You are probably either a practioner already or are thinking of becoming one. This manual is designed to help you acheive success in reaching your goals.

Please feel free to contact Steve Veltkamp at steve@bizshop.com if you have any questions at all as you work through this material. I'd also very much appreciate hearing of any successes you have.

Steve Veltkamp is a speaker, trainer and entrepreneur with a passion for freedom through self-employment. Trained as an instructor and qualified as a Master Training Specialist in the Navy, he created Biz$hop. Called a "master of multi-tasking" in Success Magazine, his business ventures include import/export, consulting, publishing, webmaster services, and seminars. Steve is the Executive Director of the Olympic Home Based Business Association, the Global Trade Society, and the Olympic Chapter of the International Webmasters Association. A noted expert on home-based business, he has spoken at national and regional conferences.

Since 1992, Steve has been teaching others how to start a business or make an existing business more profitable. He shares a wealth of tips in each three hour seminar, described by attendees as "info-packed" and "fun." His no-nonsense, down to earth teaching style helps students become free and stop being wage slaves!

As a consultant, Steve has helped start many businesses. He thoroughly researches what is involved. Frequently, his clients let him take care of all the details before turning over the business to them on a turnkey basis. His position as leader of the Olympic Home Based Business Association, and as publisher of trade publications for small business, also gives him great exposure to the needs and problems entrepreneurs face. Lastly, he brings an enthusiasm and love of learning to everything he does.

One of the difficulties in this field is that there is no common terminology. More correctly, there is a jumble of meanings to the terminology that does exist.

Even the basic terms are in disarray. What do we call the professional category?

Holistic Health?

Traditional Medicine?

Healing Arts?

Complementary Medicine?

Integrated Medicine?

Alternative Medicine?

Each has their own problems. Most of the public has no idea what holistic means - and it seems to include some New Age practices that have nothing to do with physical health.

Traditional medicine in the general public mind is worse - because for the common person the doctor they see in the hospital represents 'traditional' medicine. Though there were healers long before there were medical degrees, this is considered 'New Age' - not traditional.

Healing arts encompasses all forms of healing - and also has a connotation of psychological counseling.

Complementary medicine - say complementary and most people think immediately "Free" It is an instant relation, perhaps even subconsciously formed.

Integrated - well, of course you'll treat people of all races ;-)

Perhaps the best term to use when dealing with the general public is Alternative Medicine or Alternative Health - since that is what they think of most of our practices anyway.

Some terms we use may very well have the effect of shooting ourselves in the foot. Mention 'enery work' and people think you are 'fringe' or one who believes in strange things.

Do we call the people who use our services patients, customers or clients? I tend to use the terms almost indisciminately, although clients tend to imply long term customers.

Note that in this manual I tend to talk of we and our - I am not a practioner myself, but when I consult in the field I have to put myself in the place of a practitioner, and I do the same when I'm writing.

Any references in this manual to he,his,him,she,her is purely for convenience - there should be no gender difference at all in this profession.

We'll commonly use the abbreviation AP (alternative practitioner) in this manual as well as MD or the allopathic medical practioner (regardless of whether they have a 'Medical Doctor' degree).

In 2002, the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Section staff of the National Library of Medicine classifies alternative medicine under the term complementary therapies. This is defined as therapeutic practices which are not currently considered an integral part of conventional allopathic medical practice. They may lack biomedical explanations but as they become better researched some, such as physical therapy, diet, and acupuncture, become widely accepted whereas others, such as humors or radium therapy, quietly fade away, yet are important historical footnotes. Therapies are termed as Complementary when used in addition to conventional treatments and as Alternative when used instead of conventional treatment.

The National Library of Medicine's previous definition was an unrelated group of non-orthodox therapeutic practices, often with explanatory systems that do not follow conventional biomedical explanations and non-orthodox therapeutic systems which have no satisfactory scientific explanation for their effectiveness.

Others define it as medical interventions not taught at United States medical schools or not available at United States hospitals.

The Panel on Definition and Description, CAM Research Methodology Conference, Office of Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, April 1995 defined complementary and alternative medicine as a broad domain of healing resources that encompasses all health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period. CAM includes all such practices and ideas self-defined by their users as preventing or treating illness or promoting health and well being. Boundaries within CAM and between CAM domain and the domain of the dominant system are not always sharp or fixed.

Alternative therapies include, but are not limited to the following disciplines: folk medicine, herbal medicine, diet fads, homeopathy, faith healing, new age healing, chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathy, massage, and music therapy.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Survey, May 27, 2004 Press Release - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Thursday, May 27, 2004, 10:00 a.m. ET

NCCAM Press Office

301- 496-7790

CDC/NCHS Public Affairs

301-458-4800

More Than One-Third of U.S. Adults Use Complementary and Alternative Medicine, According to New Government Survey

According to a new nationwide government survey¹, 36 percent of U.S. adults

aged 18 years and over use some form of complementary and alternative

medicine (CAM). CAM is defined as a group of diverse medical and

health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently

considered to be part of conventional medicine. When prayer specifically

for health reasons is included in the definition of CAM, the number

of U.S. adults using some form of CAM in the past year rises to

62 percent.

'These new findings confirm the extent to which Americans

have turned to CAM approaches with the hope that they would help

treat and prevent disease and enhance quality of life,' said

Stephen E. Straus, M.D., Director, National Center for Complementary

and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). 'The data not only assists

us in understanding who is using CAM, what is being used, and why,

but also in studying relationships between CAM use and other health

characteristics, such chronic health conditions, insurance coverage,

and health behaviors.'

The survey, administered to over 31,000 representative U.S. adults,

was conducted as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's

(CDC) 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Developed by

NCCAM and the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS),

the survey included questions on 27 types of CAM therapies commonly

used in the United States. These included 10 types of provider-based

therapies, such as acupuncture and chiropractic, and 17 other therapies

that do not require a provider, such as natural products (herbs

or botanical products), special diets, and megavitamin therapy.

Although there have been many surveys of CAM use to date, the various

surveys included fewer choices of CAM therapies. In addition, they

often surveyed smaller population samples primarily relying on telephone

or mail surveys versus in-person interviews used for this survey.

Thus, the results from the CAM portion of the NHIS provide the most

comprehensive and reliable data to date describing CAM use by the

U.S. adult population.

Overall, the survey revealed that CAM use was greater among a variety

of population groups, including women; people with higher education;

those who had been hospitalized within the past year; and former

smokers, compared to current smokers or those who had never smoked.

In addition, this was the first survey to yield substantial information

on CAM use by minorities. For example, it found that African American

adults were more likely than white or Asian adults to use CAM when

megavitamin therapy and prayer were included in the definition of

CAM.

'We're continuously expanding the health information we collect

in this country, including information on the actions people take

in dealing with their own health situations,' said NCHS Director

Edward J. Sondik, Ph.D. 'Over the years we've concentrated

on traditional medical treatment, but this new collection of CAM

data taps into another dimension entirely. What we see is that a

sizable percentage of the public puts their personal health into

their own hands.'

CAM approaches were most often used to treat back pain or problems,

colds, neck pain or problems, joint pain or stiffness, and anxiety

or depression. However, only about 12 percent of adults sought care

from a licensed CAM practitioner, suggesting that most people who

use CAM do so without consulting a practitioner. According to the

survey, the 10 most commonly used CAM therapies and the approximate

percent of U.S. adults using each therapy were:

• Prayer for own health, 43 percent

• Prayer by others for the respondent's health, 24 percent

• Natural products (such as herbs, other botanicals, and enzymes),

  19 percent

• Deep breathing exercises, 12 percent

• Participation in prayer group for own health, 10 percent

• Meditation, 8 percent

• Chiropractic care, 8 percent

• Yoga, 5 percent

• Massage, 5 percent

• Diet-based therapies (such as Atkins, Pritikin, Ornish, and

  Zone diets), 4 percent.

In addition to gathering data on the use of CAM practices, the

survey also sought information about why people use CAM. Key findings

indicate that:

• 55 percent of adults said they were most likely to use CAM

  because they believed that it would help them when combined with

  conventional medical treatments;

• 50 percent thought CAM would be interesting to try;

• 26 percent used CAM because a conventional medical professional

  suggested they try it; and

• 13 percent used CAM because they felt that conventional medicine

  was too expensive.

Interestingly, the survey also found that about 28 percent of adults

used CAM because they believed conventional medical treatments would

not help them with their health problem; this is in contrast to previous

findings that CAM users are not, in general, dissatisfied with conventional

medicine.

The results of the survey reveal new patterns of CAM use among

various population groups and provide a rich source of data for

future research. Furthermore, the survey results provide a baseline

for future surveys, as it establishes a consistent definition of

CAM that can be used to track trends and prevalence of CAM use.

NCCAM, a component of the National Institutes of Health, DHHS,

is dedicated to exploring complementary and alternative healing

practices in the context of rigorous science, training CAM researchers,

and disseminating authoritative information to the public and professionals.

For additional information, call NCCAM's Clearinghouse toll free

at 1-888-644-6226 or visit NCCAM's Web site at nccam.nih.gov.

The NCHS is a component of the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC). NCHS's mission is to provide statistical information

that will guide actions and policies to improve the health of the

American people. The CDC protects people's health and safety by

preventing and controlling diseases and injuries; enhances health

decisions by providing credible information on critical health issues;

and promotes healthy living through strong partnerships with local,

national, and international organizations.

1.Barnes P, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin R. CDC Advance Data

Report #343. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Adults:

United States, 2002. May 27, 2004.

 

Home > News & Events

What Business Are You In?

by Irene Brooks

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with a friend of mine. She was excitedly telling me all about the new coaching course that she had just developed and how awesome it was.

I patiently sat and listened to her.

I could see that she was really enthused about what she had just created. After she finished, I asked her, "That's great, now the real trick will be getting people to buy it."

Her first reaction to my comment was, "What do you mean? Of course people are going to buy it. It's the best work I've done to date." But as she pondered for a moment about my comment she realized that she had fallen into the age-old deadly small business mistake that most entrepreneurs fall prey to; forgetting the principle objective of her business.

I subtly reminded her that her principal occupation is NOT coaching; it's the MARKETING of her coaching services.

There is an old advertising quote that says, "Any fool can make soap, it takes a clever man to sell it." This is as true today as when it was first uttered many years ago. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry can make a bar of soap. Even if it's the most advanced soap on the planet earth, it won't matter if no one buys it. Now, I'm not comparing my friend's wonderful coaching coarse to soap, in fact her course is truly masterful... But the fact of the matter is, that it is exactly like soap.

There's a thousand great coaching courses out there...

... but it takes a clever person to sell it!

Failing to understand (or accept) this principle is so poisonous that it can kill any small business fast. You see, to make a small business successful you need cash flow. To get cash flow you need customers. To get customers you must sell your product or service.

You might be a plumbing wizard or a crack electrician, but so are the fifty other plumbers and electricians whose ad sits right next to yours in the yellow pages. No matter how great your technical skills are or how innovative your product is, your business will wither away and die like 80% of all small businesses if you can't sell it.

How Would You Do Things Differently If...

Let's suppose for a moment that you truly did internalize this critical principle. Suppose that you sincerely believed that your most important function was the marketing of your products and services. What would you do differently tomorrow morning?

- Would the contents of your daily to-do list change?

- Would you allocate and prioritize your time differently?

- Would you change the criteria and process with which you screen new partners?

- Would your training agenda change?

I would suggest that if you really believed deep down that your primary business objective (and number one goal) is to *market* your products and services, your to-do list, the way you allocate your time, your role in your company, and your personal training would be radically different than it is today.

Now that you know what your primary business objective is, what are your going to do about it?

If you worked for a corporation, your Director of Marketing would perform those activities.

You must become the Director of Marketing!

That should be your new role in your business.

Why leave the absolute most critical part of your business to someone else?

I can hear you saying right now, "But I'm already doing all those things." And my response is, "How much time are you devoting to those "high value" activities?" Do you need to hire a manager or assistant to relieve you of all your other duties so that you can focus exclusively on those activities that have the most impact on your business?

Brian Tracey, a famous author and speaker has said that, "To be really successful, you should stop doing any activity that wouldn't normally pay you what your worth." For example, if you think you're worth $50 an hour, why would you be filing papers when someone else can do it for $8 an hour?

Becoming a Master of Direct Response Advertising

I often get e-mails from people asking, "Irene, I only have $1,000 to market my product. Where should I spend this money to get the highest return on my investment?" My response is always to invest it on your personal education. Nothing will bring you a greater return on your marketing dollar than your personal investment in becoming a master of direct response marketing.

I regularly spend thousands of dollars every year investing in books, tapes, CD's, workshops, conferences, videos and every other form of educational medium. In fact, as I have interviewed many successful business people I have consistently found one common trait. Each person had a passion and insatiable desire to learn and invest heavily in their own private education.

What Do Bill Gates and Oprah Have In Common?

Other than their own personal Fort Knox, Bill Gates and Oprah both have an insatiable desire to learn. Did you know that every year Bill Gates goes away for a week with a suitcase full of books just to read. If Bill can find time to do it so can you.

Oprah is famous for her "book of the month club." Do you have a reading list and if so what is on it?

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a small business owner is to be fooled into thinking that you are in the business of producing and delivering products and services. Wrong! You're in the business of *marketing* products and services. The faster you realize this, the faster the cash will flow.

I've always said, good marketing can make up for a bundle of operational sins (just ask Microsoft). Marketing IS your business, not just part of it. Become an expert in direct response marketing by investing heavily in your own education. Reevaluate how you are managing your business by asking yourself some of the questions that I've mentioned.

What I've shared with you may require a new paradigm shift. But if you want to not only survive, but also be a super-success, you must make the shift.

Irene Brooks is a Professional Life and Business Coach, speaker, writer and marketing consultant who specializes in helping small business owners and entrepreneurs to quickly and easily generate a constant stream of customers without wasting time and money on ineffective marketing techniques. She has successfully built two businesses of her own via traditional, internet and non-traditional marketing techniques. Visit her website at http://www.3-DSuccessCoach.com

Public attitude towards alternative medicine is rapidly evolving - though not as rapidly as some would have you believe, and certainly not as rapidly as some would like.

Nevertheless - what was once considered 'wierd' is now often considered as normal. A perfect example is chiropracty. Once there was an enormous stigma attached to it and laws prohibiting it. Now it is covered by some insurance programs, and licensed by most jurisdictions the same as dentistry.

Since what constitutes alternative therapy is so broad, assessing public attitudes towards it is an 'iffy' practice. There have been studies that show most people have participated in some form of alternative health - yet when you look at those studies you find that they count anyone who has done something for stress reduction or who has prayed as 'participating in alternative medicine'.

A better estimate is that most people - perhaps 60% - are neutral or undecided about the benefit of the entire holistic movement. About 30% are convinced that it has value - often these people have had therapeutic alternative treatment themselves or know someone who has benefited. Many regularly see a practitioner. Another 10% or so you will have a very hard time winning over - if not impossible to convince. These might be people who come from a very strict belief system, whether that be religion or science. They may be skeptics who will not believe anything unless they see multiple double-blind studies. They may be 'loyal subjects' who won't accept something until it has government endorsement.

What this means is that the majority of our marketing effort should be towards educating that portion of the public that is uncertain about alternative medicine. Put another way, the stress in our marketing is not so much selling, as educating.

I wish I could tell you that the 'regular' medical community has changed and is embracing alternative treatment, but that embrace if it exists at all is an arms length one like the kid who is forced to dance with the most unpopular person in school.

There is a great reluctance. The University of Pennsylvania Medical Centers was going to create new center and originally it was to have been called the UPMC Center of Excellence in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. But chief executive officers of the 19 UPMC Health System hospitals balked, according to Bruce Rabin, a Pitt professor of pathology and psychiatry who chairs the program.

"They told me: 'No way. We don't want to be associated with anything called complementary or alternative medicine. Doctors will not send patients to these programs. People will say it's quackery.'"

They decided to name it the UPMC Health Enhancement Program instead.

It is true that many allopathic MD's are hostile to the alternative health movement. Whether they see it as competition or quackery is a personal matter, but the hostility is there.

It is not always as widespread or general as some alternative practitioners think. I'm convinced that some use the hostility as a crutch to excuse their own lack of success.

More and more we are finding that the MD's are coming around and giving referrals to holistic practioners, trying the techniques themselves, or at least reading up on the subject.

There is not much you can do short-term when you run up against outright hostility. Long-term, you can make great inroads by sharing success stories with the medical community. Nothing produces results like results. Nothing changes minds like results.

We often are operating on a shoestring - maybe even a borrowed shoestring. A traditional MD when finished with medical school can qualify easily for a loan, since their earning power is a given. They can use that to establish a practice, or purchase that new Mercedes.

The stereotypical alternative practitioners on the other hand is among the poorest members of the community. The stereotype is of them wearing Goodwill clothes, sandals and driving a beat-up old Volvo station wagon with leftist bumper stickers on it. Obviously not an accurate assessment of everyone, but there are enough of us like that for the stereotype to fit.

It is harder to market when you don't have much money. It costs money to buy advertising, to print flyers, to have a website, etc.

We are therefore going to concentrate in this manual on low-cost, high impact ways of marketing that don't require much in the way of cash. If you have wads of money to burn through, than buy national TV time! If you don't have much, this manual should get you up and growing with a minimum of outlay.

When you go to work as an MD in a clinic or hospital, you can concentrate on providing medical services. There is a ton of paperwork of course, but generally time is spent on:

1. providing care

2. care-related paperwork

3. training

Alternative practioners must spend time on:

1. providing care

2. care-related paperwork

3. training

4. marketing

5. accounting

6. filing

7. website maintenance

8. client follow-up and appointment reminders

9. cleaning

10. organizing

11. computer maintenance and troubleshooting

12. correspondence

13. shopping for supplies

Obviously both the MD and the alternative practitioner are blessed with the same number of minutes each day. Both must try to get everything done in the time allowed. The alternative practitioner too often slights the marketing time.

This is especially true when you are busy. If you have a full appointment schedule, it is easy to ignore the marketing.

What happens if you are doing your healing job well? Your customers will get better and leave. Then if you haven't been doing your marketing, you have to scramble to get new customers. That is why many practitioners who do not have a constant marketing effort repeatedly cycle through feast and famine.

Unlike the allopathic medical doctor who typically goes to work initially in a large hospital, the alternative practitioner often is working by themselves. Sometimes they are home-based, and many feel quite isolated and alone.

When you are working in a large organization like a hospital or even an established family clinic, there are probably people dedicated just to marketing and customer relations. Most of us have to do everything on our own.

One of the reasons for skepticism about alternative medicine is the modern attitude of total tolerance. In this field more than any other, it is considered a virtue to have an 'open' mind.

Often that means a reluctance to point a finger at someone else and contradict them or accuse them of fraud.

Yet perhaps more than any other field, there are plenty of hucksters and scam artists in this field, as well as those who honestly believe in things which just don't make sense.

This has been true for centuries - we are all familiar with snake oil salesmen and radium potients. It is no coincidence that these stereotypes of bad business have to do with healing.

What doesn't make sense logically and what is clearly wrong scientifically should be decried and discredited when it is encountered. Those practices that are unproven should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism until you've done research that convinces you. We should be very careful of our patients - they are looking to us as the educated ones in the field, and we do them a disservice by not warning them against the scamsters.

If I were to stereotype the AP, I'd say almost all are left of political center. Not a lot of Rush Limbaugh fans in the group, I'm afraid.

Not that I care a whit about your politics. OK, I wish you all thought like me....

Why this is important is that it does influence attitudes towards marketing. Those with 'progressive' politics tend to read publications and listen to media that reinforces those politics. The downside to this is that business and profit are commonly villified in these media. Whenever mention is made of profit or business, it is usually in terms of the 'evil' corporation and the woes of rampant capitalism.

This can set up a negative attitude towards the business side of things. The truth is though that if you don't have a focus on making money, you won't be in business for long enough to do a good job of healing others.

Most APs in their training spend very little time on learning marketing. Our formal schooling is designed to teach you how to get a job, not start a business. Most people have never taken a course on how to market. They have done tons of homework, but have never had to put together a Marketing Plan.

One well-known alternative medicine school has only a single 2 hour class on marketing in an entire 3 year program. Graduates are in for a shock when they go into the real world.

If you don't know what you are doing, and know that you don't know, it is very uncomfortable to be doing it. We tend to ignore that which we feel unconfident in doing. For many practitioners, that means it is the marketing that gets slighted.

This manual is designed to give you the tools and self-confidence to overcome this lack of training.

We, like most people, are natural procrastinators. This is especially true regarding things which we don't enjoy. It is natural, but it can also be deadly for your business.

Don't leave your marketing till later. Do it now, do it daily, do it religiously. There really is nothing more important for you to be doing in your business.

There are basically two types of people in the world, the Filers and the Pilers.

Odds are, if you are going to be an independent practitioner. you will be operating solo. That of course means you have to do everything yourself. You will need to have good systems in place to help you manage your time, manage clients, and manage your own business growth.

You need to be extremely well organized so that you can put your finger on any number of facts and figure on only a moment's notice. Each client that calls (it seems) thinks that they are the only one you are thinking about. You need to be able to instantly retrieve their file and bring yourself up to speed on their history.

There are two types of people in the world - pilers and filers.

You probably know which one is your natural style. If you are a methodical thinker, naturally neat, there are any number of organizing systems to help you refine your natural talent.

If you are a piler, there is only one way that works - the Pilers System http://pilers.com

As mentioned before, there is never enough time in the day. You'll have to efficiently manage your time so that you can see more customers (if you follow the marketing in this publication, you'll be seeing more of them), maintain your personal health and relationships, and keep your sanity.

I recommend you get our CD on Creative Organization for Pilers if you are not one of those who is naturally organized. We have an extensive chapter in there on time management techniques for those who are not 'wound too tight.'

The key to marketing is repetition.

Statistics vary, but it takes the average person at least five exposures to a brand name or product before he or she will make the commitment to purchase it. In addition, it usually takes more than thirty exposures to a marketing piece before the customer can remember it at will. The simple lesson from these facts are that you must run advertisements multiple times, and consistently use the same or similar images to market your product.

The Rule of Repetition
How It's Crippling Your Marketing Efforts if You're Not Using It!
By Marty Foley

The Rule of Repetition is very basic, yet powerful. Simply put, it means that any marketing communication is most effective when it is repeatedly brought to the attention of your target market.

Why is repetition in your marketing so important? Most prospects don't respond immediately to a single marketing communication, or perhaps even several of them. There are various reasons for this:

Your prospects aren't familiar enough with you yet.

Gradually they come to recognize that your company is stable, not just another fly-by-night operation, and will eventually start to develop enough trust to start doing business with you.

Your prospects are bombarded with many other distractions in their busy lives.

Your prospect is likely to be a very busy, time-pressured individual with a wide array of other things competing with your sales message for his/her time and attention. Even when your marketing communications win the attention of your prospect, and even if they decide they want to buy your product or service, other distractions in their busy lives can cause them to set your marketing materials aside. Soon, they may forget all about your offer.

Your prospects may not yet have made a decision in your favor.

The timing of your offer may be bad for a particular prospect.

Other unfortunate things can happen.

Regardless of the cause, the unfortunate result is that they don't (or can't) do business with you.

As we've just considered, your marketing communications are competing with so many other things that contend for the time, money and attention of your prospects. To convert those that don't respond immediately to your offers into buyers, you need to keep in touch with them repeatedly before they will finally be motivated to act.

When you run your business by the Rule of Repetition, you won't just present your marketing message to your prospects one time and then rest contentedly, but you will be persistent in your marketing efforts, and will thus overcome many of the obstacles mentioned above.

FREE ProfitInfo Newsletter reveals strategies to build Internet profits now: Subscribe@ProfitInfo.com . Get Internet marketing help and proven strategies from successful Netpreneur Marty Foley, through his members-only site & upcoming Internet Marketing manual: http://ProfitInfo.com/img.htm
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Business Plan

Should you write a business plan? Would you start out on a cross-country trip without a map? There are really two answers, of course. Some would not think of going anywhere beyond their own neighborhood without a map. Others prefer the adventure of "winging it"

Most business experts recommend that you write a good business plan. By doing so, they say that you increase your chances of success significantly. I'm not so sure of this, since 65% of the Inc. 500 fastest growing private companies were started without a business plan. It seems that if you ask many of the most successful entrepreneurs, you'll find a surprising number of them did not write out a business plan.

In fact, some of them say that if they had tried to do so, the questions that a business plan forces them to ask would have scared them out of continuing the business. From some, you hear how they broke all the rules, because they didn't know the rules.
The answer seems to lie in the passion and the circumstances. If you are fired up about an idea that you know in your gut will work, go for it. Don't let anything stand in your way. The same applies if you have no choice, if you've just been fired and its either start your business or sink. You should start immediately. Whichever the case, realize that if you are starting without a plan, you have the chance to succeed greatly, or fail greatly.

If on the other hand, you are approaching self employment in a slower methodical manner, and there is no hurry, by all means write your business plan. It will force you to think more clearly, and probably require you to do some research. A business plan will not prevent failure, but it may make it much less likely.
If you do decide to write a business plan, I ask only that you not allow it to frighten you out of starting your business. Part of the business plan process is to figure out all the terrible what-if's that might occur, and to look at all the competition. Even if your business plan shows that you are crazy for doing this, don't accept that. If you believe in something, you can succeed.

A perfect example is the guy who started FedEx. He wrote his business plan as a college project, and got a near failing grade for it. All the business experts at the university said the idea of next day delivery anywhere in the US was impossible, that this was a stupid idea. Of course, he didn't listen to them, and went out and started a thriving industry.

You will definitely need to write a business plan if you are going to try to attract outside financing, either through a bank loan or private investors. Almost any lender is going to want to see a business plan.

There are many different formats for business plans. This is a simple one that works well for just about any business.

1. Executive Summary - a one or two page document that describes the business

2. Overview - The fundamentals on which the business is built

3. Introduction
Purpose
History
Benefits
Goals
Critical success factors

4. Business Environment
Regulatory
Market
Problems
Expansion potential

5. Description of Product or Service.
Unique selling points
Benefits
Problems
Patents, licenses, etc.
Production strategy

6. Marketing Plan
Should be written as separate plan, and excerpts included here.
Sales Goals
Public Relations
Economic environment
Industry environment
Customer profile
Demographics
Trends
Competition
Marketing channels
Sales tactics
Pricing
Packaging
Sponsoring
Marketing calendar

7. Operation Plan
Should be written separately and excerpts included here.
Management team
Advisory Board
Human resources
Personnel Manual
Policies
Guarantees
Facilities and Equipment
SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)
Growth/expansion Plans

8. Financial Plan
Should be written separately and excerpts inserted here.
Financial condition
Revenue Projections
Break-even Analysis
Credit
Cash Flow Projection
Balance Sheet Projection
Insurance
Taxes
Controls
Financing Requirements

9. Financing Proposal
Amount needed
Detailed Budget
Repayment Options

10. Appendices
Schedule of major events
Key-Person Resumes
Facilities Documents
Equipment Documents
Financial History
Balance Sheet Projection
Cash Flow Projection
Financial Ratios
Collateral
Organization Chart
Competitor Documents
Major customers
Customer contracts
Principal Suppliers
Supplier contracts
Insurance Policies
History of sales
Bank Documents
Advertising Samples
Any other pertinent docs

There is no one proper way to write a business plan. It is a fluid, a working document that you should not be afraid to go in and "polish up" a bit from time to time - even every day if need be!

Business Plans serve two main purposes : To guide your business in both everyday tasks and in growth; and to present to funding sources for capital.

For more information, buy and read these Biz$hop Special Reports:
Writing a Business Plan R10601 - $5.00
Writing a Marketing Plan R10602 - $5.00
Writing a Financial Plan R10603 - $5.00
Writing an Operations Plan R10604-$5.00

It is not at all unusual to tailor a copy of the business plan for each purpose. For the operational (in-house) plan, you stress cost savings and go into much more detail. In the fund seeking business plan, the soundness of the company and the potential return on investment are stressed, while many of the operation details are glossed over.

If you are seeking outside financing, prepare a funding proposal (1-3 pages) that can accompany the business plan. The plan should be targeted to a specific lender, and reworked with the names, terms and conditions being sought from each lender.

Remember that a business plan is meant to be a working document, not an archive gathering dust on a shelf. As such, it should be frequently reviewed and altered.

Breaking the Plan into different segments, as recommended here, makes updating much easier. Your Marketing Plan may change for instance, without any other part of the Business Plan changing. By separate plans, you avoid having to repaginate and reindex the whole Business Plan.

Keep a "clean" copy that you can use to present to potential investors, and a "working" copy that you feel free to scribble on, make pen changes to, and use as a daily guide. It is a great use for your computer!

The important caution is that you don't become so trapped into planning, that you don't get started. Too many would-be entrepreneurs spend all their time thinking and dreaming, when they should be doing. Don't worry about perfection - hammer something out and move on! That is why having help is good.

Together, they give you a complete framework to make a near-perfect Business Plan. You'll impress anybody that looks at your Plan, stand a great chance at winning funding, and what's more important it will be a valuable working document that will help your business succeed.

Many sources of help exist. You can order the Special Reports from Biz$hop, which will allow you to do your plan easily. There are several computer based programs for sale that will help you write your plan. The local community college or private seminar company undoubtedly offers courses on how to write a business plan. Your city or area Chamber of Commerce may have scheduled counseling sessions, classes or materials to help. Banks may offer individual or group help. Go to the library or a bookstore, and you'll surely find several books on how to write a business plan. Last but not least, the Small Business Administration puts out a number of publications and a computer program to help you do this. They offer free assistance through area SBDC (Small Business Development Corporation) offices and through the SCORE program (Service Corps of Retired Executives). Check the phone book for the SBA, or contact them through the Chamber of Commerce in your area.

Name

The name you come up with for your business can be one of your most powerful marketing weapons.

I recommend you be non-specific , and non-threatening in your name. By non-specific, don't name your business Ralph's Rolfing when you may end up doing many other things as well. By non-threatening, pick something the mainstream will be comfortable. The Palace of the Divine Chakra Mystics will not likely win you any customers.

You should check to see if your name is available, of course. Some states do that as a matter of course when you apply for your license. You can also use modern technology to help you research a name. Doing a search on the Internet for a few keywords will turn up all manner of names of other businesses in the field.

You might also want to trademark your name. You can do that by simply putting a superscript TM or SM behind your name - that means you are claiming the trademark or service mark! Which you use depends on whether you are primarily marketing the service of finding information, or the products containing the information. If you registered it, the TM/SM would change to an R in a circle. It costs about $350 to do without an attorney. A search of all registered trademarks can be done at USPTO.gov (US Patent and Trademark Office). Be aware thought that these are only REGISTERED trademarks. Since there is no legal requirement to register a trademark, most are not. All you can really do is check for registered ones, start using a name and register it and hope for the best.

If of course somebody in Orlando is using a name, and you want to use the same name in San Diego, there probably isn't any practical reason not to. It is unlikely that either of you have any intention of becoming a nationwide business, and your areas are noncompetitive with each other. Some people are very sensitive about such things however, so the possibility exists, however tiny, that the other nameholder might raise a fuss about it if they find out. Perhaps you can work out a deal, and carve the country in two between you! If you are registered and they are not, you may have a stronger position, although often the courts will decide based on 'who had it first'.

Whether or not you have a formal business plan, create a timetable plan of action for your business. Give yourself deadlines. If you don't, you are likely to find yourself among the millions of Americans who say they would like to start a business someday. The operative word is "someday."

The habit of writing out POA (Plan of Action) will serve you very well, and will be of benefit not only in managing your own affairs but as a tool you can provide clients, and even instruct them in.

The first step to getting your business started has to be to get your business license. This is usually a state or provincial government requirement, but the real reason to get one is Federal.

Once you are officially in business, you can deduct from your taxes any expenses associated with getting your business up and running. These include such things as equipment purchases such as computers, seminars and manuals, professional subscriptions and the like. If you are not yet in business, the same expenses are considered personal expenses, and not deductible. While it is possible to claim the deduction without having obtained your business license, the lack of one could be evidence for the IRS to disallow your deduction, and conversely having one is the simplest evidence should the deductions be questioned.

Note that you do not need to be making sales yet, and in fact you need not make any profits for some time. The IRS has a guideline that you should make a profit three out of five years or risk having the expenses termed hobby expenses instead of business expenses. This is a guideline only. If you could prove that you were seriously trying to run a business, could demonstrate vigorous marketing efforts for instance, but had not yet made a profit, there is little likelihood that you will lose the deduction.

In most states, the state business license is a relatively simple matter. You should also inquire about a resale number. This will allow you to purchase items from wholesalers without having to pay retail sales tax. You collect sales tax later from your customers and then forward that money to the State. Your local city, town or county government may also require a business license in addition to the State license.

One word of caution - I cannot advise anybody to do anything illegal. However, if you are planning on operating a home-based business, be aware that many places have prohibitive ordinances in effect. Inquire anonymously what the restrictions are in your area, and then decide if you want to proceed or not. Many people are operating their business without the local license, just because of the stupid ordinances in effect. Paul and Sarah Edwards, prolific home business writers, estimate that only 1 in 15 home businesses is completely legal.

If your community does have bad restrictions on home based business, I encourage you to join a local association for home based business owners and work to get the rules changed. The zoning laws were an industrial age invention that have not kept up with the rapidly evolving post-industrial economy. The old idea of commercial staying in a commercial area, and residential in a residential, is being shaken by the huge movement towards home based businesses.

I'm not advocating employees, but rather that you enlist people to help you and help your business. At the very least, a consultant with expertise in areas you aren't expert in can help you build and grow your business.

Besides your business consultant, you should seek out the opinion of a trusted core of people. Just like a large corporate CEO will have a board meeting with his or her department heads, you should have a body of people that you can turn to. I recommend you set up an advisory board for your business.

The Advisory Board

The following people are recommended to be on your Board. You can of course make adjustments, adding more strength in areas where you feel particularly weak. If you don't have much experience in or aptitude for sales, then perhaps you'll want to add a professional salesperson to your board.

Business Consultant

Certainly a business consultant should be included. These people tend to specialize in one field or another, such as marketing, but most have a good grasp of business in general. More importantly, like you they are consultants, and so know what the consulting business is like, what is required, and can provide wonderful help.

Banker

A banker can be a wonderful source of assistance and information, especially if you need financing at some point.

Attorney

I like to have two attorneys that I can turn to. One I call my "tea drinking" attorney. This is your "Ben Matlock" type. Somebody that is easy to talk to, that will give you wise counsel, who can keep you out of trouble.

The second attorney I call my "leg taking" attorney. Others might call this type of person a shark. He or she is the sort of lawyer that if you "sic" them on somebody, they won't let go until all the blood is drained. These folks are relentless, ambitious, and their bark is matched by their bite. You may not want to socialize with them, but if it comes to pressuring somebody to pay up an unpaid bill, or comply with an agreement, they are valuable.

Accountant

Similarly, you may want to find two accountants to advise you. It would be nice to use just one, but the personalities of the two types are incompatible and usually impossible to find in any single individual.

The first accountant type is the Cautious Sam type. They make sure that all your "i's are dotted and t's are crossed." They can advise you on the dangers of any course of action, and are usually very meticulous in their record keeping and organization.
They will also cost you a lot of money, if you rely solely on them. Every year Money Magazine takes a couple's income and has different accounting and tax preparation people figure their taxes. Usually, and in every case in the 1997 April issue, the preparers cost the couple thousands of dollars. Either they were unaware of deductions that the couple were entitled to, or they were afraid to claim them.



So find yourself an "edge-pushing" accountant, especially for your taxes. This person loves finding new deductions that you might qualify for, and new ways to save you more money. They understand that the tax code is a small island, around it is a shallow area of court interpretations, and around that is a deep sea of possible deductions. They say "Let's try this. We probably won't get audited, and if we are, we might be able to win." How do you find these people? Ask others in business. I like to find somebody who is new and wants to make a name for themselves, or is old and hates the government. Ex-IRS agents and examiners are often great edge-pushers.




Entrepreneurs


Include in your circle of advisors other entrepreneurs who are successful, or are on their way to success. There are no new problems in being self employed, and the wise entrepreneur will learn from the mistakes of others, rather than making their own.
Successful entrepreneurs are also your best source for financing. This financing source is not generally listed in any directory, but successful entrepreneurs fund many start-ups and expansions. This is called "Angel Financing." In most cases, these people have built a business from scratch to a position where now they have plenty of disposable income. There is no better place to put that extra money than in helping others to follow in entrepreneurship.

Where do you find Angels? Just look at local people who have built successful businesses. Ask them to come onboard as an advisor. As they come to believe in you and your business, then you may be able to present a proposal to them that makes business sense for both of you. No funding committees, and they usually don't want to take a majority position in your company, as venture capitalists would. Just a decent return for their money is all that is asked.




Creative


You'll need at least one truly creative type. Somebody to design your logo, stationery, ads and brochures - as well as those of your clients.


Technical


If you are going to be consulting in a field in which you don't know all the technical details, then having an expert or two on your advisory board can be very valuable. For instance, somebody who knows how to write scripts for a smashing good web site, or knows computer networking, or any other technical area. You as the consultant don't need to know all the answers, just have access to those who do.


Small business specialist


If your market is going to be small businesses of one kind or another, having an advisor who is knowledgeable about that niche can help immensely. For instance, if you want to consult with restaurant owners, but have never owned a restaurant yourself, then you need to bring an experienced restauranteur onto your advisory board.


Assembling the troops


The best way to use your advisory board is to have a meeting periodically, perhaps every month. Just as in a large corporate board meeting, you can then present where your company is at, which direction you seek to take it in, and gather advice and suggestions.


Meeting payroll


This needn't cost very much. Most of the folks will come out for a monthly meeting if you buy dinner. You may have to actually pay the attorneys for their time, but with luck you'll convince them that the dinner and networking is worth it.

You can also provide the people in your advisory board some no-cost ego strokes. Write each of them a testimonial about how valuable they are to you, on your letterhead. You might include them in a credits section in your brochure or company information sheet - or even on your letterhead!




Taking advice.


Some of the advice you receive will be great. Some will be much less than great. Remember that you always have the responsibility to make the decisions.


Secret Bonus


There is an added, and very significant, benefit to having all these people on your advisory board. Since they will begin to feel a part of your business, they begin to take a stake in your business in their minds. They will begin to look for ways to recommend you to others they come in contact with. They become a wonderful source of leads, and can be very influential in promoting you with other groups that they belong to.

Computer

Obviously, you are going to need a computer to be successful in business. There are simply too many details to manage and you will need to stay on top of all of them. You don't necessarily NEED the latest and greatest technology, but you will need a powerful enough system so that you are not limited from using up to date software. I recommend if you are going to buy one, that you get the most powerful one you can afford.

If you already have an older machine, fine, but plan on upgrading before the end of your first year. A laptop, notebook, or subnotebook computer would be even better, considering how mobile you are going to be.

You will need to have a good printer for preparing materials that will impress your prospects and clients. I recommend that you get a color inkjet or bubblejet printer which is capable of 720 DPI or better. Even better would be a printer which allows you to create tabloid sized output in color. Tabloid size is 11 inch by 17 inch . Folded in half, you have the standard newsletter.

The most important piece of software on your computer will of course be your contact management software. There are many good programs on the market. I recommend Sharkware Pro for the more structured, since it includes the Mackay 66 built in, and Notetab Pro or Info Select for those who find fitting into a structured format difficult.

Other than your contact management software, any of the good software suites will prove more than enough for most people's needs . You may also want to invest in a program like Quickbooks for your bookkeeping rather than setting up a complete system with your your spreadsheet.

Business today operates by fax so you will need either a standalone fax machine or a fex /modem in your computer. You'll want to be able to fax proposals to prospects and clients, receive RFPs by fax and use it to stay in touch. You can also use one of the many Internet based fax services. I use K7.net. They give you a free fax phone number - anybody can fax you at that number and the fax is attached to email and mailed to you. That allows you to get your faxes even when you are away from the office - anywhere you can get your email now you can also get your faxes. It also saves you the expense of a fax machine, eliminates the need for a phone line for the fax, and it is always on. And it's free.

You'll be doing an awful lot of online work, so I think you need to spring for high-speed Internet access. In most areas, DSL is faster than cable (despite the potential for cable to be faster, the more users the slower it gets). If you are in area where DSL is unavailable, Dish Network now offers high speed two-way satellite systems that work anywhere in the US and much of Mexico and Canada.

First, it is becoming as common for people to ask for your e-mail address as it used to be to ask for a phone number. Many people prefer to correspond by e-mail. You'll also need a modem because of this box:

On the other hand, $25-40 a month is the average charge to have your own Internet website, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to anybody interested in knowing what you can do for them. It's a "no-brainer" - you need to be on the Internet.

You should also have a cell phone, or at least a pager, so that clients can get in touch with you. Many of your jobs will be last minute things, so clients won't be content to just leave a message on your machine.

You'll want to have your telephone calls answered in a professional manner, so invest in a good voicemail system, or hire an answering service to answer in your name. You will probably want to have a separate line for your business calls, and perhaps a third line for your fax/modem.

Realistically, you are not likely to get bank financing to start your business - and that is probably good. Try constantly to operate in a non-debt way, and the money you make will go much further. It will also be much less stressful.

I speak from experience in this, and want to advise you also to avoid long-term, non-cancellable leases. I have made a few very bad business decisions, and all of them involved signing leases that locked me into things I wished later to be out of.

Most practitioners are operating pretty much on a self-financing basis, which means really that clients pay you up front or immediately on delivery of your services.

I personally work almost exclusively on a payment up front basis - but this is as a result of getting "stiffed" by a client for several thousand dollars. I let the client ride on their bill for a while, and then one day they were gone. Skipped town, house vacated, no forwarding address, etc. I probably could have paid to have them tracked down, and sued for what was owed to me, but odds are they didn't have anything worth suing for at that point. And I am fundamentally opposed to lawsuits anyway.

Whenever possible, get your clients to pay up front. If not possible, be vigilant and prompt in invoicing and be ready to cut your losses if they don't pay on time.

Legal Structure

When you get your business license, one of the things they will ask you is what the legal structure of your business is. There are pluses and minuses to each structure, and you'll have to decide this early on. You have four main choices:

a sole proprietorship, or

a partnership, or

a corporation, or

a limited liability company.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each. For most entrepreneurs, the easiest and usually most recommended form is that of a sole proprietorship.

The sole proprietorship simply means one owner, and is the "default" form. If you do nothing else, you will be set up as a sole proprietorship. The main feature of this form is that it is identified with and intertwined with you. If the business makes a profit, it automatically is income for you. If the business incurs a debt, it is your personal debt as well. If the business gets sued, you will be sued personally as well.

This is both the strength and weakness of the sole proprietorship. You have complete flexibility, and can instantly shift the direction, policies and focus of your company. Yet if there is a problem, the potential for the damage extending throughout your personal life is ever-present.

The partnership is USUALLY not recommended. It is like being married without being in love! You will know all the bad things there is to know about your partner. It can destroy friendships, and you are completely liable for whatever your partner does. If he or she orders a dozen Chinese junks, and then skips town with the money in your account, not only will you be out the money, but you will be liable for paying for the junks when they arrive.

Partnerships can work, when there is a clear division of responsibilities and abilities. If you are a good negotiator, salesperson and "people person", but your paperwork is usually a shambles, and your potential partner is meticulous and detail oriented, but fears selling and meeting strangers, the two of you are a natural match.

One other way a partnerships may be of benefit is if you need more money than you personally have. Your partner's contribution may be what you need to launch your business.

The thing to do if you do contemplate a partnership, is to have a clearly defined partnership agreement drawn up. Have it checked by a lawyer. The agreement should specify what happens if one of you decides to quit. What if either of your dies? Who will do what functions? How will decisions be made. What if you can't agree? Who will pay for what? These things all should be settled beforehand, before they have a chance to cause disruption in the business. Nothing kills a business more painfully than feuding partners.

The third form of business is the corporation. It is NOT a magic bullet, like some would have you believe. There are two main advantages to incorporation. First, you can have people invest in your company and raise money.Second, because the corporation exists legally as a separate entity, there is a liability shield between you and your assets and the business. If the company gets sued, you may not be. Company debts are separate from your own financial situation.

There are two main types of corporation, the subchapter C and subchapter S. (They refer to subchapters of the tax code).

The C corporation is your "standard" corporation. All the companies listed on the stock exchange are C corporations. You can have unlimited shareholders. If you sell 100,000 shares at $10 each, you've got a million dollars in capital to work with. The investors can be people, mutual funds, companies, foreigners, whatever.

The disadvantage to the C corporation is that of double taxation. If your business earns $100,000, the first thing that happens is that a corporate tax is paid. Then if you want to draw a salary (for in a corporation you are in fact an employee), you must declare that salary and pay personal income tax. The same money gets taxed twice before you get to spend any of it. Recognizing the unfairness of this to the small business, the S corporation was formed.

S Corporation income is simply reported on the personal income tax returns of the shareholders, just as income from a proprietorship or partnership would be. In exchange for this benefit, there are limits put on S corporations. You are limited to 35 shareholders (at the time this is written - it may be changed) and they have to be individual people.

Why should or shouldn't you incorporate? You should incorporate if you need the extra trademark protection, if you have significant assets to protect, or if you want to avoid the problems of a partnership but still take other people into your company.

The liability shield only becomes really important when you have a lot of assets that would be vulnerable to business loss or lawsuit. After you get that yacht and the second vacation home in the ritzy neighborhood, you should definitely think of incorporating. In the meantime, cover your liability with business liability insurance.

The newest form of business is the L.L.C., or Limited Liability Company (sometimes shown as Limited Liability Corporation). It combines many of the features of a partnership with those of an S Corporation. It allows the reporting on personal income tax returns of the "partners", but with the liability protection of a corporation. It lacks many of the restrictions that applied to S Corporations.

In some jurisdictions, you'll need two people to start an LLC, though some allow an LLC to be a one-person show. Most LLC's also have an expiration date, when they will automatically dissolve unless renewed. A corporation on the other hand "lives" forever unless purposely dissolved.

For more information, I recommend you buy and read our Special Reports:

R10510 Incorporate Yourself For Less!
No need for an attorney in most cases. This report covers the requirements - the advantages and disadvantages of incorporation - and how to file at minimum cost.

R10512 Should You Be A Limited Liability Company?
L.L.C. is going to be almost as common as Inc. after business namess. Find out why - and what advantages and drawbacks this business form has. It is particularly of interest for anyone thinking of being business partners with somebody.

Insurance

The most important insurance you can have is general business liability insurance. This protects you if somebody claims your action or inaction has harmed them, and sues you for damages.
Shop around for insurance. You may find a tremendous difference between policies offered by companies, or even individual offices of a company, since many are individually owned and operated. You should probably have a million dollars of coverage or more, and the cost is relatively low. One of the drawbacks of being in business is that you become a more easily attacked target for lawsuits. You need liability insurance to protect against that.

As an alternative medicine practitioner, you should also investigate errors and omissions (E&O) insurance. E&O insurance covers a higher degree of liability. Ordinary liability insurance protects against mistakes that cause harm - covering mistakes an ordinary prudent person shouldn't have made. E&O protects against any mistakes you make, whether or not anyone was harmed.

If you will be using your vehicle for business, you'll need to get a business 'rider' put on your policy, since your normal auto insurance will not cover business use. The same goes for your office. If you are homebased, make sure that your mortgage or renter's insurance is amended to include business equipment and stock that you might keep at home.

Since you are going to be self-employed, you'll need to explore business interruption, health and disability insurance. Business interruption insurance covers the bills for those times when you cannot work for some reason. Health insurance protects your most valuable asset - you - and helps pay medical bills should you be sick or injured. Disability insurance will provide for you if you are permanently unable to continue working.

You should also explore the possibilities of an umbrella type policy. This is where your different coverages, such as auto, home , fire, property and business liability coverages are bundled together, with a lower policy than you'd pay buying each separately.

In order to educate, you don't have to do all the talking. Let your satisfied customers, and the satisfied customers of other practitioners, do the educating for you.

Start putting together a book of testimonials and pictures. I call it a Smiles Book. Start with a regular photo album or 3 ring binder with page protectors in it, and start filling the book with testimonials, pictures, and quotations from those who have had treatments.

You'll probably have to 'seed' the album with photos of friends and family. It sounds hokey, but seeing others in the album encourages your patients to be included, and you'll find most people are naturally 'hams.' They just don't want to be first.

Any opportunities you get to get in front of a group and explain about health are golden opportunities. Don't use them to sell - nobody likes to sit through a sales pitch. Instead make the talk educational, and let your promotional materials in the back do the selling for you.

There are many community and professional groups that are open to, and indeed actively seeking. speakers for their meetings. Come up with some catchy speech topics, and submit them to the group. You could talk about stress reduction and avoiding repetitive stress injuries to office workers. You could talk about self treatment of injuries to athletes. You could talk about avoiding health problems to just about any group, tailored to that group.

If you aren't comfortable getting up in front of a group and talking (and psychologists tell us this is the #1 fear of many) then find yourself a Toastmasters Club.

At Toastmasters, members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 people who meet once a week for about an hour. And they are lots of fun!

Customers feel better about a purchase when there is documentation. In fact, the more documentation the better. Since many people will be trying alternative medicine for the first time, it is important that you be seen as both treater and educator.

I'd recommend strongly that you prepare a portfolio folder full of information for new patients. This will allow them to review the materials later when they get back home, and will give them more confidence in their decision.

What should you include in the portfolio?

• A short biography page about you and your practice partners, if any

• Business card

• Referral cards to give their friends and family

• A history of your particular modality

• Any clinical testing that has been done on the modality demonstrating effectiveness.

• A listing of potential side affects and drug/treatment interactions and what do about them.

• Your satisfaction guarantee

• Testimonials from other satisfied customers

• A copy of your most recent newsletter

• An invitation to subscribe (unless patients are automatically subscribed)

• An invitation to your next educational event

• Something humorous or inspirational (or both)

Of course, you will also be talking with the new patient, and can use some of that time educating them. However, be aware that there are three reasons this is not as effective alone in educating as it is when combined with the print portfolio:

• Some see the practitioner as the expert, and nod their head in agreement even though they may not understand a word you are saying. You are the authority, and they are accepting.

• The opposite can occur when someone is a skeptic or is argumentitive - even if only in their mind they are picking apart everything you say. You can't spend the time necessary to overcome this resistance, but they can read and understand.

• Patients might just be so stressed out or nervous about the procedure that they really aren't paying full attention to the words you say - even though they might appear to be receptive.

One of the best ways of marketing yourself is to be seen as an expert. Nobody wants to go see a beginner. The more expert you are seen, the more people will trust you.

Expertise is in the eye of the beholder. You can be seen as expert by others long before you feel comfortable in your own abilities. So relax, feel good about it, and start promoting yourself as an expert.

There are four major ways to be seen as an expert, and therefore somebody who is worth going to - and someone who can command higher fees!

1. Speaking

2. Writing

3. Heading an organization

4. Online

All of these can serve a very useful role in your marketing - why not use all of them?

Many practitioners operate from home. It has the advantage of virtually no overhead, which can have a dramatic impact on your profitability.

The downside is that in many jurisdictions this is illegal. There are zoning issues that might prohibit any business from home. We have a disadvantage in that, unlike an Internet business, we typically will have to have people coming and going throughout the day. People will notice.There may also be local or state regulations against any sort of health practice in a home.

That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Many practitioners have little choice initially - it can cost thousands initially and thousands per month to get an outside office with treatment area. Do what you need to do, but be discreet. Get an outside address, and be saving so that if the bureaucrats send you a cease and desist letter you can say 'sorry!' and move into a commercial space.

If there is a local home-based business association, by all means join it. With a common voice we can get some of these stupid laws reversed. Join the Chamber and become an active part of the business community, so that you have allies should there be issues.

If you are going to rent space, this is a large commitment. Most landlords are going to require a multi-month lease, which means you are pretty much locked into paying for space for some time.

In this case, the best location for you is in a professional services building, right next to as many allopathic doctors as you can find. This is for three reasons:

1. The allopathic docs will see you and bump into you every day, and will come to realize that you really don't have horns and a tail.

2. It gives you instant credibility with potential clients. If you are in the professional building right next to the neurosurgeon, you must be OK.

3. We are alternative medicine. If I go to my regular doctor and am told that there is little but pills or risky surgery for my condition, I'm going to be searching for alternatives. So put that prominently on your sign, and when I walk out of the doc's office depressed, I'll see your "Alternative Healing" sign and go to you.

I always recommend that you talk to a commercial real estate broker and pay them to act on your behalf in reviewing, negotiating and settling any lease. There are many terms in commercial real estate that are unfamiliar to most of us. By making them your agent, you now have an expert on your side.

How you conduct your business practices is just as important to customer satisfaction as the treatment you give. Ideally, a patient would just be able to walk in and see you whenever they like - but of course that would be no way to run a business. You need to collect information from them, you need to ensure you'll get paid, and you need to schedule your time. All of these things though should be done with patient satisfaction in mind.

If you are going to make clients wait, and it is probably inevitable as your business grows, try to make the waiting area as pleasant as possible, and provide ample distration from the clock. Traditionally this has meant magazines, and these could still be a part. However some people don't like to read some magazines, and you always have clutter with the magazines.

Here is an idea that works very well - puzzles. Having a jigsaw puzzle table set up is inexpensive, and I don't know anybody that can resist trying to put pieces in. It can be a conversation starter with others who are waiting, and is mentally absorbing. you can even seal the finished puzzles and use them as the wall decorations in your practice. People enjoy them and get a sense of ownership and good feeling about you when they see a puzzle on the wall they helped to complete.

You should have a periodic review to make sure your intake process is as comfortable and efficient as possible. Analyze each step, and ask "why?" Then ask "Is there a better way?"

The two most important questions when networking are:

Who is your target market?

How can I get together with them?

If you were going to go after business owners, where would you go? Where do you find business owners gathered in one place? The Chamber of Commerce meeting would probably be your best bet.

What your target market belongs to, you want to belong to. Whereever your target market goes, you want them to bump into you.

The Chamber typically has listings of local groups (even non-business ones) and information on when and where they meet. On a large scale, in the reference section of the library is a large 3-volume set called the Encyclopedia of Associations. A similar publication covers international groups.

Don't neglect the networking with your peers. They can be a great source of information and support.

Other practitioners of all types should be on your regular contact list. Find excuses to get together with them. You'll find that the more familiar you are to them, the more they are likely to remember you when it comes time to refer a client to another specialty.

1. If you provide good customer service, people will refer business to you.

Just because you give good service, people will not necessarily recommend you. They won't talk bad about you like dissatisfied people will, but you must encourage them to talk good about you.

2. Schmooze with the movers and shakers.

You never know where business will come from, and often it is from those who you least expect. The movers and shakers are often full of themselves anyway.

3. People who like, care and respect you will refer business to you.

Wrong. How often have you gotten a good referral from your Mom?

From an Entrepreneur magazine article by Ivan Misner, who is a New York Times bestselling author and the founder and CEO of BNI, the world's largest referral organization with thousands of Chapters in dozens of countries around the world. His new book, Masters of Success can be viewed at www.MastersofSuccess.biz. Misner teaches business at Cal Poly University, Pomona and resides in Southern California with his wife and three children.

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care - about them and their problems." Robert Cavett

"The last thing you want to do is to say something or engage in an activity that may irrituate your referral prospect. Any contact you have with the referral will more than likely be related back to its source. It is vital that any feedback is positive, otherwise, your source for referrals will terminate." Scott Kramnick

"The best prospect is the client who has already dealt with you. The second best is the one referred to by a client who has dealt with you previously. The third best is the on e referred to you by another trusted professional or friend." Marilyn Jennings.

"The way of the world is meeting people through other people." Robert Kerrigan

"Customers set up a hierarchy of values, wants, and needs based on emperical data, opinions, word-of-mouth references, and previous experiences with products and servies. they use that information to make purchasing decisions." Regis McKenna

"A product or company in its infancy has no real meaning. But it acquires meaning from its environment, and it changes as the environment changes." Regis McKenna

"[consumer]Perception extends from the quality reputation of the product and its manufacturer to the reputation of other established users of the product." Regis McKenna

"Customer loyalty begins with an experience." Regis McKenna

"People are deluged with promotional information, and they are beginning to distrust it [advertising]. People are more likely to make decisions based on what they hear directly from other people, including friends, experts, or even salespeople. These days more decisions are made at the sales counter than in the living room armchair." Regis McKenna

"The no-questions-asked policy allows customers to communicate honestly with the dealer." Regis McKenna

"Like it or not, people are talking about your business all the time. Some talk is positive, but because of a quirk in human nature, negative talk reaches a much wider audience than positive talk." Jerry Wilson

"Everybody has a horror story about goods and services. People love to tell horror stories. I guess inquiring minds want ot know the worst." Jerry Wilson

"Sociologists say the average person interacts repeatedly with approximately 250 other people, including neighbors, family, and co-workers." Jerry Wilson

"Informal conversation is probably the oldest mechanism by which opinions on products and brands are developed, expressed, and spread." Johan Arndt

"Word of mouth is the business world's equivalent of gossip; which may explain why it is so likely to be repeated when it is negative." Chip Walker

"An opinion leader may be motivated to search and engage in Experiential flow activities in order to disseminate product news, advice, and personal experience via word-of-mouth." Donna L. Hoffman and Thomas P. Novak

"Kinship is the basis for perhaps most face-to-face communication." Johan Arndt

"People's inclinations to think or act may be strengthened or altered in relation to the example of one man's reputation." F.G. Bailey

"An advocate is someone who tells everyone how great your business is." Murray Raphel and Neil Raphel

"By inducing a person to buy a new product the mass media are also paving the way for favorable word of mouth." Johan Arndt

"No one is perceived as being more honest than when they criticize you." Bernard Taylor

"What is remarkable for one person may not be for another. It depends on what your customer has come to expect from your business." Godfrey Harris

"When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic but with creatures of emotion." Dale Carnegie

tation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was." Joseph Hall

"Word of mouth seems to be a frequently used risk-reduction device; and this source of information is particularly sought for in situations characterized by high uncertainty." Johan Arndt

"Within the loyalist camp (of consumers) are individuals who are so satisfied, whose experience so far exceeds their expectations, that they share their strong feelings with others. They are apostles." Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl Sasser, Jr.

Typically when a practioner starts their business, they get business cards, letterhead and brochures done up. I'm firmly in favor of these - providing you avoid the big mistakes most make with them.

Remember The Trap?

When we stay within the 'New Age' marketplace, we doom our efforts because we are 'preaching to the choir'. These people usually already are health concscious, and probably have a practitioner they are seeing. Our marketing effort needs to be aimed at the general population, not 'our kind' of people.

That also requires a radical shift in your mind when preparing your marketing message. These people do not know what reiki is. What is that, some kind of martial art? A Japanese toy? These people are not likely to seek out 'energy work' or 'aura painting'

So we know that we must:

1. Not assume but educate.

2. Avoid the use of terms that are too metaphysical

Now I'm going to add Item #3.

When most practioners make their brochure or flyer or whatever, they tend to talk a lot about themselves. There will be a whole panel about their history. There will somewhere on the piece be a list of all the modalities used, and possibly a bulleted list of all the health problems that can be addressed. You'll see the practioner's photo or some 'calming' graphic image.

Do I care?

Does the average person care?

No!

I want to know if you can fix my sore back. If you can get rid of my gas.

Your marketing pieces then need to be much less about you, and much more customer focused.

Business cards are an essential part of any business marketing plan, but they will do you no good unless you make sure they are used, and used properly.

Do not depend solely on the business card for your marketing.

What is the purpose of a business card?

The purpose of a card is to give somebody all the information they need to contact you. It can also serve as a way of selling, but by its very nature it is limited in what you can say.

Forget cute and colorful. A plain white card accomplished the mission at least as well as a full color one - perhaps more so as we find some of the more colorful cards have difficulty being scanned into a card scanner. Also avoid non-standard sizes. The standard card size is 2"x3.5" and many people put cards they want to retain into card holders, and if yours won't fit then the wastebasket is where it will go.

One of the "whys" of business cards is to get folks to hold onto it until they need it. And one way to increase the chance of having it saved is to incorporate information your prospect might refer to from time to time. While some folks print something general, such as a calendar on the back of their card, you might choose something that is specific to your field. Tips for stress reduction, food allergies - surely you can come up with some useful information.

If you are looking to increase the effectiveness of a business card, increase the size. Print on the back. You can also get fold-over cards which doubles your real estate for less than twice the cost. It allows you to spread out your message. The face of the card should be like any normal card, while the inside can have a selling message and room for you to write a personal note to the recipient. This makes it much more useful, and much more likely that it will be kept.

Of course, any card is only useful if you give it away. Remember five and dime stores? Now we have dollar stores instead, which aren't at all the same thing. We are going to practice 5 and 10 marketing from now on. If you make it a commitment, it will work.

The five part - everyday, you must give away five business cards, five brochures, five infosheets, it doesn't so much matter what you give, but that you give away five of something. Make it a commitment, if it is 11 PM at night and you've only given away three today, you must go find somebody. Two somebodies in fact, because you must give away two more before the stroke of midnight. Go to an all night supermarket and give them to the staff, or go have adult beverages - I don't care which.

The ten part - everyday, you must make a list of ten people to contact, and not stop working till you've contacted all ten. Yes, it must be a different list daily. Fortunately, contact can be by phone, email, fax, postcard, any form of contact.

If you do only the five and the ten, at the end of one year over 5,000 people will know about you and your business. All it costs you is a few sets of business cards.

If you give me a three-fold brochure telling me all about your services, I might look it over. Then it goes into the trash or into a file. If you send me the same brochure again, I won't even look at it again. I've seen it already.

Brochures are useful only when you know there are brochure racks that you can participate in. Otherwise - use flyers. They can be formatted in the same vertical format, are less expensive and just as effective.

Unfortunately, when most practitioners do their brochure they end up putting a whole bullet list of things that they can treat. With one line for each, there is no effect. Nothing in there is enough to educate me or even to engage my mind or attention on what you can do for my problem.

What I recommend is that you have one flyer (I call them Info-Sheets) for each symptom or problem you can address with your treatment.

Start off on top with a headline of the problem. Then explain what you can do to fix it, and finish it on the bottom with how to get in touch with you if I want to solve my problem. Simple. Effective.

The reason I recommend having a strip on top that declares the symptom/problem, is that you can them set them up in a stair-step arrangement so that the strip of each shows.

You can get a rack made like this, or do it yourself. If you do, you'll find people will start self-selecting the Info-Sheets that apply to them, and also they will start gathering those that might help their friends or family.

Click for example Info Sheet

While the Info-Sheets are very much customer focused, I realize that there is a place for the practitioner to talk about their qualifications, the history behind their modality, etc. So go ahead and include sheets that are more about you and less about the customer. I call these Sales-Sheets.

Just make sure that you are merely including these with the Info-Sheets. It is the Info-Sheets that are the most important.

While you might think it will be harder to get customers if you charge more, the opposite might be true. If you are priced much lower than the allopathic MD, the perception is that you are worth much less.

We tend - even if on a subconcious level - to equate price with quality. If you can charge more, you must be good and therefore in high demand. It is not a logical thing, but it is just about universal.

To give you an example, does a Lexus do anything a Hyundai won't? Will a Rolex tell time any better than a Timex?

You are a caring, giving person - so it makes sense that you might want to adjust your fee so that you can help those who can't afford your regular fee.

Go ahead - but realize that it will directly impact your bottom line and your livelihood each time you do this.

I recommend that you have some set amount to do this by, and some set criterion on which to base it. You might give 25% off to those who earn less than $xx,xxxx per year, for example. They bring in a tax return showing this, or show you their welfare card, or some other way of qualifying. What you don't want is to get the reputation that your rates are 'fairy tale' and that everyone can negotiate you down.

I also recommend that you adjust your rates upward once or twice a year - it is right and proper that as your business grows, you will be more in demand and able to claim a higher rate for your time. I raise my fees on my birthday ;-)

Freebie Seekers? Turn Them Into Clients and Referrers - Or Turn them Far, Far Away

by Maria Marsala

Many service business owners these days are "giving away" their business services – and then wonder why people aren't hiring them in droves. In the name of "marketing," business owners are providing way too much information for free. Some shifts in thinking are necessary if these business owners expect to be in business years from now. Even trained coaches (this applies as well to alternative practitioners), I believe, do too much pro-bono work. Why? They say that they need to practice, but the bottom line, IMO, is that they don't value their gifts.

Shifts in thinking and action need to occur. One place to start is by moving yourself from an employee mentality, where you "give information for free because your company is paying you and it's just what you do in your job" to thinking like a business owner who values their gifts and expects to be paid for those gifts.

The final shift is to always act like a "real" business owner and stop giving away the bank. Being paid for your service is about honoring your business, your talents, your precious time, your gifts and the skills you've developed. Setting boundaries on just how much free information, or free services, you'll give away is not easy to do. Just like pricing services!

However, no one expects to go into a shoe store, ask for free shoes, and walk out of the store! If you don't value your services, no one else will. So if you're holding back information that you rightfully should be paid for, and you believe that you're hoarding or being stingy, please look to see if that belief is based in reality.

VERY big shifts indeed.

Tiffany Bond, principal at BrandBond in Seattle, said it best: "People seldom value an opinion they didn't pay for - but they will sure assess blame to it!" So if you're going to take the blame, at the very least, get paid highly for it!

Yes, providing some limited free advice may be a good marketing strategy. It may assist someone to trust you. On the other hand, it might have the opposite effect, and cause people to wonder why they should pay you when they're getting the information for free. So, just be careful that you're not giving away the shop. As I tell my clients, "learn from my mistakes (and I did give away the shop until I got smart!), and go and make better mistakes!"

And what can you say to people who

1) ask outright for free information, or

2) just start talking to you about something, and you realize that they're trying to "borrow" your valuable resources without becoming a client? Here are some ideas. Try them on to see what "fits" you best.

23 things to say when someone asks you - a service business owner – for free information!

1. My charge for an initial consultation is "x." If we turn out to be a good match, and you hire me, I'll apply 1/2 of "x" towards your commitment.

2. I'm happy to give you 5 minutes or less of free time, however, most issues are more quickly & effectively resolved in an undisturbed session(s). May we schedule a meeting so I can give you my undivided attention?

3. If someone is very persistent, whip out a stopwatch & say "For $2 a minute I'd be happy to go into this now. May I start the clock & do you prefer to pay with cash or check?"

4. What I can do is refer you to a free resource on "_______."

5. I do work with two pro-bono clients, who are in desperate need financially. I'll take your card and add you to the waiting list.

6. Yes, I do work with clients on "name the issue." Would you like to set up a consultation?

7. That will cost "x" per hour.

8. There's a lot I can do for you that's similar to the work I did for "xyz" client. Would you like to get together and build a marketing plan? (And then charge for those services.)

9. Well, I'd love to suggest something; however, my fees are "xxx" per hour.

10. Are you looking to hire me?

11. Are you looking to hire _____? Well, I'd love to talk to you about that; my fees are "x" per hour."

12. You may call me for a 15-minute talk, very focused, on that issue.

13. "Well, the answer to that question depends" and then spend a few minutes explaining some of the options and considerations. For example, I may explain that the best way to identify the "solution" is to work backward from the desired end result and process. That provides a natural lead-in to: "If I were to work with you on this project, here's how we would do it..."

14. Sorry, I can't answer that unless you pay my fee (or hire me).

15. A complete answer to your question is going to take more than 15 minutes over the phone. Would you like me to send you a proposal on this?

16. I have really enjoyed talking with you and would like to help more. May I send you one of my brochures and a rate card?

17. Do you have a time line and/or budget in mind for solving this problem?

18. Have you looked at cost estimates from others who would like to help you solve this problem or complete this project?

19. It's not a good time for me to begin a session right this minute. Would you like to briefly discuss session times and fees?

20. Are you seeking generic free information on "the topic" or to work with a "your profession here" to address your specific situation? [If I have a free resource, I'll ask for their email address and send it to them.]

21. I provide a general 3-4 sentence overview of how I would address their concern with them. Then I say that I've found that the sorting of the information available and subsequent application of that information is so specific to each individual that I always recommend hiring a "your profession here" for getting that one project completed.

22. Well what I can offer you on that subject is an ebook (CD, audio, etc) called ________. I’ll email you the link and you can purchase it online.

23. Refer them to these "free" or "almost free" resources:

- The library has books/tapes/audios/CD/reference librarians.

- To an outsider, your local SBA and SCORE Offices "look" free. They're really not "free" either. Their classes "cost $" and their advice is paid for by all of us as part of our taxes.

- Find a professional who needs your services and see about some sort of in-kind exchange or barter. Again, this isn't totally free, as you do need to report it on your taxes, but in most cases, there isn't any money exchanged.

- Join lots of ezines by experts in the area you're looking to learn about, but do it quickly while they are still free. And know that the 'best of the best'contain ads and affiliate programs, too.

About the Author:

Marcia Yudkin, Marketing Consultant, Speaker and Author says this in Marketing Minute: http://www.yudkin.com/marksynd.htm "You can head off a good portion of that from paying clients by setting down in writing what your fees cover and do not cover. While you don't want to come off as some sort of dictator with a stringent rulebook, it helps to set forth guidelines for a productive relationship. For folks who are not yet clients, feel free to copy what I do. If I can answer a question in five minutes or less, I generally just go ahead and do so. If a question is more complicated than that, I reply, 'I couldn't do justice to your question without a consultation. My consulting rates are ...'Prevent hassles by making expectations explicit!"

Remember, as a service business owner, part of what you "offer" clients and what they value from you is your knowledge and expertise. It's as much a part of your "services" as any tangible materials you produce. So make sure to treat it as such, and get compensated fairly! When you value your services, others will, too.

============== With special thanks to members of the CoachU Alumni Helping Alumni List http://www.coachu.com/, Digital Eve Seattle and Freelance Seattle, www.freelance-seattle.net discussion lists for sending me their questions and observations, which contributed greatly to this article.

© 2004 Maria Marsala, Business Builder and former Wall Street Trader. "Powering-UP service busine$$es and their owners". Providing articles, tips, classes, and resources. Learn more at http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com

One of the drawbacks of being in business, and one of the benefits, is taxes. The drawback lies in that you become an agent of the government. You must now assume the task of withholding income tax, something as a wage slave was taken care of for you. In many jurisdictions, you must calculate and collect sales tax on each of your sales, keep account of it, and then forward the correct amount to the state. You'll rapidly learn the large tax bite that government on all levels takes out of your hard earned profits.

The benefits come from the fact that only your net income, in most cases, should be taxable. That means that expenses you incur trying to make that net income are generally deductible. When you buy equipment, incur correspondence expenses, or make a buying/selling trip, the costs can generally be written off as a business expense.

Both the federal government and most states offer free tax seminars and publications to small business. Write or call the IRS and your state department of revenue, and ask for their small business tax kits, and ask if they have any extra publications for service firms.

Note that I say "generally deductible", because the tax rules change all the time. Because of this, and because I am not a licensed tax professional, I won't try to explain all the rules. In this business, it is a good idea to both study the tax rules yourself, and to have a good accountant to help you out.

I recommend you find a new accountant, or one that has a small shop that has been around forever without really growing. While this sounds contrary to most advice, the idea is to find someone who is "hungry," who will be more aggressive in their exploitation of the tax rules than larger, more prominent firms. The larger firms are more interested in protecting their assets by being conservative. Having an aggressive accountant can literally save or make you several extra thousand a year.

There are plenty of bookkeeping programs available for the computer, but there is still a decided advantage to having a live person to help you out. You won't get the same quality of advice from a computer program, nor will the program explore unconventional ways to save you money on your taxes.

If you are going to do your own books on your computer, make sure that you have a good accountant or tax preparer help you in setting up all the accounts. It can save you hours of aggravation and redoing later.

An interesting alternative to using one of the many bookkeeping programs out there is to do everything through your website. This can be done quite easily if you or your designer can create forms for inputting your expenses and offline income, and a database to store the entries in.

There are two ways to figure your taxes. If you are going to be reselling merchandise you buy, maintaining an inventory, IRS regulations in the United States dictate that you use an accrual method of accounting. You may have a choice for those products or services that you produce yourself or do not involve keeping inventory. Ask your tax person!

In order for customer retention to work, there must be frequent contact. I mentioned that you will need to devote time every day to marketing - some of that will be used to do those contacts.

Contact can be by mail, by phone, by email or in person - but I recommend noone go more than 120 days without hearing something from you.

Make the first 500 (or 100 or however many you like) customers members of an exclusive Founders Club you create. Get nice gold cards made up, maybe some certificates, a gift - anything that will designate them as someone special.

We love to be 'special.' We love having status, and will pay more for a higher level of it. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum - we look always for the next level.

I'm a member of Costco - but not only a member, I'm an Executive Member! What does that mean? I get to pay $100 per year instead of $35 for my membership. There are extra perks as well, of course, such as getting 2% back on purchases, etc.

You'll need to come up with some perks for your Founders Club members. Maybe a discount every time they come in for a treatment, a gift on special days, a dinner on you - the more you come up, the better the Founders Club works.

It works because the more the members feel special, the more they become evangelists for you and your business. You are creating not only word of mouth, but enthusiasts who can create that magical degree of word of mouth marketing known as 'buzz.'

Realize that every one of your members has a circle of people that they interact with and can influence. The price of the membership cards and perks will in all likelihood be made up many times over.

Why Word-of-Mouth Works Wonders

By Michel Fortin

Viral marketing is the process of implementing means through which the knowledge of your existence self-propagates. Like a virus, your visibility spreads throughout a network of people who refer you to each other. Unlike unsolicited advertisements or "spam," which usually stops once it reaches its destination (and the reason spammers must keep spamming in order to remain successful), viral marketing continues to spread almost effortlessly since the people who refer you to others know each other. Also, those who get to know you (or to know about you) through third party referrals grant you a higher level of confidence, credibility and loyalty.

Word-of-mouth advertising is crucial in the offline world. Online, referral or network marketing (as they are commonly known) is vital. Why? The key to marketing success in the offline world is "location, location, location." The Internet is no different. In other words, your marketing success depends highly on the number of locations you appear -- places on which your site, link, company or product name exist. In essence, it is to be in as many places as possible, talked about by as many people as possible and seen by as many eyeballs as possible. Success online is all about "location" too!

Remember a dictum a mentor of mine once told me, which is: "Implication is far more powerful than specification." In other words, if you tell people you're the best, that you're the leader in your field, or that your product is the best solution to their needs, your self-serving promotional bias makes it all suspect. Your statement is rarely believable at face value. And if you do make such claims, you will have your work cut out for you in order to prove them.

However, if someone other than you says to another that you are indeed the best or that you do have the best solution to their problems, how much more believable will that person's statement be? How much more credible? The answer is "definitely more." Accordingly, referrals and networking systems are not only important because they create an awareness of your business (or because they create traffic in the online world), but also they are important to the degree to which third party marketing indirectly communicates greater credibility, superiority and value of the products or services you offer.

In his new book (which I highly recommend) "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding," Al Ries stresses the importance of leadership and how that leadership is communicated. According to Ries, people never buy the best -- they only think they do. They usually buy the leader (or what they perceive as being the best). And that perception is often molded by what they are told and by what others do, not by what is fact or by what is being advertised.

Coke, for example, outsells Pepsi. But according to Ries, taste tests reveal that Pepsi is the better tasting brand. So, why does Coke still beat Pepsi in sales? It is not because it is the leader in the marketplace or promoted itself as such but because it is known as the leader.

Coke was the first cola "in the mind" of the marketplace and thus the one most talked about, even to this day. When a person is introduced to cola for the first time, he or she is often told to try Coke. People in restaurants still refer to the word "coke" as the generic name for colas, even when only Pepsi is served. Why is that? While other colas are bombarding them with marketing messages, people have heard of Coke first and most likely from other people.

Consequently, if your business or website is unique, focuses on a niche or is the first in some category, the knowledge of your existence will spread quite naturally, almost like wildfire. But creating systems and using specific tools that will leverage the spreading of that message helps to multiply your marketing punch exponentially. Such tools stimulate word-of-mouth advertising, which is more effective than general advertising. For along with communicating your existence to the world, word-of-mouth advertising helps to cast that aura of leadership and superiority.

Networking systems, for example, include strategic marketing alliances, joint ventures, and affiliate programs. Online, they are often called referral traffic generators. And unlike the more traditional traffic generators such as banners and search engines, these specific tools are much more effective since they are used by third parties and not by the original advertiser.

Nevertheless, if you received a call, letter or email from someone you know (and especially trust) referring you to a particular company, how much more credible will that referral be when compared to a blatant advertisement coming from the company itself? You got it... More. Much more.

Michel Fortin is a master copywriter and consultant dedicated to turning businesses into powerful magnets. Get a FREE copy of his book, "The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning," and subscribe to his FREE monthly ezine, "The Profit Pill," by visiting http://SuccessDoctor.com/ now!

Of course, your treatment regime should be both effective and as painless as possible. This may not be possible with all alternative medicine regimes, but is the goal. All too often practitioners stick with what they know and are most familiar with. You on the other hand should always be searching for what will be more effective, while if possible being more comfortable for the patient.

If there is discomfort or pain, provide ample literature explaining why this was necessary, and the benefits.

Do everything you can to make the customer feel comfortable.

You may think you know how you are doing in customer satisfaction, and you may never hear a complaint. What does that mean?

95-98% of people who are unhappy don't complain - they just don't come back. If you knew what the problem was, you could fix it. But they don't give you that chance, they don't give you that feedback.

The best way by far to make sure you are doing all you can for customer satisfaction is to contract with a Mystery Shopping Company (MSC) to send people anonymously. Together with the MSC you will develop an evaluation checklist - what you would like the Mystery Shoppers to check on. The MSC may very well include additional elements they think are important. You'll get a visit from time to time by a Mystery Shopper posing as a regular customer. You won't know they are a Mystery Shopper until you get the evaluation report - usually within 48 hours of the evaluation. They will tell you exactly how the customer experience is, and ways to improve.

This may be the stupidest thing business owners do - in any field of business! I could walk into just about any 100 businesses in the country, spend $500 and receive whatever product or service they provide. How many thank you cards do you think I'll receive?

Right. Probably none. How many of those businesses will make any kind of effort to follow up with me? Also, probably none. This is stupid. Businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising to bring customers in, and then just let them drift away.

I could go to almost any business in town and ask them how much money they spend on advertising. They could look in their books and tell me down to the penny. If I asked that same shop owner how much they spend to keep the customers they all ready have, odds are I will get a blank confused look. Those who are a bit sharper, will mention that they send out Christmas cards. But follow-up marketing is so easy and inexpensive compared to other marketing methods, and it is much more effective.

Study after study has shown that getting a purchase from an existing customer is much easier and less costly than getting orders from the public at large. In fact, the average customer is worth 8 to 10 times their initial purchase. If somebody pays one hundred dollars for a consultation, they are worth at least $800 to $1,000 to you. They are worth that in repeat and referral business - but only if you stay in touch with them, and continue to market to them.

In order to do this effectively, something should remind you that it has been six weeks since you talked to that person, or whatever the maximum interval you want to have between contacts. This is the purpose for the tickler system we set up in the tools section.

If you are going to have an effective customer retention program, you need to know who your customers are. This requires that you capture not only your customers' names, addresses and email but also anything else you can about them.

There is a book out by Harvey MacKay called "Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive" that may be very useful. He has what he calls his "MacKay 66" - 66 things he wants to know about each of his customers. His company sells envelopes, but knows that information is powerful for helping to form relationships that mean more profits.

If you know that your patient enjoys classical music or is an avid movie buff, that gives you a point to discuss with them which can make them feel more at ease with you. The customer file you are creating is also an ideal place to record anythinng you observe about them. This can be a tool which can increase their satisfaction with your practice. If a patient feels that your room is too cold, the next time they are scheduled in you might perhaps turn the temperature up a bit, for example.

You can keep this information in a database, but better yet put it into your Contact Management program. Perfect if you are doing this with a web service!

Client Feedback

An important part of improving the service offered to clients is listening to what they have to say.

Feedback forms are not by any means the only source of information which practitioners will consider when planning professional development or service quality, and naturally they cannot replace the ordinary verbal feedback received during the counselling hour. However, forms can provide a number of advantages over ordinary verbal feedback:

* Anonymity: Forms completed at home and returned by post provide clients a degree of anonymity and an opportunity to express any thoughts or feelings which they might -- for whatever reason -- be reluctant to convey in person.

* Specificity: Forms can ask specific questions about individual areas which counsellors consider important either for theoretical or practical reasons.

* Quantitative character: No form does a good job of capturing the intersubjective differences between clients providing the same answer to identical questions, but nevertheless a form can provide a quantitative framework for spotting significant trends or consistencies and exploring them further.

An Example Feedback Form

As an example, the feedback form available here is that used by a professional in the field of counselling. Modify it as you think best. In four sections, the form is designed to provide a clear evaluation of clients' experience in terms of:

1. the working relationship with their counsellor,

2. the results or impact of working with their counsellor,

3. their overall level of satisfaction with the service, and

4. any other areas the client might like to flag for attention.

Undoubtedly individual practitioners will prefer to emphasize certain of these areas more than others, and the theoretical framework within which they work will mean that additional questions may be necessary, while others included here will be less relevant.

The form is provided to clients at the conclusion of working together, along with a stamped and self-addressed envelope; every effort is made to let the client know that they are not in any way obliged to complete the form, and some prefer not to do so. Coming as it does at the end of time spent working together, the relationship is usually such that the form can be positioned appropriately and sensitively with the client.

Click the image at right or click here to download the sample form (113KB). (The document requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

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Press Release Template

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:

Contact Person

Company Name

Telephone Number

Fax Number

Email Address

Web site address

Headline

City, State, Date — Opening Paragraph (should contain: who, what, when, where, why):

Remainder of body text - Should include any relevant information to your products or services. Include benefits, why your product or service is unique. Also include quotes from staff members, industry experts or satisfied customers. This is the place to add some human interest.

Add more paragraphs if you need to, but try to keep the press release to one page. Many editors hate mult-page releases. If there is more than 1 page use:

-more-

(The top of the next page):

Abbreviated headline (page 2)

Remainder of text.

(Restate Contact information after your last paragraph):

For additional information or a sample copy, Contact: (all Contact information)

Summarize product or service specifications one last time

Company History (try to do this in one short paragraph)

# # #

(indicates Press Release is finished)

What reasons do you have to send out a press release and get publicity? Put your creative mind to work on the problem. Anytime you have something that might be interesting to others, send out a press release. Remember though, nobody wants to read your advertisement posing as editorial - make sure it has interest for reasons other than building your business.

Print advertising in the major media can be terribly expensive. It is not unusal at all for companies to spend over a hundred thousand dollars on a single ad (although that usually buys a full page).

Even the local major daily is expensive. A 4"x4" ad in most major newspapers will run you over $500 each time it is run.

Don't give up on print advertising altogether though. Local community and neighborhood papers are usually much less expensive. Also less expensive are the 'freebies' - those newspapers being given away for free in front of restaurants.

Do you have a defined market niche (if not, go back and figure one out)? Are there any newsletters, newspapers or magazines that reach that market well?

All it takes with each is to ask for a media kit, which will give you all the advertising rates. Don't take these as Gospel however, but rather as a point at which to begin negotiations.

There are many areas you can advertise for free, by 'postering.' Postering is simply putting up information about you and your business wherever you can find a bulletin board to stick it on. It is extremely cost effective, since the cost is almost nil. All it costs you is the Infosheet and a pushpin. You never know who might see it that has a health problem you can help with.

Can you be on the radio or TV? Sure you can. There are three ways:

1. You can buy advertising time. If you have the money, why not?

2. You can send in press releases to the stations, and if they see something they think will be interesting to their listeners, they'll run it.

3. You can become a guest on a talk show. They are always looking for interesting guests. Send in a proposal, along with a list of suggested questions and answers that can be used. They want to make sure that you will be interesting, and with the Q&A list they are assured there will be a lively repartee.

Also, make sure you get all your family and friends and associates to tune in at that time. Better yet, get them to call in. Stations judge success of the segment by audience reaction. It really doesn't matter as much whether the reaction is negative or positive, as long as there is reaction. What you are also doing is 'priming the pump.' Nobody wants to be the first one to ask a question. If you get your people asking, others will be encouraged to call in.

Start your business, and you'll likely soon be approached by directory ad space salespeople.

Directories are useful because customers may turn to them to find providers. However, the cost can be extremely high, and it is wasted money if the directories bring no customers.

If you want to reach a particular type of person, one of the most effective means is through direct mail. No other medium reaches exactly the audience you are desiring, at the exact time you want to reach them.

You can do this on a local level, you can do this worldwide. Anyone that has a mail address can be effectively reached by mail.

Direct mail can be used to bring people in to your practice, so you can effectively use it as a marketing tool for your service.

Direct mail even more powerfully can be used to sell your product.

Marketing your practice on the Internet

By Robert B. Connelly

Published July 1999, and only more true today,

The Information Superhighway is ready and able to deliver your message to thousands of people, including your current and potential new patients. Your primary vehicle on the World Wide Web (WWW, or web)that section of cyberspace most people associate with the Internetis your website.

If you do not already have a website, establish one. If you have the opportunity to post multiple websites, take it. If you already have a website but it includes little or nothing more than your name, practice address, hours, and CV, develop it

Make your website easy to find. Register with as many search engines as you can. Make hyperlinking sites work for you. Make your site one that your patients will bookmark and visit again and again. Make it user-friendly and easy to navigate.

Internet competition for patients is starting to intensify. Medical practices that start using the Internet early and use it well will find it to be a marketing tool like no other. Others will suffer the consequences of "too little, too late."

The Internet is always accessible, easily updated or altered, interactive, and can use animation, sound and moving images. The Internet is expanding daily. E-commerce is booming. Within a few years, almost everybody will have a personal computer or have access to one.

Website Options

First, have a website. Physician affiliation organizations such as IPAs often provide member physicians or practices with free websites or website pages. Your hospital may offer a similar service. So might your state or local medical society.

If you are offered a website or web page, take it. These tend to be low-cost or no-cost ways to get your name on the Internet. Free sites typically include little more than your name; your practices name, address, and other contact information; your specialty or subspecialty; perhaps a list of services; and possibly your (often substantially shortened) CV.

Further, if your website is hosted by a larger organization, it may well be difficult for your patients to find. Typically, the information seeker will need to travel several levels into a hierarchically organized site to find information about a specific physician or practice.

Marketing by Website

To make your website a valuable marketing tool, it must be yours. Take any free site(s) you are offered, but also establish your own, and make it useful. Having your own website may be a disservice if it is only there to let other (e.g., referring) physicians know that your practice exists, just a copy of the ad you placed in your local telephone directory or boring, user-unfriendly, or rarely changed.

Focus on your current patients, possible new patients and caregivers. Caregivers are those people who provide day-to-day care for patients and plan enrollees and make decisions about who their health care providers are. For example, parents of young children and adult children of the elderly are caregivers.

Communicate effectively with these audiences and potential audiences. Those who are searching on the Internet will expect the following of your site: a substantial amount of information, good design and frequent updates and alterations.

Information

Use your website to state your medical practice philosophies dealing with medical care, patient care and customer service. Describe the services you offer. List the health plans with which you participate. If yours is a group practice, include information about each of your physicians. Include data that patients will want to know, such as specialty, subspecialty or area of focus; highlights of your training and services offered.

If you have published any papers, have them rewritten in plain, simple English, free of as much medical jargon as possible. If necessary, explain any terms readers may need to understand. Develop a glossary. With permission to use copyrighted material, post papers on your website for other physicians to read. If these are posted on other sites by entities that hold the copyright, establish (with permission) hyperlinks for them. Or simply post the summaries with citations.

Publish events that patients, caregivers and other physicians want to know about, such as the addition of a new physician, seminars and conferences at which you will be presenting, the departure of a retiring physician, the addition of new services or coverage, the opening of a new facility, your participation in new health plans and the merger with or acquisition of another practice.

Provide timely medical information. For example, an ophthalmic practice may want to inform patients about a new laser procedure, an orthopedic practice may want to tell patients about a new arthroscopic technique, or a pediatric practice may want to advise parents about a new vaccine.

Provide directions to your office. Many services to which you can link your site provide on-line maps and generate driving directions from anywhere to your front door.

Tell your patients when you will be offering new services, how much they will cost, and how they are being covered by health plans. Tell your patients which of your doctors is qualified or is becoming qualified to provide these new services to them.

If your practice is offering complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) services (such as chiropractic, neuropathy, holistic medicine, acupuncture, yoga and massage therapy), make sure your website has this information.

CAM consumers often surf the Internet to find providers and information. This area of non-traditional medicine is largely unregulated, and there is a lot of misinformation available. Thus, even if you are not providing the actual CAM services, providing accurate information about CAM services will benefit your patients. In turn, providing necessary information and guidance is an excellent marketing tool.

Keep your website seasonal. For example, if summer is coming, warn your website visitors about Lyme disease and ticks. If fall is approaching, warn about influenza. If spring is around the corner, start posting allergy advisories and pollen/air quality reports. If winter is on its way, post materials about heart attacks and muscle problems associated with shoveling snow. Focus on those seasonal elements that your practice diagnoses and treats.

If you have one, post your newsletter on your website.

Design

Design your website to be user-friendly, interactive and attractive. Organize it so that navigation is easy. Establish clearly defined bookmarks and hyperlinks. Make your backgrounds interesting but easy on the eyes. Animated type and graphics can make a website interesting, but an animation overdose can decrease the number of return visits.

Interactive websites are rapidly increasing in popularity. Some practices offer on-line patient appointment scheduling. Here, patients can access your on-line schedule, find out which physicians are available and request a time slot on a specific day. Your practice will be able to confirm the appointment or suggest an alternative immediately on line, by e-mail or with a phone call at your staffs convenience.

With an interactive website, your practice can even have patients fill out registration forms on-line from home, in advance of the office visit. These forms allow patients or caregivers to go on line to register, furnish insurance data and even provide information about history, symptoms and other medical chart items. Patients with non-traditional work schedules might find this option attractive. So might others, such as parents of young children, who can fill out a pediatricians forms at home when the baby is asleep rather than in the office when the baby is restless.

Consider establishing a "frequently asked questions" (FAQ) section. You can post common questions and the answers to them. For example, "Q: My child is 24 months old; what immunizations should be administered?"

"A: For a two-year old child, our practice recommends, in accordance with American Association of Pediatrics guidelines..."

You will be faced with many decisions about your website, such as what information to present, how the information is presented (in what order or hierarchy, as well as how it looks), how the site is arranged and the traffic flows, what the graphic content should be (including pictures of the physicians and/or non-physicians, pictures of the office and/or of equipment, buttons, banners and other website-specific devices) and who should administer the site and/or serve as liaison with your off-site website designer/host.

Traffic

When you establish your website, make it easy to find. It will cost you money to establish and maintain your website. If you have little or no web traffic, you may not realize a significant return on your investment.

Notify all the search engines and directories possible. Link your site to all the medical/health care directories and search engines you can find. Consider ACHOO , The Physician Referral Network , The Physicians Practice , and AMA Physician Select . There are other local, state and regional entities, as well.

Send electronic press releases to Internet agencies and to local newspapers. Announce your site in your newsletter. Post notices and reprints of any stories from local newspapers in your office. Contact your patients by phone or direct mail.

Link your website (with permission; establish two-way links whenever possible) with other useful sites, such as the AMA, your local, state and regional medical societies, and your specialty and subspecialty medical societies.

Consider linking your site with medical libraries, your hospitals and other sites you discover that have information your website visitors can use, particularly if that information ties in with services you provide. For example, if you have a large Medicare population, consider providing links to the Health Care Financing Administration and even the American Association of Retired Persons .

Updates

Once your site is established, be certain to update it no less frequently than monthly. Notify visitors of any changes with short indicators on your front page, such as: "Our practice is bringing on board a new associate. To learn a little about Dr. A, or to leave a question for him/her, click here."

Update your site whenever you have news, even if you only updated it the day before. If your site becomes stale and your news becomes old, repeat visits will decrease.

Administration

If you are in solo practice, you may not have time, expertise or desire to design, maintain and update your website. But you should have one anyway. Group practices will probably have someone on boardperhaps the managing physicianwho can devote the time and energy to the project. Larger groups will have business administrators and/or information specialists to function as "webmasters."

In any group setting, the practices physician co-owners will need to reach consensus about your websites design, content and administration.

Whatever your situation, you can and perhaps should outsource your website. Hire a website designer. Rely on your web "host" for updates. If you maintain the site in-house, at least hire a professional to check your information for accuracy.

In any situation, have an attorney advise you about copyright matters, protecting patient confidentiality and steering clear of practicing medicine on your website. Have the necessary disclaimer(s) clearly visible on your website.

Other Options

You can use your website to survey patient and/or referring physician satisfaction with your website on-line. When patients visit, ask them if they have e-mail capacity. Get the e-mail addresses of those who do. E-mail the survey form, have them complete it and e-mail it back to you. Phone your referring physicians and arrange surveying by e-mail.

If your data are already on the computer, they will probably be much easier to collate and analyze. Further, your respondents will be using the computer rather than filling out a paper form. Most people who have computers prefer to use them rather than paper, and they tend to save time. Thus, their satisfaction with your practice increases.

You can also use e-mail to send patient reports to referring/referral physicians. Just be certain to protect patient confidentiality. If your website has sturdy firewalls (electronic security protections) and your personnel all understand and respect your patients confidentiality, this should be no problem. In fact, e-mail may, in some ways, be more secure than facsimile transmission (faxing) or surface mailing.

Many local Internet hosts/servers/entities have medicine/health/physician sections and programs. Some of these ask local physicians to answer questions posted by visitors on their electronic "bulletin boards" or to "chat" (communicate electronically, in real time, via computer, frequently using the keyboard to type dialogue) with Internet surfers, typically for an hour or two at a time during a period established in advance, and perhaps regularly. Consider volunteering your services as their expert.

Also consider offering these services on your website. Particularly if you have a specialty practice, you may want to establish a virtual support group for your patients and others with similar medical problems.

Be certain you have an attorney advise you before you answer bulletin board questions or during chat sessions, whether you are doing it for your website or some other entitys.

The Internet is a remarkably effective mass communications tool. If you use it correctly, the website you establish on the Internet can be an extremely effective marketing tool for your medical practice. It will cost you time, energy and money to establish and maintain your website. But effective marketing always takes time, energy and money to implement.

The Internet is booming, the technology is advancing and you can entirely outsource the project. This is the growth industry of the early 21st century and you can take advantage of it now. Many practices already are on the Internet; they have the advantage.

Get the same advantage. Use your website to market your medical practice. Do it early and do it right.

Robert B. Connelly, is a consultant with The Health Care Group, Inc., a national medical practice consultation firm based in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.