Welcome to the Planning for Practice Success Newsletter

Practice Startup Success

Information Advice Encouragement

 September 10, 2007                                                                           ISSN 1934-3248

"Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action."  Napoleon Hill

In this issue:

Five factors in longevity and quality of life:

1.      Aerobic exercise, i.e., walking.

2.      Stretching- yoga, pilates, and such

3.      Balancing – some yoga positions, for example

4.      Strength building – using weights or doing yoga

5.      Deep breathing – great for your lymphatic system

6.      I think CHIROPRACTIC care should be added to this list! 

To get this article and share with your patients, go to Lifehack.org   http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/the-secret-to-a-healthy-body.html

(By the way, this is my new favorite website.  Great ideas for yourself and your patients.)

Case in point:  About a banker.  A soon-to-be-grad called a banker, talked to him for a short time, then, on the banker’s invitation, drove 5 hours to meet with the banker.  He took his great business plan and spreadsheets with him.  The banker said, “We really don’t do startups.”  When asked if he knew what chiropractors did, he said, “Um, well, er….” (In other words, he had no idea.  And he was the president of the bank!  Later the student looked at SBA Preferred and Certified Lenders in the area and found lots of possibilities.  What have we gained from this story, class?

1.      The first questions to ask a banker are, “Who does most of your commercial lending?”  “Do you work with other chiropractors?” and, most important, “Do you finance

      startups?" Save yourself time, energy, and money by asking lots of questions over the phone before you drive to meet a banker.

2.      Check out the SBA Preferred and Certified Lenders.  You’ll see the bigger banks there, but look for the local banks in your area and call them.

For more information check out the chapter on Sources of Funds in Planning for Practice Success at www.dcpracticesuccess.com.  We’re now including the Startup SuccessPlan Workbook with the book to guide you through the business plan and startup.

Famous Laws to guide your business decisions:  You have probably heard of Murphy's Law - Anything that can go wrong, will.  How about Finagle's corollary:  Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the worst possible time. I always think of this as the Law of Audio-Visual presentations, because it usually goes into effect when you're giving a presentation. 

How about Parkinson's Law:  The amount of work to be done expands to fill the time of the people available to do it.   My conclusion:  You can always cut back on employees, down to 1, of course.

Then there's Hofstadter's Law:  Things always take longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.  Very true!  Murray’s corollary:  And things always cost twice as much as you expect, even taking into account Murray’s corollary.  That’s my corollary, of course.  The way you deal with this one is to plan for twice as much time, twice as much in expenses, and half as much in income, and you’ll come out about half right. 

Another famous principle that I have seen quite often is called the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule: For many phenomena, 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes. If you find the 20% of patients, for example, who provide the 80% of your income, you can concentrate on them and not worry about the rest.  Lots of other examples of this one:  For example, in marketing, 20% of your marketing effort produced 80% of the results.  Find the 20% that is working best and cut out the rest. 

Here are some great laws everyone should know about: 

 Littlewood's Law — Individuals can expect miracles to happen to them at the rate of about one per month. Coined by Professor John Edensor Littlewood.

Clarke's Second law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little ways past them into the impossible. Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer. 

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