Shared by: Lawton_Howell@mail.vresp.com Welcome to the CEObrief eLetter....effective and lasting ideas toward excellence for building a business and not just growing a practice. The feature in this edition of the CEObrief is the next "chapter" of Masterful Marketing for Chiropractic Entrepreneurs: Developing Your Give2Get Marketing Plan. But, there's more.... ....much more, so grab some herbal or green tea and get ready to expand your mind and your business! What if you woke up tomorrow with an almost super human ability to get more done this year... ... attract more new patients ... do more marketing ... keep patients longer ... finish more projects And what if you magically had 48 hours every day instead of the normal 24 hours? Would your income rise, your financial goals be attained, your life dramatically improved? I just came back from my annual end of year retreat. This is a time where I get away from everything, even the computer, email and the internet, lock myself up in a hotel suite (away from my normal day- to-day environment) to reflect on the past year and plan for the coming year. Every high performance person I know has a similar ritual, one that I highly recommend modeling. The purpose of this letter, though, is to share some of my insights with you. Particularly the ones on getting more done - a topic you have repeatedly expressed a high interest in. So read on. Despite personally being what I consider woefully unproductive, last year was still a very good year at WellnessOne. We expanded our national brand of chiropractic to 18 states, launched a new web site for the chiropractic profession, wrote a new book, hosted three national conferences for our Members, conducted 39 site inspections, completed 480 telephone consultations with our Members, wrote over 170 articles for the CEObrief, attended 7 high priced seminars to soak up more knowledge, studied countless other material and courses and read 37 books on business, 49 novels and 149 subscription publications. Sounds like a lot? Maybe, me personally I was disappointed with 2004. More in myself than anything. You see, I only really applied myself about 20% of the time... that means if I just applied myself 40% of the time the results would not be double, but instead 4 or 6 times greater because of the compounding effect. That is the amazing power of personal productivity. The better you get, the results increase exponentially. I see this in myself all the time. When I spend more time working on myself - reading books, studying info products I purchase, attending seminars, working on self-development... I ALWAYS see a noticeable increase in results. Never fails. I could write 10 pages just on that topic because I know what a lot of people say is "I don't have time to do that, I'm too busy, I would rather spend my money on other things." However one sentence would sum it all up and allow us to move onto more productive topics... ...whatever your excuse is, it is just that an excuse that you have made up to keep you from achieving the success you deserve. You can either keep making the same excuses and getting the same results or you can do what other successful people do and get different results. Onto getting more done in 2005... I probably spent 80% of my time just on this topic last week in that hotel room. I knew if I am able to just double my productivity and improve my focus on the important tasks then 2005 will be an amazing year. And the notes, insights and changes I am making can have the same impact on you. Let me share some with you. If you feel you deserve greater success in 2005 than you had in 2004, take these 3-steps to get you there. FIRST, I highly recommend getting a solid grounding on our business building philosophy by reading your weekly CEObrief and implementing our recommendations and suggestions. The tactics and strategies that we share each week are powerful, but you must put them into action. Focus Your Efforts. Follow Through. Finish What You Start. NOTE: Imagine what your life would be like if you too also considered a year like we had as a "bad" year. The key is the mindset. Changing your mindset to one that supports you instead of holds you back. SECOND, tame the email BEAST. This is the biggest time wasting black hole for many chiropractic entrepreneurs. First it starts out as checking email frequently to stay on top of things, then checking email because it is an addiction, using your inbox as a to-do list, constantly fumbling around in email and before you know it the day is over and you didn't get squat done. I know, this can be very painful reflection and "admitting" to having similar bad habits, but if you want to improve in 2005 you have to 'fess up to the areas you need to improve in. The email umbilical cord becomes the worst habit to develop and one all of us are guilty of to some degree or another. Yes, you too. This year I am radically changing my approach to email. Actually changing my approach to a number of things, getting rid of bad habits and replacing with good ones. More on that in a second. THIRD, you need a daily plan of action system you believe in. One that you believe in and will follow for the next 30 days until it forms a lasting habit in your subconscious so you stick with it long term. Most people, myself included, take the "easy" approach each day and do not force ourselves to develop good habits, especially how we approach our work time. Being a entrepreneur we rebel against the idea of "confining" ourselves to a schedule. That is what I thought... luckily I finally realized that poor way of thinking definitely did not serve my financial goals. Unless your desire is to lounge around and be lazy, you need to have a daily plan of action to follow. There is plenty of time to be lazy when you are completely and totally financially secure and can retire without having to worrying about making another penny. By getting productive now, that day will come much, much sooner than you realize. Otherwise by keeping your current habits that day will never come, remaining a mirage in the distance you never seem to catch up to. What am I going to do today to give you the support you need to make 2005 your year? 1. I am going to increase the value of the information in each issue of the CEObrief. 2. I am going to encourage you to explore, consider and join the CEO WellnessOne National Alliance Program so you can truly build a business and not just grow a practice. 3. I will give back to the profession by offering my time and expertise to your local, regional, state or national association in the form of a program at your conferences or conventions. If would like a high-powered program on marketing and business building at your association meeting, just have them call me toll free at 877 WELNES1 to block my calendar for your group. Remember, all Leaders are Readers, but not all readers are leaders. So, make reading and knowledge a foundation in your business building endeavors. Lawton W. Howell, Sr. Call me toll free at 877 WELNES1 ceo@wellnessone.net P.S. For the exclusive Platinum Elite Group Reading List, just click the link below. Read along this year with the CEO's at the WellnessOne National Alliance! Discover the Ultimate Business Building Program in Chiropractic The CEO Questions Booklet addresses the following questions that many practitioner have about: ...how to build a business, not just grow a practice. How do I hire the right people for my office and then manage them to succeed? How do I retain patients, generate new patients and maintain a high Average Income per visit? How do I create a marketing plan that will really work and attract more new patients? How do I develop a business plan, and manage it in a way that allows me to grow? How do I operate all facets of my business without being trained in all fields of expertise? What is the difference between a $500,000 practice and a multi- million dollar business? What are the best investment strategies to build wealth, and obtain the exit strategy that will allow me to have a great Life? Get answers to your Questions.... Developing Your Give2Get Marketing Plan First, let's take a look at why you need a marketing plan to build a business and not just grow a practice. If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail, or at the very least not accomplish your vision and targets for your business, your personal and profession life. I'm positive you have heard this expression before. Most chiropractic entrepreneurs would rather sidestep the planning phase and just jump right in and start spending their hard- earned money. Bad move. Very bad move! Marketing your brand of chiropractic is not something you should be doing in a haphazard, inconsistent manner. So often we'll ask one of our new Members what they want to achieve with their marketing this year. We hear responses like "I really don't know," or "Increase my new patient production." Imagine if they were getting ready to go on a vacation but hadn't stopped to decide "where" they were going. How would they know what to pack? How would they know what kind of transportation would be needed? How would they know how to start? How would they know what direction to go in, or if they were making any progress? They wouldn't! In fact, we have found that most chiropractic entrepreneurs spend more time "planning" their vacations than they do planning their business! Or, suppose you were a farmer who din't know what kind of crop you wanted. How would you know what seeds to plant? What kind of fertilizer to use? You get the idea. You must FIRST decide exactly what you want to achieve, and then you need to develop an effective plan for achieving it. It's no different with your marketing. You must know where you want to go if you want your marketing to help get you there. It's so much easier to get someplace once you know where that someplace is and you have a "map" to guide you and keep you on track. Once you have decided on your destination (12 offices with each site doing $1,000,000 in Income, 40 New Patients per Month Average, PVA of 40, and Average Visit Income of $50.00, etc.) then you just have to make a plan of how to reach that destination. By the way....the above is the minimum target for the Members of the CEO WellnessOne National Alliance. One CEO's target is 100 offices! What's your vision for your wealthy financial future? If you know where you are going, what the target is, and you have a plan to support your vision, you've given yourself an excellent chance for success. A Marketing Plan is Not a Picture... It's a Puzzle Many chiropractors have an enormous misconception about marketing plans. They'll say something like, "Can you help me create a marketing plan? I need it by the end of this month." They honestly believe that a marketing plan is something that they can put together in December and then merely follow it the next year and success will be there. It doesn't work that way. A marketing plan is not a permanent picture that is created in one sitting. It's a living, evolving "puzzle" made from matching pieces that are only discovered through "trial and results" over time. Sure, someone with experience can lead you in the right direction, and make recommendations of things for you to test. But they can't predict exactly how your particular plan will evolve. Or the results you can expect to receive. To develop your plan to generate Prospex from your List of Strangers, you have an unlimited number of marketing tactics available to you. You could base your plan on the least expensive tactics by giving talks to Prospex groups, writing articles for your local publications or columns, submitting Media Releases or giving interviews on local or national media. Or you may elect to focus on building a referral network, or marketing alliances with other like-minded entrepreneurs in your marketplace. Another chiropractic entrepreneur may not want to use those tactics and may elect to test low-cost media ads, free- standing inserts, and small mailings directed to his/her target group. Each chiropractic entrepreneur selects the marketing strategies and tactics he or she feels most comfortable with in relation to his/her time, energy, budget and personality. No one else can predict or tell you which is right for you. One chiropractic entrepreneur may have a vision of building his business to a $100,000,000 empire, while another wouldn't dream of growing beyond $1,000,000. Each calls for a different Marketing Plan. Whichever tactics any of these chiropractic entrepreneurs choose, they will be "testing" them to determine if they are appropriate and effective for reaching their particular Prospex. They must then test their Prospex Generating Offers with those tactics until they find a match. When you know that you have the right strategy and tactics, then it is just a matter of testing your offers to those Prospex. If you test one and it doesn't work, you try another, and another until you get the results you want. That's how puzzles and successful Marketing Plans evolve. As you grow and as your marketplace changes, your plan must change also. You will be continually looking for new opportunities and you'll have to test your marketing elements to find the right ones to achieve higher levels of success. Next week, we will focus on Testing the Components of Your Plan. Lawton W. Howell, Sr. ceo@wellnessone.net Call me toll free at: 877 WELNES1 P.S. Would you like to know how the top-dogs plan their marketing? Well, click the link below and you can order the CEO Marketing Planning System for just twelve bucks and download instantly! The CEO Marketing Planner System [CM.WP.Planne] $12.00 If you do not have a written marketing plan for your business, you are planning to fail. This turn-key marketing planner system will enable you to plan your marketing, track and monitor your marketing effectiveness. Included with your CEO Marketing Planner System: 1. Complete step-by-step instructions on how to create your marketing planner manual using the included planning worksheets. 2. High- quality planning forms that you can reproduce as needed on your office printer: Project Planning Worksheet, Action Planning Worksheet and Summary Calendar Planner Worksheets. 3. Commercial-quality printable binder inserts to customized your binder. You are licensed to reproduce and duplicate the material included in this report, as needed, for your own personal use. No other use is permitted. Here's how to double your marketing R.O.I. How would you like to double your return on any "List of Strangers" marketing campaign you launch? Let me show you a simple, easy tactic you can implement very quickly that will make your marketing perform "double duty." Here's the step-by-step system that we recommend called Marketing Alliances... STEP 1 Develop a list all the businesses in your marketplace that also marketed to your List of Strangers. STEP 2 Select a few businesses that offered products or services, which were complimentary to your brand of chiropractic, but not competitive - - and who you thought had high standards and a good reputation. STEP 3 Approached each business and simply asked them if they'd like to join you in generating leads using your "cooperative marketing program." Let's use a postcard as an example.... ...but remember this would work for any media including direct mail or FSI (free standing inserts). Whip out your "Co-op Postcard" and showed them what our postcard would look like. Have a "sample" ready to share! The business owner would usually look at the postcard and immediately say, "Sure, let's do it." You can place a different message that is a unique "advertisement and offer from two different companies on each side of the postcard. The best part about it is that both companies split the cost of the campaign. So instead of paying (45 cents) per postcard (8-9 cents for a 6x9 postcard, plus $37 for mailing) you would only have to pay 23 cents per postcard. Assuming that you can maintain near the same response rate with only one side of the postcard, you've doubled the return on your marketing investment! Here's How You Can Apply This Tactic In Different Ways You can use this same co-op strategy to do door hangers as well. You could promote your brand of chiropractic on one side and your dentist colleague on the other side! Neither service is competitive to each other. You can also turn this strategy into a REFERRAL SYSTEM by simply sending the postcards to each others respective customer/patient base. Your promotion gets seen by your Patients AND it gets seen by your Marketing Alliance customers! Very nice. That's low cost, high impact, smart marketing! Jon Poulson poulson@wellnessone.net Call me toll free at 877 WELNES1 P.S. Marketing Alliances is an awesome strategy to build your business and not just grow a practice. Another great form of marketing is REFERRAL based marketing, or word-of-mouth marketing. The ultimate guide for building your business with REFERRALS is The CEO Word-of-Mouth Marketing System available online for just $137.00 The CEO Word-of-Mouth Marketing System [Pillar.Eight] $137.00 If you are not getting three or more referrals from your patients, each and every year, then this is must read for you. Using the techniques in this guide, developed by the marketing gurus at WellnessOne Corporation, you can create a stream of referrals that can double, triple or even quadruple your business! Over the past seven years, WellnessOne has audited hundreds of offices and discovered that the average office gets less than one referral from each patient! This report is for chiropractic entrepreneurs who would like to build their business and not just grow a practice using referral-centric marketing strategies and tactics. This 67-page report is a step-by-step guide for implementing the ultimate word- of-mouth marketing system in your business. One element for maximizing referrals to your brand of chiropractic is understanding the five levels of the referral marketing pyramid: Suspex, Prospex, Patient, Client and Zealot. Each of these levels are examined in detail enabling you to build your business by understanding each level, and what you can do to enhance the results from each. Most practitioners focus on the Patient level, but, that can impact your overall results. You must understand and have a marketing plan for each level. Along with this guide, you will receive 100 ideas that you can use to brainstorm optimum tactics for getting three or more referrals from each of your patients each year. CEO's Are Decisive Decision Makers Successful leaders make decisions quickly and confidently. They do not waste time wavering back and forth on the appropriate action to take. Spending countless hours paralyzed by the inability to move forward prevents key actions from being taken. It magnifies the times needed to complete a project and destroys the ability to stay on schedule. Life is full of decisions each day; some simplistic and others are life altering. As you grow professionally the impact of your decisions expands and demands on time increase. It is essential to make good decisions quickly and clearly. Delays in Decision Making Delays in decision making are rooted in fear: * Fear of being wrong * Fear of consequences * Fear of not being perfect * Fear of better options being presented later * Fear of "BUT, what if..." Overcome Fear By Reviewing All Possibilities Reviewing all the possibilities gives you choices. Choice should be viewed as power. When you are lacking choice you must train yourself to see or find additional possibilities that will help you attain the result or goal you are pursuing. Knowing where you are and where you want to go is essential to creating new options. Knowing what you want as your BIG PICTURE outcome guides those new outcomes. Are you wasting time on debating the little things that don't really matter? Is the amount of time spent on some decisions more significant than the actual decision? Do you know "where you want to be" and are you spending time getting there directly? Cut Decision Making TO CUT DECISION MAKING TIME IN HALF WRITE: * What do you spend time making decisions on? * What decisions do you stress over? * What decisions do you spend time asking others for advice and opinions about? * What decisions are you playing over and over in your head before making? * How much time do you spend on thinking about, stressing, procrastinating each of those decisions? Write out a "Big Decision(s)" you must make and list all your options/ possibilities. Make sure you create A MINIMUM OF THREE. Decisions The decisions you make move you rapidly toward achieving your goals or direct you a way from achieving them. Are you moving in a straight line, taking the scenic route or stuck on an endless loop? One way to accelerate decision making is to have a "coach" that will provide real-world recommendations and then hold you accountable. Learn to make decisions quicker...it's the business building edge that all great CEO's have developed. Rozlynne Rush, D.C. rush@wellnessone.net Call me toll free at 877 WELNES1 By the way....gain insight into your leadership qualities, your strengths and weaknesses with a CEO DISC Profile Report on yourself and your T.E.A.M. Click the link below for more information. New Year Resolutions from your CEObrief T.E.A.M. 2005 WellnessOne National Alliance New Year Resolutions This is our sixth annual list of New Year Resolutions for chiropractic entrepreneurs. Yes, some of our 2004 resolutions have been repeated in the 2005 list. But there is an excellent reason for this: THEY'RE STILL IMPORTANT!! Remember, this is only a list. It's supposed to identify and propose, not provide solutions. Your challenge is to find the resolve, information, and resources to accomplish the resolutions you claim for yourself. It's also a fairly long list. So we recommend you print it out and read it - and keep it - on paper. Take a look and find the ones you like and begin working on them. Then start on the ones you don't like. So, here are our 2005 New Year Resolutions for chiropractic entrepreneurs who want to build a business this year, and not just grow a practice. Let the meddling - and the excellence - begin. Financial I resolve to . . . . . . if I'm not producing regular financial statements for my business, take the steps - immediately - to make that happen. . . . focus more on financial operating fundamentals. . . . do a better job of managing my company financially by creating regular and accurate financial statements, and how they relate to each other. . . . learn more about what my financial documents are telling me, especially with respect to the dance between cash and accounting. . . . establish a budget for every expense line item on my operating statement, and review budget-vs-actual at regular intervals. . . . spend more time considering my company's long-term capital requirements, and develop a capitalization strategy with renewed focus on the long-term value of retained earnings ultimately replacing debt. . . . establish a current relationship with at least two banks, and make sure at least one of them is an independent community bank. . . . if bank debt is required but not quite possible, find out if help is possible from an SBA loan-guarantee program. . . . find out how my company's financial condition compares with peers in my industry across the country by checking with industry organizations, and/or trade groups. Human Resources I resolve to . . . . . . help my T.E.A.M. to become entrepreneurial Players, by allowing them to take initiative. . . . provide more training for my T.E.A.M., especially in salesmanship, leadership, organization, technology, and teamwork, especially with emphasis on how their assignments have - and are changing in the 21st century. . . . praise more in public and criticize more constructively in private. . . . assume the attitude that the fastest way for me and my company to be successful is to focus more on helping my Players to be successful in each of their assignments. . . . upgrade key Player ranks, so that I have the very best talent upon which to put the many hats we have to wear. . . . become a more competitive leader to prospective and current Players by focusing on ways my company can add value to their professional development. Leadership I resolve to . . . . . . say "What have we learned?" when a Player makes a mistake as a result of taking initiative, instead of a reprimand. . . . identify 21st century best practices, including the brand new ones, plus the most current variations of classic leadership practices. . . . find out if there are any "Us vs. Them" attitudes inside my company, and eradicate that organizational cancer by creating and maintaining an environment built on trust. . . . learn as much as I can about trends and new developments that, whether threats or opportunities, will be part of my company's future. . . . consider outsourcing non-strategic assignments, like payroll, for example, so that all in-house activity is focused directly on what our company does best. . . . join a peer group of other entrepreneurs (WellnessOne would be perfect!), either in other industries within my marketplace, or in my industry outside of my marketplace. . . . begin - or update - my company's business plan, use it as a key management tool, and rely on it as the track my company will run on. . . . spend a half-day with key Players, at least once each quarter, to review our progress against stated goals. . . . demonstrate more leadership myself and foster more leadership in my T.E.A.M. . . . become a better negotiator, while continuing to negotiate in good faith. . . . do what is necessary to eliminate crisis management from the operation of my company. . . . recognize that the intellectual property in my business is as valuable as my hard assets, and begin the process to develop and protect our intellectual property. Marketplace I resolve to . . . . . . make sure my brand of chiropractic is represented in the cyber- marketplace, as well as the traditional marketplace. . . . develop strategies that deliver what our Patients want. . . . share my vision for taking care of Patients with all of the stakeholders in my organization, including Players and vendors. . . . focus more on what our Patients want and less on what we need to sell. . . . work with at least one vendor to create a new advertising, marketing, pricing, and/or service strategy. . . . find out what keeps my best Patients up at night and develop a plan that allows my company to help them get more sleep. . . . identify at least one new product or strategy that would allow my brand of chiropractic to dominate in our existing market or a new market. . . . take the internal steps necessary to make loyalty to my brand of chiropractic a compelling emotions in our Patients. . . . focus more on building communities and less on just making contacts. . . . find a way to create a partnership with a bigger business - perhaps even a VERY BIG business. Technology I resolve to . . . . . . to never let my Patients touch technology unless it benefits them. . . . understand how technology can be deployed to create operating efficiencies which produces new profit opportunities, and then make those improvements happen. . . . make sure both my T.E.A.M. and my technology are deployed appropriately. . . . make my Web site more valuable to my Patients or Prospex by making it easier to navigate, posting more content, and creating more opportunity for Patients to interact with us online. . . . make sure all my Players are equipped with the technology necessary to make them as productive as possible. . . . focus on technology solutions first, and staffing second, as I scale my organization up and out. . . . never forget that, when it comes to Patients, the wonders of high tech are no substitute for the value of high touch. . . . become more informed about how my business can be impacted by technology public policy issues. Public Policy I resolve to . . . . . . make sure I know who my local, state and federal elected representatives are, and to establish contact with them so they know what business issues are important to me. . . . join and support my local Chamber of Commerce and at least one national small business organization, like the Small Business Survival Committee and the National Federation of Independent Business. . . . support, encourage, and vote for small business friendly candidates at all levels. Personal I resolve to . . . . . . learn how to define success in more ways than just money and stuff. . . . remember why I became a chiropractic entrepreneur in the first place. . . . study great people in history to find out how one person armed with courage, will, and faith can make a difference to many. . . . have more fun this year. Write this on a rock - The longest journey begins with the first step. Good luck and continue to seek excellence. And don't forget to have fun this year! CEObrief T.E.A.M., in order pictured! Lawton W. Howell, Sr. ceo@wellnessone.net Jon Poulson poulson@wellnessone.net Rozlynne Rush, D.C. rush@wellnessone.net Lawton Howell, Jr. lwhjr@wellnessone.net Steve Williams williams@wellnessone.net Holly Martin martin@wellnessone.net Sherry Hodge hodge@wellnessone.net Rich Pittam pittam@wellnessone.net Call us toll free at 877 WELNES1 Did you pick up an idea, tactic or strategy that you can use in your business? Let us know how you are using the CEObrief to build your business and not just grow a practice. We would LOVE to hear your success stories! The CEObrief T.E.A.M. Call us toll free at 877 WELNES1 ceo@wellnessone.net Lawton W. Howell, Sr. Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer WellnessOne Corporation 3960 Howard Hughes Parkway, 5th Floor Las Vegas, NV 89109-5988 Toll Free Voice & Fax: 877 WELNES1 ceo@wellnessone.net www.chiroelite.com www.wellnessone.net www.ceotrax.net www.ceopracticetrax.com www.milliondollarpractices.com www.chiromarketing.net