Consultation considerations

Every consultant has a different area of expertise. As a new doctor, you might consider working with a startup consultant who knows your industry, how to avoid big missteps, and what you’ll need to do to become more profitable quickly.

Hire an expert at what you need.

If you are starting a practice, a consultant can guide you in the right direction. An established-doctor consultant may not be equipped with the skills you need at the business-launch phase.

Wait on hiring a specialty consultant

Be cautious about hiring consultants who specialize in any area of practice other than starting a new practice, e.g., problem-specific consultants for decom- pression, neuropathy, multidoctor practices, or cash practices. These consultants can be hired after you have established your practice.

Hire for experience

Look to hire a consultant who has guided a healthy number of new doctors into practice. You want an expert who has solved a wide range of new-practice problems and can give you knowledge””not gain experience at your expense.

Hire for a vested interest

When you hire a consultant, this person should be focused on nothing but your success. If you have chosen a consultant who doesn’t have a financial interest in your success, you have hired the wrong one. Caution: Many consultants are here today and gone tomorrow. Steer clear of amateurs.

Don’t bypass available expertise

Even if you’re confident in your ability to start a practice from scratch, you should still

In the past, hiring a consultant was once considered a luxury available only to established doctors hire a startup consultant. It’s a lot easier to ask a question to an expert than to try to figure something out yourself. An experienced consultant can save you time, effort, and money.

Don’t be a casualty

Chiropractors have a notoriously high student loan default rate because so many of them don’t know how to start a practice. Therefore, learn from their mistakes and plan to start your practice successfully.

In the past, hiring a consultant was once considered a luxury available only to established doctors. But, today’s new DCs who are interested in a faster route to success and profitability are hiring consultants who can guide them in the more difficult aspects of business and entrepreneurship.

Hiring a startup consultant can be different than working  with  other types of professionals because there is no official licensing agency for practice consultants, and as a result there is a considerable range in quality among those claiming to be experts in creating new practices.

When selecting a startup consultant:

• ask for recommendations,
• check references,
• attend their seminars,
• ask questions of their clients, and
• interview the consultant just as you would if hiring an attorney or an accountant.

When you want to quickly move from your current state (not in practice) to your desired one (successfully in practice) the guidance of an appropriate consultant can help you reach your goals faster.

Peter G. Fernandez, DC, the “startup coach,” has been a practice consultant for almost 30 years. He has consulted in the opening of more than 3,000 new practices and can be contacted through The Practice Starters Program at 800-882-4476, drpete@drfernandez.com, or through practicestarters.com.