The Importance of Your Brand

When a patient thinks of you, what do they feel? What kind of emotional response comes over them?

What about when a regular consumer thinks of you? Someone who isn't your patient...what do they think of you? What kind of response are they feeling?

Are they?

When you establish yourself in your community, and begin marketing your practice and chiropractic to those people, there are a few truths you should keep in mind regarding how you are branding:

• Your brand is your promise. You are promoting who you are, what you're about, what you stand for, and the unique products and services you are delivering. How you show up in your community speaks volumes about your brand. From being active in community events to just how you look in public establishes your brand image. Did you know that 65% of the people in your community will make their judgment of you just on your appearance. Without ever meeting you. That's part of your brand.
• You build that brand by living up to that promise. Every single time someone in your community comes into contact with you, you need to deliver on that brand promise. Whether its meeting someone in the grocery store, your advertising campaign, billings, email communications...every touchpoint someone has with you, you must deliver on your promise to enhance your brand.
• You strengthen your brand through integrity. By keeping your promise. If you don't...if you falter and let things slide or get misaligned with your promise, your practice will suffer. You are essentially breaking your promise.

This takes focus, determination, attention, money and persistence. But the payoffs of establishing, building and strengthening your brand are huge.

Just ask Coca-Cola, Apple, and Intel...

Brands make selling easier, build equity for your business, unlock profitability, and build name awareness. When someone in your community asks, "is there a good Chiropractor in town?" who in your community is on the top of the list in the response? Is there anyone?

Time to start building your brand bigger!

Doubt Marketing

A thought occurred to me yesterday (the only one for quite some time!), about the way we position Chiropractic in the marketplace.

Perusing facebook essentially encapsulates how we brand ourselves and what intent we use to draw people to Chiropractic.

When research was being gathered regarding the harmful effects of cigarette smoke and data became overwhelmingly evident that smoking could kill you, the tobacco industry responded. Not with large amounts of research of their own to contradict what had been brought to the public, but with clever marketing designed to instill doubt in the public perceptions.

They couldn't argue with the evidence. What they could do was find holes in how the research was conducted. And by doing so and publicizing it, they instilled doubt in the public eye.

And you see this kind of marketing everywhere...every four years, all political parties try to instill doubt in our minds about the opposition...Verizon casts doubt that AT&T has the coverage to effectively provide us phone service...and on and on...

I don't think it's congruent with Chiropractic. It's fear-based and offers no solutions.

All over facebook I see postings about the harmful effects of medications, vaccinations, the medical establishment in general...instead of the incredible possibilities of health and life enhancement that Chiropractic provides mankind.

What do you think? Do you think doubt marketing is the best way for the profession to go? Or do you think we ought to instill some positivity into our efforts?

The Cost of an Adjustment

Have you ever done a break-even analysis for your practice? How much revenue needs to come in per month so that you can keep your doors open? Easy to compute right? Take the total expenses per month and for simplicity sake, the number of office visits needed at your average fee per visit (never your published fee, but that's another discussion) to match that.

We've all done this...all fretted about paying the bills to keep the doors open...

But have you ever broken it down further and calculate the actual cost to you in performing an adjustment in your office. That's right, how much does it cost you to deliver the adjustic thrust?

No idea?

Thought so.

I'm gonna ask you to include some things in the calculation most businesses wouldn't, because we're a distinct crowd, us Chiropractors.

Take your total office overhead for the month, then add your personal expenses to it. I include this because I know you. If you're like most DC's in startup mode, you probably don't actually pay yourself a set salary per month...you take what's left over (if anything!) and are happy with that. Something has to finance your personal expenses, therefore the need to include both business and personal expenses in this equation. Then take the total number of office visits that month and divide that number into the total business and personal expense.

Let's say your personal expenses were $2,500 per month (I hope you're living on organic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the start-up phase, it's a good idea to keep ALL overheads low!) and your office expenses were a fairly hefty $8,500 per month.

Break-even analysis says that if you charge $40 per visit, you need to see 275 people that month. ($11,000/$40 = 275)

Let's say you're in your fourth month of practice and have done some savvy marketing, along with providing wow service and your referral rate is high, and you saw 325 visits that month. The cost of providing care per person is $11,000/325 = $33.85.

Good news and bad for that number...good news is that it puts you in the black...bad news is the margin is less than 20%. Couple of things you can do to enhance the margin, increase the volume (which you will), increase the fee, or decrease the overhead.

I'd love you to be closer to a 40% margin, meaning in the above example your volume would have to be about 390 visits per month, bringing your cost down to around $28.50 per patient.

This can put some perspective on your budgeting process, on your marketing efforts, and on your educational systems to help you fine tune your strategy to accomplish your vision for a better world.

CTK and ITK...

I like to think I'm fairly tapped in to the latest trends in technology, culture, etc...certainly not to the extent that some people (creators or influencers) are, but enough to be fairly savvy in conversations with like-minded people.

Call it ITK...in the know.

And there are different tiers of knowing...let's subdivide into categories for clarity:

CTK - creators of the know - as a business owner, you have a tremendous opportunity to create the know, to establish the knowledge base in your community of Chiropractic and health, how they fit together and WHY people would want to engage and participate in the process with you. You have a responsibility to do this...it's up to you. Engage your creative right brain, use technology to get your message out (facebook, twitter, blogs). This builds your tribe and creates a forum for people to get connected to you as the leader, to each other as a family and to the BIG idea of Chiropractic and health.

Some industry models to learn from: Steve Jobs - Apple, James Cameron - filmmaker, Lady Gaga - pop artist, Jamie Oliver - chef, Ryan Murphy - TV producer, Soraya Darabi - Drop.io Find out what makes people tick, study creativity, branding, decision-making processes, influence and change. Then take action!

Then there's the ITK...people in the know that need something and/or someone to follow.

You.

There is a massive group of people out there that know our current sick care system is not working and need a new paradigm of healthcare, a group that is willing to embrace a new way of thinking and acting on their health. And they are looking for you.

You have a responsibility to be the CTK for your community...to create a knowledge base in your community that moves people toward health instead of away from sickness and disease.

It's time you position yourself and your practice as the leader for health and wholeness in your community, where people aren't just getting through the day, but giving to the day. You can and need to teach them how to do this for themselves, for their families, for their friends and co-workers.

So create the know...tap into the population of early adopters and influencers, teach them how to spread the message to others and watch your practice grow while enhancing the health and wholeness of your community.

Big stuff!!

Logotypes...Establishing Your Brand Image

What image do you present to your community? Is it one that sticks in their mind? Something that is easily recognizable, that can be identified and associated with your business? An image that conjures an emotional response in their minds, whether they've been to your practice or not?

Here's a quiz. See if you can recognize these logos and associate them with their company. It's not hard, but I also want you to think about what emotion this draws out of you...











I bet you even recognize a color as a logo, one that certainly stirs strong emotion...










Your logo is a big piece of your business identity...it helps establish who you are.

Here's some standard hints on what to do to pick a logo that will work:

1. Horizontal is the rule - ideal sizes are 2.25 units horizontal and 1 unit vertical. Why? Your potential customers are seeing it out of their eyes, which are mounted in your head on the horizontal plane. It should be the same shape as a windshield. Vertical logotypes are too difficult to read.
   
2. Must have a legible typeface - if words are what communicate the power of the brand, the typeface used enhances or hinders that power.
3. Who are you trying to attract? - use fonts appropriately. Sans serif typefaces are modern, serif typefaces are old-fashioned, bold connotes masculinity, and light typefaces look feminine.
4. Hire someone to design it for you - you are a master at adjusting and communicating, not in design (most likely!). Meet with a branding strategist to establish your brand properly. They will go through a detailed interview with you to ascertain your vision and then magically will identify several images to create it for you.

Maybe it's time you updated your logo. Is the one you're using now outdated? Is it aligned with the vision you have established?

If so, use these strategies to help your company be more identifiable.

Enjoy!!

Checking Your Commitment...

There are two levels of commitment:

• doing what you know
• doing whatever it takes

What level are you at?

What strategies, projects and tactics do you need to take action on to get the the next one?

Happy trails!

How Much Are You Willing to Gamble?

Read a neat little article in USA Today this morning about Domino's Pizza and the recent changes they've made.

It was a bold move...changing their entire recipe. Promoting it with a huge ad campaign most of you have probably seen. In a sense, the article was right...Domino's bet the farm on this massive change to their company. They took a risk, knowing that their former product was still generating sales for them with costs kept very low, allowing them to operate very efficiently.

But they did the right thing. It's been awhile since I've had Domino's, and I distinctly remember why...it was bad. Really bad.

The change proved successful for them. Quarterly sales up over 14% (especially when the industry fell 3%). When you're dealing with billions in sales, that's incredible. Stockholders were also quite pleased, with stock prices rising over 70%.

The point is that Domino's saw something they could do better, even though they were already doing well (#2 in the industry at $3B in sales in 2009). They created an opportunity to take their business to the next level, and even though there were risks aplenty, doing the right thing prevailed...and paid off. Big difference between doing things right (which they already were), and doing the right thing.

I'm not asking you to bet the farm with your business, I am asking you to create changes that will take your business to the next level.

Stagnation kills many businesses, innovation lifts them to new levels.

What innovation have you implemented in your business lately?

Get going!!

Wasting Time....It Costs You Dearly

Here's a typical office procedure too many get trapped in:

After you finish adjusting your patient, the patient gets off the table, puts their wallet, change, knife, gets their purse,(all their stuff!), etc, back into their pockets, looks in the mirror, checks their hair to make sure hair and face look presentable, gather themselves and leave the room with you accompanying them up to the front desk so that you can tell them and your CA when you want to see them again. You then call for the next patient, waiting for them to put down the magazine (probably not Chiropractic or vitalistic in its scope), gather their belongings they've set down (again the purse, cellphone, etc), wait for them to meet you and you walk them down the hall into the adjusting room, where they again empty their pockets....all over again and again, multiple times per day.

If you estimate the time that process takes between patients to be a VERY conservative two minutes (which it NEVER is!), imagine the amount of wasted time and money it costs you to do that.

Let's say you see 10 patient visits per hour at $50 per visit. $500 per hour you are making, a very nice living. Let's say now that a typical day has you seeing patients like this for 6 hours...a $3,000 day.

Wait a sec though....what could it be??

Remember, you're conservatively spending two minutes between every patient walking them up and down the hall, where really nothing goes on for any specific intent or purpose. That equals 2 hours of wasted time per day. Extrapolate that to money terms and you are missing out on potential revenues of $1000 per day. Further extended, let's say you're working 250 days per year. That equals $250,000 per year of lost revenue. Even more, extend it over the course of your typical 40 year practice career and you just lost $10,000,000.

Doing something as inefficient as walking up and down the hallway.

Time to check your systems for efficiencies...or lack thereof.

Getting rid of low-hanging fruit like this can make a huge difference for your practice and can mean the difference between a retirement of your dreams...or not.

Positioning Chiropractic...We Need a Change

Read another great piece* today from Al Ries and Jack Trout...in it he talks about positioning your business to create massive success for it.

He said for us to position our businesses (and profession I'll add) successfully, we need to answer six key questions. Play along with me and let's start some crucial conversations about these questions in the realm of chiropractic, health care, and our identity.

1. What position do you own? Not in your head, but in the mind of the consumer...how does the consumer position you as part of their health care? For the majority, we are their back pain specialists. Something that needs to be altered for sure...so how do we go about altering that position in their heads? It seems the way we're educating our patients is stuck. By that I mean we are educating them in an allopathic model, wherein we state they have this problem (subluxation) and they need to come to us so the we can correct it. In other words, they have something that we can help them get rid of, not unlike them having an infection and a medical doctor prescribing a drug to get rid of that. It may sting a bit to hear that, but it's exactly what is happening, which in a vitalistically based paradigm, simply does not work. You cannot hold two conflicting paradigms simultaneously. We must change the way we educate our patients about their life, what subluxation is and how chiropractic fits into their regular life schedule.
2. What position do you want to own? Certainly not the allopathic model for treatment of disease. It's archaic and not working for us or for the health of the world. In the US we are spending more, but sicker than ever...the numbers just don't add up. People spend large amounts of money to be healthy, just not sick. They are dropping huge sums on gym memberships, organic foods, clean water, even on a good night's sleep because all of these things have been positioned by the companies involved as getting them healthier. Why isn't maintaining a healthy spine that allows a proper brain-body connection part of that regular consumption?
   
3. Whom must you outgun? The answer is kind of sad....ourselves! We have no direct competition in the vitalistic arena. Substitutes sure; diet, exercise, other forms of "alternative care", but most of those forms of care I contend still have an allopathic slant to them. This is ours for the taking, but settling for bellying-up to the bar with other professions has cost us dearly. We have got such an opportunity for this market, and we're fighting with each other. A friend made a comment yesterday that the "straights" arguse with the "mixers" about how they approach chiropractic, and then the "straights" argue among themselves to fight over who's "straighter." Egads...this activity will never get us anywhere.
   
4. Do you have enough money? It takes money to hold a position, and especially to alter a position in the consumer's mind. It's gotta start grass-level for us, maybe even roots-level. One spine at a time has to become one enhanced life at a time. We don't adjust someone to correct, remove, prevent or minimize subluxation or anything else; we adjust them to restore the neurological connection within their body and the normal flow of Life energy to allow a return of their naturally healthy and vibrant state in order to enhance their life! It's not about minimizing anything; it's about MAXIMIZING health and life. Whether we have lots of money, or very little it all starts with the word. But it's got to be the right words, the right message...
5. Can you stick it out? If there's one thing we're great at, it's this: we love Chiropractic more than anything, we have a Lasting Purpose to give, serve, love and do out of abundance and our level of commitment to take this message to the masses has never been stronger. Our technology has never been so advanced to mass communicate our word in an instant, yet all I see on facebook is the bashing of medicine, vaccines, etc...the stuff we DON'T want. Granted, people need to be aware of these things, but not to the point where we offer them no solutions. We know what we don't want for our patients, are we confident in what we DO want for them?? Have you defined that for yourself and your patients? For your community? Making the switch in messaging is difficult...it's so easy to bash the other side and warn our patients about the devastating effects of medicines and vaccines. But the public grows weary of it...plus they already know! What they're looking for is an entirely new way to think, an entirely new way of looking at their health and life, but very few of us are out there offering it.
   
6. Do you match your position? This is where we are hurting the most I think. We know that Chiropractic care enhances lives, in fact saves lives. Yet our advertising (the 7 conditions we take care of), our educating (outside-in and fear-based) doesn't match our vitalistically based vision. We got off-kilter some time ago, and it's time to lay down some new track. Possibilities based education, helping our patients understand that they don't have something that they need to get rid of, but rather they've lost something that is theirs by rite of birth, and that is something that we can help them get back is the key.
   

Boy, it's a lot of work to do, and will take some time, effort, money and resources that we may not all yet have. But we've got people, and we've got relationships and we've got passion and commitment aplenty. Let's make this change and serve the world...

Who's with us??

*Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout

Screwing Up...

I was having a chat this morning with a colleague about the mistakes we make in life and how they can detract us from accomplishing the things we set out to do.

It's not so much that they detract us though, it's just the delay they cause in the process of meeting the outcomes we desire. The question isn't whether we're going to screw up or not (we ALWAYS will), but whether you keep screwing up the same thing over and over again.

If you do, you know you're not learning anything from the mistakes you made and aren't growing.

Mitigating the delay in the screwing up process is what you may want to focus on, and it starts with these simple things:

1. Self-awareness - being immediately aware of mistakes and creating change to correct them
   
2. Discovering your strengths and capitalizing on them
3. Surrounding yourself with great people who always call you to something bigger than what you would do on your own
4. Committing your life purpose to something BIG

These will lead to an optimal life of excellence, and who wouldn't want that?

Have a blast today!

Advertising vs. Publicity

Which form of marketing is best to create awareness for your brand? Advertising or publicity?

You may be asking...there's a difference?

Big difference...one that could make your business explode with committed followers excited to build it for you.

Simplified, advertising is a form of mass communication efforts designed to create awareness for your product or service in an effort to convince the consumer to purchase said product or service. It says "this is what we do and here's how it will benefit your life" all in 30 seconds on TV/radio or less as you're paging through a magazine. In a sense, it's throwing your service out there to as many people as possible and hoping there's some stickiness to it. In my opinion, a rather outside-in approach...fairly random, usually very expensive with returns that are hit or miss.

Publicity, on the other hand, is usually more focused, more inside out...targeted messages that are usually inexpensive, stickier and are farther reaching in establishing your brand identity. Publicity usually shows up as TV news interviews, op-ed pieces in the newspaper, articles done on your business for magazines and newspapers, testimonials given on your facebook, website, in public gatherings, in house and external presentations, etc.

Big businesses have been built by focusing almost exclusively on publicity over advertising. Starbucks, especially during its massive phase of growth, spent very little on advertising (only about $10M over 10 years) and The Body Shop, started by Anita Roddick, who spent years criss-crossing the country, promoting her natural products through TV interviews and newspaper articles. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club devote very little of their expenses to advertising, yet may be the first company to reach over a trillion dollars in revenues.

To me, publicity is more of a call to action, it's the story behind the service you're providing. It establishes you as the leader of a revolution in health. It's intriguing, and if done right, downright captivating.

And who has a better story for humanity than we do?

Go out and tell it.

Better Business Through Conflict...

You have to be able to disagree.

This concept is more important to your business than you can imagine. You cannot do everything you want for your practice alone. You need a team around you. Whether you pay the team members is a different story. In this case your team is not just you and your employees...it may consist of mentors, coaches, directors, employees, family members, patients, etc. These are your stakeholders; people who have a interest in you keeping your doors open.

One of the many things involved in building a great team is conflict. It HAS to happen. But there's a certain stigma attached to disagreement. We tend to think it has to involve uncomfortable confrontation, where negative emotion is invoked and expressed and things taken personally. This is something that should not be done. Little if nothing will happen to benefit your business when negative emotions are expressed.

The key to building a great team is to learn how to deal with the differences each team member brings to the table and harness those differences to grow.

Couple of things to watch for:

Expect to Disagree - you must get used to challenging people on the ideas they bring to the business. Not in a manner that inhibits their creativity, but in a way to explore the ideas they bring. Probe the idea so that it can be fleshed out. Make sure the idea you bring has facts and logic and you can back it up.

Put Emotion Away - everyone needs to see that different ideas aren't stifled by other people. Confronting differences isn't a personal attack, but rather an attempt to open up the thought process more...if things get heated, take a break and come back calm and collected.

When Conflicts Arise, Acknowledge Them - this is going to happen, the best thing to do is recognize the conflict out loud, make everyone aware that they need to be of the utmost professionalism, and work it out as a team.

The point: don't be afraid to disagree in the team environment, in fact encourage it! Your business will benefit, creativity and innovation will be enhanced and the team will be stronger, making your business better.

The Law of the Word...

"If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A word that nobody else owns." (Ries)

What word is conjured up when you think Ferrari? (Performance) What about Honda? (Reliable) Volvo? (Safe) BMW? (Driving) Whether these automobiles fit these words is irrelevant...it's what the consumer feels about them that matters. BMW is the "ultimate driving machine", there are probably many cars who have higher safety ratings than Volvo, more reliable cars then Honda...

The point is how the consumer identifies with the brand.

Take it a step further...how about owning the entire category. Who owns tissue? (Kleenex) Adhesive bandages? (Band-Aid) Cola? (Coke) Gelatin dessert? (Jell-O)

What is the word in the consumer's mind right now about Chiropractic? What should it be? And how do we start to own the category?

Awaiting your thoughts on this one!

(The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries)

The Power of Fellowship...

Ever wonder why all the auto dealerships tend to be clustered all together? Why Wendy's, Burger King and McDonald's all seem to be on the same street? You would think that one of these places would want the block all to its own, right?

Cut down the competition, remove themselves from the fray...

Do you know that they all do this on purpose? They cluster themselves together, not because they want to take customers away from their competitors, but because of the Law of Fellowship(Ries).

The Law of Fellowship essentially states that customers respond to choice. The more choices they have in any given area, the broader the market will become. If the company is alone in an area, the customer has these thoughts running through their mind: "the company must have some flaws," "their price is probably too high," or "who wants to spend money for that brand when there's nothing to compare it to."

Ries states "you seldom see a big, growing, dynamic market without several major brands." Think Coke and Pepsi, Home Depot and Lowe's, Office Depot, Office Max and Staples.

Perhaps we should stop being so competitive with each other in this profession and cluster our offices together? Marketing research proves that this will increase the market of consumers choosing to buy our services.

If it gets more people under care, enhancing their ability to live...then why not? If the large brand is Chiropractic, and we have groups of Chiropractors centered in similar locations throughout an area, the sub-brand becomes the individual office. Based on that, it's a Coke and Pepsi situation...if Coke appeals to older people and Pepsi to the younger crowd, the two brands get to stay focused while at the same time broadening the market.

Really, it's time we start pulling together for Chiropractic, and its a win-win to boot. More competition equals more market share, equals a bigger slice of the pie for you.

I like the sound of that, how about you?

(The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries)

Stop IT!!

Sorry gang, but I've been out for awhile, but now I'm back!!

I just got off a coaching call with two extraordinary Chiropractors...one of whom, sent the video below to us to watch. I was caught up in the realm of trying to be perfect at everything...obsessing on that never-ending pursuit of perfection. And while it may be noble?? It's impossible.

To me, it's about fear. Fear of letting someone down, fear of doing or saying the right thing, fear of success, fear of failure...

Fear, fear, fear...

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the minutiae, the little things we obsess over, the fears that rise up that tell us to withhold and prevent us from going out and doing what's right for the world.

What is fear? Essentially just a bunch of adrenaline running through our bodies, but we let that change in chemistry stop us from doing the things we are supposed to do. We let fear dictate our choices, we let fear run our business.

Afraid to do a weekly health care class? Most people are. Afraid to give your patients the best recommendations for care because you think they don't want to come in that much? Afraid to talk fees and collect money from your patients? Afraid to talk to strangers or even worse friends about becoming a chiropractic patient and enhancing their lives?

Well...STOP IT!!

Watch this great clip, laugh about it, and then confront your fears and stop it! Obviously it's much more difficult than that, but at least start to become aware of what's holding you back, and then take action to overcome.

Time To Get To The Next Level...

Loosely speaking, to graduate means the above title...to move on, to take the next step in the process of your life. It's graduation at Life University today and the men and women who spent the last 4 years of their lives with countless hours of stress and study (and a bit of fun!) get to go to the next level. The graduation doesn't allow them success or significance, it simply offers them the opportunity to create it for themselves. Walking across the stage doesn't get them anything other than the privilege to serve humanity on a scale that they choose. High-volume, cash, low-volume, insurance, high or low overhead, associateship, independent contract, solo practice, somewhere in the US, somewhere abroad...you get to choose how much, how many, who they are, where, the results you expect, etc...you get to choose!! It's all up to you!

What a phenomenal opportunity!

I'd love to leave the post today with the last written words of B.J. Palmer, DC...they certainly ring true today as a group of new doctors enters our glorious and noble profession, but they also serve as a beautiful reminder to you warriors out there in the trenches who are giving, loving, serving and doing every single day for the betterment of humanity.

“Time always has and always will perpetuate those methods which better serve mankind. Chiropractic is no exception to that rule. My illustrious father placed that trust in my keeping, to keep it pure and unsullied or defamed. I pass it on to you unstained, to protect, as he would have you do. As he passed it on so will I. We admonish you to keep this principle and practice unadulterated and unmixed. Humanity needed then what he gave us. You need now what I give you. Out there in those great open spaces are multitudes seeking what you possess. The burdens are heavy; responsibilities are many; obligations are providential; but the satisfaction of traveling the populated highways and byways, relieving suffering and adding millions of years to millions of lives of millions of suffering people, will bring forth satisfaction and glories with greater blessings than you think. Time is of the essence. May God flow from above-down. His bounteous strengths, courage and understanding to carry on; and may your Innates receive and act on that free flow of Wisdom from above-down; inside-out ... for you have in your possession a Sacred Trust. Guard it well.”

Go forth and serve my fellow Chiropractors...

The world is waiting.

What Direction Are You Moving?

Wanted to share with you a concept that came up during some great conversation last night. Most people in the world, and I'm certainly guilty of this as well at times, tend to think from these three areas:

1. What's wrong?
2. What's missing?
3. What we don't want.

But drawing back and really doing some soul searching about this worldview, you can see what it does for us...what we put out to the universe is what we attract to us. We attract the things that we believe are wrong, we attract to us the things we don't want (even though we say we don't want them!)

Extrapolate that to your practice...are you focusing on the things that are wrong, about what's missing, and what you don't want? Are you thinking about the insurance companies that deny or limit your care? About the patient or staff members that "just aren't getting it!" About the tax bill coming up? About the new health care plan?

If so, these thoughts can be so distracting that it causes you to lose focus on growing your practice. You lose focus on serving people and helping create a better world. Your philosophic and clinical intent becomes diluted and unclear. All of these things lead to an undisciplined environment where the systems that were once running at top notch efficiency begin to get loose and sloppy.

You see the slippery slope right? Instead of focusing your thoughts in that arena, how about this:

1. What's right?
2. What do we have to be grateful for?
3. What we want.

You want to make it even more impactful? How about journaling? Kevin Donka suggests writing the answers to these questions down, every single day. He calls it a Focus Journal in which you answer what's right in your life a.) personally and b.) for the world. What's right in your personal life and what's right for the world? What do you have to be grateful for personally and what do you have to be grateful for in the world? What do you want personally and what do you want for the world?

There's something special about writing it down, it lends something tangible to the experience of creating what you want.

Now isn't that a better direction to be moving?

What To Pay Yourself...

Let me begin by saying I firmly believe when starting up you must pay yourself! The amount of work you are putting in to create a start-up is overwhelming and deserving of compensation.

How much, however, is a tougher question to answer especially in start-up mode...you feel the urge to not take a salary while the business is getting started, but you also have personal expenses that need to be covered...so here's some tidbits on how you can handle the situation:

1. Make a list of your expenses. Write down all your monthly, quarterly, semi-annual expenses (car insurance, magazine subscriptions, trash pickup, life insurance, cable, credit cards, student loans, etc). Add a cushion you think is appropriate for entertainment, personal and unforeseen things that may happen. Total these up for the year and divide by 12. This gets you your minimum monthly salary just to squeak by.
   
2. Now take a look at the open market value and comparable companies. What are other Chiropractors of similarly sized companies in the same region paying themselves?

Now based on the number you've come up with, can your cash flow statement match what you have? Based on the pro forma projections for you cash flow, can you provide yourself this salary while still keeping the business a going concern? Ideally, you'd love to have the ability to pay yourself your number, have some more money to reinvest in the business and leave a little extra for a rainy day.

A couple of things to watch out for is your tax situation and business structure. If you're a sole proprietor, the government considers you and your business a single entity. All profits from the business are taxed, regardless of whether you withdraw them for yourself or they stay in the business.

If you decide to incorporate (which I hope you do!), your business is a separate entity and must pay taxes on the profits it earns, but the salary you pay yourself and employees you may have are considered deductible expenses. In a corporation you can also pay yourself a dividend, but these are taxed twice, something I wouldn't do!

As your business grows, you will most certainly adjust your salary appropriately...a general guideline is to increase your salary along the lines of the percentage growth rate of the business. You'll want to review your compensation strategy every six-months, allowing you to act appropriately as the capital needs and cash-flow of your business changes.

Be smart with your money...don't go too crazy too soon with paying yourself and overly exorbitant salary, but don't be too conservative so that you go into the red with your personal expenses. Be conservative with your pro formas and with hard work and Lasting Purpose behind you, you will easily meet these projections and more!

Laws of Branding...Expansion

I recently read The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries...phenomenal book that I highly recommend. One of the laws he makes a case for is the Law of Expansion, noting that the more diluted your brand becomes (the more products or services you have assigned to that brand), the more confused the public gets. Take Chevrolet for example...multiple car lines all the way from the Corvette to the Cobalt. And in the example Ries gives, he offers the evidence that because Chevy has extended its product line from cost-conscious to high-end with multiple variations in between, it has diminished the Chevrolet brand. Over the short run, adding product lines and multiple revenue streams to your business may earn you more money in the next few months or years, but in the long run you risk losing market share and brand dilution in the minds of your potential customers.

Ries provides an interesting example from Levi Strauss. In an effort to establish a wider market, Levi's began producing different cuts like baggy, zippered and wide-leg jeans to the point in which they had 27 different cuts. But their efforts failed them, this dilution of their message caused them to lose 12% of the denim jeans market over a seven year period.

Ries also points out that as consumers, we tend to assign one name to each product, we don't worry about the megabrand (Chevrolet) and all the sub-brands that fall under it (Cobalt, Corvette, Equinox, Malibu...). Further, we don't assign names consistently, we also tend to use the name that best captures the essence of the product. The Cobalt owner will say "I drive a Chevy." The Corvette owner will say, "I drive a 'Vette."

Interesting isn't it?

This begs the question: What is the essence of the brand "Chiropractic?" And what are you doing with your business with that brand? Do you think how Chiropractic is being branded through individual offices throughout the world will set us up for long-term sustainability and increased market share? Would love to hear your thoughts...

Think Boards Are Important?

Today and over the course of the weekend, a few thousand of our Chiropractic brothers and sisters will be sweating it out taking their national board exams.

I have seen them put countless hours of study, record levels of stress and extremely hard work into these exams. And it is of critical import that they pass these tests so that they can go forth and serve humanity.

But I sometimes wonder if we put the same amount of effort into our businesses as we do (or did) to passing these exams. Does our business garner the same level of attention, hard work, levels of stress and anxiety that boards do? Should there be a "national board" covering the success of your business?

When you think about failing boards, you realize it costs a significant amount of money and time to do it over...

What does a failed business cost?