Introduction
Advocating Angels is an innovative business idea that provides access to patient navigators, patient advocates and medical billing advocates and other services that are helpful in overcoming many healthcare challenges. The primary aim of the business is to give quick response to the patients who need assistance and advice in any critical situation. The mission of this consulting business is to provide high-quality advocatory services to the patients who are facing variety of challenges regarding healthcare and medical facilities. Michael C. Emond, BSN, RN, and CEN are the owners of the business who have a combined experience of more than 100 years in this field.
Services
The advocatory services will be provided to the patients on a telephone call and on official website of the business. The staff will give prompt response and arrange a meeting with the advocate who is located in the same city. The staff will also provide facilities by reducing communication gaps between consultants or physicians and patients. Other services include sorting out the issues of insurance billing, resolving the issues of hospital and clinic bills, and advice them regarding the best package of health insurance. The primary objective of the organization is to provide efficient services to the concerned patients.
Target Market
The target market for the organization is not limited to age, race, or class. The main target market of the business is the United States where people are willing to avail advocatory services to resolve their problems and challenges. The organization pricing strategy attracts patients as the fees charged for such organization is low as compared to others in this type of business. All type of people can avail the facility of advisory services from experts and professionals who are the key stakeholders of business.
Investment
The investment to start a new patient advocatory service is $246,900 as shown in table no 1. It is difficult to arrange all the funds through personal contribution as there are varieties of expenses and costs that need to pay in the first year of business. The costs and expenses for the first year include the purchase of supplies, equipment, etc. The leaders through their personal contribution will arrange the amount. It is expected that the business will recover its costs and expenses after eight months as the amount of revenue will increase at high rate after six months (in appendix 1).
Workforce
Skilled labor and semi-skilled labor is required for this consultancy business as it is a service business that relates solely to the technology. The experienced workers are required to appoint for the job as they are experts is giving a quick response to the problems and issues of patients. The employees are trained and experts in providing efficient and reliable services in resolving all types of issues concerning with patients. Advocating Angels believes in accepting the challenges that relate to healthcare industry and has potential to reduce the communication barrier between physicians and patients. However, Advocating Angels remain in coordination with physicians and nurses who are efficient in their respective fields.
Financial Management
Organizations providing patient advocatory services are mainly concerns for its financial management that is to maintain cash outflows and inflows for ensuring sustainability and reliability of business. The financial management of the organization will be controlled and assessed by the owners of the organization who have enough experience to manage cash flows to meet expenditures. Also, the consultants will identify the required expenditures and present a report to the leaders who can make viable decisions. The management team will prepare financial reports quarterly to assess the performance of provide rationale regarding the expenditures that can strengthen the operational activities of business.
Legal Requirements
The understanding and fulfilling of legal requirements are essential before starting a new business in any industry. Patient advocators require a license from the authorities to start their operations in the particular region. The organization will ensure that all the legal requirements should be fulfilled in the first year of business so to avoid any critical situation in future. The general requirements for such types of business are opening a bank account or forming a legal business structure to start business operations. However, there are other requirements that need to fulfill afterwards and are known as variable costs or expenses. These requirements will be identified and fulfilled depending on the current situation.
Additional Services
Advocating Angels provides unique service to the patients as it has adopted latest technology as a tool to strengthen the operations and ensuring effectiveness. The patients can approach the consultants through telephone calls and posts on websites. Also, the general requirements of this type of business will be identified through market research, and the patient views will help in tackling out new channels of communications. The organization will use that effective channel to provide high-quality services to the patients.
Expansion Plan
The services will not limit its operations in the United States. Advocating Angels has an expansion plan to provide its operational services in other regions such as Canada and Australia. The expansion will be implemented in future depending on the needs and demands of such services in other areas. It is essential to analyze different markets before starting a business in that region. The management of the company will perform its duty in identifying the most suitable market for such types of consultancy business. The potential target markets for Advocating Angels are the UK, Canada, Australia, and Asia where there is high scope for this patient advocacy business.
Summary
The business plan is feasible for starting a new business that has high scope in the international market. The information provided in the plan is sufficient in satisfying the stakeholders of business as it is divided into sections to provide a brief overview of the organization and the required investment to start it. Advocating Angels is a new business that is expected to grow in the coming period due to its increasing demand. The crucial thing is to provide efficient services and satisfy the patient regarding his issues, challenges, and confusions. A good advice or consultancy at once will build a reputation of the organization and patient will be able to get best solutions for their problems and worries. The financial and legal requirements are required to fulfill quickly so that the project will begin to provide potential outcomes. However, changes will be made according to the current situation depending on the circumstances.
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