December 10, 2009 – 7:01 am
There are a lot of names for what we do in practice – alternative, holistic, complementary, integrative. But behind the labels, we all have one thing in common: we’re trying to help others. The catch, however, is that in order to find those people who need our help, most of us have to make some effort to market our services.
Sometimes, though, the very thing that makes many practitioners so good at what they do – their ability to connect with and be sensitive to others - also makes them very, very uncomfortable with the idea of marketing. Behind many of the questions we get from practitioners is a common theme: I’m shy/introverted/timid/reserved. How can I promote my practice?
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October 14, 2009 – 7:01 am
Note: Kevin Doherty is one of the first people I stumbled across a few years back when we started this blog. He built a successful acupuncture practice, then went on to become an author and business coach.
He’s a smart guy, which I like, but he’s also walked the talk, building a six-figure income while maintaining a life.
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We had our annual Celebration of Health at the clinic a few weeks ago. It’s become a tradition for us – we invite patients and the general public, and spend an evening at the clinic enjoying some great food and drinks, and generally enjoying ourselves.
It was a great success, but this year I was trying to pay particular attention to why. Here are a few of our thoughts, but we’d love some further tips. Anyone have any great ideas? Leave them in the comments!
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After the last post on collaborating with your colleagues to help your practice, I thought I’d share the ad we put together. This is a full page newspaper ad that we were able to buy for very little cash since we split it five ways.
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Recently, the naturopaths in Collingwood and surrounding area got together to discuss some joint marketing for Naturopathic Medicine Week. There are more practitioners here than ever (and many more coming soon), and this is something we’ve been wanting to do for years – to collect all our “competition” in one spot and chat.
Why, you ask? Because for us, competition really is good for business and patients. Here’s why turning your competitors into collaborators benefits everyone.
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We went through a multi-day strategic planning session last fall. In our case, that essentially meant Tara and I sequestered away in a cheap hideaway where we could focus on the big-picture of the business, and do some great hiking when we needed a break. It was three days very well spent.
One of the real advantages to this process was that we came out of it with a concrete, concise template for how to move forward when things get dicey. I’ve gone through the plan and pulled out the strategies that I feel are making the biggest difference during challenging times:
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August 19, 2008 – 10:30 am
Randi Drinkwater is the president of Alternative Growth Streams (AGS), a company whose mission is to help alternative health care professionals grow their patient base. She’s also a colleague of ours from IntegrativePractitioner.com, where we both contribute to the growing community of practitioners.
We asked Randi for a case study from AGS’s work with CAM practitioners, and she was kind enough to share this story. Enjoy! -Dan & Tara
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For some time, Google’s been showing search results differently for geographically specific search terms. In English, that means when someone searches for something like “Chicago chiropractor”, “Las Vegas Acupunture”, or “Miami Massage Therapy” the results that come up look a little different.
To see the difference in the search results, click on these two links (they open in a new window):
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January 3, 2008 – 3:14 pm
Reader M writes:
I’m wondering what the best way is to network with other practitioners in a small area. I’m feeling uneasy, shy, and even slightly pushy just cold-calling people, especially in planning exactly what I want to say. I don’t want to inconvenience people, and I don’t want them to feel like I am trying to take business away from them.
We’ve touched on leveraging professional referrals (one of our 5 P’s), but I want to go into this in more detail and give you a step-by-step system that works.
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November 22, 2007 – 6:38 am
Massage Therapist “M” writes:
“I need suggestions on what to include in introduction letters to MD’s to telling them about my massage services.”
We’ve touched on this before, but here are some specifics you might consider when writing to an MD:
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