Kats Chiropractic Consultants CHIROpulse

194 Insider Tips for Starting or Moving a Chiropractic Practice

• Marisa Mateja

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Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  

This week’s topic:   Insider Tips for Starting or Moving a Chiropractic Practice

The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights, and is hosted by Kats Consultants coaches Dr Michael Perusich and Marisa Mateja.  Dr Perusich and Marisa are both seasoned experts in Chiropractic business development.  This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Why a carefully thought-out business plan is invaluable to starting a successful practice
  • Why there are big differences between starting a practice in a small community versus a big city   
  • Why your practice location may have little to do with your success
  • Why planning a practice move months in advance is so important
  • …and so much more…

In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.

Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.

Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.


DISCLAIMER:  The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers.  Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Kats Consultants CHIROPulse Podcast
When you are ready we can help.


KC CHIROpulse Podcast. Helping Chiropractors keep their pulse on success. Thanks for listening.



Dr. Michael Perusich:

Doctors, are you planning on opening a clinic or maybe moving your clinic? Hi, everybody. Welcome to the KC ChiroPulse podcast brought to you by Kats Consultants and ChiroHealth USA. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Perusich, and I'm joined by my co host today, Marisa Mateja. Marisa, so you and I together have done this, I don't know how many times and all of our coaches have, we've opened practices, we've moved practices and there's some tricks to it because you can really foul up your business, whether you're opening or moving, if you don't do it correctly. So I thought we'd talk today about just some tips and tricks about opening or moving your practice and what that entails.

Marisa Mateja:

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I think first and foremost is defining your practice. So if you're brand new, or if you're moving, what are the new things that will be in the practice? Or what will you be doing if it's brand new that people need to know about? So really defining what your services look like, making sure that the layout and the space that you're Trying to find will accommodate those things

Dr. Michael Perusich:

and your target market. If you want to have a pediatric practice, you probably don't want to move to the villages in Florida where you really have to think about that. So look at your demographics. Look at your yeah, I love the idea of your, what's the flow going to look like in your practice? Is it set up to create bottlenecks or is it set up to potentially see a high volume of patients if you grow really big,

Marisa Mateja:

I think that's huge, planning for the long term, so do you have a layout that allows for. Multiple adjusting tables, multiple places for therapies. I'll go back to our first clinic. And the space that we had available to us was very small to start with. And you'd be amazed at all the different surfaces that we had in 1500 square feet, like we were able to create. Now, Dr. Kruse lost his office very quickly because that became the rehab room. But, planning ahead, I think is super important to make sure that you're not just going by what you're going to do with day one. So it's more what are you going to do in a year or two? What will you be able to accomplish? So planning for extra rooms for therapies or rehab or whatever you plan to bring into your practice, I think is important.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. And I think you have to build your. If you're starting a new practice, I think you have to design it to match up with what are your goals in your business plan? So your business plan should be projecting, and this is the fun part of putting a business plan together. Your business plan is projecting where you're going to be in five and 10 years. Yeah. You don't think about, okay, here's what my practice is going to be the first week it's open and that's how I'm going to build my building, my, my space. You got to think what's it potentially, or you're hoping it's going to look like in 10 years and you brought up our little bitty tiny clinic. This is interesting when you put a clinic together, you want to try. To keep it as open as possible. Don't chop it up too much because here's what happens as you grow. If you have open space, you can move things around.

Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

You can cordon things off with partitions, with curtains, those kinds of things. Those hospital curtains, we have those in our practice. You can move things around and like you said, you can create space. There wasn't initially space. Exactly. And it helps you manage that space a little bit longer. We eventually had to move, but.

Marisa Mateja:

Yeah. And I think, it's so important, even if you're a single practitioner and you want just a very small space to start with. I think that's great. Maybe you have just one open room or you have, whatever, but just be thinking long term is all that I can say on that is just make sure that it's You know that you're not signing a really extensive long lease if that space for long term isn't your Ultimate goal,

Dr. Michael Perusich:

right? You're better off to do as short a term of lease as possible But have options built in if you want to stay there. And so what's an option? Let's say you have a three year lease Maybe you have two additional three year options after that and you can oftentimes pre negotiate that price to In those next options up front and usually get yourself a better deal than you would negotiating price after three years or up.

Marisa Mateja:

Sure. So yeah, I think those are some of the most important things. I would add to that is location. Does location matter?

Dr. Michael Perusich:

So I want you to hold, I want you to hold that thought for a minute. Cause

Marisa Mateja:

we have

Dr. Michael Perusich:

to take a break and hear a word from our sponsors, but this is an interesting conversation, everybody. So be sure you come back to and we'll be right back.

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Dr. Michael Perusich:

Hi everybody. Welcome back to the KC ChiroPulse podcast. We are talking today about either starting a new clinic or moving your clinic and Marisa, you just brought up probably one of the most interesting aspects of this topic and that's location, how important. Is location.

Marisa Mateja:

I think it depends.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

It's not

Marisa Mateja:

an answer. Yeah, I think okay, I'll just break it down to a large market versus a small market. So if we're in a large city, a big, populated area, those kind of things. I think location definitely matters. I think. I think you need to be visible. I think you need to have good signage. If you're in a center, you need to be on the kiosk, or whatever. Like there, there are definite things for location that you have to factor in and those kinds

Dr. Michael Perusich:

of parking

Marisa Mateja:

and all of those things

Dr. Michael Perusich:

around you, what businesses are around you that are going to draw traffic in. Yeah. So that's the big city picture.

Marisa Mateja:

But the small city picture may look completely different. I would say it's more on name, reputation, those kinds of things and getting known versus being visible in a smaller community. I think people will come to you. It doesn't really matter where you're located. And I'll use us as an example. Our second location was on the backside of a shopping center that was literally where. Our entrance was not there to begin with. They created it for us. So we were not in a location that was highly visible.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

We were next to a loading dock.

Marisa Mateja:

That was trafficked. And I know most people are probably thinking what in the world, right? But we had 6, 000 square feet. We were a big, big location once you got inside, and things. It worked, but. And the parking was fantastic. We didn't have to compete with other businesses. Yeah. So those things were really important, but location didn't matter because of the area that we're in one. So if you're moving your clinic, especially if you are well known in a small community, I don't think location is going to be a huge deal. It

Dr. Michael Perusich:

doesn't because the funny thing about a small town, not only. Do you build relationships quicker? I think in a small town, but everybody knows where the Smith farm is out on cherry tree lane, right? Everybody knows where everybody's at in a small town. What's the size of our town? What was it? 19, 20, 000, I think inside the city limits. So those smaller towns, everybody knows where everybody lives. Everybody knows where everybody works. They know where all the businesses are. It's easy to find you, even if you are on the backside of a industrial shopping center, like we were, and our first clinic wasn't visible either. It was on the back side of an office building. We had was some street signage.

Marisa Mateja:

So I think that leads right into, it's more important, the marketing that you're doing. Then it is maybe location in a smaller community.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

So we happen to be part owner in a clinic in a big city, and we positioned that clinic in a very highly visible area that has huge traffic, big anchors. In fact, one of the biggest anchors in the city. And so we're drawing a ton of traffic, but we also have to step up our marketing. So we're marketing the neighborhoods and things because it's so much harder to build those relationships. You have to get yourself noticed in a bigger town or in a smaller town. They've already noticed you, you just have to build relationships so they know to come to you. So it's two totally different things.

Marisa Mateja:

It is, and it really depends on where you're at. So we think about the marketing side of everything. What does that look like? We could be doing social media ads and those kinds of things. Those are going to push in cold leads. And if you can do a good target market, those might be great. The problem with cold leads are when they're coming to you, are they coming to you for the right reason? Are you running some sort of promotion and that promotion is just pushing in cold leads as bodies through your practice. And we've seen that happen. And the problem with that is the conversion is so much harder than if they were a warm or a hot lead coming to you, because. Those are people who know you trust you and have been referred to you potentially by someone else who already has those things in you. So trust those kinds of things. So I think it's important to know the difference between cold and warm. And one of the. Most important things that I can say, especially all you young docs out there that are just coming out of school

Dr. Michael Perusich:

like me.

Marisa Mateja:

Yes if you are not, and I'm gonna say this again, if you are not getting out in your community, you're missing all your warm leads. You're missing a ton of opportunity. If you are sitting in your practice waiting for people to show up to you that's not gonna happen.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

No,

Marisa Mateja:

We've got to get out in the community. You have to be able to Communicate about what your practice looks like so that may mean talks that may mean Getting in front of corporations and giving them some healthy living Opportunities at health fairs or different things like that,

Dr. Michael Perusich:

chamber events. Yep.

Marisa Mateja:

Yeah

Dr. Michael Perusich:

All of those things

Marisa Mateja:

matter

Dr. Michael Perusich:

going to all the civic clubs, whether it's Kiwanis or optimists or whoever and meeting people, you've got to get yourself out. So just because you have the degree, and I know sometimes they say this in school, when you graduate, now that you've got your degree, go hang your shingle and everybody will flock to your door. There's a step missing in there. And the step is. You got to get out and get yourself known so you can have a great practice in a big town. You can have a great practice in a small town. The aspect of marketing and getting people to your door is totally different. So in those big cities, you're going to have to be prepared to spend some time with boots on the ground and some money canvassing the neighborhoods in your area. So that you can bring patients in,

Marisa Mateja:

And another great tool out there are lead management systems are called CRMs. Customer relationship management systems are fantastic. Those were not around when we were building your first practice, right? So these are great. That can be utilized for managing the flow of people through your practice and leads and those kinds of things. That's the follow up that you do with people to make sure you stay in front of them. And if you've ever heard me talk about marketing, it's all about staying in front of people, right? So we don't want to market once. That's not going to get us very far. It's that repeat stuff that they hear, see, and read from you or whatever that helps to build that credibility and those kinds of things. So a lead management system is pretty important. Some of our practice management softwares have some of those kinds of things built in. So when you're reviewing software, and we haven't talked about how important software is, but it's really important to your practice. See if they have some of that built into it. The more that you can house under one thing, the better. It's so confusing and difficult if you have too many platforms going in your practice, then you're in and out of too many different things. You're having to, jump back and forth and look at things. It makes it really difficult. So look, yeah, look at. Things that maybe have some of that built in. That's a great option. And of course, software, we need to make sure that it matches the practice. So it goes back to our marketing, our demographics, all those things that we plan for in opening a practice. Also, It needs to be built into the software that we use. So that means are you a cash only practice? Are you taking insurance? Does your software help you build insurance easier and connect to third party payers and different things easier? So looking at all those things including scheduling and note taking and those kind of things are really important.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. And we get asked all the time, what's the best software out there? I wish there was an answer to that because there are several really good ones out there. There are several really not so good ones out there. I'm not going to mention names, but it's impossible to recommend a specific software because Marisa said, it has to match. Your practice, it has to match your needs. So look at them all, look at every single one of them. Talk to other doctors. What are they like and dislike about the software they have in their practice, go to your state conventions. If you can make it go to Parker and go to the Florida national convention, because that's where all the vendors are in one place at one time. So go talk to them. Look at them, demo the software, see what you think fits you best.

Marisa Mateja:

The last time we were down there, I did that. I demoed a ton of the different software companies and I just walked around and I played around with their software and looked at it and, found some really great things out there.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah, there are some great things. And I was going to say, make sure you find out what their training is. And what kind of service they offer post purchase, because some of them don't have much service. Some of them are only video based and you can't actually talk to a person. So find out if you've got somebody that will help you learn your system and train you either face to face or a live person.

Yes.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

So we need to take another quick break. We will be right back. We're talking about starting a practice or moving your practice and the tips and tricks for each of those. All right, we'll be right back.

Kats Consultants:

Kats Chiropractic Consultants, your partner in chiropractic success. We are dedicated with one on one guidance to bring you all your practice management needs. Let's supercharge your practice. Give us a call today.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

All right, everybody. Welcome back to the KC Chiro Pulse podcast brought to you by Kats Consultants in Chiro Health USA. Marisa, we're talking about moving to practice or starting a practice. And again, we've done both many times. In fact, we just were involved in opening a brand new clinic in a big city. We we've done a lot of this kind of stuff. You're going to move a practice, I wanted to bring this up. If you're going to move a practice, then you got to make sure that you project manage it as best you can. So what do I mean by project management? There's a lot of little details. So here's an example. If you're going to move an X ray machine. You need to plan for that several months in advance because you're probably and I highly recommend hiring somebody to come in and do it for you. Because if you mess up that tube, you're buying a brand new system. You've got to make sure if you're moving into a new clinic that the walls get lead lined. to code and that they're tested prior to putting in your system. Cause once your system's installed, if you have an issue with your lead lining, you may have to dismantle your system to fix it and you don't want to go to that expense. So you've got to think about all these things. How are you going to move? Do you have movers set up? Are you going to do it yourself? How long is it going to take? What's the track of once we get everything over there, how do we get it put away and organized so we can get the clinic back open and when when we to the big clinic. I think I was there until almost midnight putting things together and getting things put away so we could open the next morning. And it wasn't cause we'd misplanned. It's just, there's a lot to do and it's always a lot more than you think it's going to be.

Marisa Mateja:

It is. And. Making a list of things and really trying to plan out ahead of time is really important to like, what do you need, down to paperclips, you guys, what are the things that you need to function? Do you need a scanner? Do you need a printer? Do you need, what are those things that are going to make your shredder? What are those things that are going to make your life easy? So knowing what those items are huge. And so really thinking through day to day. Office function, what is it that you need? Do you have enough storage? Are you going to need any storage cabinets? Where are you going to put your toilet paper and your paper towels and your extras, little things like that are really important to really think through as well.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Those kinds of things are huge. If this is your first clinic or it's the first time you're moving, talk to somebody who's done it and have them help you. Guide you just a little bit. This is one of the things that we help doctors with all the time at Kats consultants we could be a resource for you in that regard And if you haven't done so go to our website Kats consultants com Marisa, tell them about all the resources we have

Marisa Mateja:

Oh my goodness. We've got free Downloads, we've got free classes. We've got Just a ton of different things. Obviously lots of other podcasts that you can watch. And we also do consultations. So we're happy to visit with you and see where you're at and practice and what your needs may be. We do a ton of personalized coaching, so that's super important. We are not a sponsor. System based coaching. We are true business consultants. So when we say that, that means that we're working with you and the practice that you're trying to build. We're not trying to force a system or a type of practice onto you.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yep. It's your goals, your vision. We just help you make it come to reality in a profitable way. All right. Anything else to add? No, I think that's it today. Hey everybody. Thanks for checking us out here at the KC Chiro Pulse podcast. Be sure to subscribe. We appreciate you guys. Our podcast is growing like crazy. And it's because of you, the listeners out there. So we appreciate all of you and on behalf of Kats, consultants and Chiro health USA, we'll see you next time.

Yeah.