We’re thrilled with our new clinic. We’ve been able to offer better (and more) services because of the extra space, and the goldfish effect really seems to be kicking in.
One of the small drawbacks, though, is that our patients have to pay for parking - ouch. It was one of those little things that didn’t sit well with me, and it didn’t seem to fit our vision for the clinic.
We had our first day of business in the new clinic last week - January was a hectic month!
The space is about three times as big as the old clinic - a significant increase. It seems like a lot, but as I moved the last items out of the old office, I remembered how big it seemed at one time. Now I can’t imagine how we ever fit in there.
The last move - five years ago - seemed like a leap of faith at the time, but shortly after we settled into the larger space, business took off. It was like we were goldfish, and all we needed was a bigger bowl in order to grow more. Now it’s happening again.
It looks like we’ve finally found our space. No signed lease yet, but we’re just about there.
This is our third home - we’ve grown again, and I’m pretty sure now that we’re losing money every month we stay in our current space. There are some new treatments we’d like to offer, and we need more staff. All nice problems to have - we just need more space to start solving them.
While everyone’s space needs are unique, we’ve learned a few lessons over time that are helpful for anyone on the prowl for new space, regardless of profession:
If you’re in the market for new space, how much do you really need? Tough call - it depends on many factors, and varies from practice to practice. Here are a few things to consider, though, and some space calculators to help you get in the ballpark.
It’s About People
In CAM practice, business revolves around people - those providing the care, and those receiving it. This is where we started planning our latest space. How many staff and practitioners do you have? How many people need does your reception area need to accommodate? Do you have treatments that involve multiple clients being treated at once, or are they all one-on-one? We broke our space down into “people chunks”: practitioner offices, patient treatment areas (other than offices), waiting areas and staff space (lunch, meeting, etc).
Since we’re going through the process of finding better, bigger office space, I’d thought I’d post along the way on some of the key challenges and decision points.
Buying or leasing can be a challenging one for many practitioners. Interestingly enough, I think it’s more challenging later in your career, when you have the cash to consider buying, and the experience of pouring money into someone else’s real estate, but it’s a question that everyone likely faces several times during their professional lives.
In the end, you’?re only as good as the quality of the products and services you provide. Great marketing, financing and hard work will only take you so far unless what you offer is of sufficient quality.
What defines a quality experience in an alternative health practice? Many consumers will equate quality with value. That is, they’?ll compare the complete experience they’?ve had in your practice against the dollar price they paid, and using an abstract formula unique to them, calculate the value. Was it worth it? Did they get more than they paid for? Less?
