One of the more inspirational student entrepreneurs I have worked with in recent years was a woman (due to confidentiality I cannot use her name) who had come back to school to support a very personal cause.
One of her children was hearing impaired. In her own research into the possible causes and treatments for hearing impairment in young children, she learned that in many situations the outcome for the child could be significantly improved with very early screening, preferable while they were still infants. And while in many larger hospitals such screening was routine, smaller community hospitals rarely screened for hearing loss in infants.
She took it upon herself to use her previous medical training to begin a service of going to regional hospitals throughout the upper mid-west to offer hearing screening for infants. About the same time, she also decided to finish her bachelor degree. That is where we met.
She enrolled in one of my entrepreneurship courses to learn how to manage this small business. Her original model was one of making sure the fees she charged were enough to cover her basic costs. She had no real intent of even drawing a salary for herself, as her husband was a successful contractor. She just wanted to do good work for others.
The class she was in was a special section I set up for students who had actual businesses up and running. The other students began to challenge her on her assumption that she would never personally be able to make a salary from this venture. We all worked with her on her pricing models, on the efficiency of her routes, how to fill up trips with more hospitals, and how to leverage a part-time clerical employee to increase her billable hours.
Her business is now providing infant hearing screening throughout the upper mid-west, and while still making the services affordable to maximize the families she serves, she is also drawing a reasonable salary for her time and expertise.
I love to see entrepreneurs do well while doing good work. Inc.com’s blog site has a similar story about a woman who actually made it to their Inc 500 list making and selling prosthetists. Read more about her story here.
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