AN OVERVIEW OF MARKETING AND PRACTICE BUILDING FOR ACUPUNCTURISTS

Dream Practice Coaching specializes in working with acupuncturists to help them build successful and lucrative private practices. I have personally built two highly successful acupuncture practices and now devote much of my time to helping other acupuncturists achieve their practice goals.

This is done in a variety of ways. There are essentially three main obstacles that I see time and again when working with acupuncturists:

1. Poverty mindset—Many acupuncturists are taught from the first day of acupuncture school how hard it is to succeed owning a cash-based acupuncture practice. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the following statements from students, teachers, and practitioners in the acupuncture profession:
   
   

   • It takes at least five years to break even when you own an acupuncture practice
   • You’ll never make more than $50,000 a year in the acupuncture profession
   • You’ll need to have another form of work to supplement your acupuncture income
   • There’s too much competition in the area I practice in
   • There’s not enough demand in the area I practice in

It is tragic that so many acupuncturists buy into beliefs such as these. In my personal and coaching experience, your success is a choice. You can choose to buy into destructive beliefs such as these or you can choose to blow away such limitations and create the practice of your dreams. I decided to do the latter, even though I was so heavily influenced by these beliefs. What I discovered was that this is a very good time to practice acupuncture, there is plenty of demand, and you can make an excellent 6 figure income doing the work you love as a practitioner of Chinese Medicine.

Your success always begins with what is taking place in your own mind. One of my first objectives with new coaching clients is to help them shed limiting beliefs and embrace a solution-oriented mindset that is 100% geared toward what is possible rather than what is problematic. I have seen so many practitioners get out there and try to aggressively promote their practice, only to end up in the same frustrating place over and over. This is largely due to the fact that their mindset needs a serious shift.  In this regard, I highly recommend that practitioners who want to practice with purpose and be source of inspiration to others pick up a copy of my book The Purpose Principle. You can learn more about this resource at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/purpose

2. Poor Acupuncture Marketing Skills -- The vast majority of acupuncturists were never taught the most effective ways to market their private practice.  My practice management class, for instance, was taught by a lady who owned a home business selling magnets.  She knew nothing about the profession and very little about business in general. 

How well you market your acupuncture practice will ultimately determine how busy you are and how much money you make. There is a lot more to marketing an acupuncture practice than just throwing up a website and doing a few talks in your town. Once again, I can’t tell you how many practitioners I know of who claim that they have tried to market their services, but nothing is working. Upon deeper investigation, however, it becomes painfully clear that the knowledge on how to effectively implement a detailed and systematic marketing approach is sorely lacking. 

I believe that one of the very best investments you can make is in an acupuncture practice website, BUT this has to be set up the right way and there are many details that go into the process. You can learn more about the Dream Practice web package at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage or you can get a great overview on internet marketing for your acupuncture practice in my e-book Online Mastery at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/onlinemastery

While your website can produce amazing results if it’s set up well, you don’t want to rely on that as your only marketing strategy. Any acupuncturist needs to have a diversified approach to practice building. My e-book Build Your Dream Practice has a number of excellent, low-cost acupuncture marketing strategies that you can easily implement:  http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/ebook/index.htm

3. Ineffective Patient Education -- Many acupuncturists struggle with their patient retention. Their average patient will only come in for 2 or 3 treatments, which means their turnover is high and they have to constantly keep a high volume of new acupuncture patients coming in the door. Your patient retention largely boils down to how effectively you educate and communicate with your patients. 

You need to have organized systems in place that are implemented for each and every patient so they know what is happening, what to expect, and how they are progressing. Most people need a great deal of guidance, or else they assume the worst. My upcoming ebook and audio series called Holistic Practice Explosion is largely dedicated to this issue of patient education and retention. 

I think a lot of acupuncturists are still a little unclear how business coaching can help their acupuncture practice. In my experience, it wasn’t until I worked with a prominent business coach that my practice really started to take off. This coach filled in the gaps in my knowledge in so many ways and showed me exactly how to start thinking like an entrepreneur and business owner instead of only playing the role of acupuncturist and healer. 

The beauty of what I can offer acupuncturists is that I have personally been where you are—I know the struggles and challenges of building a private practice. I also know what works and what doesn’t. There are very few, if any, acupuncture marketing and practice building coaches out there who have personally done what you are trying to do.  And in case you haven’t noticed, building an acupuncture business is a unique animal.  Many of the conventional business and marketing strategies that work for other businesses simply don’t work for acupuncturists. 

In a nutshell, here are the main benefits that I offer to my coaching clients:

• Taking years off the learning curve of practice building
• Doubling or tripling acupuncture practice volume and income
• Reaching practice goals much more quickly
• Maintaining inspiration and purpose in your work
• Staying organized and methodical in your practice building endeavors
• Having accountability for your progress
• Creating multiple income streams within the practice
• Using the power of technology to create automated and very effective marketing systems
• Coaching around issues with confidence, self-worth
• Refining patient communication skills
• Brainstorming ideas to maintain a creative edge for the practice

The list goes on, but these are some of the main benefits I offer my clients. I will also say that business coaches tend to be very expensive, especially if they are any good. I have purposefully kept my one-on-one coaching rates low so I can help more practitioners. For a month of coaching with me, you’d need to bring in about 2 new patients to make it worth it. Most of the time, we can do way better than that. 

Many of my clients begin by signing up for the business breakthrough session:
http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/bbs.htm

You can review the coaching services I offer at these two links:

               http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/coaching.htm

               And my most comprehensive coaching package:
               http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/coachingclub.html

I have purposefully cut way back on my private acupuncture practice so I can help take this profession to an entirely new level of credibility and acceptance. I believe that Chinese Medicine has the potential to change the world in profound ways. It all starts on an individual level. We need to get you seeing as many patients as possible so you can feel great about your profession and so more people will try acupuncture and experience the benefits.

There is only so much one-on-one coaching I can personally offer. When I’m full that’s it--and that time is rapidly approaching. If you are serious about creating the most efficient and powerful action plan to building your dream acupuncture practice, then contact me at info@buildyourdreampractice.net. I do offer a free 20 minute consult to discuss how I can best help you. 

All the best,
Kevin Doherty, L.Ac., MS