Welcome to the Planning for Practice Success Newsletter

Practice Startup Success

Information Advice Encouragement

June 9, 2008                                                                           ISSN 1934-3248

"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasures you seek."  Joseph Campbell
 

In this issue:

THE CAVE:  What’s yours?  What’s your greatest fear about going into practice?  Larina Kase (from Performance & Success Coaching)* has some suggestions for overcoming these fears:

1. Focus on your objective.  In any new, scary situation (like talking to your first bank), focus on what you want from the situation, not on being afraid.
2. Organize and Prepare.  In the banker presentation example, practice talking to a “banker” (give me a call) or get a friend who can role-play with you. Think of all the questions you might be asked. Imagine a worst-case scenario and prepare your responses to those tough questions.

To her suggestions I would add a third:

3. Break that “Big Scary Thing” down into manageable chunks.  Like a day.  What do you have to get through today? Meeting your first banker?  If you keep plugging away at the things you need to do each day, you’ll get through them one by one, and you’ll wake up one day to realize you are actually starting your business! 

My Planning for Practice Success system includes a StartupSuccess workbook that takes you through these steps, day-by-day, week-by-week.  Check it out at www.dcpracticesuccess.com and get started today to overcome your “Fear of Startup” and gain the “treasure” of successful practice.

(*Larina’s comments are from her book The Confident Speaker, with Harrison Monarth, from McGraw Hill (2007).)

Why are associate contracts so awful?  A student stopped me today to thank me for reading a contract for his girlfriend.  The contract was so bad that after I pointed out all the problems, she decided not to sign it.  He asked me, “Why do doctors make such terrible contracts?  Good question.  Although I’m not certain, since I don’t talk to these people, I can guess, so here goes…. 

1.      They have been burned by associates in the past. I know this one is true, because I talk with associates who say, “The doctor got burned by the last guy who …[fill in awful stuff like leaving in the middle of an adjustment (no kidding) or being lazy and expecting to get paid.”  In this case, I don’t blame them for tightening up the contract.

2.      They want associates but they don’t want to pay – they’re afraid they won’t have enough money.  In other words, they want someone to work hard to build up the patient base, but they don’t want to pay a reasonable salary.  My response to that is, “If you can’t afford to pay a decent base pay, don’t hire an associate.” 

3.      They are afraid you will leave and take all their patients.  I just talked today with someone who was going back to his hometown in Pennsylvania.  He wanted to work with a doctor 15 miles away, but the doctor wanted a 25-mile non-compete.  When I looked at the city on Google Maps, I saw there were 20 other chiropractors in the area.  So why is he so concerned about one more?  Just don’t steal his patients. 

These are probably the biggest reasons. What do you think? 

 Chiropractic Business Discussion Group  I just found a great new chiropractic business discussion group.  Founded by Kevin Smith, a Palmer grad, the group discusses topics ranging from dealing with massage therapists to how to manage a grand re-opening, to collecting money.  They recently discussed practice management companies, and I learned some very interesting stuff about some of these practice management “gurus.” 

Here is the link to join (no cost):  http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ChiropracticBusiness/

 From my other web sites:

From my About.com site: I have several new blog postings about how to get money for your business, using leverage, finding grants, using IRAs, etc.  Go to http://biztaxlaw.about.com for this information.  You can also receive my weekly newsletter for free. 

From my Small Business Boomers blog, here is an article you might find interesting:

Should you extend credit during hard economic times?  (I know most of you aren’t in the Baby Boomer category, but “business is business.”)
From my StudentDC blog, new posts on reading contracts, talking to banks, and getting your credit report. 
 

Ask Dr. Jean Murray a question (email jean@dcpracticesuccess.com )
Order Planning for Practice Success™ or one of our other products (http://www.dcpracticesuccess.com/p4ps_orderpage.html)
 
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