From: Dr. Margolies Three Ways To Increase Your Income As a chiropractor we have the ability to either increase or decrease our incomes dependent on our level of energy expended within and without our office. Practice Management helps to retain and maintain those you have adjusted, and Public Relations brings them in. Within this sphere there are three areas we can look towards for increased income. They are: Increase Fees .. Increase Services .. Increase New Patients. Of the three the most difficult is increasing our new patients. The first question on the mind of every DC at a practice development seminar is „.. How do I get new ones.¾ A responsible consultant should respond resoundingly „... first .. are you having a problem keeping those you already have.¾ If your new patient process is based on advertising dollars .. the question may be .. is it cost effective? The answer is no if you cannot close the potential patient and covert them into an active patient .. or you have an open pit and they drop off after a few visits. Therefore, attracting new patients takes skill, follow through, and procedures that are both esoteric and elemental. The essence of the doctor and staff .. the tone of the office .. will by its loving nature attract referrals and new patients as a bee is attracted to nectar. An office run on manual drive .. run by the numbers .. by procedures .. will also flourish but will falter once procedures and follow through are not handled correctly. Therefore the mix to create an on-going stream of new patients takes more effort .. and dependent on your office .. more money. But .. without new patients we have no reason to exist and our purpose of being is lost. Psychologically the most difficult component toward increased income may be to increase your fees .. but it is the easiest. For an example, if you increased your office adjustment fee just $2, and multiplied that by the number of patients seen weekly .. monthly .. yearly .. you would see an appreciable increase. But, with the decision to increase fees comes the question „.. will I lose patient¼s .. do I charge the increased fee to my established patient¼s .. will my staff be able to „sell¾ the new fees .. in this day of managed care and everyone complaining of having less expendable dollars, will I be considered too expensive.¾ This is an emotional issue but if you can come to grips with it, it¼s the easiest way to see a modest boost in income. The most productive and cost effective way to increase income is to increase services. Considering that the spectrum of chiropractic includes various shades from techno terrorists to shake åem and bake åem doctors, I leave the specific services to you. Services may include examinations, supports, nutritional products, educational material, therapy of one type or another (from cold packs to ....), and whatever else your technic and judgment calls for. Services also include patient visits. While considering how a $2 increase in fees can increase your income, consider the bigger picture, how many dollars have dropped from sight as your patient¼s have? If you have a problem with missed appointments, and there is no solid procedure to make them up .. you¼ve lost income. If you haven¼t spent the time calling patient¼s after their first adjustment .. as well as when they begin the trend of missing .. you¼ve lost income. If your staff haven¼t followed through with planned marketing ideas .. referral seeds .. increased loving service to your patient¼s .. you¼re losing money! Rather than looking from the outside .. look within to heal and increase potential. Now .. where have we heard that before? Rather than asking the question „where do I get new ones,¾ consider how you¼re handling those you already have Rather than determining if a new advertisement is worth the price .. determine if you can manage the people coming in already If you have an established but fragile or upstart office .. provide increased loving service. Provide a professional service .. be sure they follow through with their care schedule .. recommend helpful ideas to increase their healing .. and let all else follow. P.S. My new book, Chiropractic Assistant¼s Marketing and Public Relations Book sold out at both Parker and Dynamic Essentials. I am printing new ones. I also have a computer disk for Macintosh, DOS or Windows that are documents of forms, letters, cash plan layouts, narrative reports, and more, as found in my Smart Start Book. If you care to purchase a copy of either or both, send a check of $35 for the book and/or $25 for the disk. Be sure to let me know which disk format you need to: Joel E. Margolies, DC 3440 Lawrenceville Highway, Tucker, Georgia 30084. You can reach me by phone at 770-491-3639 or fax 770-491-3799. If you care to purchase these items from either Dynamic Essentials or Parker, contact them. Dr. M