Find your perfect location

Once you decide on the city where your practice will be, your next step is to find an office.

You have two choices: You can buy or lease an office. At the beginning of your search, don’t rule out either option, because you don’t know what you might find.

You may want to work with a commercial realtor to help guide you through the decision. If you choose to work with a realtor, you should be aware of several things:

1. The realtor gets his or her commission from the property owner, so he or she may push locations that are not in your best interest merely to gain a commission.

2. The realtor may or may not be able to help you negotiate the lease.

3. Many commercial realtors don’t know the requirements of a chiropractic office. For example: The realtor might not be aware of the restrictions on x-ray for that location.

4. Realtors may also have “tunnel vision” and assume that a chiropractic office is different from other healthcare professions. One realtor, for instance, said there were no properties available in town because there were no chiropractic offices for lease!

Before you begin looking for offices, develop a clear idea of your needs. Know how much space you will need and the room configuration you want.

If you intend to have a massage therapist or other ancillary providers in the office, account for these people in your space estimates.

Above all, don’t let a realtor talk you into more space than you need. You might be able to find a space that could be expanded later, but don’t tie up your cash flow in a large office that is not going to produce revenue in every square foot of space.

Keep in mind that location and advertising are trade-offs. That is — if you have a great location you won’t have to advertise as much; if you have a location that’s less easy to find, you will have to advertise more to get people there.

This principle is more important in the beginning as you build up a patient base; later on, it will be less of a factor.

Some additional suggestions:

• Consider locating your office in a house. Some chiropractors like living above the office or having a home environment for the practice. Parking may be a problem, though. Unless the building has already been zoned for professional practice, you might have to endure the lengthy rezoning process.

• Peg the site. If you’re looking for an office in a strip mall, find a location that can be “pegged” to a prominent business or city area, so you can easily give directions. Stating “behind Panera Bread,”  “next to Wal-Mart,” or “just beyond the city park” is helpful in directing people to your office.

• Look on the ‘going home’ side of the street. McDonald’s and other fast-food chains try to find the side of the street people use when going home from work. This concept is more important if you are located in a suburban area.

• Be creative in considering potential locations. An abandoned gas station on a corner made an excellent office for one chiropractor. Don’t be limited by traditional thinking.

One big factor in evaluating different offices is the number of changes you’ll need to make in order to make the office what you want. Costs for build-out (leasehold improvements, in accountant terms) can run into the thousands of dollars.

If you and your family are able to do the improvements yourself, and the property owner agrees, you will save money. It seems to be a general rule of thumb that newer buildings and offices in locations with many offices (strip malls, office complexes) are less amenable to allowing you to do your own build-out. It never hurts to ask, though.

Don’t be afraid to walk away from a location. Just as in the search for a house, you might have to look for a while, change realtors several times, and walk away from potential deals if the property owner refuses to negotiate.

If you are persistent, you may not find the “perfect” office, but you will probably find a good office that you can make into something resembling what you want. In this instance, as others, pers

Go to www.studentDC.com for more information and resources on preparing for the business side of practicing chiropractic.istence pays.