business planning

The best time to learn about acupuncture business is NOW

February 8, 2019 by Eric Grey Leave a Comment

When I took over the acupuncture business and practice management courses at NUNM, it was two seminars situated near the end of the 4-5 year curriculum. The timing makes some sense, right? Students are primed to begin thinking about their careers, and have more information about the profession, so they can take better advantage of that teaching and experience in the courses.

When I was given an opportunity to completely reconfigure that whole part of the acupuncture curriculum, I jumped at the chance.

I decided to turn two courses into four, and made them into a weekly class format instead of seminar style, with the first course starting in the Fall of the first year. As this curriculum became the norm, I’d often be one of the first teachers that students were exposed to at the school (for better and for worse, no doubt)!

I made these changes for several reasons.

It’s a lot to learn in just two short terms, and I feared people weren’t really absorbing much. Students’ heads are swimming with information, and many of them are a bit (!) burned out.
Breaking up the material a bit more allowed me to focus on particular aspects of running an acupuncture practice during each term. This made for more focused teaching and learning in a program that’s already filled with so much diversity and task switching.
Most importantly, perhaps, I believe that students should start contemplating their position in the profession, the career they are entering and what they’d like to do upon graduation as soon as possible.

In fact, I’d love if people were able to take the first course in the series BEFORE they begin contemplating acupuncture as a profession.

The first course available to the public now, so if you’re in this boat or are in the first couple of years of your acupuncture education – go read the details and jump on board if it suits your fancy.

Every year, at the beginning of the business course, students complain that they feel they’re not ready for this, that they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY WANT TO DO WHEN THEY GROW UP, and that they feel the time could be better spent on theory or some other aspect of their education. By the end of the course, few are trying to make the same claims.

What can you learn about acupuncture business so early in your education, or even before you start school?

Lots. You can get to know the profession systematically, for one. How can you even start to think about your career, and determine whether it’s for you, without having an idea of what it’s all about, and what your options are? The vast majority of my students come to acupuncture education with almost NO knowledge of the profession.

When I taught the students only at the end of their education, you might be surprised (and saddened) at how many suddenly realized that the profession wasn’t for them, even if they loved the theories and idea of the medicine. Wouldn’t it have been better for them to know before they spent all that money and time? Maybe not for the schools, yeah, but for those students?

Definitely better to know early on.

Beyond orientation in the realities of acupuncture business and practice, there’s a lot more to teach to brand new students!

In the first course, we dig into the meaning of what it is to be an acupuncture professional. Is there a uniform? What do you “have to believe?” How does licensure work, anyway? Are there unique ethics for Chinese medicine practitioners? How can you be yourself and still be a respectful member of such an old and venerated tradition?

These things are important, and getting young acupuncture professionals to consider them makes for a better integration into the profession.

We also get into productivity and organization.

I think that one of the most important lessons we, as a profession, have to learn is how important it is to stay organized and to use our time wisely. Talking about work-life balance has NO meaning if you’re hopelessly disorganized and don’t show up for your appointments on time.

So many students arrive in medical school with high school or college organizational skills, and those tend to shatter into a million pieces in a rigorous program. Further, school skills are helpful in the real world, but you need to be prepared for the type and volume of information that can come at you during a busy clinical practice.

I like to teach task and project management using the Getting Things Done philosophy, but also try to make room for all kinds of productivity methodology. I also find it increasingly important to define what productivity is, and the limitations on a hyper-focus on perfection in this realm. It’s a big topic, and we barely touch on it, but most find it to be valuable.

Finally, I actually get them to start visioning their future acupuncture practice.

I even ask them (horror of horrors) to start considering what patient populations they might like to serve. It’s fascinating to see how much these ideas evolve over the four+ years of schooling, and the students get ample opportunity to revise their concepts year after year. This is another benefit of a multi-course approach, over a long period of time. They grow, they learn, and they apply that to the frameworks they built in the first year. It’s one of my favorite parts of teaching these courses.

Again, students can have a lot of resistance to defining who they want to treat when they don’t even know what treatment means. I feel for them, but again, find that encountering and frequently reviewing ideas about professional future serve as a powerful antidote to the pressure and anxiety that can build as graduation looms closer.

As I transition to more online, world-wide teaching of acupuncturists, I want to replicate the best of this approach

With the first three of the four courses already ready for registration, I’m now turning towards figuring out who these courses will resonate with most. It’s true that most people searching for acupuncture business training are practitioners in their first few years of practice, or folks who have run up against the limitations of their own knowledge as they grow their clinics. Anyone who fits those descriptions could definitely benefit from these teachings, and I’m looking forward to refining these courses to suit people a little farther along the path.

But, in the end, my primary passion will always be teaching acupuncture students. I am particularly seeking those who go to acupuncture schools that don’t have much in the way of practical business training. It confuses me how little attention most schools pay to this important part of the curriculum, but at least now there’s a readily available choice.

When did you start studying acupuncture business?

I’m interested to hear others’ experiences of learning this part of acupuncture professional life. Did you get training every step of the way, or only near the end? Do you feel you were adequately prepared for what it takes to be successful as an acupuncturist? Add your comments below!

Growing a redwood, Part 1 : Intro to 5 steps to lasting acupuncture practice marketing success

August 16, 2016 by Eric Grey

Several months ago, I did a survey of readers concerning their knowledge, experience and attitudes around running acupuncture practices

It was a slightly different version of a survey I did years before that. In both instances, there were two types of concerns that rose to the top of almost everybody’s responses. First, most people cite their main anxiety as getting enough patients to sustain themselves financially. Fair enough – patients are the lifeblood of the clinic and in most cases, they don’t just appear when we want them. And, to be fair, acupuncture practice marketing can be mystifying and frustrating at times.

The second highest rated difficulty is balancing the various factors that go into making up the life of a contemporary Chinese medicine practitioner

Work and life. Marketing and learning medicine. Doing book work and spending time with patients. Working on business and working on the backyard. I have struggled with this for all of my life – including before I was an acupuncturist. But, being a medical practitioner and running a business will keep you busy – finding time for a life can be difficult indeed. So, I understand (and constantly geek out on) this area of research and development.

I’ve found that there is one basic answer to both of these questions

In the years I have been running an acupuncture clinic, teaching business & practice management to students, and going all over the country to talk about clinic management with diverse folks, I have found that one thing stands out as an answer to BOTH of the top concerns of my survey respondents. What’s funny is the answer is right in front of you as an acupuncture practitioner.

We teach our patients that healing doesn’t always happen with one treatment, or even several. There is no “magic point” or “quick and easy cure for psoriasis.” There can be profound shifting in just a few days of herbs or a single treatment, but for most conditions, the approach needs to be intricate, careful, and at a natural speed. It’s like growing a redwood, not like growing a dandelion.

By trying to short-circuit the healing process through quick fix methods, we often end up with worse side effects than the original disease had symptoms! The same is absolutely true of business. By using some of the reasoning we use when we treat patients, we can make great progress with lasting energy.

In particular, we should consider the importance of the principle of holism

Holism, one of the foundational principles of East Asian medicine (as well as many other medical systems) asks us to take seriously the idea that the whole of a complex system is MORE THAN the sum of its parts and, even more importantly, that the interdependence of the parts is such that they really cannot exist outside of the group in which they are embedded. Just like we look at all systems of the body when doing a pattern differentiation, we must look at all the systems of our business if we want to get our marketing and finances into the proper healthy place.

In other words, remember that your practice is a complex system and that all its parts must be attended to for the system to thrive

When the system of our acupuncture business thrives – patients come in the numbers you need, when you need them. When the system of our acupuncture business thrives – our lives are in balance, joyful, complete.

Considering my research and experience, five main principles stand out as demonstrating the best way to approach this kind of lasting acupuncture practice success holistically. I’ve used (and am still using) these very principles in the growth of my clinic. In fact, it was a recent period of difficulty at Watershed Wellness that helped me to understand and articulate these principles so I can share them with you.

The five holistic steps to lasting acupuncture practice marketing success, to be outlined in this series of blog posts are:

Engage in whole life business planning
Know the professional landscape you’re entering
Have deep knowledge of and respect for self
Birth a solid and intertwined pair of foundational business plan concepts – vision and mission
Give it all a beating heart by diving into the ethics and values that guide your practice and your medicine

On seeing a list like this, some might scoff. It seems too complex, maybe a bit too “soft” or “woo woo.” It would be easy to dismiss the list as having nothing to do with modern marketing, or the intensity of running a practice. However, I want to show you that these topics, and the questions they naturally bring about, will allow you to understand how to construct a marketing strategy and how to execute it in a way that gets you the right patients, at the right time, in the right way – and to do it consistently over a long period of time.

In this article, we’ll dig into the first principle – the importance of engaging regularly with what I’m calling “whole life business planning.” In future posts, we’ll unpack the rest.

I contend that too many people, pushed by the forces of business, practice management and busy personal lives, find themselves preaching to patients about balance while burning their own candle at both ends.

Even worse, they’re sacrificing their vital qi and not even finding that much success in attracting and keeping the patients they need to be financially stable.

I want to contribute to changing that situation

I want to articulate, teach and encourage a way of looking at contemporary Chinese medicine practice as something that takes our paying attention to our wholeness, our fullness, and giving each aspect an important place in our process.

We cannot make a radical separation between who we are and how we practice or run our business. We cannot see 75 patients a week and take no time for self care. We cannot abandon our study of business and marketing to focus “only on the medicine,” nor can we forget that Chinese medicine is a medicine of lifelong study. In all things Chinese medicine business, we must proceed holistically. This includes in writing the plan for our business.

I developed the idea of Whole Life Business Planning during the second major planning retreat I had for my own business.

We had gone through a local business organization to gain some education on how to write a business plan, and had something we felt proud of. It was written in the traditional way – you can find plenty of articles that tell you about how a regular, bank-directed business plan is written. It’s a boring process, but necessary if you’re seeking traditional funding – and honestly – there aren’t many proposed alternatives to this model.

What I found is that the traditional business plan was far too focused on financial projections and simple market analysis more helpful for guiding advertising purchasing.

After this kind of business plan is written, it’s hard to know what to do with it, and frequently the business goes quickly out of the bounds of the plan and it is forgotten. What a waste of the creative energy that goes into business planning!

So I set about to find a better way

A whole life business plan focuses on articulating a multi-dimensional, holistic framework to help you make decisions about your practice in real-time, in real situations. It is not just a method or a concept, but is actually a process that anyone can implement for any kind of business. When engaged with fully, and frequently revisited, the Whole Life Business Plan becomes the dashboard you need to get your acupuncture practice marketing from overwhelming to overachieving.

The process involves looking into all of the following areas in detail, looking into past, present and future, personal and professional, financial and spiritual, and everything in between:

▪ The Dream
▪ The Executive System
▪ Vision, Mission & Values
▪ Practice Basics & Questions We’re Not Answering Yet
▪ The Team
▪ Startup or Redevelopment description & expenses (OPTIONAL)
▪ The Location & Facilities
▪ The Operations System
▪ Marketing Foundations & Strategy
▪ Marketing Tactics and 12 Month Plan
▪ The Financial System & Relevant Projections
▪ Narrative of places of creation, interconnection and hierarchy
▪ Narrative telling of the next 3 years and conclusion

A Whole Life Business plan is for YOU.

It is a map of your future, a complex and real embrace of the fullness that lies at the heart of your desire to build the acupuncture practice of your dreams. By sinking into this fullness, you build your acupuncture practice marketing (and every other aspect of your business) on a foundation that is true. This allows you to weather hardships, find deeper balance, and emerge into success that lasts. As you might be able to guess, this isn’t an “easy” process. It is one that allows you to build a business that resonates with the principles that you communicate in your treatment room.

I’ll be talking more about this concept in upcoming posts – if you haven’t already, sign up for the newsletter.

And depending on when you’re reading this post, one of my courses guiding you along this path to becoming a thriving acupuncturists just might be available – click this link to find out.

How vision fits into running a successful acupuncture practice

July 11, 2016 by Eric Grey Leave a Comment

I have been discussing my perspective on business vision, especially as it relates to solo or small acupuncture practices. I believe that vision is not extraneous, but fundamental, and that the failure to fully embrace a robust visioning process (and revisiting it regularly) is behind a lot of lackluster, stressful and failing acupuncture practices.

Vision, as I’ve described in three previous articles, is how the executive, the fire, the Heart comes in. It’s how we stay passionately attached to the work that we do, even when patients are few (or difficult), paperwork is mighty, and the world is just TOO MUCH. It’s a way for us to stay oriented towards the greatest purpose we can see for our clinics and other businesses.

Vision is helpful not only as an inspiration point and feel-good retreat product, but as a regular participant in your day-to-day clinic operations.

It’s not an extra – it’s the center! But, I’d like to describe in a little more detail what I mean by this. How can a statement of vision be an integral part of not just business planning, but also business operations? How can a vision come off the conference room wall and into the day-to-day flow? And why would that matter?

Vision in thinking about products & services in an acupuncture clinic

One of the most obvious decisions you need to make when starting up a Chinese medicine clinic is what sorts of work you’ll do for patients. What can they get at your clinic? Acupuncture, probably – but how? Group acupuncture? Have you considered how many patients you will see in an hour? Will you offer Chinese herb consultations without acupuncture being in the picture? How will you price these things – ala cart, as part of packages or something else?

Will you have a medicinary – and if so – will herbs be included with treatment, or a separate expense? Will you teach classes or do other education as a SERVICE (as opposed to as marketing) – taking registration fees? What other products & services does your unique training, background and connections make possible?

These questions are meant to help you see that acupuncture clinics have flexibility in defining what they offer – and how. While you may want to have some familiar options to help potential patients find comfort in the consistency, there’s really no limit to how creative we can be with what we offer out of our clinics. After all, many of us are multi-potentialites, and allowing our practices to express our fullness as humans makes some good sense!

Starting with the knowledge that flexibility can and does exist – what then should you do? Try something new just to try it?

Maybe. Try something new only when five nearby clinics have tried it? That’s one approach. But, what if you had engaged in a deep visioning process for your clinic? What if you actually believed in that vision as it is written down? If the vision is rich, and if you know how to work with it, you can easily ask yourself questions about what products and services make the most sense given your situation.

For instance, imagine that as part of your vision you say, “Our clinic contributes to ending the plague of hopelessness and apathy that is impacting so many in our country.” Big vision! Important contribution! How might your products and services relate to that? Is just doing acupuncture and herbs enough? Or maybe, with a vision like that, you might get some mental health professionals on staff, or focus your own training in that direction.

Perhaps you would consider having meditation and de-stressing classes free for patients. Maybe you would get start creating and promoting packaged herbal formulas, foods, or music designed to help people have treatment extending effects in the comfort of their homes. Regardless, looking at products and services through the eyes of vision helps you to make a deeply rooted decision that you can depend on as you grow and develop your business.

Vision in employee hiring & training

As a new acupuncturist looking for a job in an existing clinic – what qualities do you want to look for? Most people are attracted to businesses that seem to have a real vision driving them. It’s in the way people talk about it, it’s in the way the CEO or founder describes the vision, it’s how you feel like you’re working towards something bigger than yourselves – as a team. If you’ve not had that experience, look for it! It’s a great feeling. Vision driven businesses are dynamic, they adapt to meet changing needs, they seem to come from a deep well of hidden support, their messaging and actions hang together.

Further, this dynamism usually attracts clients – everybody is attracted to a business that is passion filled, active and executing on a vision that is clear for all to see. Think of TOMS, Apple, Google and the medium sized businesses that make products that line the shelves of natural food grocers. These companies live vision forward, with their values guiding them every step of the way. That’s compelling! This can result in a bustling clinic that obtains and sustains momentum. Good for you, as the practice owner, in a number of ways. More importantly for this point, this state of affairs is also good if you’re hoping to attract top talent and grow your practice into a multi-practitioner type space.

Your vision can also help you to make hiring/partnering decisions

Let’s say your vision requires a collaborative environment where a small team of people works closely together to create something larger than themselves. Can you see how that leads you to seek out particular types of people when looking to add to your team? Or, consider the vision I described in the previous section concerning helping to shift the hopelessness that many people feel. I already mentioned some folks you might want to bring on board as a result of that vision – but how might you train your existing employees with this vision in hand? What type of qualities might you look for in every member of your staff regardless of the role they play in your business?

Why does it matter?

I could list hundreds of examples of how vision can influence practical features of any Chinese medicine based business – no matter the size or focus. But, when I really sit and think about it – why does it matter so much to me? Why am I so completely bent about talking obsessively about vision in acupuncture practices? Because I believe we can do even more than we are doing, as a Profession. I believe if we were to free the creative, spiritual & innovative energy in the thousands of acupuncturists around the world, we would be amazed at the result. We’d be stunned, really.

I believe that really paying attention to vision – doubling down on it, in fact, can help us get there. Paying attention to those higher levels of understanding of our business, while not the ONLY thing a person needs to do to have a successful acupuncture practice, will almost certainly direct it to bigger, bolder, and more resonant heights. It’s an added bonus that focusing on a vision can have so many positive practical benefits – even increasing profits.

So, what to do?

Of the hundreds of students & practitioners I’ve talked with, a minority have an inspiring vision for their acupuncture practice. Of those who have a vision, relatively few have taken the time to revisit it, nor can they say how they use that vision on a day to day basis. Those who do have a strong vision, even when that isn’t written down, seem to be more fulfilled in their practice, they tend to adapt better to changing circumstances, and are generally more financially successful.

If you’re interested in being part of that minority (eventually making it a majority) and really want to dig deep and create an actionable vision for your Chinese medicine business – what should you do?

There are lots of programs out there that help you look at aspects of vision. I like : Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map, and some foundational courses available through organizations like Mercy Corps NW (in Portland). None of those resources address vision explicitly, or if they do, it may be slightly off purpose for an acupuncture practice vision. While theoretically, a business vision is a business vision (no matter the actual type of business), I do think there are ways we can make the idea of vision more relevant to the whole project of creating a successful acupuncture practice.

Why vision makes your acupuncture business personal and why that’s awesome

July 5, 2016 by Eric Grey

I spend a significant time thinking about business vision – particularly how it relates to the function of my own businesses. I only talk so much about vision because I’ve seen how my businesses work better – are more profitable and ultimately more fulfilling – when I attend to the deep purpose and trajectory that I’ve identified. Decisions are easier to make, systems are easier to establish – and most importantly – things feel more integrated and satisfying.

I’ve been working on an article series about business vision especially as it relates to acupuncture clinics. There, I started to explain a process – initiating it with a dive into the kinds of research & questions you need to ask when you’re getting started thinking about your acupuncture business vision.

First, you look into the Chinese medicine profession in the area where you are in order to get some footing in some of the more practical aspects of the medicine. Second, you get to know yourself more intimately – and think of yourself as a business owner. To finish off the research process, you start to think about and research the kind of people you want to reach as an acupuncturist – your niche. I finished that series with a more specific discussion of how vision can influence the operation of your clinic.

Making the medicine your own

The most important benefit of taking vision seriously is that you will end up creating a practice that is more resonant with the person you are. While this doesn’t automatically lead to increased profitability, its payout can be profound. When difficulties come up (and they will come up) you’ll be less prone to throw in the towel. Even on days when patients are numerous and need more than you can give, you’ll be able to connect with something larger than that moment that will feed you. It provides a well of support in your life in practice that you will not regret having created.

In the ebook I recently wrote about acupuncture clinic vision, I discuss how really understanding and paying close attention to your personality, your background, your needs and your desires will help you to create a practice you truly believe in.

That assertion shouldn’t be surprising. Our work as acupuncturists is intimate, personal. We spend a significant amount of time with our patients – we often end up hearing information that counselors and close friends hear – and we use our own bodies as diagnostic instruments.

As we go through school or other forms of training, we are generally encouraged to bring our other skill sets and knowledge bases to bear. The diversity of our medicine means that people can readily

discover and employ methods that resonate with who they are and what they want to accomplish. If you investigate ten acupuncturists all trained at the same school after they’ve been in practice for a few years, and you will find ten incredibly unique expressions of the medicine that radiate the essential individuality of the practitioner involved.

In sum, “Making the medicine our own,” is a necessity and an inevitability when it comes to what happens in the treatment room.

Why not extend that into the business aspects of Chinese medicine practice?

If the way you practice the medicine can be so personal, why would we all want to create our clinics in exactly the same way? Why would we look for cookie-cutter clinic startup advice, or use templated websites and other marketing materials? Why would we shy away from investigating how our hearts could pour into the way we arrange our space, take payment, choose community partners and even do our books?

I’m suggesting we should begin the whole process of starting a Chinese medicine based business by deep consideration of how to personalize the way we make money as healthcare practitioners. By rooting our vision in an understanding of ourselves, our world, our patients – by connecting with a dream of what we could manifest – we give ourselves an incredible gift.

A vision guided acupuncture practice serves everyone better, especially the people working within it.