Welcome to the Planning for Practice Success Newsletter

 January 15, 2007

 ISSN 1934-3248

QUOTE:   Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. -- Henry Ford (1863-1947) American Industrialist

OOPS! 

1.  Our mistake is your GAIN.  We made a mistake on the reprint of Planning for Practice Success last month.  The cover states 'Everything you need to buy an existing practice...'   instead of the correct wording:  'Starting and Operating a Successful...'  These are the identical books sold on the website for $129.95.  We only have four left.  For $69.95 + shipping, you can have one.  Just send an email to service@dcpracticesuccess.com and include your phone number and the best time to call.  My terrific assistant Cindy will call you and get your information and send you the book right away.  The first four emails will get this great value.  

What is Failure?  According to the quote above, there’s no such thing, as long as you keep working on the problem.  Marilyn Vos Savant, a columnist and author who is touted as the person with the world’s highest I.Q. said, “Failure is only temporary.  It’s giving up that makes it permanent.” 

 My husband and I were discussing Thomas Edison recently.  Did you know that it took hundreds of tries before Edison discovered that tungsten was the perfect material for incandescent bulbs?  If he had given up before he found tungsten, we might still be working by candlelight!  (A slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.) 

 My point is this: If you want to start your practice, DO IT!  Don’t get discouraged because you have difficulty in getting a loan.  I know of a new grad who went to 10 (yes, TEN!) banks before he found one that welcomed his loan proposal.  If you want it bad enough to keep trying, keep refining your proposals, keep working on ways to get your loan through, you WILL be able to get the loan to start your practice. 

What’s New:  I have a new blog, “Practice Startup Success”   Here’s the link:  http://practicestartupsuccess.typepad.com/ .  This is the blog I’ll be using for information and comments as I consult with students and grads about starting their practices or going into associate/independent contractor positions.  I’ve committed to posting several times a week here, so keep checking.  My previous blog “Jean at Planning for Practice Success” (http://jeanp4ps.wordpress.com/ ) will be used for motivational stuff, like the discussion above about failure.  If you want to save time/energy, you can automatically get new postings.

Startup Terminology:  Goodwill.  In accounting, goodwill is that part of the market value of a business entity not directly attributable to its tangible assets and liabilities.  It reflects the ability of the business to make profits from its relationships with clients or patients.  In a chiropractic practice, for example, the physical assets (tables, computers, x-ray equipment, etc.) may be appraised at $50,000, but the asking price by the seller might be $150,000; this difference reflects the owner’s estimate of his/her ability to collect money from the patients of the practice. 

The problem is that the value of goodwill is very difficult to assess in cases where personal contact is important, as in most professional services business (chiropractors included.)  An accountant who sells his practice would not be able to guarantee that all of his clients would transfer to the buyer; same thing with a chiropractor.  Sometimes in practice purchases the value of goodwill is adjusted after the sale, when the buyer has determined how many clients have left.  In chiropractic practices, this is not common; rather, the new chiropractor usually discounts the value of goodwill to account for this loss.  That’s why the “rule of thumb” in practice purchases is to pay about 70 percent of the last year’s collections.  For more information on this practice purchases, you can purchase Buying a Practice, which includes lots of useful information, terminology, and checklists to help you through the practice purchase process.  (Go to http://dcpracticesuccess.com/practice_success_bookstore.html

_____________________________________________________________________
Ask Dr. Jean Murray a question: email her at jean@dcpracticesuccess.com
Order Planning for Practice Success or one of our other
products or call our toll free number at any time (24/7): 1-866-940-7526

Best wishes for your continued success,

Jean Murray
Planning for Practice Success
Online at:   http://www.dcpracticesuccess.com

The most absurd and reckless aspirations
have sometimes led to extraordinary success.
-- Vauvenargues

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