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#160: 5 Things You Must Know Before Starting Your Own Chiropractic Office - Business Plan

Chiropractic Mindset Recap

This week we are continuing our talk about the 5 Things you Must Know Before Starting your first practice. Last week we started with a talk about mindset and how greatly that will affect your ability to move through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and opening and growing your own practice. Remember, mindset plays a significant role in determining achievement and success. When you are transitioning from student to business owner, you need to be:

Resilient-keep getting back up when things don’t go your way or grow as fast as you’d have hoped
Adaptable-try new ways of marketing, new systems, as you find what really works for you and your patients
Resourceful-use what you have.

Improving your mindset is everything, so take some time to evaluate where you’re at with it, and make small, sustainable changes to it over time. Creating a better mindset is a process, not an event. It’s self growth over time!

Chiropractic Mindset Shift

Earlier this week I continued the conversation about mindset. The first step to making changes is recognizing your own mindset weakness and creating skills to overcome them. One of my areas of weakness when we were starting was confidence. Not so much on the clinical side, but on the selling and communication side. Luckily that’s one of Rich’s strengths so I was able to model him, work with him on how I communicated with patients and over time develop the skills needed to be better at communicating care, treatment plans, and goals with patients. The 3 steps that really helped me once I recognized mindset challenge, were to find someone to mentor me that had a strength I didn’t have, prepare myself for future interactions, and practice, practiec, practice to breakthrough those walls! Let’s get to Thing #2 You Must Know Before Starting a Business - A Business Plan!

Chiropractic Business Plan

Every chiropractic business should start with a chiropractic business plan. It’s what’s going to bring all of your chiropractic practice ideas, dreams, and plans into focus. The business plan will give your business direction, define the overall objectives of your practice, map out the strategies you have to achieve your goals and help you to manage possible bumps in the road. Preparing a business plan will help you work out the practice goals you want to achieve, and the strategies to achieving them.

Also, potential investors and supporters want to see the true potential of your business idea clearly laid out in hard facts and numbers. If it’s done well then you can use it to secure the loan you’ll need to start or buy a practice. A business plan is the best, and generally, the only acceptable way to provide this information.

Business Plan & Useful Guide

If you don’t need a loan then you’ll still use the business plan as a guide for how you’ll get from where you currently are, to becoming a successful Chiropractor paying all of your bills and taking home the money you need to support your family and lifestyle. Once you've put your business plan together, it becomes your action plan. You are creating a document that not only outlines where you are and where you want to be but also gives you the directions you need to get there.

When we started our first practice, we didn’t have to secure a loan, but we had a business plan. We used our plan to make sure we stayed on task and hit our goals in the process of succeeding in practice.

Don't be Lazy!

Some of you might be putting off writing a business plan because:

It’s time Consuming
You’re unsure of where to start
You don’t think you need one

This isn’t the time to be lazy! You have to start working through these things and making sure you have a viable concept, a solid plan, and the right amount of finances to stay afloat until you succeed. The numbers need to be real and well supported or you won’t get the financing or support you need.

What's in a Chiropractic Business Plan

I’m going to briefly touch on most of the sections of a business plan now. This should get you started in figuring some of these details out. A business plan should be structured and professional. We recommend using a template of some sort.

Summary - to capture the interest of the reader so they will want to find out more about your company. This section is first and, in some ways, the most important. This section should emphasize key parts of your plan and business.
About the Doctor
Company Description, including legal name, type of entity, mission, vision, product and service description, technical environment, and conditions you’ll treat.
Industry Analysis and Trends - comprehensive insight into industry GLOBAL and NATIONAL conditions and trends that can affect a practice’s success and growth
Market Analysis - narrative paragraph that paints a picture of the local market opportunity.
Competitive Analysis - who the current players are in the industry and how you will compete with them. It gives you the opportunity to plan how you will enter the market and differentiate yourself from the current players.
Strategic Position & Risk Assessment Company Strengths - your business strategy
Marketing Plan and Strategy - addresses how you will reach the target market with your message.
Operations - strategy for the day-to-day implementation of the business model.
Development Milestones and Growth Strategy - what steps need to occur for you to launch and grow your business? The growth strategy outlines methods that will take the business from opening through each stage of development. Be sure to include long-term company goals.
Start-Up Summary - summarize the amount of start-up capital needed and what the money will be used for.
Appendix -

Financials are a must!
Resumes of Key People involved
Copies of Licenses
Estimates for any startup costs
Market Research Results
Quotes or estimates
Supplier information
Letters of Intent from prospective patients
Key Contracts
Letters of Endorsements
Copies of Leases
Floor Plans
Sample logo, advertising, brochures
Legal Documents relevant to the business
Photos and designs of products or location
Census/Demographic data
Industry Reports

Chiropractic Business Plan Template

There are places on the internet to download sample plans and some to purchase. However, we have one in The Foundation that you can download and fill out. We’ll also help you get it filled out in the private facebook group associated with your membership in the Foundation. Membership in the foundation is a low monthly fee, like netflix and there are over 50 other resources in there to help you through the process of getting open. You can cancel your membership anytime! If you are 6 months or less from opening on your own and you have more questions about all of this, then the foundation is absolutely right for you! Visit JoinTheFoundation.com to learn more!

The 5 Things You Must Know Before Starting Your Practice eBook!

Thanks for following along with us this week. This was week #2 of our 5 week series, the 5 things you must know before starting a practice. Next week we’ll discuss thing #3. If you haven’t downloaded the ebook yet, go to LifestylePracticeBuilders.com/ebook, put in your information, and we’ll send the book to you, and you’ll know all 5. You’ll also receive some helpful emails that will give you some more tips and action steps as you work towards opening your first practice.