“Especially as physicians we get caught up in that analysis paralysis. We’re waiting for things to be just perfect and they usually never are. And so, you just have to kinda get started.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

In today’s episode, Jen sits down with Dr. Saira Ahmed to discuss entrepreneurship and building businesses alongside a career as a physician. Aside from working full time in Utilization Review in cases related to her sleep medicine specialty while simultaneously holding down a managerial role running a busy practice and seeing patients in that practice one day per week, Dr. Ahmed also has a real estate business, a school that trains people to become phlebotomists, an e-commerce business selling scrubs and other medical accessories, and she and her husband run a non-profit organization through which they do multiple community service projects throughout the year. Wow. Tune in to hear how she got started and how she keeps her life balanced, and learn tips for starting and succeeding at your own side hustle today.

Dr. Ahmed went to New York Institute of Technology for her undergraduate degree. Attended Ross University School of Medicine for Medical School and did her residency at Seton Hall University Internal Medicine Residency Program. Her current affiliations are Jefferson Health System and Salem Memorial Medical Center. You can find her on instagram.

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Excerpts from the show:

“I basically knew from the beginning I was going to be a doctor. My grandfather was a doctor and none of his kids became doctors. My father was a pharmacist. He was supposed to be a doctor and he actually dropped out of medical school so when I was born I think my grandfather was like, ‘You're going to fulfill my dreams.’ And…I kind of grew up with that in my mind. I couldn't really imagine doing anything else anyway. It was something I wanted also. So I guess ever since growing up I just knew I was going to be a doctor.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

“I did not ever think that I was going to be an entrepreneur or go into business at all. Pretty much my whole professional career has been focused on becoming a physician and getting into residency, getting through residency and fellowship. I started thinking about entrepreneurship when I was an attending, in my first year of being an attending. My first job after fellowship, I worked as a hospitalist and it was really awesome because there's a huge learning curve when you go from being a fellow to becoming an attending. But after a year of doing that I felt like the learning curve had really plateaued and I felt I had pretty much learned everything there was to learn in that position. I was starting to think, ‘Ok, I've got one year in as an attending. What is my future plan now and what do I want to do?’ So I think that's when the whole entrepreneurship thing kind of started in my mind, because I knew I wanted to do something on my own. Whether that was having a practice or, I actually had a plan to open a wellness, not really a spa, but a wellness place. Like a retreat, and I actually still have those notes. It's like from ten years ago. I had a binder that I used to jot down notes and ideas and things that I would want in my retreat. But luckily, what happened is the guy I was seeing at the time proposed and we got married and then that was history and luckily he turned out wanting a lot of the same things I wanted so we kind of started our entrepreneurial journey together.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

“I joined his practice and I worked in his practice for probably around five years and then eventually I decided I'd rather just take more of a management role. I still see patients in the practice one day a week just to keep up my clinical skills because it's something I don't want to lose. But clinically I am not the biggest provider there anymore. I'm more of management now. And I got my own job doing utilization review, which I felt was more related to sleep medicine which is my specialty. So I thought it was a win-win for me and it also gave me the opportunity to focus on other things like our other projects that we have going on.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

 “So you're working full-time in your utilization review?” -Dr. Jen Barna

“Yes.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

Okay, so you're doing that and in addition to the utilization review full-time work,  you have a real estate business is that correct?” -Dr. Jen Barna

“Yes.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

“And you have a business training people to become phlebotomists?” -Dr. Jen Barna

“Yes we have a little school that we started a few years ago.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

“Okay, and then you have an e-commerce clothing store that sells scrubs right?” -Dr. Jen Barna

“Yes.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

“This is really interesting because you've got such diversity in your business portfolio as well. You also have a not-for-profit organization too, right?”  -Dr. Jen Barna

“Yes.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed

“So tell me, which of these did you start first?” -Dr. Jen Barna

“The nonprofit came first. So what happened after I got married, I moved to South Jersey where my husband was already settled. And one year into our marriage, you know, we were both moderate Muslim. We do practice and you know we like to go to mosque on Fridays and we do practice Ramadan. And with our busy schedule and our schedule only getting busier and busier and the closest mosque was about 25 to 30 minutes away and we were just like there's got to be an easier way for us to continue to practice our religion and still do everything else that we do. So we decided to open a non-profit and open an Islamic center in our town. So we spoke with the mayor. We said ‘listen we have a small community here you know we've got professionals and we've got business owners and it would just be so convenient if we can have a place to pray here.’ At the same time, we felt with everything going on in the news and stuff and how sometimes we are portrayed, I don't know we felt the need to show a positive outlook on Islam. You know, we are doctors, we are taxpayers, we are good citizens and we wanted to do some education and at the same time we wanted to do community service. So we do multiple projects throughout the year. During Christmas we gave out a hundred hot meals to community members and they don't have to be part of our mosque and they don't have to be Muslim or anything, we just want to give back to the local community. So we thought the best way to do that is by starting our own nonprofit. We spoke to the mayor at the time saying this is what we want to do and she was supportive, so we did.” -Dr. Saira Ahmed 

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Podcast produced by: Amanda Taran