I haven’t yet run an acupuncture clinic myself. Still, I get asked a lot about how to set up the business procedures/processes for running a clinic.

The best book I’ve seen on running a business is The E-Myth Revisited. Bad title, great book. It’s actually easy to read, makes a lot of sense, and will get you thinking about how to make things easier on yourself.It’s almost certainly in your local library.

In it, Michael Gerber talks about how many people who start a business end up creating a job for themselves that’s much worse than the job they left. It’s no wonder that [Read more →]

For those of you who don’t know Dr. Tan, he’s got an amazing system of acupuncture called the Balance method. It pretty much uses only distal points (points on the limbs or head, not the body) so that no disrobing is needed. From what I can tell, practitioners use a needle on every meridian. The effect is to balance all meridians at once.

Also, the points are achi - meaning if it’s a good point to needle, it will feel sore to the patient. It makes for super-fast and accurate point location.

My best buddy (who got me started in marketing acupuncture) uses Dr. Tan’s methods exclusively. For awhile I thought he was lazy or negligent, [Read more →]

On April 24th, I decided to improve my own marketing. Here’s what I did:

[Read more →]

Someone emailed me:

“People who are in the holistic health business should be as aggressive as pharmaceutical companies when it comes to marketing their services.”

They aren’t kidding. The most profitable businesses in the world (as determined by profit margin) are drug companies. What’s worse is they’re devastatingly effective at what they do. The PLoS Medical Journal is one of the only medical journals that doesn’t accept ad money from drug companies. Most continuing education for doctors is sponsored by the drug companies!!!

This means they don’t learn about new therapies. Or nutrition, exercise and better living helps patients. Especially not about acupuncture and OM. They just learn about drugs, drugs and more drugs.

Want to know how the drug companies market? [Read more →]

You’ve heard of acufinder, and they cost something like $179 a year or $219 for two years (if I remember correctly. They may be well worth it, because each new patient is worth at least $150 (probably closer to twice that). So just one new patient pays for the ad. Every patient after that is a bonus.

TCM Directory isn’t as well known as acufinder, but it actually has more features. Elie, the site’s creator, tells me that some people even use it as their website. It’s that powerful. Until September 15th, you can get a listing for $11 - 85% off the regular price. [Read more →]

Kevin Doherty and Lonny Jarrett are giving a free teleseminar on Chinese Medicine and the Evolution of Consciousness.

What is the largest possible context for the practice of Chinese medicine in the 21st century? How will Chinese medicine help humanity to face the challenges that confront us today? Chinese medicine has remained relevant for 4,000 years because it has continually evolved to help humanity rise to meet the challenges that confronted us throughout history.

Kevin and Lonny will discussthe challenges that are unique to our modern world, how to address them from a clinical perspective, and how as a practitioner you can heighten your own consciousness to create a deeper context for treatment.

[Read more →]

Referrals work great for lawyers, real estate agents, mechanics, even Mary Kay consultants. There’s a lot of referral systems out there. A LOT. Here’s a partial list of some good resources: [Read more →]

In the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, there’s a story about an experiment. Subjects were giving songs to tap out by hand, such as “Happy Birthday” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” It’s somewhat like playing a piano when the piano doesn’t make noise.

The subjects thought the guessers would get half the songs right. The actual number was 2% - only one in 50!

Another story is given of [Read more →]

(I’ve been doing password protected posts on Fridays, but today I’m going to do something different. I’ll password protect this next week to keep this exclusive for my readers.)

I’ve been reading Bob Burg’s “Endless Referrals.” Most of it is about getting people to do you a favor by referring. This isn’t my type of referrals - and I don’t think it’s yours. People want to help their friends, not build your practice or do your marketing for you.

But there’s one thing from “Endless Referrals” that I really like. It’s [Read more →]

You can spend hundreds of dollars having a nice logo created for you, but it won’t help your marketing much. A logo is mainly for mass market brands that can afford to “get their name out there” over and over again.

That doesn’t sound like you or me, does it?

I’ve also seen really cool-looking websites for acupuncture clinics. Amazing flash animations and graphics. A lot of acupuncturists have artistic tendencies. This leads to really sexy-looking brochures. And don’t get me wrong, professionalism IS important. Cheap brochures or business cards and ugly websites will turn people off. But does the message they convey turn people on?

Problem is, [Read more →]

The underlying principles in Never Market Again all center around relationships and education. That’s what makes possible “marketing without marketing”.

I just found THE best summary I’ve ever read of the kind of marketing for acupuncture that I teach. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t write it myself:

When communication is poorly and selfishly executed, it’s called “marketing” - but when done well it’s called “relationship”.

- Brent Hodgson

You can and should do almost ANYTHING if it’s good communication. That can only help your patients and strengthen their relationship with you.

How have you seen this in your own clinic? Isn’t it great when it happens?

Dan Clements over at AlternativeHealthPractice.com writes great material on practice building for acupuncturists and other alternative medical practitioners. It’s so good it’s actually very annoying - how am I supposed to pick what to tell you about to help promote your practice? So I’ve been putting off mentioning AlternativeHealthPractice.com until now.

Finally figured out how to make it easy for you to find what’s valuable for you. Check out Dan’s articles on: [Read more →]

I’m in talks with the Chicago Department of Public Health, as well as a few other agencies about setting up community acupuncture clinics. (The clinics will not be offered through the CDPH itself, but with affiliated agencies.) These will be mobile clinics, with different locations during the week.

I’m looking for an acupuncturists with:

• Great “bedside” matter. Must be able to put people at their ease.
• Knowledge of Dr. Tan’s Balance Method or Miram Lee’s methods. (If you’re not familiar, we may be able to work something out.)
• Own transportation. Ideally you would be able to transport 4-5 zero-gravity chairs (high tech lounge chairs that look almost like lawn chairs).
• Locations in the Chicago area, and the western suburbs (Naperville/Oakbrook).
• Ability to give talks is preferable.

Must be a self-starter and good communicator.

The position will be part time (two days a week) to start, and can be arranged to fit your schedule. Send your CV to Burton if you have his email, or use the contact form.

I’ve done a lot of research looking up acupuncture studies. If you want to do the same, I suggest taking a memory stick to a teaching hospital and visiting their library. You’ll be able to get articles galore. Also Google Scholar is awesome but incomplete unless used in the library. Usually you can get abstracts and complete articles for about 30% of all articles. (Go ahead and check it out. Scholar at the library is unbelievable.)

Anyway, there are always some studies that show acupuncture doesn’t work. Or show that it works only a few percentage points better than placebo - but not enough to be statistically significant.

These studies all have one thing in common. [Read more →]

Some people are worried about the recession. The established definition of a recession is a contraction in the GDP (gross domestic product) for at least 6 months. Basically, it means less money is exchanging hands - people change their spending habits. They still spend, but not as often. This means less value is being created by commerce. Also, most businesses cut back on their marketing.

As far as I’m concerned, the acupuncture profession is already in a several decade-long “recession” of sorts. It’s up to us to get out of it. [Read more →]