Happy Monday!

Let me tell you about the day my husband decided I had rested long enough.

It was 2020. Covid had just turned the world upside down and I had made a decision that felt almost radical for someone like me — I was going to take a break.

I come from IT. My husband and I have spent more than two decades in the IT services industry. And somewhere in all of those years, I had never actually stopped. Not really. I had been running since high school — one thing leading to the next, always moving, always producing.

So when the world paused, I paused with it. And honestly? I loved every minute of it.

I was gardening. Painting. Working out. Reading books I had been meaning to read for years. Singing — just because I could. I was doing all the things that make me feel like myself and I was doing them without guilt for the first time in as long as I could remember.

Two weeks in, the texts started.

From my husband.

Who was, I should mention, sitting right there watching me do all of this in real time.

The texts said I should think about starting a new business. In healthcare staffing. An industry I knew absolutely nothing about.

“It Will Be a Piece of Cake For You”

That was the first piece of advice I got that was not quite right.

He meant well. He genuinely believed it. And in fairness, the skills that make someone successful in IT services — relationship building, project management, understanding client needs, building teams — do translate. He was not wrong about that.

But healthcare staffing is its own world. It has its own language, its own compliance landscape, its own rhythms and politics and unwritten rules. And I walked in thinking that because I had done hard things before, this would come naturally.

It did not.

What I should have done was study the industry properly before jumping in. Taken six months to really understand how it worked before I committed. But instead I was swept up in the enthusiasm of people who believed in me — and I mistook their confidence for a roadmap.

Everyone Said There Was a Physician Shortage

And they were right. There is.

What nobody told me was that a physician shortage combined with an already crowded staffing space is not actually a formula for easy success. It means there are hundreds of staffing companies all chasing the same facilities, the same physicians, the same open positions.

I got introduced to HR directors and recruiting leads at hospitals. Some were generous and gave me real insight — the pros, the cons, the honest picture of how to navigate the system. Those conversations were invaluable. Getting connected to NALTO was one of the best things that happened to me early on and they were genuinely helpful in ways I did not expect.

But I also made mistakes that cost me time and money.

The VMS Mistake

Someone advised me to get onto VMS portals — Vendor Management Systems — where hospitals post their open positions for staffing vendors to fill.

What I did not fully understand at the time was that those portals were already packed with vendors who had been there for years. They had the relationships. They had the track record. They had the preferred vendor status.

I was a newcomer with no history and no leverage. There was simply no room for me there and I spent a lot of time and energy learning that lesson the hard way.

The Split Fee Lesson

I also tried working with other vendors on a split fee basis — helping them fill positions in exchange for a portion of the placement fee.

That arrangement taught me something important about knowing your worth.

Some of those vendors had the audacity to tell me I should be grateful they were giving me anything at all rather than nothing. Those partnerships did not last long. And they should not have.

The Friends and Family Chapter

My early business came through people who knew me and trusted me. Friends. Acquaintances. People who believed in Rajee before they believed in Protean Med.

To make those deals happen I cut my fees significantly — sometimes to a point where the margin barely made sense. But I am genuinely thankful for every single one of those early supporters. They gave me my footing when I had nothing to stand on yet. They let me learn while the stakes were still manageable.

Someone also advised me to make flyers and walk into clinics and hospitals to get my foot in the door.

It was 2020. Nobody was letting anyone through the door.

I tried anyway. Got about a 25% response rate. Which, looking back, was not bad for a pandemic.

Five Years Later

I will not pretend the path has been easy. Healthcare staffing is not an industry you jump into and immediately swim. The currents are strong. The path is full of rocks and unexpected blocks that you do not see coming until you are already navigating around them.

But five years in, I can honestly say I have arrived. Slowly and surely, with the right team and a much clearer understanding of how this industry actually works, Protean Med is taking off.

The advice I got was not bad advice. It was just advice given by people who believed in me more than they understood the industry I was walking into. And there is something beautiful about that even if it made the journey harder.

What I Would Tell Anyone Thinking About Healthcare Staffing

Study the industry before you leap. Understand the difference between VMS and direct relationships. Know your worth and never let anyone make you feel grateful for being underpaid. Find your NALTO. Build slowly with the right people around you.

And if you want the full honest picture of what I learned the hard way — feel free to reach out. I will tell you every mistake I made and exactly how I pivoted.

Because learning happens when you make a mistake.

But a smart entrepreneur does not make the same mistake twice.

See you next Monday. — Rajee

Rajee Hari | Founder, Protean Med www.proteanmed.com | rajee@proteanmed.com

#MondayMorningCoffee #HealthcareStaffing #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #LocumTenens #StartupLessons #HealthcareRecruiting #MondayMotivation #ProteanMed