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The Most Expensive Business to Start

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It’s entirely possible to start a new business on a shoestring. We know this, because every publication worth the paper or website it’s published on tells us so: Forbes, USA Today, Entrepreneur, all of them. It requires time, grit, determination, attention to detail, great word-of-mouth – oh – and money! More about this in a minute. The truth is – the concept of starting a business on a shoestring depends on the size of your shoes and therefore, the length and strength of their laces. It certainly doesn’t hurt if they are made of solid-gold, and you can sell them […]

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Part IV: The Dirty Dozen Skills, Abilities, and Attributes of Successful Health and Patient Advocates and Care Managers

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And, finally, the fourth and last in our series of skills, abilities and attributes that all successful advocates and care managers must. Find Part I of the Dirty Dozen. Find Part II of the Dirty Dozen. Find Part III of the Dirty Dozen. We’re wrapping up with 3 additional concepts that are important to the success all private advocacy and care management practices. Yes – I know the total will be 16 (and we promised only a dirty dozen!) – see Part I about my inability to count 🙂 ) Which of these describe you and your abilities? Which of

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What Health Advocacy Is, What It Isn’t, and Why Most of It Can’t Be Taught

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One of the websites offered by APHA is a listing of all advocacy educational programs (that we know about). There are programs offered by colleges and universities, private programs, organizational programs, mentors, and more. Some require in-person attendance, some are offered online. Their quality varies, and their results vary…. Often I hear from someone who tells me they have looked over the available programs, but can’t find what they need. What they are looking for doesn’t seem to exist. Or, here is what they want to learn, and will I tell them whether such-and-such a program will teach them that?

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Channeling Mary Kay

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I heard from a gentleman this week who represents many of you. Specifically, he was trying to decide whether to pursue becoming an independent patient advocate – or not – because he wasn’t sure if he knew enough to be able to handle every client situation that comes his way. He wanted a pep talk. He wanted me to convince him he knows enough. Yes, it was time to invoke one of my favorite quotations, provided to us by Mary Kay Ash (presumably when she wasn’t out washing her pink Cadillac) “If you think you can, you can. If you

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A Career, a Profession, and a Calling with Responsibility, Too

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Most of us working as advocates apply the word “profession” to our work. Those who have been advocates for a longer period of time might tell you it has turned into a career. I often hear from new advocates, or those who wannabe advocates that they feel that this profession of advocacy (or what might evolve for them to a career of advocacy) is also a calling. So let’s look at that word “calling” for a minute. Merriam Webster tells us that a calling is: a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction

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It’s That Time of the Year – Income Taxes! for You and Your Clients

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(Updated March 2021) Note: this is a good post to bookmark (or “favorite”) so you can come back to it when it’s time to do your income taxes, or print it or send a link to clients and former clients to help them with theirs… Yes – it’s time to look at preparing our income tax statements for Uncle Sam (or even Justin Trudeau!) How does our paid work affect our income taxes or our clients’ taxes?

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The 2017 Advocates’ Challenges

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Since I started this blog, and as each new year begins, I try to think of ways to challenge advocate-readers (and advocate-wannabe-readers) with ways they can improve their work, their results for clients, and their businesses, too. This year, that task is so very simple. Unfortunately, that’s not the good news. Sadly, it’s more like the bad news. Bad news – because this year’s challenges all come from complaints and problems I’ve been asked to respond to – or even fix – in just the past few months. Oh how I dislike this part of my work! I hate dealing

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