Q: Hi Dr. Margolies! 2 quick questions for you- 1) Regarding contacting new residents in the community- which do you feel is the best way to obtain names and addreses of new homeowners/residents? I have heard that contacting utility companies is worth a shot, as well as "welcome wagon" types of services (of which our town currently is lacking). Are there any other ways to get this information, and in a timely manner? 2) What has been your experience with "stuffing" mailboxes? I practice (and live) in a relatively small town, and plan on distributing pamphlets/flyers about my office and chiropractic. I'd like to walk/ride through the many subdivisions in my town, and place them directly in mailboxes (mailboxes are roadside), but I'm concerned that this may violate some "postal law." I know this seems wacky, and I should just contact the post office, but I figure that someone has tried this before and might be able to offer advice. A: I used to stuff mailboxes until I was caught and asked to cease and desist .. this is a federal offense. My wife and I would follow the postman and afterwards would go during lunch to the mailboxes and throw in our newsletters. The fact that you are using federal equipment without paying postage .. is theft. If you are desperate .. follow the mailman .. don't do it too often and when able use stamps. You can purchase a bulk rate stamp from the post office .. something like $70 for the permit and the postage is less than a regular stamp .. if bulked 200 or more.. Look through your Smart Start Book chapter one and create a Community Wellness Program .. literally going door to door to local shops and offering your services .. you can create newsletters and offer workshops .. etc. As for addresses .. call the local post office and see if they have the Haynes directory .. this lists all the addresses .. commercial and residential .. if there is no Haynes directory .. look in the yellow pages under Direct Mail .. for a fee they can locate addresses via zip code .. call a few. Also .. most computer stores sell a list of addresses on CD .. I even think Yahoo has a service. You may wish to search the web under direct mail ..probably find tons of stuff. Instead of Welcome Wagon .. you need to create your own Community Program as mentioned above .. if you can't do it .. hire someone to do it for you. If there are clubhouses in these subdivisions .. see if you can offer workshops .. or if they have newsletters .. can you place a flyer .. often the local newspaper has a special rate for inserting flyers .. often in sections of the city .. ask them. I hope this helps. Below is a response to someone else about material to send out. I hope this helps. Be sure to tell others about my e-mails .. they'll never know unless you tell them Okay .. below is the question and my answer: Q: DR. M, I have your smart start book and your disc. I am looking for a letter for new residents. Can you help me. Like a welcome to the neighborhood Letter. A: Below are a few things, I found quickly floating in my computer. Cut and paste the sentences and create your own .. the idea is to find a broad group to touch base with. The key is follow through. If you are unable to call these folks or have some handle on who is getting your material .. it'll usually be a wisp of air in the wind with no flow going your way. Therefore .. create a log within your farm (5-10 miles around your office) determine who you wish to contact and the budget you have .. printing and stamps can get expensive. Once you made the determination .. send or better yet give to these folks your handouts .. also provide them with something that will have them keep your material .. some good exercises .. advice .. a promo with an expiration date etc. Let me know if I can help more .. by the way .. please tell others about these e-mails .. if you have a chiropractic e-mail address list .. send it to me and I'll send them a welcome e-mail. Have a Great Day Dr. M Dear Neighbor, After 19 years at the same location on Lawrenceville Highway, here in Tucker, we¼ve moved our office to 4910 LaVista Road .. next to the Tucker Recreation Center. We are a Community Healthcare and Wellness Center. Our office goal is to support our community with health oriented educational programs as well as provide the best conservative chiropractic care available. Our ergonomic workshops concerning Carpal Tunnel Syndrome; Safety at the Workplace; Staying Fit While You Sit and Stress Management have been presented to over 8000 employees since 1985 to various local corporations. Workshops concerning Wellness, Fitness over Fifty, Nutrition and Exercise are given to various church and civic organizations from garden clubs to single and adult groups. Dr. Margolies is presently an instructor at Life University, School of Chiropractic and has published a number of periodicals and books. He has been certified and credentialed by various insurance plans and is on many HMO and PPO plans. Enclosed, please find some material that may be useful for you and your employees. If we can be of service to you please call at your convenience. Yours in Health this Holiday Season, Joel E. Margolies, DC Introduction to my office: Dr. Joel E. Margolies and the Family Chiropractic Center We are located 2 miles outside I-285 close to Northlake Mall. (Exit 28 -- LaVista Road) Practice opened November 1978, as a family oriented health care facility. Chiropractic has branched its knowledge beyond aches and pains, specializing in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Biomechanics, Trauma Care, Sports Injuries, Ergonomics, and Wellness. Through the years post graduate courses have kept us up to date on many of these specialties, and therefore we offer our patients a well rounded „wholistic¾ approach to Wellness and Prevention. Presently, Dr. Margolies is an instructor at Life University, School of Chiropractic in Marietta. Since 1978 our office has been certified through post graduate programs in: Ä Neurovascular Diagnosis and Treatment Ä Forensic Chiropractic Ä Nutrition Ä Impairment Rating Ä Independent Medical Evaluations Ä Risk Management Ä Ergonomics Ä Published 7 times in leading Chiropractic journals Ä Corporate Ergonomic Workshops to over 8000 employees since 1985 Ä Community Workshops and Seminars to Church and Civic groups on various topics including: Stress Management, Wellness, Pre-Conception Care, Aging Gracefully, Pediatrics, Nutrition, Exercise Telling my community we moved last September: We¼ve Moved Since 1978, we have been located at 3440 Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker assisting members of our community with conservative chiropractic care and wellness programs. If we have neglected to reach you before ... it¼s time now. Our new facility, 4910 LaVista Road, next to the Tucker Recreational Center between Brockett and Chamblee Tucker, will be larger with enough parking spaces to accommodate everyone needing our care. Just two miles outside I-285 we will continue to provide conservative family care with emphasis on Prevention and Wellness. Our relationship with the medical community has allowed us to keep an open mind towards patient care accepting referrals from both General Practitioners and/or Specialists. We have been credentialed by many insurance providers and have been chosen to be In- Network Specialists within a number of Managed Care Insurance Programs including the following: Aetna/US Healthcare PPO and MC AlignisPlus CignaHealthPlan and PPO Healthstar Healthcare Compare Mailhandler¼ s Medview PHCS Medicare Newsletter To Local Churches: Letter of Introduction Community Outreach Program We are in the process of moving our office for the past nineteen years from 3440 Lawrenceville Highway to 4910 LaVista Road just 1.5 miles from each other but world¼s apart in terms of space and community service. We have been very busy these past nineteen years as active members within our corporate and civic community. This letter of introduction is sent to you introducing our various programs we can offer members of your spiritual community. We have various specialized programs such as for those „over 50,¾ women and men¼s clubs, stress management workshops, nutrition and exercise classes, educational health awareness programs for your private schools, as well as assisting in your church programs such as bazaars and health fairs. It is our goal to offer our educational services to you as a community outreach ... these are at no charge. It has been our pleasure and a blessing to have offered conservative Chiropractic care in the Tucker area since 1978. Our office has been through many credentialed processes to be accepted in a variety of managed care insurance programs. We are In-Network specialists within Aetna/US Healthcare, AlignisPlus, Cigna, Mailhandlers, Medicare, PHCS and others. Dr. Margolies presently is an instructor at Life University, School of Chiropractic. He has been published numerous times in a variety of professional journals, as well as the writer of a number of professional texts. We hope you will visit our new office in September. Our services are family oriented with patients of various ages .. we cater to children for the health of it .. and to those within their golden years wishing mobility and years of wellness. If necessary we have a referral network of conservative medical specialists that we have worked with through these many years. If there are any questions, we can be reached at 770-491-3639 Open Letter To Your Community .. this was handed out during a special Tucker Day (block party) event: IS THERE A HEALTH CARE CRISIS? YOU BET! WHY? BECAUSE WE HAVE LIMITED HEALTH CARE BUT LOTS OF CRISIS INTERVENTION PREVENTION AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT IS THE SOLUTION Since 1978, we have been attempting to be part of this solution, rather than the problem. In 1985, we began our Community Stress and Wellness Workshops, and provided classes on Workstation Safety to various local corporations. Speaking to more than 6000 employees and civic group members over the years, have afforded us a great opportunity to meet some fine individuals and tend to their chiropractic needs. Although many people came up to us at the conclusion of these workshops with specific health care concerns, many did not take advantage of conservative chiropractic care, and therefore continue to suffer as before. IS THAT TRUE FOR YOU? We have implemented a number of cost effective programs to allow our community to take advantage of chiropractic care with affordable fees. We have recently joined two national networks ... Lifecare of Georgia, and Wellnet International. These two groups have a specific fee program for individuals with limited or no insurance coverage. These fees are similar to an HMO. We are in network with the Cigna Healthplan and Aetna Managed Care Program. We are also a preferred provider with Medicare. This letter is sent to you, as a new neighbor to our community. In this regard, you may have need of a local chiropractor. As a way of introduction, we are offering you a reduction on your first visit, with the evaluation and first treatment, if necessary, for just $25. This is a savings of $80. Additional treatment, if necessary will be discussed with you and you will have the ability to choose the best and most affordable plan for you. This is the future of Health Care .............. Healthy Lifestyle Choices with Stress Maintenance If you have ever thought the need to investigate whether chiropractic care can be of assistance to you this may be the perfect time. Our office being established within the Tucker community for over 19 years has assisted our community of various ages both to regain health, assist with pain relief and best of all ... conservative preventive health care. On the opposite side is a set of stretch exercises that will be useful. If there are any questions ... feel free to call our office at 770-491-3639. We also invite you to take advantage of our Community Outreach Programs. We have weekly classes within our office on various health related topics as well as programs for corporate and church/civic organizations. We are always here to serve you. To garden and women's clubs: This letter will allow us to introduce our community services, of which, wellness and health related workshops is most important. Included with the enclosed programs is our Summer Wellness Series which we provide for our local corporate neighbors. We have recently provided workshops on „Aging Gracefully¾ to the local YWCA, and will be giving a similar workshop entitled „Prevention of Arthritis¾ to a My Fair Lady¼s facility. If time allows please call us to discuss how we can best provide and assist our neighborhood Garden and Women¼s clubs with workshops and health oriented programs. Yours in Health, General Introduction Newsletter: Dear Neighbor, This newsletter sent to you as a community service. Our patients, as well as our staff, are concerned about the health of our community. A recent survey sponsored by our office revealed that our community¼s Chiropractic „I.Q.¾ was limited. The majority of those interviewed had never been treated by a Chiropractor and most didn¼t even understand what chiropractic can accomplish, especially for pain reduction and total well-being. Please, review the enclosed material, and give it some healthy thought. Quite possibly, you or someone very dear to you, will benefit with Conservative Chiropractic Care. This newsletter is your invitation to take advantage of our Biomechanical and Structural Evaluation at no cost ¸¸¸¸¸¸¸¸¸ savings of $75. We encourage you to call our office today, as many others have done. You may also wish to invite another family member or friend. We do have an active office, and community workshops play a prominent part. We have provided Workstation Stress Workshops to major local corporations, such as AT&T, Bell South, Southern Bell, 3M, Social Security Administration, Rockwell, Post Office, Mary Kay, as well as many others. These workshops, along with those in our office alert our community to the physical stress that we live under. Our office Workshops are very interesting and are Open to the Public. They include: p Stress Management p Nutrition p Exercise p Massage p Prevention Management of: p Headaches p Arthritis p Aging Take this opportunity to have your spine evaluated and determine if Stress has played a role in your well being. Call our office today and schedule this important examination and/or let us know of your interest in one of our office workshops. 491-3639 Another hand out during Tucker Day: Tell Them And They Will Come In the popular movie Field of Dreams, the theme was „Build it and they will come.¾ Build a ball field so they, the old time baseball players and the new fans, will have a place to go. Here in the middle of a corn field one fan was living his dream. Today people still come to the movie set, where each in their own way, find their field of dreams. My Dream I dream of a community free of drugs ....all drugs ...those prescribed and those illegal. I dream of a community where people have no need to have others remove God given organs. I dream of a community where children¼s well baby check-ups include a structural/biomechanical analysis, and poisons are not introduced to the young body, for ill advised ... „prevention.¾ I dream of a community where established health care leaders discuss true prevention not just crisis treatment. I dream of a community where everyone understands the concepts of natural life and health ... not only sickness and disease. I dream of a community where medical and chiropractic health care providers work together for the benefit of all of us. And finally, I dream of a community understanding the major purpose of Chiropractic; the dangerous reality of the Subluxation; of patients attending my workshops and sharing the chiropractic story with others, and they in turn experiencing their health potential through chiropractic care. Ä If you haven¼t attended our in-office workshops .... You Should! Ä If you haven¼t scheduled a Biomechanical evaluation ... You Should! Special Offer Within Two Weeks We extend to your family and friends an invitation to have their spine examined Free of Cost, for the next two weeks. This fee includes our new patient examination (usually costing $75). X-rays, if needed for treatment will be offered at a reduced fee. In my field of dreams, I have built this office. It is further my dream that you will assist me in my goal of helping others through Chiropractic. I¼ve been blessed with many great success stories, but the greatest feeling is when patient¼s tell me how they wished they started care earlier ... they question why they suffered more than necessary and they wish their friends or relatives with similar problems, get help as well. When they get results ....... it makes my day. If You Don¼t Call --- Who Will?