Successful Openings – Is There A Plan That Really Works?

It’s very interesting to hear what students are thinking regarding  opening their own practice.  Kindof.  I mean, I do remember what it was like as a student, even though it’s been nearly eighteen years since I last ate Ramen Noodles… not so delicious, but boy were they economical!  A steady diet of those, and one can eat for a week on about ten bucks.  A little tuna and Cream of Mushroom soup mixed in, and there’s your protein as well.  

I was clueless back then.  Not just in a culinary sense, but in my concepts of what things were really worth my time and attention.  I was so focused on getting through all the requirements, while maintaining my 3.something GPA.  Then came state Boards.  Being from a suburb of Buffalo, many people have asked me how I settled on North Carolina as the state I would live and practice?  My honest answer?  I placed my finger over Buffalo on a map, and traced an imaginary line due south!

Using no other line of reasoning than climate, I decided it would be Virginia or North Carolina, wherever I could first find a decent associateship.  How’s that for strategery?! 

So end of 1992, my headspace was all about graduating and passing these two state boards… which I did, Saints be praised!  And in February of ’93, I was blessed to land a decent associateship (I know, most often an oxymoron) in Durham, NC.

You see, I knew I wasn’t prepared to run my own practice.  It had nothing to do with my “book knowledge” of patient care.  I just somehow intuitively knew that real-world practice was going to be quite different from what I or my classmates really understood.  And other than going the Associateship route, I was unaware of any specific resources or coaching/management where I could obtain that knowledge even had I wanted to immediately open on my own.

But today, a real, workable game plan does exist.  There are preferred ways to go, and not-so-preferred ways as well.  The key is following in the footsteps of success, and to learn from other people’s experiences who learned lessons the hard way.  A smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from others’ mistakes, so that he won’t have to make them himself. 

In economics, it is called “Opportunity cost”.  When a decision to go in a certain direction is made, one not only pays the consequences if it is a bad one, but also misses out on all the good that would have come from making a better decision. 

In the context of the total number of years (hopefully) you intend to practice, one bad decision may cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out in needless overhead, not to mention grief and frustration.  In opportunity cost, that same bad decision might mean touching far fewer lives through chiropractic care, and millions of dollars in lost revenue you otherwise would have earned.   

 So what are students thinking??  Here are some of the things I’ve heard at our recent college bootcamps… “I’m going to need (somewhere between) 80,000 to 300,000 dollars to open my own practice”.  ”I’m going to practice in ______ because I grew up there and will have a good start with all my friends and family”.  “I’m going to look for the most affluent areas I can to open a practice because it’s easier to grow where people have lots of disposable income”.  ”I’m going to open a practice in Myrtle Beach because I love the ocean and I love to golf”.  “I’m going to open in the big city because that’s where all the people are”.  “I need to purchase all the latest equipment, like digital X-ray, and (basically) build out a Taj Mahal practice”.  ”I’m going to cover my walls with ’Discover Chiropractic’ posters, and display all sorts of products for purchase in my reception room such as pillows, vitamins, Biofreeze, etc.”

How do these thoughts sound to you?  Do any of these seem like good ideas?  Let me know and we’ll talk.  Someone has gone before you and has already figured these and a thousand other decisions out.