Aug
26
Where do you find help in getting started with your natural medicine business?
Filed Under Business Planning, Getting Started, Personnel | 1 Comment
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
This is the last in a series of three articles about getting started in your natural medicine business by Bonnie Koenig. You can find the previous two articles by clicking on either I’m an acupuncturist, not a business person or Open for Business…I think. You can find Bonnie’s bio here.
————
In the last two articles of this series I have reminded practitioners that running a small business can be a full time job, just as practicing medicine can be a full time job. I then focused on the types of help one could expect. This leaves the question of where to find this sort of help.
In the initial stages of starting a business places like SCORE (I looked in my yellow pages for this) will work with small business owners to work out what they want their business to look like and also discuss the types of licenses they might need. At the time I contacted them, I was sent a wonderful packet of business related information that outlined what various government offices (state, county and city) needed what from me.
Another great place to check out online is Insights for Acupuncturists. This site is geared towards acupuncturists, obviously, but it can be applied to anyone who will be in a healthcare practice running a small business. Lisa Hanfileti, the site creator, is an acupuncturist with a biology background. She graduated back in 2000 and she and her husband, a medical doctor, set up their office.
Very often practitioners tend to think small at the beginning. Lisa did not. While she discusses the pitfalls of this at points in her website, the important thing about this is that Lisa had to find out a lot more about various aspects of running a business than many of us have had to. This makes her site a great resource. One thing to remember is that this is a website geared towards anyone trying to start an acupuncture practice. Some information must remain general as exact laws vary state to state, county to county and city to city. Lisa is good about pointing your towards specific offices that may need to be contacted to find out specifics.
If you don’t have a vision of what your practice should look like there are many personal coaches out there. You can search online or ask your friends who they used. Like natural healthcare providers, business coaches use a variety of approaches.
Jenn Givler is a business coach I’m familiar with. Her website is Create a Thriving Business. Jenn works with practitioners who are trying to figure out what they do and do not know about the process of running a business. She says, “I refer to this as putting an infrastructure in place for running a business.” Jenn can take new practitioners through the process of visualizing their ideal practice, focusing on the strengths they have to create this ideal practice (not just their healing strengths but their business strengths) and then help them clarify the areas where they need help.
Additionally Jenn will keep working with practitioners through all phases of their business, whether that be creating new marketing opportunities or creating new opportunities for revenue streams as well as re-evaluating the business and what help is needed as the business vision grows and changes. On Jenn’s website you’ll also find a link to her group which keeps people in contact with like minded people who can offer feedback.
One area many practitioners get stuck is figuring out how to market their business. Of all the business tasks this one is often the most hated task for practitioners. Not only do practitioners seem to dislike it the most, but marketing is one of the most ongoing tasks a business owner faces. If that isn’t enough, marketing is the one task that most often needs updating and changing.
One of my favorite books on running a small business is Lynn Grodzki’s book, Building Your Ideal Private Practice
When I started the Acupuncture Marketing Blogthere were very few sites out there for me to draw information from. The Alternative Health Practice Blog existed (but did not look nearly as lovely as it does today). It’s a great resource, though updated about as irregularly as I update the Marketing Blog.
Kevin Doherty came out with his site Build Your Dream Pracice. Kevin is an acupuncturist and he also does some web design and personal coaching. Kevin’s information is about keeping acupuncturists in business and one area he really focuses on is website information.
Burton Kent is one of the newer names on the scene. Burton began with Acupuncture Clinic Marketing. I’ve had conversations with him about his “No More Closed Clinics” blog post. Burton’s area is marketing. However he’s used acupuncture and had fantastic results with it. He feels that acupuncturists can benefit from the information on marketing that he can provide. He’s also serious about the no more closed clinics. Both Burton and Kevin offer ebooks and some personal coaching.
Another great source that new practitioners might overlook are people who are currently in practice. These people know what has worked for them and what hasn’t. They understand the little pitfalls and misunderstandings based on how you, as a healthcare provider, might think and the way the government offices might think. They can also tell you how to find good help and may know where you can find office space. The downside of another practitioner is that their understanding of the laws may be incomplete so you might not details or get inaccurate information from them.
Finally, when you know you need to find employee help, how do you do so? Many practitioners have gotten good help via word of mouth. While any position may come via word of mouth, nowhere is this more true than with insurance billers. In fact, if you talk to someone specializing in this area, get references from people in your healthcare specialty.
Finding office help can be more challenging. You can post on Craigslist or in your local paper. Ask other practitioners and friends if they know anyone who would be good for a specific job in your office. Very often they may think of someone who is looking or can at least have that person send you a resume. Always check your references.
Office cleaners and laundry services are usually contract positions. You will often find advertisements on Craigslist or in the yellow pages. Again, ask other people in your local area who they use and you’ll probably get some names as well. As many small businesses, not just healthcare providers, use services like these, you may have a larger pool of people to from whom to find referrals.
The biggest gift you can give yourself while your business takes off is the gift of help. As a healthcare provider, I know that finding help was also one of the most challenging things I needed to do. By asking for assistance in various areas of your business you will find you get a lot more satisfaction from what you do than if you try and make do on your own. A streamlined office that is organized and well run is invaluable when you are seeing that one extra who patient who absolutely MUST get in. Further, a well run office can make sure you get to the point where you have that “extra” patient you don’t have time for from time to time.
That’s it for this series!
Bonnie
