Welcome to the Planning for Practice Success Newsletter

October 4, 2006

Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes.

Parkes Robinson

In this issue:

• What is New

• Marketing Tip

• Balance Sheets - A Tough Balancing Act

• Relevant Reading: The Seven Minute Difference

• Startup Help Websites

What is New: Our newest publication: Leasing Your Office (an e-book) is now available - includes everything you need to know to find a location and negotiate a lease - only $19.95.

Here is what is included:

• Locating your office

• Working with realtors and leasing agents

• Common leasing terms

• Negotiation strategies

• PLUS, leasing checklists

Since Leasing Your Office is an e-book, you can download it and immediately begin learning about leasing. Go to our order page.


Website Help for Startup:

http://www.statelocalgov.net/

This website has three options:

1.  Links to all 50 state government websites

2. Topics (choose SOS for Secretary of State) for information
   on business legal forms in your state, or

3. Local governments within each state (not all cities/towns are
   listed here). Worth a quick search for demographic
   information or to help you set up your legal structure
   within your state.

Marketing Tip: A recent (March 2006) article in TIME magazine featured 'miniclinics' popping up in retail stores and offering limited services. This triggered a conversation
I had with a graduate who said that she was very successful in marketing to patrons at local drug stores. She would get a booth near the pharmacy counter and talk with patients who were waiting to get prescriptions filled. What a great way to talk to people about wellness.

Relevant Reading: In The Seven Minute Difference: Small
Steps to Big Changes (2006, Kaplan Publishing), Allyson
Lewis talks about how you can change your life and get more
done by using 'micro-actions.' She says that seven minutes
is the average person's attention span. In seven minutes
you can:

• Outline and prioritize your business goals

• Call a patient and ask how he or she is doing after
  an adjustment

• Talk to your staff about their day... you get the idea.

Chapters discuss topics like expanding growth possibilities,
exceeding customer expectations, and breaking through to
peak performance. The book is a fast read and includes, of
course, 'micro-actions.'

Balance Sheets - A Tough Balancing Act

I have been asked numerous times why I don't include a balance sheet with my startup spreadsheets. That's easier said than done, for a startup. The balance sheet shows your assets (left column; things of value owned by the business), liabilities (right
column; amounts you owe on those assets), and equity (under liabilities on the right; what's left over; your ownership in the business). Since you're just starting out, you don't have many assets, you have lots of liability, and you have very little equity.
It doesn't make for a pretty picture, nor an easy one to prepare.  Until you actually have the business up and running, loan proceeds in the bank, and purchases made, a balance sheet is meaningless. Once you have started your practice, your CPA
can prepare a balance sheet, and should do that, at the end  of every month to show your financial position for the month. You can find more information about balance sheets in Planning for Practice Success?.

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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