9 Important Things You Need While Building Your Practice

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Yael

As we finish school, something inside us is eager to start treating people.
I remember I felt I just had to start using all my knowledge, it felt as though I will burst if I won’t start treating people.
But there are things we need to do:

1. Find a clinic: some practitioners have a room in their home that is their clinic. Others rent a room in an active clinic. Either way- you need that place that is all about healing people.

2. Be straight with the law: if you can’t handle the paper work of keeping books, get an accountant to do it for you. You need to be as straight as you can be and not get into un-neccessary trouble. You can live without that kind of trouble perfectly fine.

3. Print business cards: a business card is a good way to spread the word of your new clinic. Think of a design you like, something that will be clear about what you do and how to get in touch with you. Keep a number of cards in your bag and just give them where ever you go. Also, give a couple of dozens to your family members, best friends (that are not in Chinese Medicine) and your parents’ friends. The latter recommendation- from my experience that worked surprisingly well!

4. Website: no doubt about it- you need a website. This is an important way to communicate with potential patients and with colleagues. Here I have to mention Complementary & Alternative Marketing- an e-Book by Lisa Hanfileti that can make your way so much easier!

5. Marketing: ah. So many ways to market. What works? Which marketing strategy will be best for you? Should you market? Well, the answer to the latter is yes, you should spend time to build a business plan and a marketing plan. There’s really no way to avoid it. Marketing should be an on-going thing in your daily work. Here I suggest that you read what Burton Kent has to offer in his very good e-Book Never Market Again. You will have many ideas on how to market- some are well known and some will be completely new.

6. Keep on studying- part 1: 4 years of the basic Chinese Medicine is hardly enough, one must learn more. A brilliant new way to do so, without the need to even leave your house, is to check out what Pro-D Seminars has in store for you. A good collection of courses about fertility- male and female, by wonderful speakers such as Jane Lyttleton, Debra Betts, Peter Deadman and more.

7. Keep on studying- part 2: another great way to keep in touch with the field is by reading books. There are many wonderful books out there to read, how can we choose where to start from? The Library, here on CMNotes, has a growing selection of reviews about a variety of books. This can be a great starting point.

8. Internet: today there are lots of great websites out there, that can be good sources of information and a wonderful way to meet other colleagues from around the world. This of course can help with brainstorming about a certain case, you can ask for information about acupuncture points, different herbs, and create your own community straight from your computer. You can start from our list of Links here at CMNotes.

9. Patience: all the people I talked with said different things about how to build a clinic, but they all agree that it takes about 5 years to build a solid practice and to be able to make a steady income from it. To some it will take a bit longer, to others a bit less, but we all agree- we need patience. In times where our economy is not doing too well, it is better to make your plans as detailed as possible, avoid un-necessary mistakes, and build a good foundation for your clinic, so that everything else will be steady. It’s hard to crush something with strong foundations.

Over to you
What do you think of the list? What’s missing? What are the things you think should be on it?
Leave your comment, I would love to read it.