18 responses so far ↓

• 1 Michael Max // May 6, 2008 at 10:39 am

  What stops me from improving my marketing? Usually the very same thing that stops me from doing anything else as well. Generally it boils down to:
  1- not knowing where to start
  2- fear of doing the wrong things

• 2 Rudek L. Perez // May 6, 2008 at 11:18 am

  That I am aware of:
  1-Money
  2-Ideas
  3-Courage
  ….to market.

  Rudek L. Perez, DOM
  http://www.healingbetterinc.com

• 3 Kenton Sefcik // May 6, 2008 at 11:34 am

  I generally don’t have enough time in the day to see patients, work on my accounting and market myself more than I already do.

• 4 Burton Kent // May 6, 2008 at 12:00 pm

  This was sent to me - I’m posting it anonymously:

  What stops me most is discouragement. I have tried a multitude of marketing ideas and have had almost no response. Other than one response to flyers given to teachers at local schools, my patients are people I know who come in as a last resort. This is my first year in practice. I have stayed in touch with classmates who live in different parts of the state and they are experiencing the same thing.

  I often wondered why our teachers gave up days they could be making real money in their own clinics for the paltry sums paid for teaching. Now I know, after speaking to them about it, most are still struggling after years in practice. I think schools should make students try to get 5 patients on their own before graduation, just to give us a taste of what’s ahead. We hear the statistics, but don’t make the connection without the experience.

  (Good point about having to get five patients before graduation.)

• 5 Kim Knight // May 6, 2008 at 12:13 pm

  I agree with the anonymous poster. I am not really a “stoppable” person, and generally folks think of me as a “force of nature” that can move through any obstacles. Its a nice complement, but I do get stopped and even forces of nature run up against the other elements.

  I get discouraged easily. This discouragement then busts into my confidence and its downhill from there. One minute I am excited about the growth of my new practice, and am healing everyone and then some thing happens to discourage me and next thing I know I am a horrible acupuncturist who has nothing to offer. Whoa, a really bad place to be in for ANY amount of time!

  I’ve recently set aside time each week (soon to be each day I am hoping) to sit and meditate and give positive thoughts to my confidence and remind myself of what I have to offer.

  Thanks for your support and help. I’ve really found your books and blog to be really ENCOURAGING, and am glad I have them as resources!

• 6 Burton Kent // May 6, 2008 at 12:28 pm

  Kim,

  I don’t really address work/life balance or confidence issues, but Kevin Doherty does. You may want to check out his book Build Your Dream Practice. The chapter you’ll want to read is “You Will Love Your Work If You Don’t Take It Personally.”

  Highly recommended.

• 7 Melissa // May 6, 2008 at 12:32 pm

  Time. Time is my most limiting factor. I have the will. I often know what I need to do. Since I can’t make more hours in a day, I think I need better time management skills.

• 8 Eric // May 6, 2008 at 1:44 pm

  Some people might not like this comment, but here goes. Maybe schools are fantastic now and recent grads are fully trained clinicians. But when I went to school the clinical training was inadequate. Burton Kent’s material is great, but it is not his job to make you excellent clinicians. So in addition to studying marketing and “success” stuff, you must hone your clinical skills. Other wise you might never be confident in your technique, and in the back of your mind you might feel you are inadequate to really help people and hence not market yourself. This is why apprenticing with an experienced acupuncturist is sooooo important. You develop your skills on someone else’s dime. Then when it is time to start your own clinic, you are already a great practitioner and have no qualms with marketing because it is about helping fellow people in pain rather than building your self-esteem up.

• 9 Donna Greenberg // May 6, 2008 at 4:50 pm

  I think I am sometimes afraid of having a larger practice because I fear not being successful with each patient. Usually, I am able to help at least 75% of the people who come to me. But I sometimes take it personally when a patient leaves after a few sessions, without getting the results he/she wanted. When I am giving talks and people ask if I can help such-and-such a problem, there is sometimes a little voice in my head saying, “Nah….I don’t think I can help with that.” Then when I do treat someone successfully with that problem, I am pleasantly surprised. My confidence increases, but can be shot down again, similar to someone else who posted here earlier.

  But it is a cycle….when I am very busy, my confidence soars, and so do my results. When things slow down, so does my confidence, and then it becomes harder to market my practice.

• 10 Dan // May 6, 2008 at 4:56 pm

  Initially, I think it was responsibilty. As I thought about the huge resposibility of owning a practice and trying to acheive a practice that can support my family I felt fear. I learned fear is one of emotions that stops me from progressing in any aspect of my life including owning a acupuncture clinic. I am trying recognize my emotions and how they play a role in my life and learn to overcome fear by expressing gratitude for my patients, associates, and relationships I have in the community. I may stop and say a prayer or meditate to help get through this fear to overcome challenges.

• 11 Jon // May 6, 2008 at 7:15 pm

  I think that for me, I struggle with wanting to market myself, and yet maintain my sense of humility at the same time. It’s important to me that I advertise the skills and services that I have and how people can benefit from it - but still remain ever-so-humble about the medicine that I practice. I’ve always felt that once you feel you’re bigger than the medicine you practice, your no longer helping anyone - you’re only feeding your ego.
  For me, it’s all about wording things the right way - which is something that I have to constantly work on daily.

• 12 Therese // May 6, 2008 at 8:53 pm

  It’s not that any one thing stops me - it’s the multitude of choices that has this staccato effect on my actions. Oh - my website must be perfect, but all these choices (including the name!). But - wait, what about my brochure? Should I do a general one, or something on a sub-specialty? No, I’ll work on writing articles for local papers, but which one to hone in on? Aaaah! Ok, I’ll do this mailing for the facial acupuncture . No, I’ll get names of doctors! No, the infertility clinics. How about some Pain management / sports centers. Wait, I never finished my website …. the brochure …. the docs .. the massage therapists ….

  Where to put the focus? And underneath, I feel like this panicky chipmunk running around in every direction!

• 13 J // May 8, 2008 at 11:00 am

  After reading the other entries I can honestly say I have felt just about all of those feelings as well. I think the thing that stops me most is time. I am 3/4 of the way through my first year in practice and have been very lucky and successful. I live in a city where the community is very close and supportive. However, I never seem to have enough time to reach out to other practitioners such as doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, etc…or to complete all of my advertising projects. I am learning that my to-do list will never be completed. I must get used to that feeling.

• 14 Karoline // May 8, 2008 at 11:53 am

  Initially, as many people said, it was about the confidence, but I took a ridiculous amount of CEUs from people who I knew had good clinical results and that left me feeling a lot more sure of myself.

  Now though, it’s mostly about the words. How to phrase things without sounding pushy or sales-y. How to give hope without false promises. I’m getting better with that though.

• 15 Kelly McConville // May 8, 2008 at 5:59 pm

  I can relate to these comments, as I think all practitioners can. Burton is right on when he says to market to your existing patients. They are more than happy to refer you because it re-affirms that they’ve made the right decision to come to you.

  I may be speculating here, but I think that women chooses their GYN from referrals, not from an advertisement in the paper.

  Kelly

• 16 Sidney // May 8, 2008 at 10:13 pm

  Like Therese said, too many hats to wear is a problem. My first year in practice, (I started in Oct 06) my spouse was diagnosed with cancer, so my first year in business was also spent as a primary caregiver. OMG. And now, post-cancer, there is The Practice, self-care, CEU’s, networking, recordkeeping, two other part-time jobs AND dishes and vacuuming. Eh? But I know that I will stick with this, and I know that I will develop a presence in the community, and sooner or later, The System will evolve into a successful one. –Sid
  PS I am a massage therapist, not a L.Ac, but the L.Ac in my office works full time and built her practice by word of mouth.

• 17 CR // May 8, 2008 at 10:59 pm

  SUCCESS >>FEAR OF A SUCCESS that is gained by submitting to the medical field’s idea of treating people with a herd mentality.
  ALSO, Finding a balance between the traditional concept of medically treating people which is DIRECTLY OPPOSED to the INTUITIVE concept of treating people based on GOD’S VOICE, instinct, intintion, and other intangible criterion… HOW DO YOU TREAT ACCORDING TO YOUR HEART which you know will produce excellent results, however you can’t always back this medically…

• 18 Steven // May 16, 2008 at 10:52 am

  The 80/20 rule applies to the acupuncture business as well. 80% of the business goes to 20% of the acupuncturists. Some of you guys posting here are too busy to be marketing your services while others aren’t busy enough but is experiencing paralysis by analysis and therefore would rather do nothing than to blow money on advertising or marketing that doesn’t work.

  I don’t claim to have all the answers but I do know that marketing is always going to be an inexact science. Even big companies like Microsoft or Wal-mart doesn’t know EXACTLY what kind of return they’re getting from the various types of marketing they do.

  We are very fortunate that after 23 years in business we have excellent word of mouth and a huge customer base that helps to dramatically reduces the costs of acquiring new customers.

  The good thing is that acupuncture and holistic medicine is much, much more widely accepted now compare to 20 years ago when most people didn’t even know what the word ‘organic’ means.

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