Dr. Lee Popwell succeeds — again! His new practice profits from his past

**Doc Pop's team - (Front row) Anna Rodgers, June Rich, Paula Green, Elizabeth Popwell, and Dr. Scota; (back row) Daniel Handford, Rachel Childers, Sharon Smith, and Dr. Popwell.**

Dr. Lee Popwell succeeds — again!
His new practice profits from his past
By Todd Stumpf • Photos BY David Poleski

Change is good. Just ask Dr. Lee Popwell. He had grown up and practiced in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., but after more than 20 years in practice (more than 10 in his own clinic) and as a mentor to several associates, he was ready for change.

“I had made my living and done well financially,” Popwell says. “I really could have retired if I had wanted to. I didn’t want to.”

At 50 he was not yet ready to retire, and he now wanted to enroll his three home-schooled children in a private school. In 2003 he and his wife decided to relocate their family to Greenville, S.C., to place the children in the Bob Jones University and schools. Popwell then began his second chiropractic career by establishing the Popwell Spine Center (now Popwell-Scota Spine Center).

Making the decision to open a new practice is one thing; getting patients to that practice is another. So, much like he had done 23 years earlier, he started his new practice from scratch.

This time, though, he was buoyed by experience and knowledge. After selling his practice in Jacksonville Beach — in a deal he essentially struck over a lunch — he moved his family to Greenville and opened his clinic’s doors. By incorporating several key marketing strategies, Popwell managed to build a practice that went from $0 to $600,000 in annual billings in two years.

Even though a large number of chiropractors call Greenville home, Popwell emphasizes that people waiting to become patients are “out there.”

“Every chiropractor says, ‘I don’t know where I’m going to find my patients,’” Popwell says. “But you need to find them in the sector of people who don’t see a chiropractor.”

His marketing tactics are geared to finding patients. Keeping them is just as important. Falling back on advice given to him years earlier by Dr. Gil Brown, with whom Popwell originally practiced in Jacksonville Beach, he asked himself the simple question: “Why do people go to chiropractors?”

Figuring that out is the key to keeping patients, he says. “You have to try to put yourself in your patients’ head. What are they looking for? If you provide what they’re looking for, you’ll be successful. Figure out the model, be honest, and provide quality and value.”

Once a patient crosses the threshold into a practice, it’s up to the doctor to develop trust, the key to keeping patients, according to Popwell. He believes the public is cautious when dealing with most healing professions and views that as an increasing trend. However, once you build a trustworthy reputation, a major step is made.

Due to this approach, Popwell and Scota see approximately 40-50 new patients each month. Their financial philosophy is to have patients pay as they are treated — with the focus on a cash practice.

Here is how Popwell successfully started over — implementing a plan that can work with a new chiropractor, as well as one who is starting over again:

• Advertised and networked. When he got to Greenville, he started running ads to promote himself. Then he linked with the Christian Chiropractic Association, an organization in which he was involved. He found another doctor who was looking for someone to share space and jumped at the opportunity to join forces.

• Differentiated himself. Despite advertising and networking, Popwell had few patients, and competition was fierce. (Greenville is a short hop from Spartanburg, home of Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic.)

What he needed, he quickly realized, was a hook. He knew that with the glut of DCs in the area, he had to differentiate himself — to find something they didn’t offer. He found it in non-surgical spinal decompression, an expensive, high-tech therapy. He spent $80,000 to buy a used table to do the therapy.

“I wanted to show it was a high-tech deal,” he says. “I wanted patients to know that chiropractic is not just a guy laying you down on a bench.”

• Bought radio time. Still, though, few patients. So, he needed another way to make himself stand out. He found it at a radio station.

Although he wanted to have a 30-minute, live call-in show, the station gave him five minutes. The spot caught on with listeners and eventually was expanded to 10 minutes, then 15, and finally to the half-hour Popwell has now.

When he first started, the call-in show lacked the one thing it needed: callers. So, Popwell bantered on the air with the engineer. People soon responded. They started dialing the program. Now, he takes up to five calls during each program, which is enough to fill the 30 minutes — all for a very reasonable price.

“Think about that,” says Popwell, who buys the airtime. “Christian radio is not expensive. For about $100 weekly, we receive a constant half-hour on the radio, with a broad-cast area from Atlanta to Charlotte.”

With the airwaves working for him, patients started to respond and seek out his clinic. Now he and his partner, Dr. Joe Scota, see 200+ patients a week. He estimates that about 70 percent of his patients result from that radio show. Most of the others come from personal referrals.

“It’s the greatest thing I have ever seen in building a practice,” he says. “I was able to do in one year what normally takes two to three. People say, ‘I’ve heard the way he thinks and treats people, I trust this guy.’”

It did help him to be taking the 30 minutes immediately preceding a very popular show called “The Garage Sale.” Garage Sale listeners would catch the end of his show and ulti-mately began listening to more of it.

• Tapped into the golf market. Popwell expanded his marketing from radio into the realm of golfing, a passion of his. He wrote a booklet on stretching exercises for golfers and offers it online to visitors to his Web site. When he is contacted to help sponsor local golf tournaments, he offers a booklet to each participant. And once a month, he invites his golfer patients to join him in an informal golf outing. The outing is for fun and networking — not for giving lectures, presentations, or promotions, he says.

• Developed relationships with MDs. To develop a flow of patients, Popwell began meeting medical doctors in the area. He made a point to have lunch with at least one doctor each week, typically one whose name he had heard from a patient. He wanted to get his name known within the medical community.

• Lectured at the university. He also lectured occasionally at a local university and was a periodic guest on a question-and-answer show on a local Christian television station.

As he looks back over each of his practice start-ups, Popwell isn’t sure whether he actually did anything better the second time around, though maybe different and a little more efficiently.

Starting over has an advantage, Popwell says. You can look back over your first career, learn from your experiences, and make better decisions. He says he definitely learned two lessons, which he is happy to share as advice:

• Establish a cash practice. In his first go-around, insurance was a lot easier to work with. Today, however, managed care has become increasingly difficult to deal with. Reimbursements are low, and often you feel as though the insurance company dictates the kind of care you can give to your patients.

Because of these reasons, he recommends establishing a predominately cash-only practice. The benefits: Fewer forms, less hassle, and faster payment.

• Associate with like thinkers. The greatest lesson he learned — from his original associations, his own associates, and his partnership with Scota (who started as his associate) — was to align himself with like thinkers. Differing philosophies can be a recipe for disaster.

“You want to work with a doctor who shares your philosophy of chiropractic and life,” he says. “There are so many differences and variations in chiropractic. If I took on an associate or partner who believed in and did things that were different, it wouldn’t be in the best interest of the practice. Be very sure that the person practicing with you is a lot like you in both belief and manner.”

So, take solace in the knowledge that, no matter what happens in your practice, good or bad, you can always start over. Sometimes things are even better the second time around!