Now you are ready to review some example ideas. Decide whether each idea looks like an opportunity for a business plan. Remember, business planning takes substantial time and effort. (In the Dare County Health Department example it took six people nine months to write the business plan!) Be sure that the outcome is worth it.
Yes, assuming you charge for the service. Partners could be an insurance company, a big employer, or clinicians or health system that you would refer to. This idea is definitely complex enough to require a business plan.
Partner with school district to provide nurses and health modules
Maybe, if you are charging for the service, but probably NO. A Memorandum of Understanding would be a simpler way to do these activities. The district is a partner rather than a customer. If many different schools become customers, this idea becomes a better fit for a business plan.
Create a master budget for the agency
No. A master budget does involve revenue, but doesn't generate revenue, because it isn't a product or a service. (I have heard the term "business plan" used to describe a document that projects costs and forecasts income for an organization. That's not how we define a business plan.)
Provide urgent care clinics to divert patients from emergency rooms and link patients to a primary care home at a community health center
Yes, probably. However, this is a bit of a gray area: if you only have one hospital as a "customer," the project looks like a partnership instead of a business (see school district example above).
Establish an advisory committee to help with public health strategy
No. Great idea, though! The committee will probably help you come up with actionable business plan ideas. If you create the committee properly, the members will be your partners on the business plans you write. But you don't need to write a business plan in order to convene an advisory committee. Just do it.
Create a farmers market
Yes. This is an example of the sort of business plan that the government sector would want to support, but not necessarily be in charge of running long term. You would want a strong partner willing to take over the day-to-day operations (leaving you free to start the next business plan).
Expand flu shot access to low-income service workers
Maybe, assuming that you can figure out how to generate revenue in the process. If you offer free shots in a Hilton Hotel break room, you don't need a business plan. If you develop a city-wide program and charge someone for the service (like the hotels), then this looks like a business plan idea.
Create an information flyer for a health fair
No. Many of you have done it already, and you never needed a business plan to do it before.
Create foreign-language food safety videos
Yes—assuming that someone is paying you for doing the work or buying the videos. In South Carolina, the Department of Health and Environmental Control implemented a food safety project to increase compliance in restaurants and educate consumers about food safety issues using a variety of media (video, printed, audio).
