expertise.

Good freelance writers set their own rates, and you can easily ask for $400 for a 2,500-word article.

How To Start a Freelance Writing Business

I did a brief freelance writing stint a couple of years ago, but I must admit that it wasn’t for me. However, because I research everything deeply (too deeply; as it sometimes stops me from actually getting started), I did learn just about everything there is to know about freelance writing.

One of the ‘go to’ experts I learned from was Elna Cain who is a seasoned freelance writer herself. Elna has created several low cost courses on how to become a successful freelance writer.

#3 Medical Proofreading

Proofreaders are also in big demand for the same reason as freelance writers in that there’s so much written content on the Internet, a lot of solopreneurs and small businesses want their content proofread before publishing it online.

This is something you could do in only a few hours per week whilst sitting on the couch with your laptop or with a pen and paper. Again, you could also specialize in proofreading on topics within your nursing expertise as you would be familiar with all the jargon and terminology.

Freelance proofreaders can charge anywhere from $20-$50 per hour.

How To Start a Freelance Proofreading Business

For obvious reasons you must have excellent English, spelling and grammar to be a proofreader. However, be aware that when you become a freelancer, this means that you have to market your own proofreading services in order to get clients.

I know of one very popular and highly successful proofreading course, which is hosted by the lovely Caitlin. To date, Caitlin’s course has helped over 15,000 students set up their own freelancing business.

#4 Nurse Career Coach

You now have a wealth of nursing experience under your belt and you have progressed up the nursing career ladder. Did you know that you could offer your knowledge and expertise to help other  ‘just-qualified’ nurses to reach their full career potential?

You would set up your own freelance nurse career coaching business and give sessions offering advice and tips on how to climb up the nursing career ladder. You could do this from home or you could conduct these sessions online via Zoom.

This can easily be done part-time which would be a great side-business for you to make extra money.

How to Become a Nurse Career Coach

To become a nurse career coach, you obviously need to have gone through the career path first. If you can, speak to other nurses who have gone on to be career coaches and ask their advice on how to get started.

If you don’t know anyone personally, then do some research online as their is always plenty of information to hand.

Some quick ‘Google’ resources I found are:

#5  Wellness Coach

Nurses, as a whole, tend to have a gentle, caring nature towards their patients and other people in general. Therefore one-on-one coaching is a great small business option for nurses / ex nurses.

As a wellness coach, you could choose to specialize in one or two specific areas within the overall ‘wellness’ niche.

Some examples could be:

How To Become a Wellness Coach

I don’t have any personal recommendations on how to become a coach as I’ve only briefly looked into coaching as a business option for myself.

However, I do see this coaching website pop up in my Facebook feed from time-to-time, so check them out:

#6 Mindfulness Coach

I’ve put this down as a separate step because this is such a sought-after service which a lot of people are desperate for.

There are so many people today who suffer from depression, stress and anxiety, that this type of coaching is in big demand.

The problem lies is that there are many coaches who practice in this field, but their coaches prices are soo high that the general working class public cannot afford them – and it’s these people who need these coaching sessions the most.

So there could be a gap in the market where you can create a great income for yourself, but where you’ll also be able to help the people who cannot afford a $5,000-$10,000 monthly coaching sessions.

How To Become a Mindfulness Coach

Again, I’m afraid that I don’t have any personal recommendations on how to become a coach, but you can do searches online and join Facebook groups which specialize in helping women to become coaches.

#7 Massage Therapist

If you’re a nurse who has also been trained in massage therapy, then this is right up your street.

You can set up your own massage business either:

If you want to travel to your clients’ home, then you’ll obviously need a car and a travel / folding massage table.

How To Become a Massage Therapist

You need to determine exactly who you want as your customers and target these people with your marketing.

Your marketing could be:

And don’t forget to look into getting insurance and/or special license or permits.

Related Reading: 14 Steps To Start a Small Business (look at point #8)

#8  Nutritionist

To be a freelance nutritionist, you must be qualified in nutrition and/or dietitian.

This line of work can easily be undertaken in your own home. You don’t necessarily need a spare room as you could use your sitting room or kitchen when you know your family will be at work / school.

And of course, there’s Zoom!

You can also take your coaching sessions online, as this will open up a whole new, and much bigger, audience for you to fill your client quota.

How To Become a Freelance Nutritionist

Just as above with becoming a massage therapist, you need to determine exactly who you want as your customers and target these people with your marketing.

What kind of people do you want to target to help them with their diet and health? It’s much easier to target a specific group of people; as this will make your marketing a lot easier.

You can then tailor your marketing to get in-front of your target market:

#9 Personal Carer

If you have a quick look through online job boards such as Indeed.com, you will always come across various adverts for personal carers, which shows again, that this type of service is in demand. So why not set up your own personal carer business?

Of course, this could cover a range of personal ‘caring’ circumstances, but with a bit of research and matching the data up with what you propose to offer, this could end up being quite a lucrative business.

You will have to travel to your client’s home so you would need a car, or at least take on clients which are easy to travel to.

How To Become a Self-Employed Personal Carer

Here are some of the steps you need to take to become a freelance personal carer:

 

If any of these home business ideas for nurses appeals to you, then make sure you research and look into it thoroughly and that you setup your business the right way.

Of course, you don’t have to do anything that is related to nursing, you might want to do something totally different. If this is the case, then take a look at my larger list of home business ideas for women, where there is a bigger variety of small businesses which are all home-based.

Good luck in whatever you decided to do!