Tag Archives: American Acupuncture Council

3 Things Your Missing for Consistent Revenue Growth

So we’re gonna talk about what you’re missing for consistent revenue growth in your practice today.

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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hello. Welcome to another episode of To The Point. I’m Dr. Nell. I wanna thank American Acupuncture Council for having me today, and let’s go right into the slide.

So we’re gonna talk about what you’re missing for consistent revenue growth in your practice today. What’s happened to a lot of us before, I’m speaking from experience, we get started in practice. Maybe things are going well, maybe we have this misconception that growth is just going to be linear, and that trend is going to continue the entire time.

But don’t often take a second to check in on what are the things that are working, what are the things that are not, is it time to scale? And so we’re gonna talk a little bit about the things that you might not be thinking about when it comes to revenue growth today. . Let’s see. So this is what I thought when I was first getting into practice that, oh, okay.

I’m starting out, I’m at the beginning, so obviously I’m not gonna be making a ton of money right away. Acupuncture is a relatively low startup cost considering what other industries look like. So a lot of us come right into practice, not taking out loans, not having a ton of capital, getting right into it.

And Pros and cons to that. But we think, oh, hey, we have a few patients. We’re already making money. This is great. And okay, maybe six months later it’s gonna be a little bit different, a little bit different. And what I’ve noticed when I’m working with other practitioners or students who are gonna be getting started in practice, Because we don’t have a ton of business training when it comes to our schooling.

And this is, not a ton of fault to the schools. They have to get us prepared for boards, right? But with 95% of acupuncturists being sole proprietors small business owners, we’re not really taught these things that we have to consider when it comes to growing our practice. And a lot of times it ends up.

Very reactive and we think, oh great, we’re not losing money this month. So wonderful. Like I said, that growth is not necessarily going to be exactly linear, but what we wanna see in our businesses is a constant trend of growth. So even if there are weeks that might fluctuate a little bit, months, that might fluctuate.

You work primarily with teachers and. People go away during the summer, they’re not working, they’re off their schedules. These are all things we need to factor into our equation when it comes to having that consistent revenue growth. So the first thing that we might not be thinking about when it comes to our consistent revenue growth is mindset.

Now, I think that term often gets overused at times, but we do need to address what’s the mindset of our industry and then how does that affect us in practice? How does it affect our patients? How do we let Our ethics, our values, our beliefs bleed into our practice. And so there can be a little bit of a scarcity mindset when it comes to this medicine, when it comes to our industry.

And so that’s okay. It’s just an important trend to note so that we can fix it on our end. Just having that awareness that this is something that we need to be considering as we are trying to champion growth in our businesses is important. That lack of business training that also could go into our mindset.

It could affect our confidence when it comes to the next steps. And what I see a lot of times, and I’ve been guilty of this too, is we jump right into executing right into strategy without even checking in. Is my mind, right? Is this really what I want to be doing? Do I have the right tools in place?

Does this make sense at this time? And so mindset is really key when it comes to having that consistent growth, because you don’t have to be in a perfectly positive mood every day. You don’t have to be a hundred percent every day. That’s complet. Unrealistic to think that we would be able to but we need to be more on than we’re not, and we need to be just really clear about the type of mindset that we need to have for that consistent growth.

So mindset is the first of these three things that might not be on our radar as we’re trying to jump right into executing on getting more patients in the door. The second thing is clarity. , what do we even mean by clarity? It’s another word that I think if any of us heard it, we might have a different definition as to what that means to us.

When I talk about clarity, when it comes to consistent revenue growth in your practice, the strategy that you’re going to have, how you’re gonna execute on that, how do we keep things consistently? Trending forward. I’m talking about your why your clarity around do you even want to scale your business?

Are you someone who’s very happy being a solo provider and you don’t want other providers in your space? That’s okay. There’s a financial reality that goes. With that, we might need to think about additional revenue streams when it comes to building. If it’s just going to be us, there is a set number of patients that we are gonna be able to see as an individual, and that obviously becomes exponential when you bring in another provider, when you bring in staff.

But that clarity around why we’re doing what we’re doing and what that vision for our practice truly looks like is incredibly important. When you’re talking about. Keeping patients coming in the door. If I know that I need to get to a certain number of patient visits before I can bring on another provider, if I know that’s something that I really want, that is going to allow the next steps in scaling my business to be all the more simple, because I’m very clear on what I want that to look like for my business.

We talked in a previous show about having a business. , and it can be very simple, very easy if you miss that one. It’s something you can do in one hour to make sure that you stay on track. And it really does fit into this clarity piece on how you’re going to continue to have consistent patients coming in the door, —-consistent growth for your business.

So very clear on why I am doing what I’m doing, what I want the future to look like. And we’re not just talking about practice, we’re talking about. Because your practice is going to have to fit into your life. And so those goals need to be really realistic within that. And then the last piece, now we can finally get to the strategy.

And this was the three things that you might not be considering for that growth. I think a lot of us. Think about strategy a lot, but a lot of times it’s jumping right into execution. Strategy has a lot of these different pieces to it. So you’ll see the puzzle piece theme that we went through today.

But it’s not just about your customer. It’s not just about how your business is now. It’s how you want your business to be. And are we working through that analysis? So looking. What are all these pieces? What has the past trend look like? What do I want the future to look like? Do you have additional products?

Is your service offering your only product? What’s your vision? And that should have been thought about in the mindset and clarity pieces, but now we get to actually have a framework and make some decisions around that. How do we. That, how do we work towards it with our marketing? Do we have a team? Is this team gonna play an integral part?

If you are planning to continue to scale and you have one provider and other than yourself and two office staff. . Okay. What comes next? Are you bringing on another office staff? Where’s the bottleneck in the capacity for your business? And a lot of times we might shy away from some of these conversations.

A lot of times it can be really difficult. That goes back to that mindset piece that we often don’t really dive into. We’re trained as clinicians. We’re trained as providers. A lot of people get into this medicine because they care about people, because they want to see people improve with their health, and not necessarily because they wanted to own a business, but that doesn’t mean.

There aren’t certain realities when it comes to growing our business or that, we need to make a living. And so to be able to do that and still stay true to that clarity, that vision that we had, we have to think about all these different puzzle pieces. How are we gonna develop different things and.

That gnarly budget. I remember being in school and having Marilyn Allen as my teacher in practice management, and it just felt like a fire hose. All of that information when it came to budgeting around each of these steps. So what happens sometimes is we get really fixated on one of these little puzzle pieces around strategy, and we completely forget that all of these things fit together and that you cannot even begin to develop a strategy.

First, having clarity on what you’re doing. And then prior to that, are you in the right state of mind? And how do you get there to make sure that you can consistently grow? So we have to keep our mind so that we can effectively help our patients. . So those are the three. I want you guys to just keep that in mind.

And what’s also really important about these three is that you do them at each level of growth. This is not something that, okay, I opened my practice doors for the first time and I’ve thought about mindset. I am clear on what I’m going to do and I have a strategy of what I want to accomplish. This is a constant check-in.

This is something that you can do monthly and make sure you’re on point. I like to set up little wellness checks for myself, mentally as well as physically to make sure that everything is on point when you’re growing your business. And so this is a constant check-in, just like checking in with your business plan.

Again, don’t miss that show that we did as well. And you’re gonna go through these things every time you decide to grow, not just checking in on a regular basis. Anytime you wanna bring on an additional team member, anytime you wanna bring in a new product or a new offering, or you wanna make changes to your fee schedule, these are three things that you wanna check in so that you can have that very consistent growth when it comes to your practice.

So we got through that nice and quick, I like to keep it efficient for you all. If you have any more questions, always feel free to reach out. We do these shows quite often, and don’t forget that next week there’ll be another episode of To the Point. Tune in and don’t miss it.

2023 Fee and RVU Updates – Sam Collins

Let’s talk about what’s going on for the new year and just beyond that and continue with the topic on dealing with how do we deal with fees?

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Greetings to all my friends, colleagues, and people that just follow along. I’m glad that you’re with me. Let’s talk about what’s going on for the new year and just beyond that and continue with the topic on dealing with how do we deal with fees? What about updates? Should we change it first the year?

What should I charge? And this is something I go through in a lot of detail in our seminars, but I wanna give you a chance to kinda get feel for it. So let’s talk about your 2023 fees and what’s happened with RVUs and should we be maximizing payments? Let’s get to the slides and let’s focus in on that cause I wanna give you some tools that will help you start to understand what should be my fees.

What’s reasonable, and I will say the fee you choose is what you choose, but I want it to be from some knowledge, not just because of I think that’s what it’s worth, but the true value. So I want you to think of it from a standpoint of what do patients look at, mean, for the most part, Beyond the factors of, are you gonna help me?

And we’ll do a separate show on that. Let’s talk about what the biggest common question is for most patients are. What does it cost? How much is it? That’s what everyone wants to know. Cause they’re looking, Hey, can I afford it? Is it reasonable? So we’ve gotta remember, how much should I charge? What?

What is my fee? Where did I come up with it? Am I going by what my friend said? And let’s face. Do your friends know what they’re talking about? Have they really set up a fee schedule based on any knowledge other than going this is what I saw someone else do? You remember what your mom said about what others do, so let’s do with a little bit more of knowledge.

We think of it from this way. You should chart what is reasonable. What’s fair? I often think, what would you pay? That’s a good way to look and go what would I pay? What is the value of this service? What is a half hour? What is an hour value of time for this type or level of service? Always think the value people will always buy based on value.

If you think of it, have you ever chosen a medical provider of any type because they were. , did you look? Oh, who’s the cheapest office visit? Not at all, I think. I don’t think that’s how anyone ever chooses now. Certainly. . It could be prohibitive if it’s too expensive, but certainly we all want quality in the best providers.

So always be careful. Is cheap always better? No, it’s the value of the service. The better you service, you give, the more expectations. Those expectations being met are what I want. We all know if we go to a 99 cents store, What are we, the expectations of the goods there compared to a higher end retailer?

So should we change this? Does it change yearly? Is it something we should update in a sense? I think it should at an ex to an extent. Just bear in mind, I know some of you’re thinking, but Sam, I belong to Ash, or I belong to this plan, and do they update yearly? They generally don’t. However, I’m gonna give you a little tip, particularly for those of you who are members of my.

Or the American Acupuncture Council Insurance Information Network. Remember, one of the things we do with you yearly is to focus in on your fees. Let’s make a look at what are you charging, what is fair, and it should go up. And if you have some of these managed care plans, are you aware of the techniques and things you can do to get an increase in your fees with them?

There are things you should be doing cuz it’s not stagnant unless you allow it to be stagnant. But let’s talk about it from this standpoint. What is usual customer and reasonable? In other words, what is the. Customer reasonable price for your area. What are people charging? It’s what’s charged by most doctors or any healthcare providers, other acupuncturists in your area.

And remember, you wanna look at it. It’s not just your fees. But it’s the fees of other types of providers. What is the medical doctor down the street charging, say for an exam or a therapy? Certainly the things that we do that are similar might and should be within that same range. I want it to fall within a range with other doctors, not necessarily just acupuncturist.

That’s gonna be part of it, but certainly what is fair and reasonable. . Now, where I think most people never look though is the understanding of the value of each service. So what I’d like to do with you today is focus in on understanding of the value, and we use something called RVU or relative value units.

And what these are standard units of a comparison of one service to another and the value comparatively. So in simplest way, let’s say a service is worth one and another service is worth. , what would that tell you? Oh, the one that’s worth one is double the price or value. The one that’s worth 0.5 or the other one is 50% less.

So it’s an easy way for developing a fee schedule that’s based on, look, I know if the insurance is gonna pay me one price for this code, I can tell you what the price is for others. This RV dates back all the way to a Harvard study, and so this goes into CMS insurance companies. Work comp, personal injury, and others all use this as a method to help establish relative and fair fees across the board.

So Medicare and others. Now you’re gonna say Medicare doesn’t cover that. We’ll remember Medicare Advantage plans, but Medicare does set at least a value. So you can start to understand how do I use this to help set my own fees? So I want you thinking of what is my usual reasonable fee, but think what is.

What is re what is someone paying? What? What is someone willing to pay? And then let’s remember, can you really have dual fees for the most part? No. You can have a small discount for cash and you can go back to a previous course I did on that. But bottom line is once you establish a fee, you do have to collect it.

So I wanna be careful here. Some of you can have insurances that pay a lot of. For a code and services. I have providers in the New York area, Florida, and almost any state that can bill, and you’re gonna think, I’m kidding, that are getting two to $300 a visit just for acupuncture and maybe just two or three sets of needles.

Now that’s great. I love that. But here’s my problem. If I’m charging one patient $300, what do I have to charge other patients? $300. But what if one I. 300 to the insurance and the insurance pays the whole thing. Whoa, yay. Happy. But what if I bill another insurance and I bill 300 and it only pays a hundred?

How much does a patient owe you? $200. So you have to collect the difference. Let’s be careful. Don’t set your fees off of your wealthiest patients. at the same token. Don’t send ’em off your Ps, but somewhere in the middle of ’em what is fair and reasonable. So let’s talk about your current fee structure.

I’d like you to do a little bit of a class with me. This is what I do at our seminars and network. I’m gonna give you a little taste of it. What is your current fee for acupuncture? Just manual. 9 7810. Let’s just go with that code. What is The way to do it? What is your fee for 9 7 8 1 1. So compare the.

Okay. Let’s also look at something else though. How about a mid-level new patient exam? 9 9 2 0 3. And then how about maybe massage? Now I just picked these four codes cuz they’re common. We can certainly do any of the codes, but let’s just stick with these as a reasonable way. What do I charge?

Cuz here’s my concern. This is something I deal with all the time, whether it’s a member or someone at our seminar. , they have a fee for one code that’s fair and reasonable, but yet when they charge the other code, they charge far below. And so in other words, what if you’re billing $30 for something that some insurance or a patient is willing to pay?

64? If you bill 30, how much they gonna pay you? 30. So what if you had billed. They would’ve paid 60, but you didn’t know. And that’s what I wanna help you with is give you an idea of starting to know what these things are actually valued at. Let’s say you bought a house 20 years ago and you went to sell the house today, would you just say, Hey, I paid 150,000 for it.

I think I’m gonna charge, 200,000. I think most of us would say no. You gotta do a review of the neighborhood. What are the housing selling for? Cuz you might find out maybe the houses are selling for 500,000 know the actual value. So here’s the relative value of those four codes. 9, 7, 8, 1 0 is 1.14.

They make a, what does that really mean? You’ll see when we reference it because of 9 78, 11 is 0.86. So what I want you to really see the difference here, if you look at the difference between those two numbers, It’s about 28%, or we just round it to say 30% or 25. Either way you want to go. Let’s do it even simpler.

Let’s say, and again, this is probably too high. Let’s say you charge $114 for your first set of manual acupuncture. A little high, but okay. What would be the cost of the second set? 86. So we’re gonna use this in a way to start to establish that. If you can tell me the fee of one. , I can tell you what the fee should be of any other code based on the price of that one by giving its relative value.

So by example, notice 99 2 0 3 has a value of 3.3 th 3.33. Now, that’s not quite three times as much, but you can see it’s pretty darn close, isn’t it? And then how about massage 9 7 1 2 4. And here’s a area I see commonly acupuncturist undervalue. You’ll notice the price of massage. Has a slightly higher value than your second set.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ll see someone charging their second set at 60 or $75 and the insurance pays it, but then they’re billing massage at 30. Why are you billing a code half the price when it’s worth basically 5% more? So I wanna start to make these make sense. Now, the good news is it’s what you wanna do.

If you said to me, Sam, I know I could charge. But I choose not to because hey, I have so many cash patients, I gotta keep the price low. I’m all in on that. I don’t have any issue there. So long as there’s a reason, don’t let the reason be. I didn’t know. Most offices in our network, once we do this fee review, always get probably a 30 to 50% increase in revenue.

Cuz truthfully, most of you are billing maybe eight or nine codes, and I’m gonna say half of those codes, if not more , you have literally the wrong value. So let’s work with this and how do we make this work? So let’s just say for example, you charged $60 for a 9, 9, 7, 8, 1, 0. That’s just your fee.

I’m not saying how I came up with it. I’m just saying, someone says, Sam, that’s my fee. I charged 60 for the first set. Great. Tell me that and I’ll tell you the price of other things. So how do we do this? We’re gonna take the $60 and divide by the code’s relative value. So you’ll notice we do 60 divide by 1.14, and it gives us a value of 52 63.

What I do with that number is I take that number and I multiply it by any other code’s, R V U to tell me the price of that service based on a $60 price of the first set. In other words, if an insurance company pays me one price for one thing, I can tell you what they’re gonna pay for something else based on relative values.

And I’ll give you examples of this coming up. Now, somebody gonna say Sam, I belong to as H. Remember as H is a per diem. , they don’t follow this. And this is of course why they like you to join. Because they can say, now we don’t have to pay you a fair fee. We’ll just tell you what we’re gonna pay.

And I’m not saying that’s necessarily horrible, but it does mean that it’s more proprietary and they can choose how much they’re gonna pay. So bottom line is, let’s do it, 52 63 multiplied by 0.86 is 45, 26. So what I want you to take away is if your first set is 60, what should be your second? , basically 45.

Now, I’d probably round up a little bit to 46, but you can see here that difference. Now, if you did the percentages, you go, wow, that is actually about 25% below. How about for an exam? And this is where I see often acupuncturists weigh under value. Notice the price of the exam is about three times as much because 52, 63 by 3.3 3, 1 75, not quite three times, but you see it’s pretty darn close.

And then of course, we look at 97, 1 24 massage at. Notice it’s 47, 36. Now, that’s not a lot more, but notice it’s higher. So think of it, if I’m billing this service at 30, would the insurance still covered? Sure, but what would’ve they paid? And so I want you to think along the lines of, let RVs help you establish a fair and reasonable schedule so that you’re not undervaluing.

Or if you decide saying, Sam, I can charge more. I choose not to. That’s. It’s a choice you made, not one. You simply were not aware of. And what I generally find is most people go, oh, I had no idea. So let’s take a look here. This is from New York. I just chose New York. Why not? It could be any state.

What you’re seeing in front of you is one of the things we provided our seminars, if you come to one of our seminars or order the recording, we give you your state’s fees and codes. And this one particularly is for New York Medicare. I’m gonna go Sam Medicare let’s remember. also is the fees for the VA and these prices often Arthur’s starting point for most insurances, which I’ll illustrate to you in just a second.

So let’s take the New York fees and we’ll just pick the second column. The second column here, I believe, is the Bronx. The first one is Manhattan. A lot of people think Manhattan’s more expensive technically. No, the Bronx is. Anyway, we’re gonna take the 45 13. That’s the charge. So we’ll take 45 13, divide by 1.14.

It comes out to 39 70. So notice if we take 39 74 and multiply by 0.86, it gives us 34 17. Now you’re gonna notice here 34 16. So that’s off by a couple of pennies, but, or a penny. But notice it’s cuz I didn’t take the numbers fully out. It would probably round down. But what I want everyone to see is, oh, those values actually make sense.

So let’s take a look. Remember I said. 9 9 2 0 3 is gonna be roughly three times the amount. So notice if we have 45, 13. We take 34 17. Oh, I did. I didn’t do the math properly. It’s 34. 17 times 3.33. It would be 1 32. Now you’ll notice it comes out to 1 34, or excuse me, I’m say 39 74 comes out to 1 32 33. Now notice that’s 1 34.

Is that pretty close to within? So I want you to start to see the values. And by the way, you can see here the value of other services. By the way, the VA is covering these and insurances do use this. So notice if you’re doing just simple infrared heat, a hot lamp that’s worth only $8. Cuz it doesn’t have that high of a value.

But this is a simple way of you starting to look at, do my fees make sense? Let’s look at massage notice. Massage is 35 76. Notice here massage 35 48, but that is a little higher than 9, 7, 8. You may wanna look at and just say do I want to use Medicare fees as maybe a starting point? I still will say these are on the low end, but probably as a starting point in most states, you’re gonna find that what they’re gonna do is take these Medicare rates or RVs and use that to help establish fees.

So let me give you some examples. In Texas, all they do there is they take whatever the RV U is and multiply by 64, 38. Now you’ll notice that’s about double the. Notice in Utah, it’s 59 or 52. Heck, in Michigan they allow 200% of Medicare. So let’s go back to this for a moment. Let’s just say you charge 200% of Medicare.

That would mean your first set would be 90, and then the additional set would be about 70. . So again, notice that about 25% difference. So as a starting point, that may be for some of you that might be a little high though. But here’s something interesting. Notice Boeing, any person that works for Boeing and has their Blue Cross Blue Shield, they literally allow as much as 175% of Medicare.

California work comp 140% Pennsylvania one 13 or one 10 depending. Maryland has a conversion. I wanna highlight, many of you aren’t aware of your own state. This is why our network members or people come to the seminar, get that information and go, oh my goodness, I have way undervalued. Now, my point to it is I don’t really care that what you charge, if you’ve got a good reason, I wanna make sure you have what you’re charging.

There is a reason it makes. Are you undervaluing? Cuz you simply didn’t know. So I’m gonna give you an opportunity to do that. We have a calculator. This is free. So you’re gonna get your fees for those four codes based on your price. So you don’t have to do the calculation, simply take up your phone, bring it up to the screen, open your camera, and you’re gonna send a text.

To 2 0 9 7 5 1 6, and you’re gonna text to that r v. Just put rvu. And what you’re gonna get is an RVU calculator that you’re gonna put in your price for 9, 7, 8, 10, and it’ll tell you what the values would be for the other services within that. Now you might say how do I know what I should charge?

It is what you’re already charging, and that’s something you wanna look at and say is the fee that I’m charging in the first place, does it make any sense? As a general rule for. . I would say most of you should be probably one and a half times Medicare, one and a half times. Medicare, by the way, is about $60 because the price for Medicare usually for a first set is around 40 to 45.

So again, 60 would put you about right in that range, but nonetheless, start to really make sense to your fees. Don’t go another year under valuing. And let’s face it, most of you were billing probably eight to 10 codes, maybe a little. , but I’m gonna guarantee all of you probably have quite a few of those that are not right.

I’m gonna implore you to come to a seminar or use our network. I offer a service where if you join or the American Acupuncture Council does, I become part of your team. You literally, I become a staff member. So if as an acupuncturist, can you imagine you have a staff member for $693 and it includes two seminar.

Unlimited support where we do meetings like this. What is your fee schedule? Let’s audit your notes. Let’s take a look at work comp. How? How do I deal with Medicare and all these other things? We can get one-on-one. A lot of you are missing out because you just don’t have the information or you’re paying a lot of money for someone for a simple phone call.

We do much more than that, so I’d employ to take a look. I want you to be successful. Your success is ours. I teach continued education courses. Go to our website. Lots of upcoming courses. Guess what? You won’t. If you’re not successful, none of those. So we have a vested interest, myself and the American Acupuncture Council.

So I’m gonna say go out and let’s be more successful and let make me part of that team. I’ll tell you, we’ll get you to the right place. Take care everyone. Until next time.

Are You Charging Too Much or Undercharging? Chen Yen

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Are You Undercharging or Are You Overcharging? So I decided to talk about this because some of you are telling me that you are either thinking about raising your fees because you feel like you are undercharging right now and you’re spending all this time with seeing, in terms of seeing patients and chart noting and then.

With time that you spend outside of that to either reflect on recommendations or for some of you who are also doing functional medicine work, then you’re also spending additional time outside of just the visit itself. So you have this inkling that you are undercharging and you would love to be charging more, but then you’re also afraid of raising your fees.

And then some of you are. In a place where you feel like I, I’m not sure what I should be charging because if I were to call different or look around at other acupuncturists who are charging feet, like other acupuncturists in my area and what they’re charging maybe I shouldn’t charge as high as.

People are the highest people are charging. And then I should just find somewhere in between, right? So this is Chen Yen, your 6 and 7 Figure Practice Makeover Mentor at Introverted Visionary, and your host for the AAC Facebook Live show today. Love to, to have this conversation with you about what what to actually consider when you’re thinking about charging so that you feel good and you’re in alignment with your, what you’re charging.

So I’d love for you to comment below right now, or this if you’re watching, so I know you’re seeing this right now and let me know what your thoughts are. Do you have an inkling that you might be undercharging or you. You have an inkling that you might be overcharging. So cuz some of you would like to raise your fees, but you don’t wanna be overcharging.

So there’s one thing, the first thing I’m gonna talk about today are three factors that determine what you can charge and get. And then I’ll also get into. What to do if you adjust your fees, especially if you do raise your fees. And that way you’re able to attract those patients who are willing to pay those fees.

So there are three factors that determine what you can charge and get, cuz we could be concerned about what other people are charging. But the truth is that there are people who are willing to pay a whole range of prices out there where you’re. Whether you have a brick and mortar practice, whether you have a virtual practice, there are people who are.

Feeling like they only wanna pave certain kinds of fees and you might perceive it to be low. And then there are some people who are willing to pay the fees that, that you perceive to be average. And then there are also people it right in your neighborhood, in your area, who are totally willing to pay what you perceive as high fees.

So then what are the factors that determine what you could charge and get? Number one is your confidence level in what you have to offer. So if you are not really confident, then even this is where. If you ever have considered raising your fees, or if you have raised your fees before and then you weren’t feeling really confident in it, you might have noticed that people you told about your fees would’ve been like, oh, that’s too much.

So part of it is about you really owning your sense of confidence around what you’re charging. And then the second factor that determines what you charge and get is whether, how are you communicating it in such a way that people get it, they appreciate the value of what you’re offering. So when they can see that value and they perceive it to be of that value, then they will pay for it at that fee.

And then the third key factor that determines what you could charge and get. , are you in front of people who really need what you have to offer or are you still having trouble with attracting patients and you’re not really in front of those people who really need what you have to offer?

And again, really appreci. What you can offer. So when those three factors are in place, then you could charge what you would like and get it. And so there are a couple of key tips about. From a practical perspective. And then I also want to share let’s first talk about what is something that sometimes tends to happen when fees are raised and what can you do about it if you end up encountering this situation?

And then we’ll go into strategy wise, something. To think about so that you could set things up well for fees and and being able to command those fees and actually get it without a dip in patience or income. Before I get into the what I was going to share about what do you do if you were to raise your fees and then you start feeling like, oh no, people aren’t booking, and what do I do about that?

One thing about it is that this is where you, if you feel concerned about this, that maybe people either aren’t booking newly, they’re not coming in or that people aren’t coming in for their treatments that you’ve recommended in their treatment plan. because you feel like it’s because they’re now feeling like they can’t afford it.

And so there’s often this can happen is where that there’s a timeframe between you choosing to raise your fees and then. When you might actually feel like you’re not seeing the people booking like you were before seeing this. And so what can happen in this timeframe is starting to get worried, wondering, should I have done this?

Maybe I should go back to what I used to charge and then be in this mode. Wondering if you made the right decision, right? How many of you have ever experienced that before? Go ahead and like this now or comment below . So this is, the reason for this is because you used to be sending radio signal waves at 89.5.

And that was like the old radio signal wave in terms of your certain level of confidence about what you’re about, people paying you those fees and also about the way you’re communicating that and the value of it. So the people used to track used were at like 89.5 radio signal, right? But now you’ve decided to be at 95.8 radio signal and they haven’t matched up to it yet.

So that this is why in, in that timeframe, if you do choose to raise your fees, it’s about you showing up at a higher level frequency to be able to track those people. That in terms of you. , you really owning your confidence at this level and then also being able to do the marketing that attracts people who are willing to pay that.

So that’s something that’s also. Helpful to get in place, which is do you have things in place that support patients, existing patients, getting it about why your fees are raised and then it, that it makes sense and then also depending on how much you raise it by, , can you also showcase your credibility and value at a higher, like in an upleveled way?

For example, some of our clients who have decided to raise their fees or even gone the route of going a more cash based practice and raised their cash fees more too. What they’ve noticed is that. . One thing that helps is getting things visually that, that support people feeling this is a good decision that I’m still coming here.

And certainly it’s the relationship and what you’ve done for your patient that can also affect this. But it is also in a patient’s mind’s eye of okay, I’m paying more now, but I still. , I find it to be very valuable because I can’t get it just by going to another acupuncturist like I, because I like this person, or I just really like my treatments.

So being able to communicate that both in a visual way and in a way you’re sharing it in such a way that it lands for people. The other thing is to. Do you have have you looked ahead at when you’re going to be raising your fees and then be putting things in place that support attracting new patients into the practice?

Do you have systems in place that support attracting PE patients at the like 90, 98 0.5 level or the new frequency? Not that 89. Point nine, kind of 89.8 and 89.9 kind of radio frequency, but at the new frequency level. So sometimes it, that could mean looking at other avenues of marketing that you haven’t yet before, especially if you have a desire to attract cash paying patients.

So those are some of the hot tips related. And then in terms of the undercharging and overcharging, really there is no such thing as that it’s really just about your own alignment with what you feel is the best. To be charging based on your practice philosophy, and then also making sure that you take care of your own needs so that you end up with being financially sustainable to continue to help more and more people.

And when you are looking at, if you’re looking at your whole experience of. Of sustainability in the practice, your expenses and everything and what you’re charging. If it’s not really matching up, then you may want to be Considering increasing your fees or sometimes you could also increase your fees because you might actually notice that the kinds of people you attract aren’t really valuing your services as much.

know, It was interesting, there’s an acupuncturist who brought this up to me that she said that she was charging a certain price and then it seemed like people just weren’t really she thought it was very affordable. She thought she was making it a price where it would be really affordable for people.

But then, on some level it was like so way affordable to the point where people just didn’t value it, right? So then once she started charging higher fees, it was actually easier to attract patients. And that, that might seem weird if you’re at a place where you’re like, no, I don’t know, it’s gotta be more affordable, right?

But again, remember what I mentioned about the three factors that determine what you can charge and get, and one of them being. Your confidence level, you really owning that this could really help people at this level. So instead of. Choosing to charge what you what to charge by doing quote unquote market research, , go a different rate, a route of charging.

So you can charge a from a whole range of what you would, you could charge in what you’d like and get it. It’s just a matter of finding alignment. And then also being able to have a way of attracting new patients who are at that radiofrequency wave that lines up with. This goes beyond just pricing.

It also goes when it also applies when you’re choosing to perhaps shift direction in your practice to attract a different kind of a person to work in your practice, someone you would love to work with more. And that, those are some hot tips there. And if you’re in a place where. You’re feeling like your practice is at a plateau or, and you just know you’re capable of so much more, or that you are, would love to raise your fees and be able to attract a consistent flow of patients and really have a practice that you’re proud of.

Then feel free to go to introverted visionary.com and look forward to seeing how we can help you further and till next time, so look forward to seeing you next.

2023 – It’s the New Year Where Are Your Patients?

So what I wanna emphasize for this first of the year is talking, where are our patients? How do I get my patients?

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Hey, good day everyone, and a very happy New Year. This is our first show this year. Welcome, and let’s get your year started off in a way that’s going to continue to help your practice grow, to help you continue to do what you like to do, which is help people get better. But of course, how do we make sure we help people get better?

We make sure by having patients and understanding where those patients are gonna come from. So what I wanna emphasize for this first of the year is talking. Where are our patients? How do I get my patients? This is a little different from our normal kind of just butts, nuts and bolts of coding and billing.

So let’s go ahead and go to the slides. Let, where are your patients and what are the barriers for them to come in your office? , you know, how do I make sure that I’m accessing? Because any practice to grow means we have to have more people that we can see. So I wanna focus in on understanding like how do I set forward my plan for the year?

And I want you starting to think about, have you written down any goals? Have you written down any protocols? Like what am I going to accomplish? And then start to look at some steps to do that. I think most things you have to do an algorithm. You’ll hear that term a lot, but it’s really just nothing more than a step-by-step process.

And the good news is when you set up a process, if you start doing something and it’s not working great, because now you can go back and fix it and change it. So that’s why the best invention often is errors, because with errors you continue on. It’s a scientific method. So we’re gonna create an algorithm for you.

And the starting point this year is gonna be setting for kind of that plan to promote my practice, prepare myself to get those people, and start determining like, well, how many patients can I see? Can I see five a day, 10 a day, 20 a day? And if whatever, I wanna see, am I seeing that amount? So I start with this though, for acupuncture, you gotta think of.

barrier to your care is the kind of, why do people know what you do, what you can help them with? Because if I drive by an office that says it does acupuncture, I’ll go, okay, but what does that mean to me in the general public? Think of it, ask your friends, ask acquaintances, your family even, and say, Hey, what is it?

Do you think I. , what do I help with? And you wanna start to notice that you’ll get a lot of varied dancers. Some could be very good, but many of them are gonna be very poor. And what I’m bringing this up for is that beginning to understand how do we educate people to understand what we do and the why they come in.

I mean, obviously you can look at the things that acupuncture helps people do. I mean, headaches, lower back pain, neck pain, arthritis, menstrual cramps, respiratory disorders, tennis elbow. But what about like worker? Can acupunctures treat workers’ compensation patients? Absolutely. Can it pay pretty well?

You’re darn right. What about personal injury? People involved in a car accident? How about veterans for the va? So think in those terms. Do those people who have that even though to come to you, think of how chiropractors really market towards car accidents and tell people, Hey, if you’re injured in a car accident, come see us.

What about many of you? We’ve had some pretty crazy weather across the US in the last few weeks. Do you think there’s been a few more car accidents than. I would think so statistically, which means some of your patients have been involved in an accident, are they choosing to seek care with you? And if they’re not, why not?

I would start with do they even know they can see you? A lot of times people think, oh no, my acupuncture wouldn’t be covered there. You bet it will. But how about conditions like fibromyalgia, anxiety and depression, chemotherapy, inducive, nausea, dental pain, labor pain, and I’ve just listed a few. But all of these conditions, by the way, have coverage under insurance, but it also has coverage under, if someone wants help and you can make them better, are they gonna choose you?

Yes. But you gotta give them the why. So here would be my, If you treat any of these things, how does anyone know you do? Is there anything on your website, anything on your social media, anything that purports you to do this? By example, if you look up to have acupuncture, coding and billing seminars, I’ll guarantee if you type that in, , we’ll be the first place up.

And the reason why is we put information out. We don’t pay for it. We just put so much information, we’re gonna be the first place because we do so much work on it. We want you to know this is the place to access it. So think in the same way for yourself. Are you creating a funnel? Are you creating a way for people to come to you to understand what you do?

Like if I typed in VA acupuncture and typed in my city, would your name pop up? Maybe not. Well, let’s go with the why not? Well, why not? Could be. They just don’t know. But I think a lot of it is, it’s just unknown. So we’ve gotta do a better job of putting stuff out. Like what articles have you written? What things have you put out about it?

Testimonials even, cuz remember, Google and things like that. Scrub websites to look for information, and they put those towards the top. The other factor of course, though, is just fear. Are there some people who are fearful of acupuncture? Ooh, I don’t know about the needles. So what do you create to make sure that people are comfortable?

Any explanation there? Or how about just money? . Is money an issue? Well, you bet it is. Healthcare in our country definitely is dependent upon how much money do you have? And if someone doesn’t have money, they’re not coming in. And this is where you have to look and go, well wait a minute. What about someone who has insurance by example?

I’ll give a couple of things. That’s just happened this year. The state of Colorado now has a mandatory six visits of acupuncture on all insurance policies. Wow. Well, all the Medicare, that’s an exception. That’s pretty. Oregon now has 12 visit. But how many of you there in those states have even promoted or understood or even know it’s happening?

We’ve gotta do a better job of communicating. Think of how many plans that you might be aware of that do cover acupuncture. If you take that insurance and it pays for acupuncture, you bet. I wanna let people know because if I have it and I don’t see your name, maybe I’m not gonna pick you. So I want you to think about what is a barrier for care.

It’s often money. I mean, it’s so much. So there’s actually a diagnosis for not having money to go to the. It’s Z 91,190. It’s patients non-compliance with other medical treatment and regimen due to financial hardship. Do you think that’s a big deal in our country? Yeah. We wouldn’t have a code for it. So this is where I think acupuncturists.

Are kind of that bridge because you’ve never been fully dependent upon insurance. Not that I wouldn’t use it if it’s covered, but you’ve also taught people the value of your service and that there is a value to getting it just paying out of pocket. My mom always said something that’s always stuck with me.

People buy what they want and beg for what they. . Think about that for a second. Does anyone truly need acupuncture? Now, I know we say that, but are they going to like die without it? No. So they have to want it. The good news is people who want things, those are the things they purchase. You see it all the time.

You ever see someone that needs to pay their rep? They buy the shoes they want in the interim. So you wanna put yourself in that side to understand that, create what you do. Because when someone comes to you think of the beauty of what you. Compared to just about any other practitioner. How many of you’ve had a patient that came in your office with a migraine or a headache or some type of pain and they tell you, oh, I’ve been to doctor one, two, and three, medical chiro, all of this, and they come in your office and think, well, I don’t know if it’s even gonna help, but I figure I’ll give it a try.

And then they get literally just a single visit or a few and go, I can’t believe it. It’s. That is powerful. There is value to that. When you can help me, I will pay for it. But you have to create the access so someone comes in. So thinking of it from this standpoint, are you gonna have a lot of people that will pay cash?

Absolutely. You will. I think a good portion of your practice should be cash, but also insurance and it should ebb and flow. You shouldn’t be interdependent on one or the. Because let’s face it, someone who has really good insurance is gonna want to use it, so I want to access that. But if they have very poor insurance, I’m not, and I’m gonna put them in cash.

Or if they have no insurance, we know from the National Institutes of Health that people don’t have as good a coverage for acupuncture benefits. They’re just not as good. They’re there, but not as good. But the data from that shows people are more willing to pay out of pocket for acupuncture because you have created that.

So if they are, what can I do if I’m treating a cash patient? Well, that’s pretty easy, you treat them. But let’s talk about how other professions deal with it. So we can kind of take a page from their book. Take a look at this. This is from the American Physical Therapy Association. This is something they wrote in 2022, and they indicated that higher copayments decreased the likelihood of people coming in.

Well, that’s kind of a duh, of course. . If people have to pay more outta pocket, they’re less likely to come unless they can place enough value to it. Now, here’s what’s interesting for them. It indicates that as soon as a person pays $30, about 30% of the people or one third of them leave, they don’t come in.

And so I thought when I saw this, I thought, Hmm, is that something that’s gonna apply to our profession? Acupuncture? And it turns out, actually in the article at the end, it says, for PTs it does, but for acupuncturists it. So it shows that I think when people choose acupuncture, they understand that, you know what?

I know my insurance is not gonna cover a whole thing, but if it covers a little bit, great. So that $30 is much less of a barrier. So keep in mind, the more value you give, , the more someone’s willing to pay, again, buy what they want. Here’s something else this article pointed out. Now, it’s not specific to Cairo or it’s not specific to acus, but I think we can take something away about Cairos.

Physical therapists are a little jealous of chiros, and I’d actually say a view a bit because how you have branded yourselves. You’ve never been fully dependent upon the insurance model, and I think that’s why so. Medical models can have failure because if you’re trying to do all cash, oh, my insurance doesn’t cover, I’m not coming in, because you’ve always dealt with both ends, I think it gives you a better way of dealing with that.

So it’s not quite as much a barrier. And I think here it shows the value of the service. So let’s talk about, that’s the barrier, but where are these patients coming from? Well, in my opinion, you’re gonna have 12 types of patients that can come in your office. You’re gonna have three methods. That’s kind of how when someone pays out of.

and then nine different sources that could be insurance, which you can see here. Those nine sources. I’d like to access some of them. Here’s what I would point out. Some of these are not that good. Like I’m not that interested in some of those HMOs that pay only like $35 a visit, so those I’m not too excited about.

But what about a standard insurance that pays several hundred? What if you’re in Southern California and treating someone that’s a longshoreman or a New York with New York ship or Florida with Anthem and these plans? Some of these plans can be excellent, va. How about an auto accident? Think of it. If someone’s in an auto accident, would they even think of coming to us?

How about work comp veterans? If, if you treat VA patients, you know those pay well, how do you get them to come in your office? Think about when’s the last time you have something out letting people know. Do you have a sign up that says you treat veterans or is there anything on your website? There’s lots of tools.

To do that. I mean, heck, what about Medicare? Now you think, oh, Sam, come on. Medicare only covers chronic low back pain has to be supervised by an md. That is correct. That is true Medicare Part B, and that’s a little difficult because you wouldn’t need a medical provider to work with. But what about Medicare Part C policies, so-called advantage plans.

By the way, close to 50% of people who have Medicare have that type, and most of them have routine acupuncture, which covers quite well. So what I want to access those patients, I would, but how would someone know you take. If you don’t have it on your site, well, obviously y’all take cash. People will come in.

Well, someone who pays cash, great. They just pay for the service. But let’s talk about what other things might there be to create less of a barrier. What if you have a cash price but you give a small percentage off at pay a time of service? I like that. I mean, that makes sense to me. You know, if your visit’s a hundred and if you pay cash, it’s 90.

That’s fair. You can charge a hundred for insurance, 90 for. Because you can give a small discount, very small, five to 15%. The one exception is California providers. Of course you probably are familiar, but outside of that, a small discount, that’s fine. But does that create a barrier or less of a barrier for the patient to come?

I think so. But what about something else? You ever heard of prepaid plans? What do I mean by that? Someone comes in, instead of buying one visit, they buy 20. So I want us to think of a minute for business models, cash. Can you just waive fees? The answer is no. You can’t say, Hey, I won’t collect it. So be careful of that.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have hardships here and there, but you can give discounts. You know, as I say, the five to 15%, and I wanna focus more a little bit on prepaid plans, but I wanna look at it from this standpoint. You’ve all seen modern Acupuncture. Is that a very popular place where people go, you bet.

How does that model work and think in this way? Are you doing anything to adapt your office? Well, let’s talk business for a second. , you are all familiar or many of you should be familiar with the company Sears. In 10 years, most people won’t be because the company doesn’t exist anymore. It’s bankrupt. Why?

It’s really funny. Sears was Amazon before Amazon, but no one at Sears had the wherewithal to look and go, Hey, when Amazon was coming in and shipping things, Sears already have that inform. They had a catalog. Why didn’t they have it online? People could ship. If they did that, would they still be around? So I want us also thinking of adapt.

Think of the company, modern Acupuncture. Have you ever thought of, could I make that model maybe work a little bit? I will say pretty much every state, so long as there’s a modern acupuncture in your state, it’s allowed. There’s some restrictions I’ll go over in a moment, but what you’re dealing with when you’re dealing with a modern acupuncture style is the person is buying instead of one visit at a time.

Maybe they’re buying 10, so they pay 10 up front. Maybe instead of it being 75 each, it’s 50 each, so it’s $500, but it’s paid up front. One lump. I like that. Patient’s more committed to come in. The only thing you have to make sure is if they don’t want to come anymore refund what they didn’t use. And a couple of things.

If you’re in Montana or in Florida, you do have to put the money in a trust account. Florida’s a little unique that if it’s under 500 you don’t, but can’t be more than 1500. What I will say is just know your state. It’s one of the things we teach at our seminars to make sure you’re compliant. We do with the network, but I’m gonna say this to me, would be a good avenue because there are people going, well wait, I need to come 10 times.

That’s your recomme. But you know how it works. After two or three visits, they feel pretty good. So they stop coming because they go, well, I feel good enough and I don’t wanna pay a hundred a visit, but what if you offered it so it was 50 or 75 prepaid? Chances are they’re gonna be more committed to it.

That part you might want to think of because that’s exactly how the modern acupuncture model works, and being modern acupuncture is the biggest area of growth in your profession, wouldn’t you think you may wanna adapt to that? I mean, think of it this way, did target adopt the 99 cents? a little bit. You can still go into Target and buy expensive watches and so forth, you know, electronics.

But do they also, when you first walk into Target, have a small 99 cent store? A few things. So there’s nothing wrong offering. A little bit of both. Don’t have to be mutual exclusive. You want to think of, I wanna accept patients, I wanna accept patients who can pay the fee. That’s reasonable. And you certainly can come up with some reason for that.

So think along the lines of where are these patients coming from? How do I access them? How do they know I do it? If you’re doing prepaid plans, how does anyone know? , are you putting anything out there to let people know this is how we can make care more accessible to you? Remember, think of how you shop.

Think of how you choose things. Now, the good news as a healthcare provider, a lot of it is based on just good word of mouth. You know, often when the best place to get a patient referral. My acupuncturist, the one I go to personally, is not very cheap. I have very good insurance, so that helps. However, I will tell people when they go to her, I’ll say She’s fantastic.

She really is helpful. She’s thorough and all those things, and I tell them, Hey, she’s not the cheapest, but she’s really good. No one I ever sent to her goes because they think she’s cheap. They go because she’s good. And I want you to think of, is that what people are saying about you? So you gotta start to create like what is my image?

What am I doing and what type of business I’m promoting. I have a friend that’s a very expensive acupuncturist. She’s very, very busy, but she treats a certain type of clientele. She knows her market. Start to look and go, what is my market? How do I do? Because your success is dependent upon you. How are you setting up to get more people, whether it’s cash, insurance, or ait.

you might wanna get some ways to help that. We do seminars, we do continued education. That helps that. This is our website for the network. We have upcoming seminars this weekend. It’s gonna be on Eastern time zone. In two weeks it’ll be on the eastern, uh, central time zone, but it’s there to help you understand what does it work in my state?

How do I make all this work? I can go into much more detail and really give you help. In fact, I can become part of your staff. You can join our network where Sam is your staff. Call me. Email me. We want to figure out how to make sure your office is success. Your success is ours. So let’s start the New Year’s.

Let’s create a plan. Let’s start getting things together. Probably want to come to me for a little bit more help, but this is gonna be a good starting point. Until next time, everyone, I wish you the best. Good success for 2023.

4 Recurring Income Streams – Chen Yen

Would you love to help more people and bring in another stream of income beyond just seeing patients? What if you had more recurring income streams in your practice?

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Would you love to help more people and bring in another stream of income beyond just seeing patients? What if you had more recurring income streams in your practice? Because. Most of the time in your practice, you might mainly have one avenue. Seeing patients to, to be helping more people and bring in income.

And when you have recurring income streams, then you actually are able to have ongoing revenue coming in even if you aren’t seeing patients yourself. So let’s talk a little bit about the four recurring income streams that you can weave into your practice. And this is Chen. You’re a six and seven figure practice makeover mentor@introvertedvisionary.com.

Where. And also your AAC show host today as well. So I one of the things that, about this with the four recurring income streams is that we’ve helped our clients put these in place and it’s been just so wonderful to see that these are. Avenues in which you could actually help people.

So as you, as I share these with you, the four recurring income streams, I’d like for you to think about which one might resonate for you the most and then see about implementing it into your practice. So the first kind of recurring income stream has to do with more of having a membership kind of a model.

So when you think about this word membership, what comes to mind for you? You might think, oh, okay, so are you saying that I would be providing acupuncture treatments in a membership benefit kind of a way? And that’s it. It’s not just limited to that, by the way. And we’ll talk a little bit about what are some things that could expand your possibility of what this idea could bring for you in terms of recurring income stream in your practice?

But first let’s talk about it in the traditional sense of how this could work within your practice. And so there are memberships that I’ve seen that are for, cuz have you ever had, had patients who came in for care or they got better and, or maybe they didn’t actually get better and then they just dropped off care and you never saw them again and you feel like if they were to have stuck with it, they would’ve also, , gotten better results.

This is where membership could have a role in it, in, in supporting the patient. Or it could have a role more in when a patient’s already doing so much better, they would like to come in for more maintenance and then just tune-ups. But and then you having a structure that supports that.

So this is one, one of those situations. It could also. Where you are offering membership where this could be especially good for those of you who have ancillary services outside of acupuncture or your core service offering. So for example, there’s an acupuncturist client of ours who specializes in fertility and she also offer.

Massage within the practice and then their facials as well. So it, it helps with other people. What helps with your patients knowing more about your other services and actually utilizing those other services, because how many of you have other kinds of service offerings within the practice, but then your patients don’t usually hear about it as much or really understand what it is and never really utilize those opportunities to, to get help that way.

Or those services. And you forget to talk about it too because you’re really busy treating your patients typical. So she ended up incorporating a membership that in when people would pay this monthly membership fee, then they would have their acupuncture treatments at a savings, and they would also have their, the other service offerings.

They can book those at a savings plus they got first priority with the scheduling side of things too. And then she also, and also offers. more of an she offers online kind of courses and that kind of thing. So she also included that within the membership. And there are some memberships that are, have nothing to do with treating patients.

By the way. You need to be kosher with the laws of your state profession and country before implementing anything like this and tends to work best for more cash-based practices only. But here’s another possibility. Of where you can look at membership when it is let’s say you have an insurance based practice, or let’s say you are not wanting to do anything membership model wise with your overall even if you’re cash based, you, you don’t necessarily wanna do this kind of a model for your acupuncture treatments and.

Then there also think about what are other things that you offer within the practice that could be beneficial for patients. For example, there’s a practitioner who offers supplements and he has a membership that includes the savings off the supplements and then also with certain kinds of testing and scans and things like that they get a savings off of that.

For his, they pay an annual membership fee for that. And they get first priority to see him, but there’s no like discounts off of visits or anything like that. So it’s that’s another avenue to look at this, where it doesn’t involve treatments. And then there are, we have another client of ours who is offering a membership where it is purely educational.

So have you ever. I had things where you say over and over again to your patients and and then they don’t always remember it, but then, and you say it over and over again and they still don’t always remember it. And what if you could put that together in something that is either just workshop ish, right?

And you offer that even if you offer it on one topic per month. That could be a benefit to them in understanding their health better, because how many of you feel like when you can treat patients, but, and they, some of them expect you to fix them, and then you feel like they don’t really understand that if they go eat lots of Big Macs and.

and fries and supersize it up, in between the sessions that, that there’s still some lifestyle factors that could affect how well they’re doing or if they just or if they sit there all day long at the desk and then they’re hunch all over that, that, that could have had an effect on on.

What they’re doing, whether you, so you could teach them about movement, you could teach ’em about other kinds of things like lifestyle and nutrition kinds of things in a workshop way. And they can learn from that and benefit from that. Also, enjoy the support of other people, not just you. And so that could be in a membership kind of model thing.

It’s just workshops where every month there is one, and then people pay a monthly thing and that becomes recurring come stream for you. So these are all models that our clients have put in place and successfully. And so these are definitely totally possibilities for you as an acupuncturist.

Now, as far as the, so we just talked about the first recurring income stream and then possibility. Let’s talk about the second recurring income stream possibility. So another possibility is something that we touched upon. Earlier which is this. So those things that you say over and over again, right?

What if you were to put that together in something that’s automated so it does the talking for you . So then what if you were to put that together in an automated online course? and then people can benefit from it and learn from it. And you don’t have to always be educating you just record it once and then you end up being able to sell it, have people purchase it, and then learn from it.

So we have an acupuncturist client of ours who, so there are two possibilities. You could create something and then I’ll just make it available to your patient, base you. The second possibility is you could create it and then offer it to people beyond your patient base as well. And so in terms of.

Let’s talk about how much could you charge for something like this? So we have people who are charging anywhere between, it might either be like, 50 bucks a thing to to over a couple hundred dollars to even thousands of dollars. It just really depends on what it’s. Exactly you’re offering.

It could also be for other practitioners, like you could create an automated online course that is about something very valuable for other practitioners. It might be in your profession, or it might be in another profession, or even things like, the workflow of your practice. Now that you’ve been practicing, you’re noticing, oh, this works really well.

But do you remember how on day one when you started your practice, you’re like, I’m not really sure about this and that. So you could create things that could be beneficial for new practitioners as well, and sometimes, Also for seasoned practitioners, maybe if other kinds of clinical things or even marketing kinds of things figured out.

So that could also be put into an automated online course to offer. And and then for the lay public, it could be on different kinds of health topics. So yeah. So you could be, imagine if you had 10 people paying you a hundred dollars, right? That’s like an extra thousand dollars in your pocket.

How many would love to have an extra thousand dollars in your pocket for doing the work? , and this could be for ongoing months and months. And then you could be, or it’s 20 people in something that’s $200. That’s it’s like $4,000, right? How many you could do with an extra $4,000 a month.

And upwards, $10,000 a month can be total. And even more than that could totally be doable from offering something like an automated online. And then so that’s another possibility there that’s really exciting. And what I was mentioning is that some of our clients, Two possibilities.

One is you just share it with your existing patient. So one of our acupuncturist clients is doing exactly that. So she has something for, it’s like designed for more A D H D cuz she works with kids with a D H D. And then the parents end up purchasing the, this online course that the stuff that she used to say over and over again.

Now she’s just put it in a course. They really appreciate it actually. And she doesn’t really do much marketing outside of that with it for her practice. Like she just has. . And in terms of, she just shares it with her patient base and that’s it. Another one of our clients puts it on her website and she charges like 80 bucks for hers, right?

She’s this is pretty nice cuz I don’t, I just created it once and then she’ll check her inbox. She’s Hey, cool. 80 bucks. 80 bucks can pay. For dinner. 80 bucks can pay for something the kids want. 80 bucks can pay for something splurging for yourself. 80 bucks can also be money you save for retirement.

Like it all adds up, right? She’s this is so great. And she’s so happy. She got it in place. And then some of our clients end up. Offering. It’s beyond their patient base too. So then you just need to get the word out about that too. So other people beyond the patient base, you’re able to touch and help.

Imagine being able to help people outside of your immediate area. You could be helping people nationally, internationally, even, and that’s just the coolest thing when, just think about those things that are so obvious to you now that you’ve been an acupuncturist that isn’t people don’t really know about so many of these lifestyle kinds of things or that could really benefit them.

And they’re suffering right now because they don’t know about it. And they only know about many of ’em only know about conventional options as well. And what if you could educate them about holistic options and also making lifestyle changes? And that can be amazing, could help so many people outside of just your practice.

You’re making a much bigger impact that way. So it’s super, super exciting. So that’s also another possibility is. outside of your practice, you end up being able to touch them and recurring income every single month from it as well, once after you get it created. The third recurring income stream is possibility to explore is also something that we touched upon a little bit earlier, which has to do.

Do you have products or herbs or supplements that you really stand behind? You feel like it could be a lot of benefit to either your patients or people who are beyond your, your patient base too, and. What if you were able to actually educate people more about it and then that, and you’re able to put up a store on your website and then people end up buying from that’s also recurring income as well.

So do you have something like that in place, or have you ever thought about, for example, private labeling? So what is private labeling? It’s so that if you’re offering herbs or supplements instead of people, Seeing it and then feeling oh, I can just get this on Amazon or online somewhere. And you know what, there, there are some negative aspects of fighting things online is on Amazon, for example.

In fact, a lot of the like well known suppliers of. of manufacturers of supplements and herbs. Like they know that there are counterfeit ones being sold on Amazon and they try to police it, but it’s really tough too, and like the story, whether it has the actual ingredients or not, it’s like, it’s a question mark, right?

And sometimes and then also storage. Like you don’t really know how people are really storing it as well. And there are some it’s not. Totally safe for people to be buying it on a place like Amazon, which a lot of people think to buy on places like that. So when you’re able to private label your own line of supplements and herbs and.

Then that can be also supportive and in terms of people getting the best quality that you have vetted. And it could also bring in income from people who need it. They get it through you instead of looking online and just purchasing online and that kinda thing. So that’s an third possibility.

In terms of more recurring income from you, we have had clients. When they put this in place and they have products or supplements or herbs in place and they’re offering it. They have people who are no longer their patients, but they still push from them. You know that relationship, you’ve built it and it’s know, they trust you and you’re able to still help them through this, and then you’re ending up making money from it too.

So that could be also be another recurring income stream to pay attention to that you may not have thought as much about in terms of what if I could private label. So private labeling for example, we have connections with private labeling companies and then there the supplement or private supplement or herbal comp orb companies that you currently use.

You could also ask them to. if they private label as well. Currently. Now as far as the fourth recurring income stream that you could look into is this. So you could have recurring income coming from these different sources or streams and avenues here. You could also have recurring income coming through other people working for you, other leveraging other people’s time instead of your.

And so that could end up bringing in recurring income when somebody else is seeing patients for you instead of you. So what if you were to hire someone like an associate or someone to help you? So associate could be an acupuncturist and associate, could also be health coach or other kinds of practitioners or people who could help your patients and make revenue for the practice and.

And it could even be done virtually for some of you who are like, oh, I don’t know about this. And in terms of hiring an associate and that kind of thing. And because I don’t have space for an associate and that kinda thing. So is there something that, that your patients can benefit from, whether it’s what I just mentioned, like the lifestyle.

Aspects. So we have practitioners who have a health coach hired for this, and then they’re helping people and then they’re making additional income every single month from not seeing the patients themselves, but actually a health coach helping them with their, with nutrition and lifestyle and that kind of of thing.

And we even have practitioners who have those kinds of practitioners doing the work online for them. So it’s literally, it’s like you have somebody. Someone who is, who’s a health. For example, it’s, it doesn’t have to be healthcare. It could be another kind of practitioner too. But they are seeing patients and then you could set it up so that they’re, they are, there’s different ways to set it up.

But you could set it up so that they’re, they are Making money and you’re paying them when you have a patient or when you have a client, like when you don’t then perhaps they don’t get paid. That’s just one, one str pay structure, but possibility. But yeah, so there, there are opportunities for other people leveraging other people’s expertise and help and then be able to benefit.

Your, either your patient based or even beyond the walls of your current patient based and bringing in another stream of income. So that becomes recurring income for you. Like even if it’s, let’s just look at an associate hire, right? If they’re making a hundred K a year for the practice and you end up paying them 50 K or 60 k.

Like that, I’m, that’s like you still, you’re just making between 40 K and 50 K per year without having to see those patients yourself. Could you do with an extra $40,000, $50,000, whether it’s to put towards retirement or to do other things with, and To, to do the things that you’ve been wanting to do or, help with like extra money, storage money or extra money for the kids or things that you wanna do, right?

So without having to think twice about it, like it, it all adds up. So those are the possibilities for that we talked about with the four recurring income streams in their practice. , we talked about membership as being a possibility and looking at it in a fresh way. We talked about online, an automated online course that you could get in place and that could be helping more people and bring in another stream of income.

We also talked about products and supplements and herbs and have you thought about private labeling and bring, and also educating the public about it too, not just your patient base and bringing in another recurring income stream. And then we finally, we talked about leveraging other people’s time and expertise and.

and being able to have either an associate hired or maybe someone who’s like a health coach or other kinds of PR practitioner who could help people and then be, also be bringing, bring in additional revenue for the practice as well. For a more six and seven figure practice makeover tips, go to introverted visionary.com and so it’s introverted visionary.com and to you weaving in recurring income streams into your practice and helping more people and making more money as well.

Till next time.