Welcome to the Planning for Practice Success Newsletter

Practice Startup Success

Information Advice Encouragement

January 14, 2008                                                                                ISSN 1934-3248

Success will come from simplicity.  Sergei Brin (Google founder)

In this issue:

Simplicity.  I treasure simplicity; the simpler things are, the better I like them.  Life is so cluttered, that the more we can un-clutter it, the better.  Sergei Brin (http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/index.html)   says that technology has become overly complex, and that Google works hard to keep things simple.  One of the things that initially attracted me (and a lot of other people) to Google’s main search page is its simplicity: lots of white space, a minimal amount of text.  When you make things more complex than they need to be, you invite problems.  A famous principle called Occam’s Razor states (paraphrased): "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." 

The principle of simplicity relates to your practice.  Work on the KISS principle – that’s Keep it Short and Simple.  (I know that’s not how you heard it; it’s how I like to state it.)  How can you get things done more simply?  How many tables do you really need?  How many pictures?  How many computers?  Keeping things simple also means keeping costs down.  People react negatively to clutter; when they walk into your office, they want to see things neat and clean and simple.  There are many other ways to keep things simple.  I’ll keep talking about this subject because I think it’s important. 

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Register at:  http://assist.entrepreneur.com/ea/register.do and let me know what you think.

Getting Paid for your Services.   You can have the most fantastic marketing effort, get lots of patients into your new practice, and still you can “go broke.”  How?  By not getting paid.  There are a hundred ways that will stop you from getting paid. 

• Someone comes into your office with a sick child and says, “Are you in network on this insurance company? No?  Forget it.”  (This really happened to a grad  I know.)
• A man keeps giving you bad checks, cheerfully giving you new bad checks to replace the old ones.
• Medicare says you filled out your provider application perfectly, but they keep losing your acceptance letter.

How can you keep from going crazy and starving while you get your practice off the ground?  I am doing a workshop at Palmer on the subject of getting paid.  Included in the workshop are discussions on how to set up credit card processing, what to do with bad checks, how to sign up for Medicare and insurance companies, how to get non-payers to pay, and lots more. 

I got so excited about this subject that I decided to write a Systems for Success booklet from the workshop material.  For newsletter subscribers only, I will send you the booklet FREE if you buy Planning for Practice Success.  I will commit to finishing the booklet by the end of January, and I’ll send it out to you in e-book form as soon as it’s done.  If you have already bought Planning for Practice Success, send me an email and I will send you the booklet. 

Your Friendly TaxMan Approaches.  Reminders:

§         W-2’s are due to employees by the end of January

§         W-3’s (a consolidated statement for all employees, plus copies of W-2’s) are due to the IRS by the end of February

§         1099’s are due to independent contractors by the end of February.

For more information on small business tax subjects, see the new IRS small business website: www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html .  I will keep checking this site and let you know of news that might be helpful to you.  Meanwhile, don’t forget April 15 :-)

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 Ask Dr. Jean Murray a question (email jean@dcpracticesuccess.com )
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