Chiropractic Clinic Business Plan

Accurate Chiropractic, LLC will focus, geographically on the southwestern Lee County region of Florida, particularly in the town of Fort Myers. 

The target customers are those members of our community who have been injured in motor vehicle and work related accidents either recently or in the past.  We will reach these people directly through emotional based direct response marketing and indirectly through our contacts with local personal injury attorneys, medical physicians, and corporate clients.

5.1 Competitive Edge

We start with a competitive edge in that our location is ideal.Within a 7 mile ring around our officethere are projected to be 165,958 people by the year 2005 (156,517 as of the 2000 census).¹ There is no other competitor in this areathat we know of that can make the same claimand shares our vision for care of the injured. Our positioning in this area is hard to match; the combination of land development and road improvement in the area make for hazardous driving conditions andgreater potential for injured workers.We must be aware that wewill only produce results if we maintain our mainstrategic focus and direct our marketing, business development, and fulfillment in the area of injury and chronic pain care.

Our name, Accurate Chiropractic, LLC, also provides us a competitive edge. First the name itself, Accurate has the connotation we are looking to get across to our patients that our care is the right care for them. Second it puts us at or nearthe front of the yellow pages and managed care providerdirectories.

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¹ 2005 Scan/US Projections, Scan/US, Inc. (800)272-2687 and www.scanus.com

5.2 Marketing Strategy

Marketing in a chiropractic practice hinges on the ability to properly communicate to the general public that natural care is a viable and effective alternative to traditional medicine.In accident/injury care,marketing must be done directly to the end consumer (patients),and indirectly through legal and medical professionals, as well as corporate safety managers.

We will develop a database of injured people who are seeking or have an interest inalternatives to traditional medicalcare. It starts withdirectresponse advertising geared at eliciting an emotional response. We will place small advertisements in local daily, weekly, and monthly publications unlike any listings from other doctors in our area.We will not attempt to sell our services by stating we are the best, wecare, we have a friendly staff, etc.- everyone else is doing just that.¹Rather, we will sell a concept that strikes an emotional cord with the injured and causes them to call a toll freevoice recorded message (people are more likely to call knowing they will not be pressured by a live person)for a free report on various topics.² Each topic, be it auto accident, back pain, orneck painwill have its own (800) number to allow us to track the effectiveness of our advertising (wehave already purchased this tool from a companythat provides the service and transcription of information calledPATlive).We will simply ask the prospective patient to leave their name andaddress only (the software automatically records their phone number) and give them the option of being directly connected to a caring professional.³ The database will be managed by our clerical staff, who will enter data received by fax from PATlive’s transcription service directly into ourcontact management software and follow-up with our system of mailing reports and newsletters.

The purpose of the free reports will be to show our prospects that we “really do” understand not only their condition, but their situation as well (i.e. its affect on their work, family life, etc.), and will lead them to the next level of a free “condition specific” evaluation. All free offers will have a one month expiration date with follow up reports and progressively enticing offersbeing sent the 2nd and 3rd weeks. Any prospect that does not schedule within the first month will automatically begin receiving our newsletter the next month.

Internal marketing is just as important to the well being of a chiropractic practice.Each patient will receive a monthly newsletter and be”rewarded” for providing referrals of family and friends.Rewards will be items such as free movie tickets and gift certificates to local restaurants. Biweekly half hour health seminars held in the office will be used to educate our patients on subjects that are essential to maintaining their improved state of health.These two means of communication with our existing client base will also provide a means of “back end” sales with direct response advertisements for exercise, nutritional, and therapeutic devices.Asa means of offsetting the cost of producing and mailing the newsletters, we will seek out corporate partnerships from our suppliers. In this relationship we will include an advertisement of their specific product(s) in our newsletter in exchange for their financial backing.As our mailing list grows, we will have more bargaining power with these corporate entities.(Although privacy laws prevent us from sharing our patients’ personal information with these companies, it does not forbid usfrom mailing to them directly.)

As part of a grass roots effort to become entrenched in the community Dr. Rubano has already begun efforts to form a LeTip Chapter in Fort Myers. LeTip is a professional organization of men and women dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service.Its purpose is the exchange of business tips. Unlike the local Chambers of Commerce, there are no conflicts of interest allowed in LeTip.Dr. Rubano was president of the Middlesex County New Jersey Chapter for 2 years and served on the executive board for 5 years. Business Tips from that chapter resulted in a yearlyaverage of $35,000 worth of businessfor Dr. Rubano’s New Jersey practice during his 6 year membership with the organization.Dr. Rubano will also join the local Chamber of Commerce, with perhaps a different mindset than most other practitioners.Rather than attempting to get individual patients through the variouschamber functions, he will usemembership in this organizationas the avenue to further corporate relationships.

In order to put Dr.Rubano in the public eye as the expert in the area for accident and chronic pain care, we will secure speaking engagements with local high schools and civic groupsand arrange meetings with local personal injury attorneys and physicians (see section 5.4). In addition, once annually we will coordinate our area’s “Kids Day America”^tm in which we coordinate the efforts of the localpolice, fire department, EPA, and other area businessesin aBig Event designed to increase awareness of children’s safety, following the guidelines set forth by FuturePerfect.⁴ The police will do fingerprinting, the fire marshall will have activitiesrelating to fire safety, while we will check every child that participates for the presence of spinal misalignments and educate their parents on child safety measures for automobile travel.We have already secured the licensing as the official event coordinator for the Fort Myers area event to be held in May 2004. Since this event began 10 years ago,practitioners in the state of Florida have held some of the most successful events, with anywhere between 500 to4,000 children being screened by theChiropractor.

It is important that we position ourselves as the most efficient and cooperative chiropractic office in town by not only speaking about service, but demonstrating it. We will do this by being open on “off hours” and “off days.” Historically chiropractic offices have been closed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, as well as early mornings andlunch hours. We willmake it a point to provideopportunities for patients to be seen during these days and times. Patient phone calls will be returned within 2 hours and a 24-hour emergency line will be provided for all patients.Understanding that communication is essential to how physicians and attorneys handle their clients, we will see to it that everyphysician and attorneywho refers a patient will get a phone call from the doctorwithin 1 hour and a report within 48 hours, with regular status reports to follow on a weekly basis. This high level of communication for patients and professionalswill be accomplished during “off” hours by using a locator service which will automatically send a message to the doctor’s beeper or cell phone that a message has been recorded.

As we expand further into the corporate market, we will seek to function as consultants to midsize companies (50 or more employees).Our strategy will be basically the same, with just a slight variation.Direct response advertisements will be aimed at CFOs and safety managers instead of accident victims.Free reports will be geared to peaking the corporate clients’ interest in us as the expert at reducing insurance cost, improving employer-employee relationships, and creating a safer work environment to help them keep more dollars in their pockets. Communicationin this area is paramount.We will send daily Fax summariesin a clear, concise format to the companies’ safety managers, detailinginjury and return to work status of their employees. Patients will be seen the same day as the injury,with an immediatestatus report to follow within 1 hour of his/her visit. Newsletters specifically geared to the corporate client’s interestwill be sent monthly with legislative updates and tips for safety and injury prevention.Our Health and Safety Awareness Campaign outreach program to Hispanic workers through our affiliation with Faith Fellowship World Outreach Ministries⁵ will facilitate our relationship with both the growing Hispanic community and demonstrate our commitment to servicing the area labor force.⁶

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¹ See Addendum- Sample Advertisement

² See Addendum- Sample Free Report

³ See Addendum- Sample PATlive Report

⁴ See Addendum- KidsDay America^tm Brochure

⁵Faith Fellowship World Outreach Ministries is a multicultural church. Founded in 2000 as an offshoot of Faith Fellowship Ministries World Outreach Center in Sayerville, N.J. the church has put on such civic programs as The Great Big Event (community outreach program which provided medical screenings, fingerprinting, financial seminars for the elderly, etc.) and First Time Home Buyers Seminars.

⁶ See Addendum- Letter of Collaboration from FFWOM

5.3 Sales Strategy

Sales in our business are part service and part education. We must service the patient by listening intently and identifying their chief area(s) of concern, and then provide visible evidence, when it exists, to show them what the cause of their problem is and the benefits of correcting that problem. We will never sell a patient on a visit by visit basis, but rather on a per case basis demonstrating the value of following a proven program that works for their complaint.

We must never be afraid to tell the patient everything they need, but also keep in mind people do not always buy what they need but what they emotionally desire.  We must cause them to emotionally desire better health. When a patient balks at our care plan we must refocus them on the benefits of the end result and in the end be willing to walk away from someone who is not willing to invest in their own health. Our fees are non-negotiable.

The same holds true when working at the corporate level. When selling a company on our ability to service their workforce, we must make it clear that cheap care is not the same as cost-effective care. It is important to demonstrate how providing the right type of care for each situation while costing them money in the short term will actually save them money by reducing lost work time, the cost of training new or replacement employees, and insurance costs.

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

The following table and chart give a run down of forecasted sales. We expect sales to increase steadily as our marketing program and contact management system (see Marketing Strategy Summary, section 5.3) are put into place. The cost of Chiropractic Service is representative of what we believe to be a reasonable assumption of how much we need to spend in advertising, both internal and external, to obtain new patients. The unit cost of one new patient is $50. Revenue created from each new patient is assumed to be $3000 per case, which is averaged out to $250 per month per case. This figure is a conservative estimate, based on the figures we have reviewed regarding Medical Treatment amounts for victims of Motor Vehicle and Work Related Accidents (reference section 2.3, Market Segmentation).  While in the real world these numbers will vary based on the frequency of any one given patient’s treatment (some higher, some lower), averaging makes it easier to calculate.

Revenue generated by our Corporate Client base will be based on an up-front contingency fee, set at $1500, and a commission of 20% of clients’ workers’ compensation insurance savings. The contingency fee will include the production of a safety manual if needed, as well as quarterly Safety Seminars, our monthly newsletter, ergonomic and injury assessment, and access to our 24 hour industry hot-line. The only direct costs associated with chiropractic care are the cleaning of patient areas and laundry, and the chiropractors’ time, which is accounted for by owner’s salary in the Personnel Table.

Sales for TENS units and Weight Loss Systems were projected with an assumption of a 10% compliance for new patients each month. Pillows and Home Exercise devices were projected with a 25% compliance rate. The per unit cost of TENS units is $29, selling for $150. The per unit cost of exercise devices is $23 selling for $50. Pillows cost $14 each, and are sold at $30 a piece, while the Weight Loss Systems costs $27 and retails for $80.

Please note that for ease of understanding year by year growth projections are made with a January 2004 start date.  We are, however, prepared to begin immediately providing adequate funding is secured.

5.4 Milestones

The accompanying table lists important program milestones, with dates and managers in charge, and budgets for each. The milestone schedule indicates our emphasis on planning for implementation.

What the table doesn’t show is the commitment behind it. Our business plan includes complete provisions for plan-vs.-actual analysis, and we will hold monthly follow-up meetings to discuss the variance and course corrections.