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Where Might You Find Business Opportunity in the Healthcare Industry ?

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Make Money in Healthcare? You need not be a Physician Anymore

The growing popularity and demand for different healthcare products and services has made healthcare industry a safe and lucrative option for most businessmen. You need not just be a physician for making money in health care.

If you study the healthcare industry, you’ll know its amazing rate of growth. Read along to know how and why you should really invest in the health industry.

What Comprises the Healthcare Industry?

Healthcare is a vast industry comprising of provision of medical products, equipment, and services. These help in protecting, extending or increasing the quality of a person’s life. The industry consists of a network of interrelated providers with various areas of expertise, all coordinated to varying degrees to keep you healthy.

According to Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), healthcare industry can be classified into the following two categories:

  1. Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences
  2. Health care services and equipment

Healthcare industry is a complex interrelated system which encompasses different things right from stethoscope manufacturer, physician, pharmacy to medical technicians and a lot more.

Where Might You Find Business Opportunity in the Healthcare Industry?

We are living in a health-conscious society, where everything comes down to good health. There are a number of different reasons that have led to increase in healthcare expenses. Some of these reasons have been listed below:

1. Increase in awareness
According to recent researches, the most searched topic on Internet is love, which is closely followed by topics such as beauty, fitness and health. Healthcare industry is evolving rapidly, and more than being seen as a crisis, it is now being taught as a way of life. Recent researches have shown a significant increase in health care expenses, which has further boosted healthcare industry. This awareness has led to growth in sales and demand of multi-vitamin tablets, supplements, herbalife products etc.

2. Aging Population
Venerable members of our ever-increasing society are another reason that has led to increase in healthcare expenses. It has been estimated that for the next 19 years, 10,000 individuals would be turning 65 every day! This means that by 2030, the percentage of population over former retirement age would have grown from 13% to 18%. The elderly people avail medical services more frequently as compared to other people.

3. Unhealthy Lifestyles
Though there has been an increase in awareness about importance of good health, people are largely afflicted by poor lifestyle oriented diseases. There has been an increase in sedentary lifestyles and the fast food fad has led to binge-eating. Unfortunately in most developed countries like the US, 65% of adults are overweight. It has also been observed that only 31% adults exercise on a regular basis, and 50% of kids exercise enough.

The increased stress levels and other unhealthy lifestyle habits have also led to increase in risk and diagnosis of diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. With average life expectancies now approaching 80 years, the health care industry has many reasons to expand!

4. Recession-Proof Industry
Unlike other industries, the health industry remains relatively undisturbed by variations in economy. People need health care services, even during times of economic slowdown, and this industry is believed to keep growing. Such a safe and lucrative option is undoubtedly excellent for most entrepreneurs.

Where Might You Do Business in HealthCare Industry?

Increase in medical and healthcare expenses has been one change which has been constant in the past few years. The constant aspect of this change has been the continuous increase in health care expenses.

Most entrepreneurs have been working hard to find better solutions to old problems, and launch new businesses. The aging and unhealthy population in today’s world has burdened healthcare system, which has led to increased demand, expenditure and scope for businesses in heath care sector.

The consistently increasing expenses of healthcare have been identified by most entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs then later came up with franchise options along with new and innovative ways to make profit from this massive and complex health industry. Some areas emerging out from this competent healthcare industry are:

  • Health IT – Information technology is undoubtedly the backbone of health care industry in today’s world. There are innumerable entrepreneurial opportunities in health care IT field. Entrepreneurs today are working to create new programs and systems for electronic health recordings. N ew machines and innovative technologies are needed in operating rooms and doctor’s office. Ambitious entrepreneurs also look out for lucrative opportunities in fields of preventative care, nurse-care facilities, or nurse-managed clinics. As millions of dollars in incentives and a wide range of federal funding are available for solid offers in these areas, these fields are a potentially lucrative business option for serious entrepreneurs.
  • Concierge Healthcare – Another health care trend that has recently come up is the Concierge Healthcare trend. The concierge healthcare system helps most people evade long waits to get appointments or waste time in waiting rooms. Most people are willing to pay extra money for extra convenience. Doctors now provide on-call medical care, same day appointments, and even house calls. It is another lucrative business opportunity for most entrepreneurial.
  • Domestic Medical Tourism – Most insurance companies are aware that medical costs and quality of care can have some dramatic variations between various hospitals. Many entrepreneurial opportunities can open up for medical firms if they come up with competitive domestic travel programs.

    • Revolutionary changes can occur, if consumers are empowered with more choice, control and convenience.

    Make sure you start off any new health care venture only after studying the market properly and researching well.

    Author’s Bio:
    Priyanka Iyer writes about benefits of good health, herbalife products and skin care. If not writing she is busy with her books, dance classes and travel jaunts.

    The ABCs of Scheduling

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    Rosemary O’Neill

    The ABCs of Scheduling

    You can burn the candle at both ends, but eventually you end up in the dark with no candle.
    Therefore, one of the most important skills a business owner can have is the ability to take control of the schedule.

    A-Always. B-Be. C-Calendaring.

    (Apologies to David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.)

    Get out in front of your schedule

    One of the most embarrassing incidents of my life was in high school (aren’t they all). I was Junior Class President, riding high, and responsible for putting together the whole-school Spring Dance. Unfortunately I was also a world-class procrastinator. Let’s just end this sad tale by saying that there was no Spring Dance, for the first time in years. Picture a 16 year old girl fielding phone calls from angry parents who had bought dresses for their 16 year old girls.

    That humbling experience made me a goal-setting, calendar-keeping nut.

    Use the calendar tools that work for you

    If you don’t wrangle the calendar, and your daily events, it will wrangle you. Here are a few tips for scheduling sanity:

    Take advantage of your natural rhythms – Liz recently posted about kicking in your peak productivity time. Don’t try to work against your body, if you’re an early riser, schedule accordingly.

    Have a central, master calendar – I use Google Calendar for everything, and have it synced to all of my devices. You can make different colored sub-calendars for various aspects of your life, too. I have an editorial calendar, family and kid activities, business meetings, birthdays, and personal development time displayed together in one master calendar.

    Tell people how you want them to schedule with you – If you use an online appointment system like Tungle.me, or you have a virtual assistant, let people know how to get on your calendar. Ideally, you don’t even have to be directly involved. The key is to use only one mechanism.

    Start your month, week, and day with the calendar – Everyone should master the art of visualization. When you start out by planning and picturing how the month, week, or day is going to go, you’re already ahead of the game. Put aside sacred time (yes, put it on the calendar too) that you will use to prepare your mind for what’s ahead.

    What’s on your calendar this week? How can you start making next week look even more productive for your business?

    Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

    Thank you, Rosemary!

    You’re irresistible!

    ME “Liz” Strauss

    Blogging Tips: Finding Your Voice

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    How to blog series

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    Rob Pell

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    Why Is Finding Your Voice Important?

    If you’re just starting out, it’s difficult to know how to address your audience. From the first instance, that audience won’t actually exist; you will need to build it gradually over time. This makes it even harder, how are you supposed to know how to speak to someone if you don’t yet know who you’re speaking to?

    This why finding your voice is important. The specifics of who you are addressing or talking to do not matter; what matters is finding a voice that suits your style, subject matter and personality.

    Personality

    Writing a blog is not the same as producing news copy. You might be writing a blog about a very recent or developing event and so are tempted to write it in a ‘newsy’ style: don’t, newswriting is a stilted, stripped back and very artificial style of writing. It is used to give the reader the information in the most clear and concise way possible, with little elaboration other than what is necessary.

    Try to resist the trap of falling into a newswriting style because once you’re in it’s difficult to get out of. We’ve all read the papers and seen news broadcasts; we know all about ‘the news’ register. If you start your blog post with something along the lines of “Soft drinks giant Pepsi have announced record breaking profits following the release of…” you will very quickly get locked in to that newsy style.

    The audience of a blog is looking for something more than just news; they require personality, rather than the cold and clinical form of news copy. Let this shine through; sprinkle your copy with opinion and comment; use a conversational tone; drop in clauses like “I don’t know about you but…” or “my thoughts on the subject are…” and give your writing the space it requires to breathe.

    Structure

    Of course a blog post does have its own duties to fulfill. For example, it must be interesting and informative. When you begin a post, note down the different points you want to cover beforehand and plan a structure which allows you to retain your personality and conversational tone without resorting to a banal listing of the facts.

    Planning in this way will give your work structure and life and will allow you to tailor your article towards a specific outcome. It also keeps the blog sharp and concise and allows you to avoid losing your way as can happen when we become absorbed in our writing.

    You will want to include your key phrases in your blog, but do not over do it with these. The primary thing to maintain is your blog’s quality; as long as it is engaging, informative and fun to read you will retain a good core audience. If your blog posts have awkward key phrases shoehorned in all over the place, are difficult to read or are nonsensical, it doesn’t matter how good your SEO tactics are, you are going to lose any new audience members you bring in for the simple reason that your page just isn’t up to scratch.

    Finally, always remember to enjoy your blogging. This is paramount and will shine through in your writing.

    What helps you find your voice, the voice that connects with your audience?

    Author’s Bio:
    Rob Pell is a technology enthusiast, all round geek and happy employee of Simplifydigital, the UK broadband, digital TV and home phone experts. Simplifydigital are accredited by Ofcom and provide independent consumer advice on digital services.

    Is Your Business Getting Regularly Hosed at the Gas Pump?

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    They go up and they go down. They impact businesses and consumers alike. They bring out anger and frustration in just about everyone that sets foot inside a vehicle.

    Yes, gas prices are one thing that most people despite their political views can agree on. In most cases, people would conclude they are getting hosed by the oil industry.

    For the small business owner that is just trying to get by, higher fuel prices can mean added debt, less opportunity to grow their business, and a whole lot of frustration at the end of the day.

    So, how can the men and women running small businesses stay on top of their company fuel prices and not be in done in by big oil?

    One answer is turning to GPS tracking software.

    The bottom line is GPS can tell the employer how far their employee/s went when behind the wheel of company vehicles, if they are properly utilizing their time while on the clock, and whether or not they need to consolidate trips.

    In the event your company gas bills are adding up quicker than the U.S. medal count at the Summer Olympics, there are a number of benefits to having GPS software on your company vehicles.

    They include:

    • Decreased operating expenses – Watching out for employee activities such as speeding or excessive idling not only saves on fuel expenses, but  also decreases the damage done to company vehicles;
    • Decreased insurance rates by some 35 percent – A large number of insurance companies offer reduced premiums for companies that have vehicles with real-time GPS systems;
    • Eliminating paper logs – When putting in place a digital record, employers can monitor not only fuel costs and vehicle maintenance expenses, but also audits;
    • Discovering unnecessary side trips – Many employees get a little frisky while out there with the company vehicle, perhaps deciding to take a little side trip here and there. As their employer, it is your job to remind them that they are on company business with the vehicle and not out running personal errands. A GPS system can log the mileage and location of the vehicle, making it harder for the employee to explain why it took them three hours to make a customer visit;
    • Better customer response time – Lastly, a GPS system will show you whether or not your employees are meeting the needs of customers in a timely manner. You can also consolidate trips by having the employee meet with several customers in the same geographic area so that you are not making individual trips to each customer over several days, meaning more fuel costs.

    With no sign in sight of consistently lower gas prices, it behooves the small business owner who currently does not employ GPS tracking in their company vehicles to consider it.

    Remember, your profits are for the business you have been building, not for the oil companies.

    Photo credit: customgpstracking.com

    Dave Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience as a writer, covering news, sports marketing, SEO, press releases, social media and more. You’ll find Dave at: http://www.examiner.com/news-in-san-diego/dave-thomas

     

    How to Get Blog Traffic Using Social Channels

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    Jordan Mendys

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    Gaining Blog Traffic

    When you have a blog, and especially when you are starting one, gaining traffic is the most important thing. You want your work noticed, and the more traffic you get, the more success you will have with your business, services, etc. One of the best ways to get traffic to your blog is to showcase your work and website, and using your social media channels can increase that effort greatly. When you utilize your social networks, you will get more articles shared throughout your network, and if you have good material, people will come to your blog more and more often. So how can you utilize social media to benefit your blog?

    How to Get Blog Traffic Using Social Channels

    First, your blog should utilize a plugin that allows not just you, but anyone who comes to your site, to share your article on Twitter, Facebook, and more with the click of a button. A really good plugin for this would be WordPress’ Sociable. At the bottom of all of your posts will be a toolbar allowing easy share, and as we all know, that is the easiest way that you can get organic traffic. You should be sharing every post that you write anyway, but now when visitors come to your site, it’s easy for them to share.

    Next, you should use your social networks to get guest posts. We all know that guest posting, and getting guest blogs on your site, is one of the best ways to drive up traffic. The more content you have, the better your site will look, and the longer you can keep the audience on your blog. To get guest bloggers, reach out through Twitter to have an open call for guest posts. It is an easier platform for people to contact you. Then you can get a pitch to from them to see if the article is right for your site. This is a good way to drive up the requests to post to your site, but be careful with who is contacting you, because you don’t want to waste your time with spam posts.

    When you start getting guests to post, encourage (or make it a requirement for a guest post) for them to share their article, and then people outside of your own network will be drawn to your site. Allowing guest posts will also open up opportunities for you to contribute to others’ blogs in return. That way you will gain all of the benefits that come with guest posting.

    These are the best ways to use Facebook, Twitter, and all of your other accounts to drive up traffic and exposure to your blog. Letting people contribute to your work will always garner excitement for your work, and encourage people to share your site with the world. The better content you have to share, the more people will come, and stay, for awhile.

    Author’s Bio:
    Jordan Mendys is a media professional and blogger based in North Carolina. He helps blog to help people find the best in cable internet bundles () around. Follow him @JPMendys

    Thank you for adding to the conversation!

    4 Success Keys for Female Entrepreneurs

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    Kate Endress

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    Practical Advice for Female Entrepreneurs

    American society seems to have finally reached the commendable tipping point where the number of women receiving advanced degrees and finding high-paying jobs is leveling out with men. And despite a scary statistic that women lead just 8% of venture-backed companies, I believe that the tide has also shifted in Silicon Valley.

    It’s hard to ignore the wave of successful startups with strong female customer bases. Women make up 60% of Zynga’s customers, 77% of Groupon’s customers, 82% of Pinterest’s users and 70% of all ecommerce buyers. Those are numbers that even the old boys club of venture capital can’t ignore. I am a huge online shopper myself, and I was able to leverage that authenticity to attract venture backing for my ecommerce startup last August.

    4 Success Keys for Female Entrepreneurs

    While admittedly I’m pretty new the game, I’m often asked if I have any advice for aspiring, young entrepreneurs. What follows are 4 success keys for female entrepreneurs.

    Seek out strong female role models.

    I got some great advice early in my career by a female colleague who told me to find the women I want to emulate and get to know them by offering to buy them a cup of coffee. At first, I was a bit nervous to pick up the phone or write the email, because I knew they were busy women. But in the past seven years, I have reached out at least once a month to female bosses, leaders and entrepreneurs and only once to date has the recipient not been able to fit me in. I’m often touched at how openly and warmly they share experiences both professionally and personally. Ask about their management styles and their tactics for achieving the elusive work/life balance. It is through these meetings that I have honed in on my vision for the kind of female leader, mother and wife I hope to someday become.

    Take advantage of a growing number of organizations and resources dedicated to promoting women in technology.

    Women just one generation ahead often had to rise through the ranks without a support system. And yet these trailblazers have turned around and paved a path for the younger generations by creating organizations that open doors and facilitate connections for young females in tech. I subscribe to Women 2.0, a Kauffman-backed organization that offers content, community and conferences for women founders in tech. It’s inspiring to keep tabs on other female entrepreneurs, and I’ve attended several events in San Francisco where I got to connect with other female founders. I also applied and was recently accepted to Springboard’s program, which matches female entrepreneurs with coaches, industry contacts and investors. Take advantage of these incredible resources!

    Be good at what you do.

    Seek out opportunities that might give you a second look because you are female, but don’t depend on that to get the job done. I’ve had several female engineers apply to my company, and I was rooting for them. But at the end of the day they weren’t as good on merit, and they didn’t get the job. Be self aware about your weakness and take advantage of online and local courses to improve everything from your coding to your public speaking skills. Deep down, you know when you are really good at something, and this competence is the crux of the confidence that will make you successful.

    Speak with conviction and work on your handshake.

    I’ve noticed many women do themselves a huge disservice by raising the inflection of their voice at the end of sentences. It makes everything sound like a question and gives others the perception of a lack of confidence. Make sure your statements really pack a punch. Along the same lines, don’t start an introduction with a wimpy handshake. You don’t need to have an Arnold-grip but make eye contact and shake hands like you mean it. Let others know you are confident in yourself, your team and your idea.

    Author’s Bio:
    Kate Endress is a private equity investor turned entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer. After graduating from Stanford Business School in 2011, Kate cofounded DITTO.com, an ecommerce site selling designer sunglasses and eyewear which features cutting edge new “try-on” technology

    Thank you for adding to the conversation!

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Work with Liz on your business!!