Launching a small business is a great accomplishment, but it takes a lot of work to build a successful company. Many business owners make the mistake of thinking their enterprise will run itself and that all they have to do is get the ball rolling. Well, there’s nothing further from the truth.

The United States has the world’s best economy because it’s the most competitive, meaning the cream usually rises to the top. To build a successful brand, you have to constantly work to enhance your products and best practices to elevate your company. In this brief article, we’ll discuss some services and business operations that are essential to growing your enterprise.

Digital Marketing and SEO

One of the advantages large corporations have over small businesses is that they have a much larger marketing budget. However, the growth of digital marketing has leveled the playing field for businesses of all sizes, as it’s inexpensive and wildly effective. Indeed, you can create digital marketing campaigns for little to nothing, but creating engaging digital content that can rank high on search engine results pages is a skill that takes years to develop.

As we mentioned, you can market online for free, but without search engine optimization (SEO), your reach probably won’t extend far beyond your social media circle. SEO is a set of best practices and software tools that increase the online presence of companies. It involves optimizing their digital content to make it more appealing to search engines and increase their domain authority.

With the right SEO best practices, you can outshine large corporations in your local market. Birmingham is a city that supports its small businesses, and with local SEO, your business can rank higher in your region than large businesses that provide the same products and services.

Flagstone Search Marketing is an SEO company Birmingham should be proud of. Their content has been featured in some of the top publications in the world, and they’ve helped plenty of small enterprises like yours maximize their digital marketing efforts.

Presentation Design

One of the greatest needs for growing companies is capital. Attracting investors is vastly different from attracting new customers. Investors expect a thorough presentation to show them why they should infuse your enterprise with their money. You need to create engaging content that will show them why they should be excited to invest in your business, and regular old diagrams and pie charts won’t do it.

The best option when you need a presentation for potential investors is to outsource to project management or presentation design company. They can help you create templates for content using your brand colors and employ an online graph maker to create interactive infographics.

Data Science

Big data is one of the most powerful forces in the business world, so if you’re not using it, your business isn’t operating at its full potential. The right data science services can help your company turn raw data into insights that shape the way you do everything, from consuming energy to monitoring employee productivity.

Taking your company to the next level isn’t a one-shot deal—it’s a never-ending process. As a business owner, you should always be looking for ways to enhance your company’s best practices. Furthermore, you can’t build a great company alone, so using the right services is critical to your success.

Search engine optimization, presentation design, accounting, and data science are vital business operations. They require skills that take years to develop and hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire. However, outsourcing means you only pay for the services you use, saving money and increasing your ROI. You can’t elevate your company overnight, but by outsourcing these services, you’ll be well on your way.

Owning a business comes with a number of responsibilities and challenges that can be difficult to manage for even those with significant experience. Small businesses face unique challenges since they often can’t afford to hire full-time staff to address their needs. Fortunately, there are a number of services and products available that can help any business streamline its operations and reduce the workload on its employees. Practical challenges like a lack of space for inventory or confusion about tax obligations can also be resolved with outside help. Read on to learn more about four great resources for business owners.

1. Custom Printing Services

Many businesses need to print and produce custom products but lack the resources to handle high-quality printing on their own. A custom printing service can address your company’s needs when it comes to promotional gifts, customized client tax folders, professional stationery, and more. Mines Press is a great option for anyone who needs a printing company. In addition to the previously mentioned products, they can also print business cards, envelopes, calendars, and a wide variety of other promotional products.

Custom printed products also have other benefits besides their utility and ability to be gifted to potential investors, partners, or clients. Having a visual identity for your business that is consistent is important. Brand consistency has been proven to be an asset for any business, especially those that are newer and looking to expand their audience.

2. Storage Units

It’s common for businesses to need additional storage space, no matter what industry you’re in. Business storage units can provide a place to store everything from inventory to office supplies. A storage unit can even also be a good place to secure business vehicles. Depending on your needs, you can rent storage units of all sizes or look for storage solutions for larger items like a truck or company car.

3. Accounting Software

If you don’t have a full-time accountant on staff, it’s likely that you’ll need some help with the financial side of running your business. There are several different types of accounting software that can handle some of the harder stuff for you. Your accounting software can also automatically generate financial reports and produce professional financial statements you can give to clients and collaborators.

4. IRS Small Business Portal

Taxes on businesses, especially small businesses, can be difficult to understand. Paying your taxes and being in compliance with all government regulations for your business is essential, but luckily, the IRS provides a portal with all the information you need to answer all of your tax questions.

If you need assistance with learning how to file your business taxes, understanding how much you owe, or what deductions you may qualify for, the IRS Small Business Portal is the best place to go to find answers. You shouldn’t spend money on advice from a financial advisor that you can find yourself online.

Whether your business is struggling to manage its finances, promote itself effectively, or handle the logistics of storage and delivery, there are resources available to help you out. You may even be able to save money and increase your profitability by improving your accounting and learning more about the tax deductions your business is entitled to. Taking advantage of the products and services available to you as a business owner will also take some work off your plate and enable you to focus more on the bigger picture. While it can be tempting to do it without any assistance, it’s always better to give your business the help and support it needs to thrive.

The short answer to this question is no: there are no legal requirements specific to starting a CPR training business. However, legal requirements and considerations for generally starting a business will apply to your CPR training business. The following are a few areas that you will need to research before starting a CPR training business to ensure you are meeting all of your legal obligations as a business owner.

Training

You will need to follow an approved training program to ensure that all of your students learn actual CPR that will work in an emergency. You can get a CPR AED certification online to see the process and materials used and get a feel for how others teach CPR. As a trainer, you will need to keep an updated certification, which you can do online.

Supplies

If you are planning to teach in-person training classes, you will need supplies for your class. Those supplies will include educational materials for the students, CPR mannequins called Resusci Anne, and personal protective equipment used during CPR. If you are also training AED, which is often taught along with CPR, you will need an AED machine and AED pads to show students how it works. You will also need the CPR certificate of completion to give to students who complete the course.

If you want to offer a hybrid of online and in-person classes, you will also need to set up a website for the online portion of the CPR certification. As the business owners, setting up and maintaining the website and online classroom portal will be part of your overhead expenses that you will need to plan for.

Taxes

As a business, you will need to register for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) and pay business taxes. It is best to work with an accountant, so as your business grows, you will know what you need to pay for estimated taxes. Hiring a bookkeeper and using a program like Quickbooks will allow you to stay on top of your financial information, so when it comes time to file taxes, you have everything is done and ready to go. Although the bookkeeper and accountant will be an extra expense, it will be worth it for the growth of your business and your peace of mind. You may also have to pay state, regional, and local taxes depending on where you live, so it is important to choose a local accountant who will be familiar with those requirements.

Insurance

You will need business liability insurance to protect yourself and your business from lawsuits. If you own a building where you hold the classes, you will also need insurance to protect the building and people while they are in the building if there is ever an accident on your property. Talk to your insurance agent about your business plan to determine how much insurance you will need.

Business Registration

This will depend on where you live and whether you are operating from your own location. Many areas have license requirements for businesses operating out of their communities. You will need to check with your local municipality to see the requirements for starting a business in your community.

As your business grows, you may turn it into a franchise opportunity for other entrepreneurs to open up their own CPR training facilities under your direction. There are a lot of national companies that offer franchise opportunities. For example, McDonald’s, Subway, UPS, and Denny’s are all franchise companies. There may be additional business registration, insurance, and tax obligations with a franchise, so it is important to look into those before deciding. Your accountant will be able to provide insight into the implications of starting a franchise business model.

Anyone who owns a business understands the importance of maintaining efficiency in your supply chain. Inventory management can be one of the most challenging parts of this, especially if you’re still relying on manual systems to take care of it. In a world of big data and digital transformations, it’s hard for any type of business to keep up reliance on legacy systems. This is true whether you’re running a small business or a large enterprise, and it’s true whether you’re running an eCommerce shop or a brick and mortar retail store. Even if you prefer to maintain a physical store, it’s a bad business practice to forgo online shopping options entirely, especially when you consider that worldwide eCommerce sales surpassed $4.2 trillion during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Making online shopping offerings gives your business a piece of that lucrative pie and can have other benefits as well. For example, if you increase your online presence, you can bring additional foot traffic to your brick and mortar store. This is because customers frequently use their smartphones and mobile apps to find places to shop, and the better your online presence, the more likely it is for your business to show in local searches.

Of course, adding online shopping options also adds another layer to your inventory management, since it will be almost like tracking inventory for two different stores. That’s why you’ll need some of the best services available to help you keep track of your inventory and equipment, as well as keep your books balanced. Here are just a few business services that you can’t afford to miss out on if you want to take your retail store to the next level.

Enhanced Retail Analytics

You should already be using a point of sale system (POS) to help you with sales data and inventory data, but you can enhance the capabilities of your POS greatly by pairing it with retail data analytics. Businesses both inside and outside the retail industry rely on advanced data analytics these days to gain insights into their business processes and make better business decisions.

Put simply, retail analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing data regarding inventory levels, supply chain efficiency, customer preferences, sales data, and any other information that helps you maintain excellent procurement practices. One great feature of retail analytics software is that it can use a combination of historical data and current customer data to accurately forecast customer demands through predictive analytics, so your POS system can send you alerts exactly when you need to restock. You can even choose to have alerts automatically sent to your suppliers, so you don’t even have to put in the orders yourself.

Having easy access to inventory, sales, and customer data also makes it easier for you to improve customer service. For example, you can use all this data to determine who your best customers are and make them special offers based on purchasing history. You can also use this data to help you set up customer loyalty programs that offer points to shoppers that they can trade in for discounts and other advantages.

Equipment Management Solutions

Of course, the products you have for sale in your store aren’t the only inventory you need to keep track of. You also need to worry about the equipment you keep on hand in stores, such as electronic barcode scanners, credit card, and debit card scanners, mobile devices, and more. The last thing you need on your mind is missing equipment or additional costs for when equipment is damaged. That’s why equipment management software is so important for any store.

A reliable equipment management solution will let you easily track what equipment is available at any time, who’s using checked out equipment, and even the exact location of each item in use. This makes it much easier to hold employees accountable for any equipment that may be damaged or missing. With a convenient mobile app, employees can check out equipment on the go, and they can even scan asset tags for immediate troubleshooting. Asset management software even makes it possible for maintenance managers to schedule regular appointments for preventative maintenance, so you can be sure your equipment functions as intended at all times.

Accounting Software

While advanced analytics and asset management will help you take care of a lot of the stressors involved in a retail business, you’ll need top-notch accounting services to make sure everything is affordable and that your new business plans are working out. If you’re a small business, then one bookkeeper with QuickBooks might do the trick, but as you start to grow, you might want to look into online accounting services to ensure that your finances are in good hands.

Maintaining an in-house accounting team is costly, and you’re unlikely to ever need it for much of the year. It’s extremely cost-efficient to outsource this need, and it lets you find experts in the field who likely have more experience than employees you’d hire in person anyway. When it comes to your online sales, you can even find eCommerce accounting services that specialize in different niches and can help you with your marketing as well.

No matter what kind of retail business you’re running, you’ll need the best tools and services available to make smarter decisions and put yourself ahead of your competition.

Big data has become one of the biggest and most recognizable terms in commerce in recent years. In truth, the term big data is self-explanatory. Big data is simply large amounts of data, and while there is nothing new about the concept of big data, the things we can do with it now are cutting edge.

Even though there is no true definition for big data, there are some characteristics that you should expect from big data technology. Continue reading to learn more about the features of big data analytics and how your company can benefit from a big data strategy.

1. Big data is big.

As the name indicates, one of the main characteristics of big data is that it’s big—in fact, it’s ginormous. To get an idea of who “big” big data truly is, with capable big data technology, you can manage petabytes of data. Petabytes are equal to 1,024 terabytes.

As you can imagine, the larger the volume of data your company has to work with, the easier it is to pinpoint areas of the market that are ripe for the taking and identify ways to make your operations more efficient. Through data mining, big data technology can analyze data from large databases and provide different types of analytics from predictive to streaming.

As one of the industry leaders in big data technology, Tibco actively seeks to increase what we’re able to do through data analytics. In fact, one of their main goals is to equip the data scientists of the future with the big data analytics software they need to continue making our technology smarter and more customized.

2. Big data is fast.

Another one of the most important big data characteristics is velocity. Businesses, governments, and NGOs need big data in real-time, making velocity a critical feature. The quicker you can get insights into markets and operations, the quicker you can make adjustments and crucial decisions.

You can credit the velocity of big data to the use of machine learning algorithms that employ artificial intelligence to collect and clean terabytes of information as soon as it’s available. Big data increases the speed with which insurance companies make policy decisions and played a monumental role in the velocity of the global COVID-19 response. So you can see why big data is big business.

3. Big data is accurate.

When gathering a large amount of data from various data sources, including the internet of things (IoT) and relational databases like social media, it’s paramount to ensure the veracity of such a huge amount of data. One of the best features of big data is that it’s much more accurate than traditional data means and methods.

The old ways of collecting and analyzing data were too prone to human error. When you’ve got data from different data sets such as data lakes and data warehouses, veracity is of the utmost importance and integral to data quality.

4. Big data promotes variety.

Another great characteristic of big data is that you can collect, manipulate, and analyze a variety of data from multiple data sets. From mobile devices to various social media platforms, you can collect all types of data and use it to optimize your business operations and products. Data mining technology enables you to compile large amounts of data and recognize variables that enable different types of analytics like predictive analytics and visualization.

5. Big data is time and cost-efficient.

The traditional methods of managing a large volume of data aren’t only outdated, but they’re also costly and time-consuming. Big data processes make intricate data easier and cheaper to collect, store, and manipulate. The time and money spared by big data business processes mean that execs can designate data stewards within the company to watch over and manage data rather than enduring the IT specialist hiring process.

While there is no real definition for big data, it’s revolutionized the way we collect and apply business intelligence. With the ability to store and manipulate large volumes of data and different types of data from different sources in real-time, big data analytics is the wave of right now and the future.

Most adults are aware they may need life, auto, and homeowner’s insurance. Business owners and employees may need additional forms of insurance to protect their income and business.

Doctors, dentists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and audiologists are medical professionals who may have a medical practice. If you’re a healthcare provider with practice, you may need additional insurance, including tail insurance.

What is tail insurance?

Insurance that covers medical professionals after they’ve left a job is called tail insurance. Healthcare providers need medical malpractice insurance to protect themselves from medical malpractice lawsuits. Malpractice insurance covers the costs of legal fees and settlements in the event of a malpractice lawsuit.

Once you leave your job, however, your medical malpractice insurance for that place of employment ends. This means you aren’t covered for any future claims related to your last place of employment.

You can protect yourself from future claims when you leave a job by securing tail insurance from an insurance company. The only living medical professionals who do not need to pay for tail insurance are those who become disabled or retire.

Tail insurance is expensive. Instead of paying additional premiums, policyholders must pay a one-time lump sum for tail insurance. Following a career change, insurers offer policyholders 30 days to obtain tail coverage.

Why do medical professionals need tail insurance?

Medical professionals may be sued for several reasons. Medical malpractice doesn’t just encompass active wrongdoing on the part of healthcare providers. Malpractice suits can be filed for negligence if the patient feels you haven’t provided the minimum standard of care required.

The needs of each client can complicate allegations of negligence. For example, when communicating with seniors, medical professionals must consider the unique needs of older adults. If you’re treating an older adult with Alzheimer’s, you may also need to communicate with caregivers or family members. This can present legal issues if the patient hasn’t assigned medical power of attorney to a caregiver or family member, because the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevents medical professionals from disclosing patient information without legal authorization.

Healthcare professionals may also face communication challenges if they’re treating patients whose first language isn’t English. Miscommunication can complicate healthcare delivery and lead to potential legal issues. Ultimately, securing tail insurance is a good idea because it ensures you can change your place of employment with peace of mind. If legal issues do arise, your insurance company has an active policy that will protect you from bearing the costs of legal fees and settlements.

How do healthcare providers obtain tail coverage?

Start by contacting your current insurance company to get a quote for tail insurance coverage. Once you’ve received the quote, contact other insurance providers to determine the best rate they offer and find the best tail policy option. For example, MEDPLI employs tail insurance specialists who strive to provide the amount of coverage required for the best rate possible. Comparison shopping is the best way to ensure you get the amount of coverage you need at the best price.

You can prepare for your career change by setting aside extra money to cover tail coverage costs. It’s normal for tail insurance to cost over $10,000.

What other forms of insurance do medical professionals need?

As a healthcare worker, you need multiple forms of insurance. You need medical malpractice insurance to protect yourself if you’re sued. Malpractice insurance pays for your legal expenses. It also covers the costs of a judgment or settlement.

You also need income protection insurance, particularly if you have a practice. Income protection insurance protects you if you’re unable to work. If you’re injured in an accident or become ill, your income protection insurance provides compensation while you’re off work. Since medical professionals are regularly exposed to viruses through their work, income protection insurance is the best way to protect your income.

You should also obtain a term life insurance policy. You can review policy options from life insurers by accessing life insurance quotes online. Follow the prompts to receive a free quote to determine how much coverage you can receive and your coverage premiums.

Medical professionals may face unique challenges that make it challenging to communicate effectively with patients. Since medical professionals can be sued for negligence, it’s crucial healthcare providers who change jobs obtain tail insurance. Tail insurance extends their malpractice insurance to protect them from lawsuits filed after they change their place of employment. Healthcare providers also need other forms of insurance, including income protection insurance and life insurance.

Management isn’t easy, whether you’re running a train station, a gallery, or a research lab. That being said, running a lab comes with more risks than running a boutique clothing shop does. There are plenty of hazards that the house team at a lab comes into contact with daily. Various dangerous materials, complicated machinery, and other dangers lie in wait for laboratory workers. There’s a reason that OSHA standards exist, and it’s to make sure that laboratories remain safe spaces for people to work in, whether they’re filled with software developers or chemists.

While this may sound daunting, there are a few key things to keep in mind that can make running a research laboratory a smooth experience. Read more to find out about the best way to maintain occupation safety and avoid unnecessary hazards to your house team’s health.

1. Keep everyone awake and hydrated.

Sometimes software developers, scientists, and other laboratory employees have to work long hours on detailed tasks. This is especially common if the laboratory you’re running is part of a small business that’s trying to make waves and stand out on the scene. If this is the case, you want to ensure that your team isn’t falling asleep as they work, especially when there are health hazards lying about and dangerous machinery that shouldn’t be operated when drowsy. However, despite wanting everyone to be awake, you also don’t want to blow your entire small business’ budget at Starbucks or Peet’s.

One solution to this problem is to sign up for a coffee delivery service. Really excellent coffee service will allow you to choose the blend and roast of the coffee you’re ordering, whether it’s espresso or brewing coffee, and you can even add flavor preferences or specialty teas to your order. With a coffee subscription, you’ll be saving money on cups of coffee and making sure that the house team at your startup is focused on the task at hand and not keeping their drooping eyelids from closing.

2. Make sure you’re using pure water without contaminants.

If you’re developing software, you don’t need to think about pure water, deionizers, or reverse osmosis processes, but many other research facilities do need to be aware of these issues. If you’re working with delicate materials, you know that tap water will not do the kind of tasks you’re carrying out. Deionized water (DI water) purified through reverse osmosis is free of contaminants and impurities, not to mention minerals like calcium that are often found in ‘hard water.’ If you want to adhere to best practices for maintaining water purity and keeping ions and minerals like calcium, sodium, or magnesium out of your water source, you need to invest in a deionized water solution for your laboratory. While it may seem like an extravagance, bear in mind that impurities and ions in the water can compromise your whole research project, so taking care of the liquid you use is actually a crucial part of managing a successful research facility.

3. Learn more about OSHA requirements.

Safety has to be the priority, regardless of what you’re researching and which time zone of the United States you’re operating in. After all, a supervisor’s role is to make sure everything runs smoothly, which means keeping the workplace secure and comfortable. Some supervisors show resistance when they learn all they must do to adhere to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standards. Still, the truth is that a certificate of OSHA compliance shows that employer responsibility is being taken seriously in a facility.

If you’re a supervisor or project manager who needs to get your facility up to code and aren’t sure where to start, OSHA training courses are available for that purpose precisely. During the OSHA training course, a trainer will walk you through all the steps involved in getting your facility OSHA compliant. Everything from mitigating hazards to fall protection comes up during the training course, so you’ll be sure to be prepared for anything the OSHA representatives ask of you.

4. Put software outsourcing to good use.

A project manager can keep everyone on task and safe by using a software outsourcing company to manage databases, manage projects, and get customized software geared to a facility’s specific needs. Software out sourcing and working with software developers or software engineers who have the ability to understand your needs and streamline your employee experience will make everything easier.

By employing a software solution grounded in machine learning and artificial intelligence, a business owner or supervisor such as yourself can be using programs that are continuously learning about your specific business needs. Keeping track of suppliers, streamlining workflow and communication, and data management or analysis will all take your capacity to the next level. This is critical for several important reasons. By relying upon an outsourced company for software development, you’ll be working with sharper tools without the expense of paying someone on your house team to figure out the nuts and bolts for you.

5. Invest in employee experience.

Happy employees take more care with their work, and that’s just the simple truth. In fact, this may be the most important thing that a business owner can invest in. You can have the best coffee, the purest deionized water, and the smartest software developers, but if your employees aren’t happy, you can count on a lousy workflow. That, of course, means that you won’t bring financial success to your small business the way that Prabir Purohit brought to Dominion Energy. Take an example from Purohit. He knew that it’s not just about being the most important worksite in the U.S.; it’s about having a development team that cares about company values and feels committed to one another. Whether you’re in South Carolina, Maine, New York, or California, you need to have a finger on the pulse of your house team’s social dynamics. Ensure everyone is happy and fulfilled, and you’ll be running a successful worksite in no time.

A degree in Sports Psychology can open the door to a variety of careers. Since sports are such an integral part of our lives, it’s no surprise that sports psychology is a growing field. While athletes may appear unstoppable on the field, more often than not they are being assisted behind the scenes by a sports psychologist to strengthen their mental health in order to enhance their athletic performance and personal goals.

In addition to the obvious physical requirements of being an athlete, there is an also extreme psychological side to sports. With a degree sports in sports psychology, you can work with athletes to ensure that they maintain their strongest performances by providing them with an essential support system. By providing an athlete with psychological and motivational assistance, a sports psychologist can help athletes strengthen their mental health and reach their ambitious goals.

For sports psychologists who work directly with athletes, some of their responsibilities could include helping these athletes develop a competitive mindset, creating efficient pregame routines for the athletes, ensuring the athletes effectively handle loss, and helping the athlete enhance the quality of their practice. It is also common for an athlete to require the assistance of a sports psychologist when they become injured. A sports psychologist provides the necessary support for an athlete to get through the recovery process as well as return to their sport. The psychological aspects of sports injury can be traumatic for some athletes, but with the assistance of a sports psychologist, it is possible for an injured athlete to have a successful recovery and return to their sport.

Some of the more specific career paths that this degree may be used for include: team coach, sports research specialist, sport psychology professor, clinical sport psychologist, applied sport psychologist, and sports rehabilitation therapist. A sport psychology degree will allow you to thrive in these areas, as you will be capable of assisting athletes on both a physical and mental level—two of the most important aspects of becoming a successful athlete.

While it may sound limited, there are many career options outside of the sports world that one can choose from with a sport psychology degree. This degree expands beyond the realm of sports and has been increasingly recognized as “performance psychology”, and will allow you to work with people in all aspects of society. Doctors are among some of the professionals who often benefit from performance psychology. A performance psychologist may assist a doctor in gaining the confidence they need to perform a difficult surgery or return to their practice after losing a patient. Overall, this degree will allow you to work with a wide variety of people on an individual level as you assist them in obtaining their personal goals.

As a sport psychologist, it is important to understand what are OKRs and how they can be implemented in your work. OKR stands for “objective and key result,” so by utilizing this method you will help your clients understand their goals and how to achieve them. The OKR system is commonly used by businesses and teams to work together to reach an outcome rather than focus on individual performances. Research has shown that goal setting is an effective management tool as it allows teams to become more successful than they would otherwise.

The sport psychology degree comes in various forms and can be attainable through different types of higher-level education. Faulkner University provides students with the opportunity to receive a bachelor’s degree in sports psychology. This private university is a good choice, as its students take a variety of sports psychology courses while developing psychological perspectives and research methods. Faulkner University offers an online sports psychology degree option.

It is possible to further your sports psychology bachelor’s degree by receiving a master’s degree in sport psychology. For example, Drexel University offers online programs to achieve a master’s degree in Sport Coaching Leadership. Similarly, the University of Denver offers a master’s degree in Sports & Performance Psychology. If a full degree program does not fit into your schedule, California Southern University offers an accredited sports psychology certification program that will provide its students with similar benefits to the full sports psychology degree.

These national universities offer sports psychology degree programs in which the student will gain practical experience in the sports psychology field. Although these undergraduate programs and graduate programs may be executed in different styles, they are all national universities with accredited sports psychology programs. Regardless of whether you attend online programs or rely on a classroom setting, by attending a national university, you will be exposed to courses in sport science and higher-level sports such as those in the NCAA division, which will provide invaluable educational and real-world experience while striving toward your psychology degree.

Whether you achieve your sports psychology degree through an online degree program or an in-person degree program, you will experience sport psychology courses that will ensure your success in the world of sports or a related field.

The fictional character Dr. Derek Shepherd (more commonly known as “McDreamy”) is, of course, best known for his love affair with the star of the show, Meredith Grey. (Where are the “Grey’s Anatomy” buffs at?) After this, he is best known for his signature pre-surgery line: “It’s a beautiful day to save lives.”

For many, this line embodies the reason why they decide to go into a medical field. Not only is this career route full of prestige, but it allows for a great sense of accomplishment as it allows us to help save people’s lives, every day. A worthwhile and respectable goal to say the least.

Regardless of whether you’re already on track to studying in a medical field or are just interested in knowing more, it never hurts to investigate our options. Check out these five programs for students considering entering a career in health and medicine.

 Dentistry

A career in dentistry not only allows for a more reliable and flexible schedule (as opposed to an “on-call” doctor), but it also allows for a sense of accomplishment by changing people’s lives. Not only can dental problems cause a considerable amount of pain, but according to the Mayo Clinic, studies suggest that we may be more prone to certain diseases when certain bacteria associated with severe forms of gum disease are present.

Plus, for children going through the awkward years of trying to “fit in” a crooked smile can lead to years of unneeded self-consciousness. This is a good reason why you should consider studying Ortho at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine.

Nursing

Not only does a career in nursing bring a ton of job satisfaction and flexibility, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statists, employment for registered nurses is projected to grow by 15 percent between 2016 and 2026. This growth is expected due to the rising age of the population, the rise of chronic conditions, and the fact that there is expected to be a nursing shortage by 2020. All the more reason to consider pursuing an online nursing degree.

Tip: If you’ve already finished your nursing degree, check out ACLS certification online to make getting certified easy.

Physical Therapist

This option is quite grueling but very rewarding. As a physical therapist, you’ll be helping people regain mobility and manage pain, but will also have to study just as long as a regular doctor (about 7 years). However, once you complete the prerequisites at a four-year university, then you can complete the actual Doctor of Physical Therapy degree online. Plus, there seems to be quite a bit of job security in this field as well. According to U.S. News, the field of physical therapy will grow by 28 percent between 2016 and 2026. They also say that in 2017, the median annual salary for a physical therapist was $86,850.00.

Medical Laboratory Technician

To become a laboratory technician, you must complete two years in an approved associate’s degree program and then get certified. This career path is probably one of the easiest ways to become part of a very important diagnostic process. By helping doctors diagnose serious conditions, you could be helping save lives.

Health Care Administration

For those who may be a little squeamish when it comes to the human body, but are still interested in health care and helping people; a degree in health care administration may be the way to do it. This way, we can help people without ever seeing any blood or being around sick people. Plus, according to Glassdoor.com, the average annual base pay for a healthcare administrator is $78,378.00 (not too shabby for not even needing to get our hands bloody).