New Chiropractor: You think you can't start a practice now? Think again...

I've been in practice since 2002.  When I started out, I went into a partnership with another new graduate friend and leased a 1500 sq. foot office space in Laguna Hills, CA. We hired a front desk person, and had tables and therapies and x-ray equipment and the whole shebang.  After spending about $100k in school learning how to care for patients through chiropractic, my business partner and I spent about another $70,000 building out our new office and we opened our doors with an overhead of about $6,500 per month.

I will not go through the whole history, but will instead flash forward 7 years... I currently practice as a solo practitioner.  I have leveraged what I have taught myself over these last 7 years in running a chiropractic practice, in web site design, and in utilization of communications technologies so that I currently have the same capacity that I used to have with a $6,500 overhead but now with an overhead less than $1,200 per month total expense.

But that isn't the whole story... Oh, no... Not by a long shot.  I have no paper in my office.  My scheduling is online, my charting is digital and online, my billing is simply a button push beyond the online charting. I have the ultimate scheduling flexibility and pesonal mobility which frees me up to pursue business contacts, new opportunities, marketing of my practice, etc in and around my patient care schedule.

The reason I am posting this is that I am concerned.  I worry about the state of health care in America.   I worry about the future of chiropractic and the availability of this vital art and science to the average American. I am concerned that chiropractors will not be able to both maintain prices which will provide every American affordable care while at the same time be able to provide the level of care that has afforded us such high regard among our patients. I am concerned that as 3rd party payer insurances sluff off more and more of the cost for chiropractic care to their enrolled members, people will have to choose between getting the chiropractic care that they need or putting their kids through college or food on the table. And I also worry about those new chiropractors graduating from college into this environment.

The new graduates hold the key to solve this problem.  But what options does a new graduate have in today's market?  It is pretty grim, I must admit. Established thriving chiropractic offices looking for associate doctors are few and far between. And it just isn't practical for a new graduate to start out the way I did - that is just financial suicide in this market.  

But the practice model I use now would work perfectly for a new chiropractor right from day 1.  Minimal initial capitalization. Low monthly overhead while providing a full menu of chiropractic services that the public desperately needs. And ultimate mobility and schedule flexibility which would allow for full throttle business development activities while keeping up with the necessary nurturing of a fledgling practice.

I want to reach out to new chiropractic graduates and teach them the hard lessons I have learned without all the pain.  I am not a technique guru.  I will not tell you how to treat. YOu could never reproduce what I do anyway, nor will I be able to reproduce what you do as an individual practitioner. But I know I can save you a lot of money and actually give you a workable strategy to start small without compromise but immediately start to build the practice of your dreams. I am but one person and I have a practice of my own so my resources are not unlimited. But if you need what I am describing, then don't be a slave working for peanuts while putting off building your own future... contact me at drharriott@gmail.com because "we gotta' talk".