How to start a Nursing Agency
In a previous blog (How to start a care agency in the UK) we covered both: Nursing Agencies and Domiciliary Care. Well, in this blog we will drill down even more into how to start a Nursing Agency. We will touch on the following topics:
- clarify some myths
- how can we help
- funds
- finding a good business name
- registering the business
- logo
- website
- documents
- skills that you need
- free tips from us
Some people also refer to Nursing Agencies as Staffing Agency, Temporary Staffing Agency, Healthcare Recruitment Agency etc. It is just a matter a preference on how you want to call it as its business aim is the same: to supply Care Assistants, Support Workers and Registered Nurses to Care Providers. What do we mean by Care Providers? Nursing Homes, Residential Homes, Hospitals, Homecare Companies, Rehabilitation Centres are all Care Providers as they are in charge of the care their clients receive. You, as a Nursing Agency are only supplying the staff.
MYTHS
Before we dive in, let’s clarify some rumors that are floating about:
- You don’t need to register with the CQC to run a Nursing Agency
- You don’t have to be a Registered Nurse or have a specific qualification
- You don’t need special software to manage the business. At a later stage, when you are making money and have over 20-30 staff, it is something that you can consider. Or if your budget allows it, please go ahead. Why not?
- You CAN use your home address. don’t let the address stop you doing this
HOW CAN WE HELP?
This topic is short and simple as we offer everything that you need to start your Nursing Agency, from finding a good name to the last document.
Follow this link to see all our services and prices: Nursing Agency Starter Pack.
We also offer an e-book for newbies which is packed with gems on how to start a Nursing Agency. You can download it here: How to Start a Nursing Agency in the UK (the right way).
FUNDS
Most of our clients start their business with their own savings. They start small and then grow. This is the best way, at least in our opinion. Starting small gives you the opportunity to learn and if you make mistakes the damage is less impactful.
Others partner up with friends or colleagues or they obtain bank loans. We don’t recommend the last two as things can get complicated.
There are specialised companies that can pay the salary of your staff until you start getting paid for your services. Let us know if you are interested and we can introduce you to these companies.
FINDING A GOOD BUSINESS NAME
And this is where the fun starts. You won’t believe the business names we have seen. No wonder those agencies struggle to get contracts as nobody will take them seriously with such names.
Part of our Logo and Branding services we do some brainstorming to find suitable business names. We also do background research to make sure our clients won’t have copyright problems or competition due to similar business names (or variations). For example, “Realtime Healthcare” is taken. No point registering your business as Realtime Healthcare Agency or Realtime Recruitment Agency. Automatically the business names will clash.
Also, we don’t recommend long business names. We intentionally offered as a second example Realtime Healthcare Agency. Imagine how your website will look like: www.realtimehealthcareagency.co.uk
Or your email: info@realtimehealthcareagency.co.uk
You can see how long they are. Terrible. You get the point.
What we recommend is two words, so the format will be:
NAME RECRUITMENT LTD
NAME HEALTHCARE LTD
Or for those that are experienced with branding can go for a single word business name such as:
Altrix
Thema
The above are real businesses by the way (taken). Your business activity or tags can be added after the name on the website, flyers, business cards etc.
For example: Altrix – Reliable Healthcare Staffing Solutions. This way, people, and search engines such as Google understand exactly what “Altrix” is about.
We are guilty ourselves for a long business name as you can notice on our website. We learnt this on our own skin. Now, if we wanted to change our name it would be extremely complicated and probably, we will lose a lot of clients. So, getting the name right from the beginning is crucial!
REGISTERING THE BUSINESS
This is a service we offer as well. We can register your business on your behalf, and you will receive your certificate in 2-3 business days.
Of course, you can register your business yourself here:
Just follow the steps. People prefer to use accountants or companies like ours to register their business as some of the questions can be confusing due to the specialist terms used. Once the company is registered with errors it is a real challenge to rectify them.
Please register your business as an LTD, “Company limited by shares”. Do not register your business as a Sole Trader or something else.
The SIC code for a Nursing Agency is 78200 – Temporary employment agency activities
LOGO
With the logo, it is the same story as with the business names. When we speak to our clients about their project, we ask them about the logo design. We ask for examples of logos so we can see what they like, then we design from scratch something to resemble their example. Numerous times our clients sent us a logo already in use: “I found this logo, just add my business name under”. Terrible!
Or… 99% want that logo with a pair of hands holding a heart or a house. Oh! Or the snake crawling up a martini glass (as we call it). We are not fans of those type of logos. See the pictures below. They are just so heavily used, it’s unbelievable. In their defense, people wouldn’t know as they don’t do this every day, like us.
NO!
NO!
WEBSITE
More education is needed. No doubt! Majority of people don’t understand how a proper website must be built.
Usually, your cousin or friend that says “I can do the website for you” is not a web developer. They don’t know how to build a website. 40% of our clients ask us to rebuild their website as it is not what they want. When we ask them who built it, the answer is always one of the two: a friend, or a cousin. They learned how to design a simple website, as a hobby, with some drag and drop website builder. They are toys, not websites. If your cousin or your friend is a real website developer (by profession) then by all means, please ask them to build your website. Otherwise, you will cry as your website is not what you wanted, the design is not nice, it doesn’t rank in Google, you wasted time and maybe money, and it doesn’t have the right functionalities. We have seen it too many times.
The bottom line is: please hire a professional. Same rule as with everything else when starting a real business, put your money where your mouth is, you need to pay if you want superior quality. Another thing, and please think logically: web developers have no experience in care. No offense! We have seen Nursing Agencies that have the text stolen from Care Homes websites and if you visit their website, they offer the services of a care home! Shocking! Find a professional that knows both: how to build a website AND what a Nursing Agency is. It might look like we are trying to sell our services here but no! We have our clients and enough work. We are just giving honest, free advice.
Some rules for your website:
- It has to look modern
- It needs to follow your logo colour palette – do not use more than 3 colours (white background, black text, and 3 other colours for the menu, buttons and link text).
- The contact details to be visible on the top
- It needs to load super-fast
- It needs to have the right images and text – don’t forget that web developers don’t work in healthcare, you need to give them the text or you will see that your website’s text has nothing to do with your business.
- It has to be linked to Google Analytics and Google Search Console and all settings must be done correctly.
DOCUMENTS
We will outline the most important documents that you need to start a Nursing Agency. There are more, but you can source those later.
Time sheet
Job Application Form
Staff Handbook
Terms & Conditions
Interview Forms
Reference Forms
Price List
Business Plan
Invoice Template
Policies and Procedures
Casual Worker Agreement
Staff Profile
Accident/Incident Investigation Report
Mileage Form
SKILLS THAT WE RECOMMEND
Definitely IT – otherwise you will struggle to run your business and keep up with things. You will collaborate with people and other businesses that use technology on daily basis.
Microsoft 365 suite – Word, Excel, Outlook
Canva.com – if you are planning to have social media accounts you need to master canva.com – watch on YouTube at least 10 tutorials on how to design social media post with canva.com
People skills – yes, this is a real skill that can make a difference in your business; in fact, your business and staff depend on this skill.
FREE TIPS FROM US
- Study the business, do your homework diligently but you will learn as you go.
- Don’t start without an accountant
- Consult with professionals from day one
- Upgrade your skills. Learn something new about business every day. This is the only thing that will push your business to success. Because the business is actually… YOU!
