My path to becoming a PA Entrepreneur has had plenty of ups and downs! Early in my career I knew I was interested in business, I was comfortable with numbers, had lots of passions, surrounded myself with very successful business owners and mentors, and I knew would eventually take a stab at becoming a PA Entrepreneur myself. Fast forward 18 years and I have managed a multi-million dollar medical practice in Los Angeles, secured over $2M in investor capital for my start up skin care venture, figured out how to invest in real estate with very little up front cash, executed a complex M&A for my skin care company, built a portfolio of income producing real estate properties all over the country, and I am currently exploring new ventures all the time. Not every step has been smooth along the way but when I look back at what I have learned over the past 18 years, I can now identify what I consider to be the 10 most important steps to a successful business.
1. Understand Your Cash Flow Model. Make sure that you are building your forecast using figures that you know are realistic (ie reimbursement amounts, price someone will pay for a similar widget, etc). Make sure that you are confident that you can generate that amount of revenue per client/customer/patient and allow yourself plenty of time to ramp up your revenue. Marketing and Networking take longer than expected in most cases.
2. Perform Micro Tests to “Prove Your Concept” before committing to any large investment of time or money. This can be as simple as confirming that you can build your “interest list” of your target audience.
3. Complete market research. What are other people doing in your industry. What are they charging for fees? How do they attract patients/clients/customers? Explore what others are doing and follow in their footsteps making sure to pay close attention to the marketing/networking actions of others.
4. Get a coach, mentor, advisor. Make sure that you have someone who is experienced in business that you can talk to and brainstorm solutions to challenges because new obstacles will present themselves almost everyday. It can be overwhelming as a first time, or experienced, entrepreneur. There is lots of data showing that working with a coach or mentor will set your business up for greater success.
5. Don’t overthink, over analyze, over plan. Most successful entrepreneurs learn by doing. One guarantee in business is that things will never go as planned so don’t waste more time than is needed in planning stages. Execution of micro tests and constantly refining and improving is the secret to most entrepreneurs’ success.
6. Have clear goals and exit plan in mind for your company. The way you make decisions for your company will be different if your goal is to have a side hustle “fun money”, replace your full time salary, scale to a multi seven figure company, or plan a small family owned business that you will pass down to the next generation. Most people underestimate how important this is but it is critical to understand your long term goal for your business so that you can drive the business in the direction that you want it to go.
7. Get comfortable with sales/marketing/networking. There is no business that will thrive and succeed without an element of sales/marketing/networking. Get familiar with the marketing processes for your industry and make sure that you have enough effort going into these activities.
8. Get comfortable with excel and metric tracking. Numbers are your friend as an entrepreneur. Monitoring key metrics, even beyond revenue, is critical to business success.
9. Surround yourself with like minded people who support your vision. Being an entrepreneur can be lonely and feel isolating. Make sure you surround yourself with accountability partners, colleagues, and a community of support.
10. Remember that time and money are both precious commodities. Have “outcome” goals for both time and money investments. Focus on outcome goals and be careful to avoid time consuming to-do lists that don’t lead to an outcome that truly drives your business forward. Keep excel trackers and measure where time and money are being invested and make sure that you are seeing an ROI (return on investment) from both.
I am continuing to learn all the time, and have made plenty of mistakes along my journey. I am now very intentional about the balance of my personal and business goals, and I work hard to make sure that they are truly in alignment. I have learned to use my emotional state as the “measure” of my personal and business goals being aligned. If I am stressed, overwhelmed, angry, frustrated, confused or lost, then I need to revisit the list above and see what is “off” and take steps to fix it. If I am excited, happy, motivated, energized, and making measurable progress than I know that my business (and my life) is on the right track.
Kasey D’Amato, MPAP, PA-C is a Dermatology PA, Entrepreneur, and Career Coach for PAs. Kasey is President of Certified PA Consulting and coaches PAs on how find clinical or non-clinical career success and fulfillment. When not in clinic or helping other PAs, Kasey enjoys spending time on the beach, golf course, or boat in her Maine and Florida homes with her husband and bulldog or traveling the globe looking for new and exciting adventures. www.certifiedpaconsulting.com
