Medical Transportation Business Plan Template

Medical Transportation Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their medical transportation companies.

If you’re unfamiliar with creating a medical transportation business plan, you may think creating one will be a time-consuming and frustrating process. For most entrepreneurs it is, but for you, it won’t be since we’re here to help. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan.

In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a medical transportation business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

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What is a Medical Transportation Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your medical transportation business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Medical Transportation Company

If you’re looking to start a medical transportation business or grow your existing medical transportation company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your medical transportation business to improve your chances of success. Your medical transportation business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for a Medical Transportation Businesses

With regard to funding, the main sources of funding for a medical transportation business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for medical transportation companies.

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If you’d like to quickly and easily complete your business plan, download Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and complete your plan and financial model in hours.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Medical Transportation Business

If you want to start a medical transportation business or expand your current edical transportation business, you need a business plan. The guide below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your medical transportation business plan.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of medical transportation business you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a medical transportation business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of medical transportation businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan.

• Give a brief overview of the medical transportation industry.
• Discuss the type of medical transportation business you are operating.
• Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers.
• Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team.
• Offer an overview of your financial plan.

 

Company Overview

In your company overview, you will detail the type of medical transportation business you are operating.

For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of medical transportation businesses:

1. Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT): In this type of medical transportation business, you may specialize in transporting patients who do not need emergency medical care, but may need medical equipment that can travel with them to the hospital or medicare care appointments.
2. Wheelchair Transportation: A highly sought-after service is one that specifically includes wheelchair accessibility while traveling via a small van or shuttle. Specially-equipped transportation vehicles can make access to medical appointments and physical therapy sessions easier and less expensive than standard non-emergency medical care.
3. Ambulatory Transportation: When individuals are able to walk, with or without a minimum of assistance, an ambulatory transportation service is especially efficient. Standard vans can be utilized and easily made accessible overall .
4. Medical Escort Transportation: Individuals who are in need of constant care, often using oxygen or medication infusion bags, regularly require a trained medical escort to assist them during transportation. This medical transportation business requires a high degree of specialization of the interior of the vans used for service, but also garners especially high fees for each transportation.
5. Long Distance Medical Transportation: This type of medical transportation business is focused on customers who require transport for at least (50) miles and often up to several hundred miles. Specialized equipment on board, escort service, and other accompanying requirements requires an initial outlay of investment; however, individual transportation can be very lucrative with long distance services.

In addition to explaining the type of medical transportation business you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of customers served, the amount of revenue received during the past six months, opening a second medical transportation location, etc.
• Your legal business Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the medical transportation industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the medical transportation industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.

The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your medical transportation business plan:

• How big is the medical transportation industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your medical transportation business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

 

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your medical transportation business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: hospital patients, medical clinic patients, hospital patient coordinator, rehabilitation patient coordinator, family members of patients.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of medical transportation business you operate. Clearly, patients would respond to different marketing promotions than hospital patient coordinators, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regard to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other medical transportation businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. This includes public transportation, taxis, personal transportation companies (Uber or Lyft), and family vehicles. You need to mention such competition, as well.

For each direct competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But, you should be able to find out key things about them such as

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What type of medical transportation business are they?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What sets their business apart from others?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regard to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And, don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide easy-to-access devices for patient/driver communication?
• Will you offer products or services that your competition doesn’t?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

 

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a medical transportation business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

Product: In the product section, you should reiterate the type of medical transportation company that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide a discount for regular patient customers, amenities during travel, or a money-back guarantee of a comfortable ride?

Price: Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place: Place refers to the site of your medical transportation company. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your medical transportation business located near a medical clinic or hospital? Does your sphere of business include nearby towns or outlying ranchland? Discuss how your site might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions: The final part of your medical transportation marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertise in local papers, radio stations and/or magazines
• Reach out to websites
• Distribute direct mail pieces to your target audience
• Engage in email marketing
• Advertise on social media platforms
• Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) with target keywords on your website

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

If you’d like to quickly and easily complete your business plan, download Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and complete your plan and financial model in hours.

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your Medical Transportation business, including answering calls, planning and scheduling medical transportation patients, collecting revenue and paying invoices, contacting customers, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to transport your 100th customer, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your medical transportation business to a second or third location.

 

Management Team

To demonstrate your medical transportation business’ potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing medical transportation businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But, also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a medical transportation business or successfully running a courier delivery transportation business.

 

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenue and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 25 customers per day, and/or offer special medical transportation for consistent customers? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your medical transportation business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit, but run out of money and go bankrupt.

When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a medical transportation business:

• Cost of fleet of vehicles
• Cost of medical equipment onboard vehicles
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes
• Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, office supplies and equipment

 

Appendix

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan, along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a list of associates who are already lined up to use your medical transportation services on a contracted basis.

 

Summary

Writing a business plan for your medical transportation business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the medical transportation industry, your competition, and your customers. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful medical transportation business.

 

Medical Transportation Business Plan FAQs

 

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