Welcome to the Planning for Practice Success Newsletter

 Practice Startup Success

Information Advice Encouragement

July 23, 2007                                                                          ISSN 1934-3248

When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn’t want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work.                    George Bernard Shaw

In this issue:

Managing a family loan.  I always caution grads not to do business with relatives – too many potential problems that can damage a relationship.  Here is a service that, for only $200, manages and services a family loan to keep you and your family lender at “arm’s length.”  It’s called “Circle Lending” (www.circlelending.com ).  The company puts together paperwork to formalize a loan from, say, your parents, and then it takes care of servicing the loan (making sure that payments are made and recorded).  Sounds like an idea whose time has come.  Here is a brief description of their service:

 Lease vs. Buy Evaluation for Equipment.  If you’re considering whether to lease equipment or buy it, here’s a handy calculator that helps you determine which of the two is better, in terms of present value:  http://www.nebs.com/nebsEcat/business_tools/lease.jsp#capital_cost  .  This calculator also shows you that there is an ongoing “interest” cost to leasing, just as with buying.  I ran a calculation on a $10,000 piece of equipment, using an “interest rate” of 3% on the lease and 8.25% on the purchase, and came up only slightly ahead on leasing.  In most cases, it’s still less costly to buy rather than lease.  You also need to check with your CPA about whether you can depreciate your leased equipment.  If you lease with a $1 buy-out, it’s my understanding that you can depreciate the equipment, but don’t take my word for it.

 Great New Book – 212 degrees.  The author is S.J. Parker, and the subtitle is “How to achieve results beyond your wildest expectations.”  Here’s what the title means:  “At 211 degrees, water is hot; at 212 degrees, it boils.  And with boiling water comes steam.  And with steam you can power a train.”  In other words, do a little more to get a lot more.  Read it to get motivated to really get your practice startup moving along.  I talked the other day with a soon-to-be grad who said, “I know I have to do this stuff, but I figure I can still get it done if I wait until the end.”  But just think how much MORE you could get done if you push yourself a little harder now.   It’s a book I have re-read several times and plan to read again, when I want to get motivated.  Read it and let me know what you think.

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