The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Left the Sidewalk, Riding the Slowlane, Ready for the Fastlane

Topics related to Slowlane, Scripted mainstream dogma

steve10765

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
55%
Mar 14, 2016
11
6
Hi everyone, I joined the forum a few years back but now I'm actually here for change. I'm a 23 y.o student studying Building and Construction Management graduating this December. As I get closer to graduation I feel like I'm getting ready to be the perfect slave, and it terrifies me.

Rant:F*ck THIS EVENT
Is this F*cking it? Going to school Mon-Thur and working 13 hour shifts as an EMT from 6am-7pm, 40 hours Fri, Saturday, & Sunday. This can't be real right? I rent a cubicle in someones basement, am sometimes a paycheck away from being homeless, spend hours on the phone trying not to get fined for being poor(no health ins, etc), and drive an old SUV with 3/4 windows duck-taped up with no AC or heat. FYI one back open window doesn't do shit when its 90 degrees out and you drive 45 min to work, your boy was cookin' . The damn SUV stuck with an open vent at your feet, so when its 15 degrees out in the winter you sure know my a$$ was freezing, I even bough toe warmers for my shoes haha. F*ck THAT SHIT

That was me two years ago before I transferred to a 4 year college and things have relaxed a lot, I'm well groomed for the script, have a high credit score, stock market investments, and ready for the workforce- except I'm not. I feel pain and trauma when I think about going back to working 40 hours a week, except for the rest of my life till I die. Sure my starting salary will average 65k, but I just can't do it for my whole life till I die. It's not that I'm a pansy scared to work, I've put in 80 hour work weeks, 26 hour shifts with 30 mins of sleep. My life is worth way more than this, I have dreams and aspiration that I need to achieve. I need to start driving the fastlane. I've always had a little entrepreneurial spirit, having a little landscaping business in my teen years, making some websites, turning profit on some random things, etc. I'm just ready to start a business that can replace a job. You guys are awesome, and reading the Millionaire Fastlane has been a blessing from @MJ DeMarco . Currently I'm reading Unscripted . I'm here to share, and to receive input from this community, whether harsh or positive.


The Business
An ambulance company providing non-emergency medical transportation services solely for dialysis patients. I want to differentiate myself by offering a better patient experience, including comfier cots, more customer service, and entertainment systems in our ambulance, in addition to only serving dialysis patients which will allow us to be more focused and on time, which isn't the case for most companies. There are some other differentiating things, but they are minor.
(My Experience: Certified EMT X3 years working in this industry on the bottom level transporting patients)

CONTROL:
I would be making the company, hire employees, and wouldn't rely on others for this service. I believe I would be in complete control. If I get investors this may not be the case though. I am not well versed on this and appreciate any feedback.
ENTRY:
About 150 hours into this, and I can see hundreds more hours is required. Huge barrier to entry, not including over 100K Startup costs in the first 4 Months.
NEED:
Patients needs dialysis or they die, end stage patients need ambulance transportation to and from 3 days a week.
TIME:
This is the one I'm really not so sure about if it meets the TIME requirement. I will not be an EMT working on one of my ambulances, but at first I will be in charge of all operations, and going to facilities to acquire new patients. Even after a few years and I have employees doing this, I think I would still need to be in touch with the company maybe 20 hours a week.

SCALE:
Setting up new basses requires a fair amount of time an effort, and would require some involvement. Prices are high for ambulance services, so I'm aiming more for magnitude rather than reach.

Question: Although there is a strong need, if there are a lot of other ambulance services in the area would something like this still work? Since patient's need this, does differentiation matter that much?


I am happy to be on this forum feeling alive and energized, and am looking forward to talking to some of you.

-Steven
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,079
169,494
Utah
Welcome Steve, great to have you.

Although there is a strong need, if there are a lot of other ambulance services in the area would something like this still work?

Off hand it sounds like a great idea, but are ambulances really providing this service? And at what cost?

Does a full scale ambulance need to do the transporting? Or will a simple van suffice?

Here's my CENTS grade...

 

Ernman

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
224%
Feb 8, 2019
969
2,168
64
Florida, USA
Welcome Steve, or welcome back I guess. I recently read about an attempt to bring dialysis to peoples' homes. Do you think this will be possible soon enough to negatively impact your plans? Will your service be covered by insurance? How will that impact how you charge and get paid? Sorry, I don't have any experience to provide answers, just questions. I like your idea and believe you're on to something.
 

steve10765

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
55%
Mar 14, 2016
11
6
Welcome Steve, great to have you.



Off hand it sounds like a great idea, but are ambulances really providing this service? And at what cost?

Does a full scale ambulance need to do the transporting? Or will a simple van suffice?

Here's my CENTS grade...

What a cool tool that CENTS calculator is, thanks for the warm welcome, and taking the time to do that for me @MJ DeMarco
For medical liability purposes, these patients have to be transported by 2X EMT's in a legal ambulance. The patients we are taking are in End Stage Renal Disease(ESRD), and are unable to go by wheelchair van etc. But as you mentioned, these patient's don't need full scale ambulances and I am able to save a decent amount on supplies, vehicle costs, and hopefully insurance (if I'm able to talk down these insane quotes).

Welcome Steve, or welcome back I guess. I recently read about an attempt to bring dialysis to people's homes. Do you think this will be possible soon enough to negatively impact your plans? Will your service be covered by insurance? How will that impact how you charge and get paid? Sorry, I don't have any experience to provide answers, just questions. I like your idea and believe you're on to something.
Hi @Ernman , nice to meet you!
Home dialysis is not a threat because medicare (~78% of dialysis patients) doesn't, and probably won't ever pay for it due to upfront costs. It's only the few with some cash, and the metal ability to do it at home. (You don't want your forgetful grandma playing with tubes connected straight to her blood vessels lol).

My goal is to not only provide transportation to these patients, but to make it a much better patient experience as well. Working as an EMT I really felt bad for these patients, I've worked at 3 different companies and they all treated them badly. The employees did their best, but the system itself is F*cked. I want my brand image to be similar to that of a hotel, making this 6X a week experience much better for their last years.

One thing I am worried about is that in the LA County area there are about 15 different ambulance companies already, each company might have 1, or 100 ambulances. There is not an easy way to tell. Pricing pressure isn't much of an issue in this medical niche, it's the competition I face for patients. Not too easy to find this stuff online either. Any recommendations for how I could obtain some knowledge on this topic? Message their patient recruitment officer on Linkedin???
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

steve10765

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
55%
Mar 14, 2016
11
6
What a cool tool that CENTS calculator is, thanks for the warm welcome, and taking the time to do that for me @MJ DeMarco
For medical liability purposes, these patients have to be transported by 2X EMT's in a legal ambulance. The patients we are taking are in End Stage Renal Disease(ESRD), and are unable to go by wheelchair van etc. But as you mentioned, these patient's don't need full scale ambulances and I am able to save a decent amount on supplies, vehicle costs, and hopefully insurance (if I'm able to talk down these insane quotes).


Hi @Ernman , nice to meet you!
Home dialysis is not a threat because medicare (~78% of dialysis patients) doesn't, and probably won't ever pay for it due to upfront costs. It's only the few with some cash, and the metal ability to do it at home. (You don't want your forgetful grandma playing with tubes connected straight to her blood vessels lol).

My goal is to not only provide transportation to these patients, but to make it a much better patient experience as well. Working as an EMT I really felt bad for these patients, I've worked at 3 different companies and they all treated them badly. The employees did their best, but the system itself is F*cked. I want my brand image to be similar to that of a hotel, making this 6X a week experience much better for their last years.

One thing I am worried about is that in the LA County area there are about 15 different ambulance companies already, each company might have 1, or 100 ambulances. There is not an easy way to tell. Pricing pressure isn't much of an issue in this medical niche, it's the competition I face for patients. Not too easy to find this stuff online either. Any recommendations for how I could obtain some knowledge on this topic? Message their patient recruitment officer on Linkedin???
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

More Intros...

Top