plan is dictated by the needs of the patient – not of the pockets. “This means letting a patient go because you are wanting to do the right thing with them, not some-thing where you feel like you have to (treat them) because you have to make that income to pay the bills,” says Anderson-Peacock. Her advice: “Personally spend after graduation the way you would as a student. Live still in that student mentality of spending so that you can pay down debt and then put your money into your professional ca-reer in building yourself and your knowledge base. Keep putting your money into your professional ca-reer until a lot of your personal debt is paid off, then you can start spending on yourself.” When it comes to marketing the practice, both An-derson-Peacock and Leprich believe the chiropractor is his or her best marketing tool. Sure, traditional media ad buys, as well as newer promotional vehicles like a website or social media sites, will help provide that short-term boost and even succeed in giving a new practice that needed head start. Longer term business planning, however, will in-volve more than just pouring hard earned money on a marketing campaign. Relationship building is key to establishing a successful practice that can last your professional lifetime. Consider some of these practice-building sugges-tions that have been time-tested and proven to help raise your profile as the chiropractor of choice in your community. Know thyself. Reflect on what is really important to you as a chiropractor and health-care practitioner. What do you stand for that is unique in the health-care market? What can you offer that other providers don’t? “It’s not coming from a standpoint of being nega-tive in any way to what other providers do,” says Anderson-Peacock, “it’s a matter of telling the story of what you are for, what you do and what the ap-proach is, and how that approach is different.” Setting yourself apart from other health-care pro-viders – even other chiropractors for that matter – can give you the edge in your practice. This is especially important if the practice is located in a community crawling with other established chiropractic clinics and you’re the new kid on the block. In Ontario for instance, where nearly half of Can-ada’s more than 7,000 DCs have set up shop, there is so little room for trial-and-error, says Leprich. “With new grads, with the debt load that they have and the competition, there’s not a lot of room for them to make mistakes. They have to hit the ground running and basically do things the right way right off the bat,” Leprich says. Get out there. Remember the movie Field of Dreams which popularized the phrase, “If you build they will come”? Reality check: not going to happen. May 2014 Canadian Chiropractor 23 Medium is the message to do anything I wanted – I was able to buy a building. For new grads today, that’s really difficult to do be-cause of the debt situation,” he says. Even venturing out to start a solo practice right from the get-go may prove difficult these days, he adds. New chiropractors may find more success by doing a little bit of research, talking to established DCs and looking for opportunities to start an associ-ate role at an existing practice. Financial prudence will go a long way in contrib-uting to one’s success, cautions Anderson-Peacock. Too many new chiropractors make the mistake of indulging themselves financially too soon once they start their practice. So you might want to hold off on making a down payment on that brand new car you’ve been dreaming about. “I see a lot of chiropractors coming out – which is one of the things I did – and it’s like, ‘Now I want to get a car, and this and that.’ All of a sudden, you’re in this position of having to play catch-up every month,” says Anderson-Peacock. Being in that kind of financial situation could affect the way they practice chiropractic, she says, where financial interest may tend to come first before a patient’s wellbeing. Making sound financial decisions will put a chiro-practor in a position of authority where a treatment www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Shutterstock
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor May 2014: Page 23
