How to get out of the profession you're in and become an entrepreneur

[Andy Black]

Grow what you know?

(Audio) Freedom, Motivation, & Grow What You Know

Learn a skill, sell a skill, scale a skill?

So you have a skill. Are you flooded with sales? If you were flooded with sales, how would you scale?

Are there people without your level of chiropractor skills doing better in the chiropractor space because of better commercial skills? (You likely get paid by them or pay them.)


You may find this site useful:
Home - Delivering WOW

I don't know if you've checked out what I shared above.

I'll just leave these here too:

• www.tropicalmba.com/consulting
• www.tropicalmba.com/services
• www.tropicalmba.com/scale
• Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses

 

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[drgregw]

Could you Uber-fy chiropractic care in your area?

Also, @drgregw, I'm in a very similar situation - 2 young kids, student loans, pretty solidly in a scripted lifestyle right now, work experience all related to a traditional 9-5... BUT with a big desire for change. Part of my immediate action items are around adjusting my mindset & focusing on the process (not the event) to shift to Unscripted . Am happy to do periodic accountability check-ins with you if that sort of thing sounds helpful.

I believe I could "Uber-fy" chiro care in my area. I live in a fairly wealthy suburb of Cincinnati so the clients are here. My ideal clients would be stay at home moms and their families. I tried this business before but I was ill-prepared and I didn't have this forum to guide me and give me the wisdom to succeed.

I think an accountability partner would be fantastic. I have a question for you. I assume you are married, does your wife support your venture? Does she listen to your ideas or give you advice or feedback? My wife is so slowlane that all she sees is risk and me "neglecting" our family by putting more time into work. I don't blame her I guess, becuase my past attempts were failures and for the last 5 years I have had 20 different business ideas that I brought to her, so she's probably a bit jaded...anyways, how do you deal with that sitatuion with your spouse?

 

[Scot]

I believe I could "Uber-fy" chiro care in my area. I live in a fairly wealthy suburb of Cincinnati so the clients are here. My ideal clients would be stay at home moms and their families. I tried this business before but I was ill-prepared and I didn't have this forum to guide me and give me the wisdom to succeed.

I think an accountability partner would be fantastic. I have a question for you. I assume you are married, does your wife support your venture? Does she listen to your ideas or give you advice or feedback? My wife is so slowlane that all she sees is risk and me "neglecting" our family by putting more time into work. I don't blame her I guess, becuase my past attempts were failures and for the last 5 years I have had 20 different business ideas that I brought to her, so she's probably a bit jaded...anyways, how do you deal with that sitatuion with your spouse?

Be careful with just switching to a house call business model. Because it'll be very easy for you to slip into another job, that may or may not pay more.

You need to find a way to systematize this business so that you can remove yourself from it.

 

[DeterminedJ]

Be careful with just switching to a house call business model. Because it'll be very easy for you to slip into another job, that may or may not pay more.

You need to find a way to systematize this business so that you can remove yourself from it.

Yes, exactly this! This is more what I meant with the "uber-fy" of Chiro care. Can you use your knowledge and skills as a Chiro to help get something off the ground and vet other practitioners, but not be the actual person doing all the house calls. You be the person who sets up the system/software/etc, connects clients to practitioners, gets a certain % of each sale.

 

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[drgregw]

I don't know if you've checked out what I shared above.

I'll just leave these here too:

• www.tropicalmba.com/consulting
• www.tropicalmba.com/services
• www.tropicalmba.com/scale
• Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses

Andy, sorry I forgot to mention your interview. I did listen to the Grow What you Know interview. I actually thought about the story about your electrician friend that you helped out when I was making decisions about how to move forward. I could try my hand with website development or social media marketing or any other "low cost" ideas, but what I know is chiropractic. That is why I am moving forward with a chiropractic idea. I'll give it another listen to pick out some gems. Thanks for the other links, I 'll look at as many resources as I can get my hands on.

Andy, I have a question for you. One of the obstacles to overcome is the expectation that a patient goes to the chiropractor, not vice-versa. Based on your experience, are ad-words "powerful" enough to change those expectations or change the mind of the consumer?

 

[Scot]

Yes, exactly this! This is more what I meant with the "uber-fy" of Chiro care. Can you use your knowledge and skills as a Chiro to help get something off the ground and vet other practitioners, but not be the actual person doing all the house calls. You be the person who sets up the system/software/etc, connects clients to practitioners, gets a certain % of each sale.

@drgregw This thread made me think of a business I follow so I created a case study thread here Off-Topic - Creating a successful franchise with over 90 doctors

I think you'd get a lot out of how this practice operates.

 

[drgregw]

Be careful with just switching to a house call business model. Because it'll be very easy for you to slip into another job, that may or may not pay more.

You need to find a way to systematize this business so that you can remove yourself from it.

Thanks for the advice! I've thought about this. I'm aware that this will start as another job. My main objective is to create more time for the same or more pay. If my pricing structure is accurate I would need to perform about 16 adjustments per week to totally replace my income. If I can do 4 or 5 appointments a day that will bump me down from 6.5 days a week to 3.5 days a week. I can use t hat extra time and freedom to focus on a Fastlane venture or focus more on how to make this housecall business Fastlane. I've fantasized about what it would looks like Fastlane, but I'm still unsure if that vision is a reality.

 

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[DeterminedJ]

does your wife support your venture? Does she listen to your ideas or give you advice or feedback? My wife is so slowlane that all she sees is risk and me "neglecting" our family by putting more time into work. I don't blame her I guess, becuase my past attempts were failures and for the last 5 years I have had 20 different business ideas that I brought to her, so she's probably a bit jaded...anyways, how do you deal with that sitatuion with your spouse?

Well, so it turns out that I'm actually a lady, but yes I do have a spouse - a pretty rocking husband I definitely understand what you're saying - my husband (let's call him Mr. J) has a hard time seeing things from a Fastlane lens as well. Sometimes I feel frustrated by this, but then I have to remind myself that I lived X years before seeing the lightbulb on this one, so I guess I can't really expect that Mr.J will have his lightbulb moment before he's ready.

One thing that I have found some traction with is talking about this idea of Scripted vs Unscripted . That has definitely been more palatable to Mr.J. Because the universe loves its coincidences, Mr.J actually had a heart-to-heart with me last night (he brought it up!) about how he's feeling unsatisfied in the current mainstream existence we're living and he wants to break free and do things "our way." We are having a family planning session this weekend to talk about some small steps we can make to get us closer to this goal. EUREKA!!!... phase 1, anyway.

I wonder if the same sort of approach could work with your wife? Maybe try to focus less on Slowlane vs Fastlane (which seems to make Mr.J's eyes glaze over). Can you bring it back to the idea of living Scripted (living an average, mainstream existence doing the things you're 'supposed' to do just because) vs the idea of living Unscripted (getting clear on what your family goals are and making small steps toward those goals)? For example, Scripted says live to the edge of your means or beyond. "Have 2 kids? Well, you're going to need a 3-4 br house in a great neighborhood and probably 2 cars too!" But do you guys actually care about those things? Wouldn't it be kind of nice to just have a 2 br - less $ each month, less $ to furnish, less time to clean, less time spent on yard maintenance - or for one of you to bike or take the bus to work? Whatever works for your situation, of course.

Long story slightly less long: It's probably hard for her to imagine the grand payouts when she's not seeing any of the benefits right this second. Try to find small ways to help give your family more time-freedom. As your wife starts to see the positive outcomes, then you can probably have more open convos with her about Fastlane business ideas. What do you think?

 

[drgregw]

@drgregw This thread made me think of a business I follow so I created a case study thread here Off-Topic - Creating a successful franchise with over 90 doctors

I think you'd get a lot out of how this practice operates.

Thank you!!

 

[Andy Black]

Andy, sorry I forgot to mention your interview. I did listen to the Grow What you Know interview. I actually thought about the story about your electrician friend that you helped out when I was making decisions about how to move forward. I could try my hand with website development or social media marketing or any other "low cost" ideas, but what I know is chiropractic. That is why I am moving forward with a chiropractic idea. I'll give it another listen to pick out some gems. Thanks for the other links, I 'll look at as many resources as I can get my hands on.

Andy, I have a question for you. One of the obstacles to overcome is the expectation that a patient goes to the chiropractor, not vice-versa. Based on your experience, are ad-words "powerful" enough to change those expectations or change the mind of the consumer?

Hold on... by "Grow what you know" I mean to grow from your current skill set of being a chiropractor.

Can you increase your steady stream of new business?

Can you get to a new problem of too many leads, indicating you've cracked "sell your skill", and giving you the problem of how to scale your skill?

 

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[drgregw]

Hold on... by "Grow what you know" I mean to grow from your current skill set of being a chiropractor.

Can you increase your steady stream of new business?

Can you get to a new problem of too many leads, indicating you've cracked "sell your skill", and giving you the problem of how to scale your skill?

I'm not 100% sure I understand, Andy.

So what you are saying is get to a point where I am maxing out the practice I work in and taking all the new patients is a problem? And then find a way to scale my ability to acquire so many new patients?


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[Andy Black]

I'm not 100% sure I understand, Andy.

So what you are saying is get to a point where I am maxing out the practice I work in and taking all the new patients is a problem? And then find a way to scale my ability to acquire so many new patients?


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Yes. It's one way to grow what you know. There's others of course.

 

[drgregw]

Well, so it turns out that I'm actually a lady, but yes I do have a spouse - a pretty rocking husband I definitely understand what you're saying - my husband (let's call him Mr. J) has a hard time seeing things from a Fastlane lens as well. Sometimes I feel frustrated by this, but then I have to remind myself that I lived X years before seeing the lightbulb on this one, so I guess I can't really expect that Mr.J will have his lightbulb moment before he's ready.

One thing that I have found some traction with is talking about this idea of Scripted vs Unscripted . That has definitely been more palatable to Mr.J. Because the universe loves its coincidences, Mr.J actually had a heart-to-heart with me last night (he brought it up!) about how he's feeling unsatisfied in the current mainstream existence we're living and he wants to break free and do things "our way." We are having a family planning session this weekend to talk about some small steps we can make to get us closer to this goal. EUREKA!!!... phase 1, anyway.

I wonder if the same sort of approach could work with your wife? Maybe try to focus less on Slowlane vs Fastlane (which seems to make Mr.J's eyes glaze over). Can you bring it back to the idea of living Scripted (living an average, mainstream existence doing the things you're 'supposed' to do just because) vs the idea of living Unscripted (getting clear on what your family goals are and making small steps toward those goals)? For example, Scripted says live to the edge of your means or beyond. "Have 2 kids? Well, you're going to need a 3-4 br house in a great neighborhood and probably 2 cars too!" But do you guys actually care about those things? Wouldn't it be kind of nice to just have a 2 br - less $ each month, less $ to furnish, less time to clean, less time spent on yard maintenance - or for one of you to bike or take the bus to work? Whatever works for your situation, of course.

Long story slightly less long: It's probably hard for her to imagine the grand payouts when she's not seeing any of the benefits right this second. Try to find small ways to help give your family more time-freedom. As your wife starts to see the positive outcomes, then you can probably have more open convos with her about Fastlane business ideas. What do you think?

Sorry for the assumption that you are a man, that's a little sexist and closed minded. Im not usually like that. I'm really happy that you are seeing the shift in your husbands mindset! Please, let me k is how that change affects your journey. Talking more about the script and less about slowlane/Fastlane is a really great idea. When I talk to my wife about it I just lump the two together. I'll try your approach. She's so scripted though. I'll see glimpses of UNscripted come through and then she'll say "I guess we'll just have to win the lottery so we can..." and I just want to pull my hair out. I digress, I'll work on her and let you know how it goes.

So if we are going be accountabili-buddies, what do I need to hold you accountable for? What is your slowlane gig? What are you working on?


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[DeterminedJ]

So if we are going be accountabili-buddies, what do I need to hold you accountable for? What is your slowlane gig? What are you working on?

Rule one of an accountability buddy is to actually show up and check in. So I apologize that it's taken me a good week to reply.

Here are a few things I'm currently working on for July. While I know that only I can ultimately hold myself accountable, saying all this on a semi-public forum feels powerful for me.

1. I really took some time to digest the various FLF suggestions to 'grow what you know.' I've acknowledged to myself that my previous idea (essentially a version of Thumbtack, but focused on just one specific industry) is not the right first project for me - in reality, I know nothing about that world. Accountability item #1: stay focused on what I know.

2. Previously, I agreed to help out with a summer course that runs through July. It meets a few times a week and gives me the opportunity to help (and listen to) people new to this particular topic. Agreeing to partake in the session was a total procrastination move on my part (keeps me from having to do the hard work of taking real action). BUT I'm honoring my commitment and showing up for the full session. Once it wraps up, it's time for accountability item #2: stop signing up for classes & workshops - not as a student, not as a helper.

3. The organization that I work for has some incredible brand recognition, and I'd like to set myself up to better utilize that for future (or side-) endeavors. For example, I've done a lot of process design and automation around my particular role, which has allowed me to take on a greater volume of work. The team I'm on is now expanding, and I've been asked to prototype some process improvements and/or automations that would help the overall team. Accountability item #3: document this process so I have a case study I could use in future non-9-to-5 scenarios.

4. Another side benefit of where I work is access to a broad range of software, which definitely helped in my automation mission. I'm interested in exploring this same type of work, but with small businesses, entrepreneurs, etc. Because those groups have fewer resources, the automation tools they would/could use will be different. I've researched several that look pretty cool and are no- or low-cost. Accountability item #4: sign up for a personal account with the top two identified tools and experiment.

What about you, @drgregw? What can I (and the Forum collectively) help hold you accountable for?


Also, I know it probably feels frustrating that your spouse doesn't fully get the fastlane ideals, but keep looking for the overlap where your values and hers intersect. Focus on small wins (or big wins) that help your overlapping values. Once she sees the benefit, I wouldn't be surprised if she starts to warm up to more of the ideas.

 

[Sfbloo]

I'm watching this post with interest as a lot of the thoughts expressed are definitely shared by me. I'm almost frozen by the sheer amount of info and success stories from this site....i spend so much time in a loop of posts, AMA, recommended sites. Just spent my lunch on foreverjobless site after seeing a vigilante link..... so much amazing information that is resonating with me to the point it's almost muddying the water.

 

[OldFaithful]

If my pricing structure is accurate I would need to perform about 16 adjustments per week to totally replace my income.

Roughly how many adjustments do you perform per week? No need to answer here, just so that you know the answer. I ask because my chiropractor changed the office layout, and his modus operandi, a couple of years ago. The change was dramatic.

He used to have private rooms for visitation, with separate changing rooms for each, and gowns available. He typically spent half an hour with each client, and used paper record-keeping, which he would review prior to adjustment and then amend after each visit.

Now he has a digital sign-in for each patient and we fill in what our trouble areas might be. (He no longer needs to ask us what the trouble is, and then have a lengthy conversation about it.) Then we're ushered into small "cubicle like" rooms with no privacy and no dis-robing at all, thus no gowns or changing rooms. He uses software to track patient history and moves quickly from room to room via adjoining doors, so visit time has been cut in half or more. That has enabled him to dramatically increase his patient count in the same hours without any additional staff.

Just an idea of how one might be more efficient at the current JOB. Though it is still a time trade...it can be a better trade. I don't know, but this might help with your clinic plans.

 

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[Analyticz]

@drgrew You work in that chiropractic field so what problems do clients tell you about besides the ones they suffer with physically? From what you have learnt about marketing where are Chiros falling flat, what can you offer them?

Why not phone other successful Chiros and ask them what are they doing differently compared to the ones that are struggling. Why do they successful vs the others? You could do a webinar and sell the info to other Chiros who want to grow their businesses?

What software are they using, which ones do they wish they had or were thinking about?
How do they contact their clients? How is their follow up with clients after the appointment? Do they keep in touch with them or do the clients move onto others?
How do they track late payments? Who does all the follow up on payments? Is it costing them big % of cash flow for large practices with 5 or more doctors?
How do they monitor referrals? Do they have a way to get compensated if they refer to other specialists could they do a profit split?

I think there may be many avenues to explore if you talk with other Chiros, but I do know that it is difficult when working in the environment to see and hear all the pains. We automatically glaze over and forgot or dont listen to people as it is not new to us so it is the same things that we have been hearing over and over. We dont hear the pains and so dont create solutions or things that could solve those pains.
Looking over my post it seems that there are many questions and not much said, but I think it is wise cause it expands your thinking when stuck in rut. Questions lead to your mind opening. At least it works for me.

Keep us informed.

 

[drgregw]

@drgrew You work in that chiropractic field so what problems do clients tell you about besides the ones they suffer with physically? From what you have learnt about marketing where are Chiros falling flat, what can you offer them?

Why not phone other successful Chiros and ask them what are they doing differently compared to the ones that are struggling. Why do they successful vs the others? You could do a webinar and sell the info to other Chiros who want to grow their businesses?

What software are they using, which ones do they wish they had or were thinking about?
How do they contact their clients? How is their follow up with clients after the appointment? Do they keep in touch with them or do the clients move onto others?
How do they track late payments? Who does all the follow up on payments? Is it costing them big % of cash flow for large practices with 5 or more doctors?
How do they monitor referrals? Do they have a way to get compensated if they refer to other specialists could they do a profit split?

I think there may be many avenues to explore if you talk with other Chiros, but I do know that it is difficult when working in the environment to see and hear all the pains. We automatically glaze over and forgot or dont listen to people as it is not new to us so it is the same things that we have been hearing over and over. We dont hear the pains and so dont create solutions or things that could solve those pains.
Looking over my post it seems that there are many questions and not much said, but I think it is wise cause it expands your thinking when stuck in rut. Questions lead to your mind opening. At least it works for me.

Keep us informed.

I know this is an older post but after taking a break from the forum to get on the right path personally I just read this. This is killer. I always reach out to these “ gurus” in chiropractic and they always get back to me promptly and are so cool about talking. They give sound advice. I NEVER thought about organizing the advice I get to pass on to other struggling doctors (there are a lot of those). Thank you.


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