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Someone emailed me:
“People who are in the holistic health business should be as aggressive as pharmaceutical companies when it comes to marketing their services.”
They aren’t kidding. The most profitable businesses in [...]

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You’ve heard of acufinder, and they cost something like $179 a year or $219 for two years (if I remember correctly. They may be well worth it, because each new patient is worth at least $150 (probably closer to twice that). So just one new patient pays for the ad. Every patient [...]

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Kevin Doherty and Lonny Jarrett are giving a free teleseminar on Chinese Medicine and the Evolution of Consciousness.
What is the largest possible context for the practice of Chinese medicine in the 21st century? How will Chinese medicine help humanity to face the challenges that confront us today? Chinese medicine has remained relevant for [...]

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In the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, there’s a story about an experiment. Subjects were giving songs to tap out by hand, such as “Happy Birthday” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” It’s somewhat like playing a piano when the piano doesn’t make noise.
The subjects thought the guessers would get [...]

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(I’ve been doing password protected posts on Fridays, but today I’m going to do something different. I’ll password protect this next week to keep this exclusive for my readers.)
I’ve been reading Bob Burg’s “Endless Referrals.” Most of it is about getting people to do you a favor by referring. This isn’t my [...]

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You can spend hundreds of dollars having a nice logo created for you, but it won’t help your marketing much. A logo is mainly for mass market brands that can afford to “get their name out there” over and over again.
That doesn’t sound like you or me, does it?
I’ve also seen really [...]

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Dan Clements over at AlternativeHealthPractice.com writes great material on practice building for acupuncturists and other alternative medical practitioners. It’s so good it’s actually very annoying - how am I supposed to pick what to tell you about to help promote your practice? So I’ve been putting off mentioning AlternativeHealthPractice.com until now.
Finally figured out [...]

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I’m in talks with the Chicago Department of Public Health, as well as a few other agencies about setting up community acupuncture clinics. (The clinics will not be offered through the CDPH itself, but with affiliated agencies.) These will be mobile clinics, with different locations during the week.
I’m looking for an [...]

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I’ve done a lot of research looking up acupuncture studies. If you want to do the same, I suggest taking a memory stick to a teaching hospital and visiting their library. You’ll be able to get articles galore. Also Google Scholar is awesome but incomplete unless used in the library. Usually [...]

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Some people are worried about the recession. The established definition of a recession is a contraction in the GDP (gross domestic product) for at least 6 months. Basically, it means less money is exchanging hands - people change their spending habits. They still spend, but not as often. This means less value [...]

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The Community Acupuncture Network (CAN) model is a VERY interesting business model for acupuncture clinics. It is based on a group treatment room. Usually there are a bunch of reclining chairs in a single room. The payment is sliding scale, so patients pay as much as they’re able – usually $15 to [...]

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On Tuesday I wrote about the Sanborn Maxim. It states that:
“Those who are willing to pay the least will demand the most.”
Some of the many

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To all my friends and family,
During this sad time for China, my heart goes out to those that have been affected by this tragedy. If you are interested in helping in any sort of way, a local Dr. has setup a local Colorado-based organization that is involved in the effort to ship much needed medical [...]

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There was a lot of discussion when I first wrote about offering a free first visit as a marketing tactic to get new acupuncture patients. Many readers gave good feedback.
I do agree that if you’re not careful, a free first visit can cheapen the perceived value of your services. Frankly, people who don’t [...]

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I asked “What Stops You?” from marketing your acupuncture and oriental medicine clinic, and have been following up on the initial comments. Here are the previous articles in the series that we’re finishing today:

What Stops You? (with 17 comments)
What Stops You? Part 2 (on confidence)
Time Management (What Stops You? part 3)

Two hangups seem to [...]

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