Q: I'm a chiropractor in practice in New York for over 6 years. Just last week, a friend of mine in California told me he is looking into purchasing a practice outside San Jose and would like me to run it. The doctor there is retiring, and he has been seeing over 100 patient visits a day for over 20 years. About 3 years ago, I was seeing 200 visits a week, about 20-30 new patients per month, and things were going well. Then my practice started to decline, and I joined a practice management group. Under this person's guidance, I proceeded to move my practice to a new location only 2 blocks away, but with very poor signage and no road exposure. To make matters worse, I signed a 10 year lease. Currently, I see approx. 135-150 visits a week, and an average of 12-15 new patients per month. I need an expert opinion on how I should proceed. Thank you in advance for the advice. A: Thanks for the e-mail .. lots of questions. First .. if you have been in practice for seven years can you put your finger on why your practice declined and why moving two blocks would have made a difference. The reason I ask is simple .. if you move to California .. you probbaly will be starting from scratch or have to create a new practice a lot further than 2 miles .. will it may a difference there. Hopefully .. you will inherit many of this retiring DC's patients .. maybe not. Second .. if it is a practice that is being bought by your friend .. I'm sure you will be coming in as an Independent Contractor or associate .. one capacity or the other. Rather than keeping all your earnings you'll be keeping a %. I may be wrong .. but unless you don't want any overhead headaches and own it yourself .. it can be taken away from you like a rental office when contract time comes around again. I'm sure you heard it before .. don't mix business with pleasure and in this business especially. Leaving your state to help your friend run a new purchased practice can be very sweet today and for whatever reason turn sour tomorrow .. be sure to have everything in writing and an attorney look it over .. I realize this sounds severe .. but trust me .. I get horror story e-mails daily. So what to do .. if you can justify why your practice went down .. what your consultant said and why the practice continued to decline .. in other words what you didn't do or what wasn't said .. and how you feel a move would help with understanding I wrote above .. then go for it. A change of scenery will do you good. Hope this helps .. if not e-mail me again Have a Great Day Dr. M