I’ve known many acupuncturists, chiropractors, and massage therapists who describe their practice as a roller coaster ride that they can’t get off of. They have lots of ups and downs and highs and lows. Some weeks are great– they have a full schedule and the promise of a solid income for the week. But then the next week is the exact opposite. They have only a few patients on the books and their phone just isn’t ringing.

Why does this happen? Well, there is certainly some inconsistency to be expected if you’re just starting out in practice. Some weeks will be better than others. But if you’ve been practicing for more than 2 years and this is STILL happening, then there are some weak links in your practice management skills.

The root source of this issue comes down to one word– systems. If you have the right marketing, education, and patient retention systems in place then the odds of enjoying a stable and successful practice go up exponentially. The key here is that you consistently and methodically implement the right systems into your practice. How do you generate new leads for your practice? What do you say to prospects who call and are looking for information? What do you do to ensure that the initial visit is a fantastic experience for the patient and that they are fully educated about the scope of your care and they understand exactly what is entailed in the treatment process? What do you do to recall inactive patients?

If you are repeatedly taking each patient through the same successful process, then you understand systems. Based on this, most of your patients tend to be compliant; they do what you tell them to do and they turn out to be good patients. If you are inconsistent in your systems implementation, you will either not get enough new patients in the door or you will lose your current ones a lot more quickly than you’d like.

The 6 figure, high volume practices out there have good (although often not great) systems in place. This gives them predictable and successful results each and every week. If that’s what you’re striving for, it’s time to learn about systematizing your practice so you too can finally enjoy the process of building a lucrative practice.

If you’d like to learn how to do this, we are holding a 4 hour teleseminar series beginning on Friday November 14th. You can go to http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/attractleads-patientretention.html to get more information.

Kevin Doherty
www.buildyourdreampractice.net

The other day, my wife was at the gym when she bumped into an acquaintance. They started talking about things and my wife asked this lady what she did for a living. After stating that she was a psychotherapist, she told my wife that she had caught wind that I was an acupuncturist in the area. As my wife confirmed this to be true, this woman’s immediate response was, “Does he struggle to make a living like every other acupuncturist I know?”

My wife laughed and said that actually I have always enjoyed a successful practice and that I actually do business consulting for other practitioners. Hearing this, the psychotherapist proceeded to tell my wife that many of her clients come to see her for therapy because they are body workers and healers who are really stressed out because their practices are struggling.

Now, this story struck me as both kind of funny and kind of sad. What so many practitioners still don’t realize is that they need solid business and marketing skills if they are to make a living in the healing arts. Getting therapy, or cutting out gluten, or spending your time doing guided imagery– all of these things are great, but you still need to understand the nuts and bolts of practice building if you want to have your own business.

The point here is that you actually get to the root source of your distress. If you feel the need to seek therapy because your practice is stressing you out, what is the real cause of this? Yes, you do need to work on letting go of limiting beliefs. But how much of your stress is caused by the fact that you really don’t know how to get patients in the door or how to retain them? How much of your stress is caused by the fact that you don’t have the right systems in place that yield consistent and predictable results? If you don’t face this stress head on, then you can get all the therapy in the world and it’s only putting a bandage on the real problem.

If you read my free report (on the home page of www.buildyourdreampractice.net) you’ll see that I talk a lot about gaining the business skills necessary to run a business. You can be a great practitioner but without the right knowledge, you’ll struggle. Many practitioners have to learn this lesson the hard way. They are frustrated for many years before they finally see that they have to invest in a new kind of knowledge and understanding.

Don’t let this be you. Get the help and support you need now to take years off your learning curve and save you a lot of heartache and frustration. Sure, keep going to therapy if that is helpful for you.. but round out your support by learning how to effectively manage your practice.

Kevin Doherty, L.Ac.

The success of any business boils down to 4 essential components. If you have all 4 of these in place, congratulations! It is likely your practice is generating a solid 6 figure income for you year after year. If you have any weak links, your whole business model can lead to stress, instability, and severe problems.

1. Lead generation– There has to be a constant stream of new people hearing about your practice and taking interest
2. Lead conversion- A certain percentage of these people must become patients
3. Patient Retention– Low turnover equals more stability
4. Per Patient Revenue–Must make enough per patient to have a financially viable pratice

Now, we have heard from a lot of practitioners who seem to think that all of their problems are caused by poor lead generation. They just aren’t getting enough new patients in the door. Believe it or not, however, we have also worked with practices who only get 3-4 new patients a week and are still seeing between 100-180 patient visits per week and are grossing $3-500,000 per year!

How could this be? Well, their patient retention is very high. And they charge more per patient than their competition. They are using a specific methodology in their patient education and marketing that sets the stage for higher quality, more compliant patients. This can be done in a very ethical and honest way that helps the patient experience the deepest potential of the medicine you offer.

We are interested in putting together a teleseminar series that walks you through the details of each of these 4 components of practice success with a particular focus on patient education and retention. If this sounds appealing to you, we’d love to hear from you! Email us at info@buildyourdreampractice.net and let us know what your needs/wants are.

Kevin and Dominic

If you are an acupuncturist looking for ways to grow your private practice, I encourage you to do a little market research and see what other acupuncturists are doing to market themselves. If you surf the web or look at various display ads, you’ll probably notice rather quickly that most acupuncture marketing pretty much looks the same way, has the same phrases, and conveys the same impression. The problem is that the conventional ‘website as brochure’ or ‘ad as brochure’ type of marketing has the same end result: It simply does not work and is a poor return on investment.

Most acupuncturists make one massive error in the way they approach marketing, one that could profoundly undermine their ability to generate new leads and qualified patients for their practice. The most common mistake is that pracittioners talk about themselves intstead of their patients. Just about all of the ads and websites I have researched are guilty of this marketing blunder. The ad will say something like, ‘Balance Acupuncture, In practice 10 years, specializing in allergies, located in downtown Denver’, with a picture of the business logo or some other fancy graphic.

The problem with this is that nobody cares who you are until you show them that you can help them. Now, I want you to read that sentence again. If you fullly grasp it, you are on your way toward revolutionizing how you market your practice. Don’t even bother talking about who you are or what you treat until you’ve reach out to that prospective patient and said, ‘Hey, I understand what you’re going through– and I can help. Here’s how.’ If you don’t do this, you will lose about 95% of your prospective audience. This is why typical display ads don’t work and why your website may not be generating as much business as you’d like.

What we are talking about here is basic copywriting and sales skills. Amazingly, even most large companies pulling in millions of dollars in revenue don’t get this right either. They still focus on their product rather than the solution it provides. As a business owner, you are a problem solver for people. If you can show them that you have the solution they have been looking for, they will consider your services even if it is foreign to them as acupuncture so often is. If you can speak to your customer’s needs and engage in a benefit oriented conversation with them, you will gain an enourmous competitive advantage in your local community. As you create or review your promotional materials, please keep this in mind. People don’t want to be sold to. Maybe in previous generations this worked very well. Many of us are still caught in ‘old school’ marketing like this, where we go out and try to find prospects to sell our services to. In this day and age, people want to be educated first so they can make their buying decisions in a relaxed, non-pressure based manner.

Honestly, there is a very elaborate methodology to this process that is beyond the scope of this article. I encourage you to keep studying these principles as it will be necessary to ensure the longevity of your practice.

If you’re like most acupuncturists in clinical practice, you have been surprised by how challenging it can be to build and maintain a thriving acupuncture practice. Now, let me say up front that this is not because you lack solid clinical skills or a true passion for what you do. Most acupuncturists are very good at what they do and they love their work.

The problem is that you were never taught the right ways to market your acupuncture practice. Building a practice is largely based on how well you understand the ‘game’ of getting exposure for your practice. After this, it is essential that you have the right systems in place in order to fully leverage your time and to ensure that each patient’s experience in your practice is smooth and professional. Most acupuncturists I have worked with do not have a lot of the systems they need to guarantee their practice stability and growth.

So, how do you get exposure for your practice? Well, there are many ways you can do this. Many acupuncturists try to place a pretty expensive display ad in the local paper, only to discover in frustration that it was a waste of money. Advertising can work, but only if done in the right way. Generally, I recommend direct response advertising. This is when your ad has a 1-800 number or a web link you can send the reader to where they can get a free report or some form of information in exchange for their contact information. This approach works much better than just placing an ad in the paper that says ‘In practice for 10 years, specializing in allergies, located in ___,”

Aside from advertising, you absolutely need a website for your practice. There is a whole method behind creating an effective website that is beyond the scope of this article. When your site is set up right, in most markets you should be generating 2-5 new patients a week from it. You should also consider aligning with other practitioners in your area. As with everything, there is a science behind how this is done. You should also consider networking groups such as BNI.

Getting enough qualified leads to know about your practice is really just the first step and certainly does not guarantee your success. What if a lot of those leads aren’t converting into new patients? Or what if they only come in for 1 or 2 treatments and then they disappear? This is where patient education and systems come into play.

For now, spend some time learning about internet marketing and setting up a website that actually sells what you do and gets traffic to it. Do some inexpensive direct response advertising, and make strategic alliances with other practitioners. This will be a good start to marketing your acupuncture practice in a very effective way. To your success!

I will be offering a seminar in Portland, OR. on Sat. 11/8 from 9am-5pm called The Profit Explosion Practice Blueprint.
This is only open to a small number of practitioners as I want to go into some depth on this system and personally help each practitioner achieve their practice goals. If you live in the area or you have colleagues who do, I encourage you to check it out.

To register, go to http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/oregon.htm

I look forward to meeting you then!
Kevin Doherty, L.Ac.

If you are an acupuncturist, chiropractor, or massage therapist and are looking for ways to build a successful practice, we invite you to join us for this powerful 60 minute teleseminar:

The 3 Crucial Ingredients to Guarantee Your Practice Success
with Kevin Doherty, L.Ac. and Dominic Sembello, L.Ac., licensed acupuncturists and business development consultants.

This call will be recorded so please do register even if you can’t make the live event and a recording will be emailed to you.

Go to http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/guaranteedsuccess.html to register