Welcome to the Planning for Practice Success Newsletter

November 6, 2006

ISSN 1934-3248

Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out. - James Bryant Conant

In this issue:
Are you a turtle?
What's New: Truelocal.com
Tax information: Rule #1: Document EVERYTHING!
Marketing Tip: The 'Ask'

Are You a Turtle?
I was participating in a group exercise recently and someone asked if we considered ourselves Turtles or Hares. I definitely consider myself a Turtle, and I consider that to be good. If you want to start a successful practice, you MUST be a Turtle. Here is the trick: Do SOMETHING every single day to move your new practice forward. Plan out the project, decide what needs to be done, then start going down the list checking off something every day. In a short time, you will be ready to OPEN!

This Turtle principle is the basis for the Startup SuccessPlan? and the StartupSuccess ActionPlan? - OK, what are these? The StartupSuccess ActionPlan? is the list of the first 10 things you need to do in order to get started with your new practice. The Startup SuccessPlan? takes the longer view and shows you month-by-month how to work toward your estimated startup date. These resources are both available for download as part of the Planning for Practice Success?
PLUS Edition. Check out the Order Page:
http://dcpracticesucces.com/p4ps_orderpage.html for more information.

What's New: Truelocal.com is a new service that helps people find local businesses, such as chiropractors. Their mission (in their words): 'to drive online customers to offline businesses. TrueLocal.com is a local search engine free to hundreds of thousands of users that is Yellow Pages with
brains because you can full text search on it.' It looks
like the basic listing is free, but you can buy an 'expanded'
monthly listing for $5. My question is how they are going to get people to look at their site - how will they market their listings? I'm making no claims about this site, just letting you know about it. If you try them, let me know what you think.

TaxTimeTip: Document EVERYTHING! As you are starting your practice, get into the habit of documenting EVERY expense.
The IRS has a new 'small business' division, with auditors who are more knowledgeable about small businesses. From what my tax advisor tells me, the IRS is now looking much more closely at business expenses and they are not afraid to disallow expenses they consider questionable. For example, if you are buying 'business books' note how they were useful to you in startup. For every startup expense, be sure you can answer the question: 'Why did you need this expense?' (Of course, if you buy Planning for Practice Success? you won't have that problem, since you will be using it to prepare your business plan and start into practice.

Mileage is another tax deduction that is often disallowed.
Car expenses for your business must be completely substantiated. You can't just estimate; you must show every single trip, with mileage, and exactly why that trip was related to your business.

Marketing Tip: The 'Ask'
Whether you're trying to get a bank loan, to encourage a new patient to come to your office, or a former patient to return, one important technique is what sales people call 'the ask.' It's means you need to directly ask for what you want. Some tips to help you formulate your words:

1. Phrase your request in terms of the benefit to the
listener.
2. Be positive; avoid the fear technique.
3. Show appreciation for the person and respect for their
viewpoints.
4. Provide accurate expectations. Be realistic about the time
commitment; people don't like being told something and
then finding out it's not true.
5. Listen to the person's concerns and answer them.
6. Cheerfully accept the answer, even if it's no. Say 'thank
you for listening,' even if the person turns you down.
Put yourself in a frame of mind that accepts rejection; you
will never will everyone, but the more you ask, the better
your chances of winning lots of people.

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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