5 minute read
Taking a Leap of Faith: Shifting From Employee to CEO
BY NACHOLE JOHNSON, MSN, FNP-BC
In the highly regarded health care space, we were taught that our positions were recession-proof. The pandemic flipped that belief on its head. Nurses and doctors alike were laid-off or furloughed until things looked better. Some were able to return to their jobs, but only to work short-staffed due to budget cuts. Health care workers finally realized that we were overworked and underpaid, something that was prevalent before the pandemic, but that the pandemic exacerbated to its breaking point.
Across the nation, while people were being furloughed and at the same time stocking up on basic necessities, some were realizing that life was too short to continue living the way they did pre-pandemic. The fear of missing out on life was too great to ignore when a virus had begun killing thousands of people daily in the course of a few short months after landing on U.S. soil. While some were involuntarily forced out of their jobs, others took a proactive approach to start living life on their own terms.
Well over a year into the pandemic, more people began to vote with their feet when presented with less than favorable work conditions in favor of more flexibility, remote work, higher wages, and better treatment from their employers. The “Great Resignation” swept across the nation affecting people of all industries—and health care was not immune to the effects.
Nurses began to leave permanent positions in the hospital in favor of lucrative travel assignments. Those who were exhausted from working during the pandemic and fed up working for someone else left to start their own business. Even nurse practitioners left positions to gain freedom by branching out on their own so they could free themselves from the demands of out-of-touch corporate leaders who cared only about volume all the while burning their clinical staff out. Ali Cure, MSN, FNP-BC, is one of those nurse practitioners who took a leap of faith to fully pursue her business during the pandemic. One of the hundreds of thousands that were furloughed early on in the pandemic, Cure decided to pursue her aesthetic business full-
time. Cure started training in aesthetics in 2018 and doing aesthetic treatments on her off days while working as a pediatric urgent care nurse practitioner. Just by chance, she ramped up her training right before the pandemic hit which proved to be useful.
“Right before the pandemic I started amping up my training and then in April of 2020 our urgent care went from seeing 120 patients per day to like 10; they furloughed all the nurse practitioners in the urgent care and hospital,” Cure recalls.
A nurse since 2012 and nurse practitioner since 2015, Cure owns and operates The Aesthetic Cure, a solo aesthetics practice where she completes treatments such as Botox, fillers, PDO threads, sclerotherapy, and IV hydration treatments. “My idea was always to go full-time in the business, but it’s hard taking the jump from a stable job to owning your own business and doing it all yourself.”
Cure enjoys her new role as a business owner and says one of the best parts of her business is seeing patients not only have a physical transformation, but an emotional transformation after treatments. “One of my favorite things is
when I take before pictures of a patient and they have a down look because they don’t feel good about themselves. And then I can take their after pictures, and you can see it in their face—their confidence has changed, they look happier, they’re holding their head higher.”
Moving from a traditional career as a nurse practitioner into your own business comes with its share of challenges, but Cure doesn’t see herself going back to work for another employer. Recalling a recent conversation with a former coworker in which Cure was asked if she wanted to come back to work in urgent care she said, “Nope, not gonna happen. It’s like, once you feel that freedom you step into it. Moving from a traditional career as a nurse practitioner into your own business comes with its share of challenges, but Cure doesn’t see herself going back to work for another employer.
Mind you, it’s very hard, it’s not always stable. That’s something that you have to know that you can deal with, the stress of it, and not let it overwhelm you. But honestly, to go back to working someone else’s schedule—when they tell me to be there, when they tell me to leave, and asking if I can have time off is just something I’m not willing to do.”
If you’re a nurse practitioner looking to start an aesthetic business, Cure gives this advice, “Be prepared with not having a stable income in the beginning. Just have a couple of things ready in the sense of stability with money and paying bills. Start your training before you leave your current position if you can so that you do have a backbone for your business and growing a foundation.”
