Jailhouse Medic Turns House Calls Into Healthy Profits

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

I have recently begun the process of outlining a new book, and I'm just excited to get back to habits and routine. For much of last month I struggled in staying current, just had a lot going on. I was doing a tour to about 14 cities, I produced the World Domination Summit, which is my biggest event of the year in Portland, Oregon, and I love all of that. I'm very grateful that I can do all those things, but it also feels really good to just be able to enter this new season, where I can do some more creative work, have a bit more head space. I've been thinking a lot about legacy work, which I consider as different from administrative tasks or just the kind of stuff that we have to do every day, some of those things we do have to do, but they can also keep us away from what we really should be doing.

Legacy work is also different from good work, like stuff that we do that we like to do and we're pretty good at, but there's this third category that I talk about from time to time. Legacy work, really focused on making something that only you can do or that you are not just good at, but particularly good at, whatever gifting it is that you have to offer the world. Whenever I choose to be intentional about legacy work, I feel better at the end of the day. So I'm trying to do more and more of that, and I thought of that today as I was working on this episode. Now, this story is about a nurse practitioner in Idaho who launches his own mobile urgent care unit, resulting in happy patients and a six-figure side hustle.

So busy physician who finds a way to create another source of income, very, very significant source of income, probably because he wanted to make up for what he saw as a professional void. So I'll tell you all about it, how he got his idea, how he made it happen and what you might be able to take away from it. All of that is coming right up on Side Hustle School. From a young age, Boise, Idaho based Brad Bigford liked to help people with their problems. He also enjoyed challenges.

After his dream of becoming a firefighter like his dad didn't work out, he changed focus and became a registered nurse. Being an RN was great, but he wanted to have more autonomy and decision-making authority. So he increased his training to become a nurse practitioner. For those who don't know, nurse practitioners are advanced-level medical professionals. They can prescribe medication, diagnose illnesses, and provide primary treatment, much like physicians do.

After graduation, Brad was hired by his local sheriff's office. He found no shortage of challenge in this day job as the sole medical provider responsible for health care needs of roughly 1,000 inmates at his local county jail. Brad encounters all varieties of medical needs. From dealing with the symptoms of opiate or alcohol withdrawal, to managing chronic diseases like diabetes, to wounds, infections, and mental illnesses, he sees it all. Still, he felt a void in his professional life.

He says that unfortunately, most of his jailhouse interactions don't leave him feeling like he's doing a great job. Medical care can sometimes be used as a way for an inmate to get extra privileges, which changes the whole provider-client relationship. Though he still believed in the work, the sum of the parts left him feeling mentally drained. He began to supplement his income by working with a large medical company doing insurance physicals in people's homes. But he found that boring and wanted to do something different.

Each year, his family and friends would arrive at holiday gatherings with a list of ailments and medical questions. One year, Brad said that he was going to send them a bill for all their questions. He was half-joking, but the idea stuck. From his side hustle doing in-home physical exams, he knew that people loved the convenience of having someone come to them. Why couldn't he do house calls for their other needs?

So after talking with the relevant licensing boards, he applied for the necessary permissions and waited. He also applied to accept the major insurance carriers. Overall, starting up took about six months, much of it a waiting game. But then, after that waiting and with all the clearances in, Table Rock Mobile Medicine was born. Brad's service at its core is about making house calls.

The majority of his clients are women, many with young children, and his visits mean that they don't have to drive to the clinic when their kids are sick. They also never have to worry about sitting around in a waiting room. He posted a message on Facebook about his new service, and friends started to respond. A month after he opened, he saw his first patient, a good friend. He says that the visit was slow, and that he fumbled around with the computer system he used for payment.

But his friend was happy with the care, and so was Brad. After he received the copayment via debit card, Brad went to the bank the next day to withdraw one dollar from the account, the first dollar he ever made in his new venture. And he says it was a great feeling. No other company or medical professional in his area offers this service. Also, since Brad accepts insurance, as well as discounted cash payments, his service cost the same as a drive to urgent care.

In the early months, business was slow, with a few happy customers each week. He was bringing in around $1,000 per month, but then in the fall of 2017, school resumed, and suddenly business boomed as kids began to get sick. He started seeing his business repeatedly tagged in local Facebook posts, and soon his calendar was full. To this day, more than 90% of Brad's patients find him via word of mouth, and most schedule their own visits on the website without speaking to him until he arrives. He knows that house calls aren't the most efficient business model, which is why they are virtually non-existent in many areas.

While he can't see the 40-plus daily patients that many providers in a brick-and-mortar location would, his house calls set Brad apart and allow him to compete and thrive. After two years, Brad's part-time house call hustle now earns more than six figures annually. As you'd expect, the project wasn't without challenges, so it's good that he likes those. Brad first overextended, offering his service to a much wider area than he says he should have. This led to long drives, which, with his busy work schedule and a young family at home, wasn't feasible in the long term.

When he had to cut back his service area, he dealt with a few upset patients. But it was still the right decision. Also, because he's paid for the number of patients he sees, there's a direct trade-off between time and income. He's trying to scale the business, but has encountered some trouble hiring the right people. After a few setbacks, he recently hired a fellow nurse practitioner, which has allowed him to cut down on his own direct hours.

In short, the mobile health care hustle has not only produced a great second income, but has also brought him to another population of patients that offsets the work he does at the jail. Looking ahead, Brad is considering sharing his experiences and offering some type of consulting or tools to help other nurse practitioners set up a similar business. He says that this could be a good fit for anyone else in his field looking for something different. So, if you find yourself missing something, some kind of professional void, like what Brad was experiencing, where he believed in his work but also had some significant negatives and longed for something more, might there be a way you could use a side hustle to fill that void, instead of just completely changing your job or career entirely? Discontent can be a powerful fuel for making changes in your life.

I think you should pay attention to it whenever you realize, "Hey, I've got something good here, but it's not all that I want, it's not all that I need." Now, of course, with this example, not everyone could go out and become a mobile medical health care professional. You've got to be a health care professional first, but I think the principle still applies. What could you do? How could you take this example and apply it in your own life based on your work experience, your skills, maybe something that you have noticed, either a professional void in your life or something that's missing in your local area, like what Brad noticed? I will leave you with that today.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to Table Rock Mobile Medicine for any of our health care professionals out there, will be at www.sidehustleschool.com/929. Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School.

From the Onward Project.