What do you need to know before starting a private practice?
Know your numbers, and talk to experts that understand the business better than you.

Does it matter if I am an NP, DO, MD, DC can I start a private functional medicine practice?
Anyone with a license can start a private practice.

How do I prevent embezzlement in my practice?
Manage your money carefully and be on top of where your money is going. 

Do not miss these highlights:

01:26 How Dr. Deb started her own private integrative medicine practice 12 years ago.

02:44   It takes a huge leap of faith to be able to go into private practice for yourself. Have faith in yourself and trust that you can learn absolutely anything you put your mind to. 

04:49 Private practices are up 6% since COVID, just in the first quarter of 2022 patients want to see per providers in private practice. 

05:30 Don't be afraid to ask people that are experts - Ask people around you for their guidance, ask questions so you understand what you're doing and what you're liable for.

09:43 You can get more people in faster and have more money in your practice by not having that long waiting list.

11:04 If you build a good reputation, spend time with your clients and get them results, more people will come because word travels. 

11:43 Don't niche down your market so narrowly that your patient population is limited.

12:12 Find your ideal client. 

13:40 Know your numbers - You have to know the financial health of your practice, your numbers tell the health of your practice.

Resources Mentioned

Join Us in the FMBI Mastermind Group on Facebook.  You can find the Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/5461914567153276/

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Transcript of Episode #32:

0:01
You're listening to the Functional Medicine Business Podcast featuring Dr. Deb, one of the most creative functional medicine business practitioners in her industry. She shares the wisdom and knowledge that she has gained over 25 years of functional medicine, a pioneer in functional medicine, scheduling, leadership and Practice Management. Dr. Deb has a wealth of knowledge and he's eager to share to help functional medicine become more productive, and for the practitioners and patients to live better lives. Our podcast shares the good and the bad of our industry because Dr. Deb knows the pain you live every day building a functional medicine practice with practical tools of how to manage money, taxes and patient care. She will discuss it all with you.

0:54
Welcome to the Functional Medicine Business Podcast, FMBI. I'm your host, Dr. Deb and today's episode is the three keys to my success as a private practice nurse practitioner, we're going to talk about those exact three key steps to building a private integrative medical practitioner. So if you're a nurse practitioner, naturopath, physician, chiropractor, or do who is interested in starting their own medical practice, these tips are for you. Keep watching. I started my own private integrative medicine practice about 12 years ago, after I left another practice, I was an owner in this other practice by wanted to create a practice that shared like minded practitioners under the same roof. The goal was to share knowledge patients and provide a practice that could eventually run without me. When I tell you I was scared, that's an understatement. I remember telling my husband that we may not be able to survive, I didn't know how long it would take for me to collect a salary from this business. And it kept me up at night. I'm just going to throw it out there. Because we're all practitioners, whatever field you're in, we like to have a lot of data at our disposal. For our patients. We like to evaluate numbers, look at the evidence and make guided decisions. When you graduate from school, you don't get any business training, nothing, not how to hire staff, evaluate health insurance, sign up for accounts with vendors, how to set up a QuickBooks file. The only thing we're competent in is taking care of patients. So yes, we're unprepared to open a private practice.

2:43
So honestly, it takes a huge leap of faith to be able to go into private practice for yourself. Because we like to have all that information at our fingertips. And we weren't taught any of this. You're not taught how to write a business plan, how to ask the bank for money, how to create a pro forma, how to get on insurance plans? Do you need malpractice or disability life insurance? And how do I use that life insurance to build my business? How do you get the best staff when you get patients to your practice? How do you start a business when you have no idea what being a business owner is all about? I spent five years in another practice before I started my own business. So I was a little more prepared than most people when they decided to go into private practice. But honestly, I was still so unprepared. Let me tell you that anyone can learn this if you want to. You just need to have faith in yourself. Trust that you can learn absolutely anything you put your mind to. Everything is available to you online. But sometimes that information online is so overwhelming, that it can make you more confused and leave you frozen. In order to get your business off the ground.

4:07
You're going to have to do a lot of extra work on nights and during the weekend. Learning how to be a business owner means you need to learn how to use QuickBooks. You need to understand reimbursements. What's a 3060 or 90 Day AR? These are all the topics I'm going to keep addressing in our podcast. And I will also hold you hold your hand in all of this in my functional accelerator training program. The key to your success is to enter this with an open mind that you can learn this information. You're smart this may seem foreign at first, but it will become second nature.

4:48
Did you know that private practices are up 6% since COVID, just in the first quarter of 2022. Patients want to see per providers in a private practice. They're tired of the big box, big brother health care system. They want to know they can have a relationship with their practitioner and they're not limited to have services provided simply because the big brother says they can. All right. All right, I'll get off that soapbox. You're all smart. You've all finished graduate school, finished your residency, you can handle this. Don't be afraid to ask people that are the experts. So you can pick their brains about things you don't know as much about. So for instance, my first year in practice back in 2010, which sounds very crazy and overwhelming right now. I had a great accountant who taught me how to read a p&l, a profit and loss statement. They showed me how to reconcile credit card statements each month, how to make journal entries. And when I started, there wasn't much YouTube. So learning things wasn't as easy as it is today. But I figured it out, I figured out how to use QuickBooks, how to create a balance sheet, what a balance sheet really was and what it meant. And what a p&l statement was. I learned that when I purchased equipment that went in a different category, from a tax perspective than just a tax write off, it was a depreciation. I learned all the things that could be tax deductible. And then I learned from another experts that many things I didn't think were tax deductible actually were.

6:39
Ask people around you for their guidance, ask questions, so you understand what you're doing and what you're liable for. Trust me, it's the worst feeling in the world. If you get hit with a big financial surprise, at the end of the year. Don't always assume your accountant knows more than you. They might at first, but as you learn more, you'll know just as much of them, if not more. I've had multiple accountants over the last 10 years. And I can tell you, there are things I know that they don't know. And the things that I do know, save me a ton of money. Now, did I learn that just by myself? Absolutely not. I learned from experts. And they taught me ways to save money, grow my practice, and teach my accountant a thing or two. I asked my lawyer and my bankers questions, I hired mentors to teach me to be a better business person. I searched the internet to make sure that what my accountants told me was accurate. And guess what, that wasn't always the right advice that I got. I actually taught them more things. This last year, I had a huge loss, I was part of a Ponzi scheme. And my accountant said, you can only write off $3,000 a year up until the max. Well, let me tell you, I would be paying that off for decades. But I found that he was wrong. Because it was a true Ponzi scheme. And it wasn't just investment loss, I got to write off the entire thing in the year that it happened. That's how we learn new things. "Trust, but verify" is my model.

8:32
Being a business owner i