In choosing a location the first thing you have to determine is what state you want to live in. We recommend you choose one where you plan to spend the rest of your life, or at least many years.
Every state is dramatically different for practice. South Dakota is nothing like Minnesota, which is nothing like Wisconsin, which is nothing like Florida, which is nothing like California. The laws in each area are dramatically different, as is the income potential.
A chiropractor in Illinois could see 180 visits a week and collect more than a chiropractor in California who sees 400 because the laws and the insurance environment are so different.
Where family lives, where you live, the weather, where you grew up, where you know the most people, think about them all. You must weigh what is important to you.
Nobody can tell you where you should practice. You have to do it by feel. This topic alone requires a book all to itself.
The pitfalls that occur with chiropractors can be devastating and set you back years. I graduated from Chiropractic college and started practice in Wisconsin.
Looking back it was a mistake and I should’ve stayed in Minnesota. I would give anything to have gone back and had a coach when I graduated. A smart coach would’ve asked me a few questions and very quickly I would’ve determined that I wanted to stay near the bigger city.
Starting a practice is such an enormous task. You need an expert consultant to have a chance at real success. There’s too much you need to know and no time to learn it. And too much danger.
We recommend you save years of time and just buy the information by hiring an expert consultant.
As far as the location within your chosen city, it will make a difference whether it’s a town of 1800 or an urban metroplex. We look at every conceivable spot within the radius you may want to practice, including back where all the warehouses are.
We are not limited by information we receive. If a space says they have 5000 ft to rent. We call them right away and see if they will divide it for us and many times they will.
Driving around and looking online at websites will reveal potential spaces. Occasionally if that doesn’t work, we have to hire an agent to help us.
This is our last resort because the landlord will have to pay the agent a fee for finding them a new tenant.
We don’t want the landlord to have that expense. We would rather have them give us more money toward the buildout.
There are a 100 considerations to narrowing down the location including the base rent, the CAM, the tax, the bumps every year, the build out allowance or TI money, who the neighbors are, the parking lot size, and how the sun hits the building.
The ceiling heights, bathroom locations, windows, the other stores in the area, demographics, how many homes are in the area, traffic patterns, how easy it is to pull into the parking lot, and a 100 other considerations must be dealt with.
You must choose the right state, the right city, the right space, get the right deal, and then once we have the address, everything starts!
Feel my pain, as most doctors who start consulting with WINNERSEDGE call and they already have a location, layout, systems and habits that all need to be changed. What they have is nothing like what they would have had if they would have joined with me sooner. But no worries, we can fix it all!
Go where you want to live! What do you want to see out the windows every day? What do you want to drive by on the way to work? What type of home do you want, in what type of neighborhood? Skiing, boating, a big airport, land, city. What do you want? You can have it!
