Stop Overlooking Contract Opportunities in Health Coaching, Education & Training

There are so many small health business owners who come out of the healthcare industry and jump into entrepreneurship with high hopes of making an enormous impact in their communities, while hoping to make significantly more than what employment could provide for them. When I meet these business owners, I am always overjoyed to see their passion and commitment to the people they want to serve. However, when I ask….what do you want to provide as a service or product, very few mention health coaching, education and training. Most are convinced the traditional business models are the only way to go and can not fathom that they can do anything else in the health entrepreneurship space.

Let me be very clear right now on where I stand on traditional healthcare service delivery and product models…..I know they have a place in our health ecosystem and will always be needed. However, our system needs more innovators and out of the box thinkers who can take traditional models and expand on them. And expanding traditional models can be as simple as offering a health coaching, training, or educational program alongside your traditional services and products.

So many small businesses overlook health coaching, education, and training and as a result, they miss one of the easiest ways to get into the backdoor of government health contracting. The United States government alone spends billions every year on health coaching, education, and training, and a massive portion of these opportunities are set aside for small businesses and women owned businesses or awarded as direct contracts.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in government health contracting is that small businesses have an advantage for taking up significant contract share because we are more nimble and able to go after the opportunities big corporations do not want to spend time and money on. And these smaller opportunities add up very quickly when you look at potential revenue, not to mention bolster your past performance.

If you are a healthcare professional or health business owner looking to get into health contracting as a sustainable, recession proof client source, then you MUST take advantage of health education opportunities. Even if your services are considered a ‘medical/clinical service’, think about the core service offering and how that can be translated into a health coaching, education, or training program that the government can purchase directly from you to address their strategic priorities or meet a need for patients.

-Ogo Ekwueme, MPH, PMP (A.K.A. Coach Ogo)