by Honora Lee Wolfe

The other day in my business class I said to one of my students, “sounds like you have a plan for your practice.” Another student, standing nearby and listening (and who knows the first student better than I do) disagreed. “No,” he stated, “he has a vision, but not a plan.” He was right and I was wrong…and it’s an important distinction. Visions and dreams and creative ideas are great and are a place to start, but a plan is what will get you from your dream to business (or life) success.

...

Every time I teach I think to myself that it would be great if every student did a business plan even if they are not going to borrow any money from anyone but themselves. More new practitioners would likely succeed if they did one. However, even if without a complete business plan, there are a few planning pieces each start-up business really needs to do to insure a better shot at success:

• a budget projection that you check yourself against regularly
• a marketing plan (that you stick to!!!)
• a milestones plan (that you use and rework regularly)

Since most of us might have some idea about the first two of these, I’ll discuss the third. A milestones plan is really just a work timetable and can be done for any business project…a new clinic, a new product roll-out, a new business idea of any kind. For a start-up business, it is a tool to help keep you on task, on budget, on time.

However, some milestones for a service-oriented company such as an acupuncture clinic might include:

a. Target date for completion of a business plan; target date for a completed budget and marketing plan if you are not doing a business plan
b. Target date for arranging financing if you need it
c. Target dates for hiring of personnel or finding partners/associates
d. Target dates for completion of advertising and promotions pieces such as cards, brochures, flyers, ads, cards, or website
e. Target date for the beginning of service (or a new service not previously provided)
f. Target date for finishing your office forms
g. Target date for figuring out your clinic name and having it registered with the state.
h. Target date for deciding what type of business you will operate and target date for filing forms if you are planning an LLC or a Corporation.
i. Target income/number of patients per week for the end of your first year in practice. (or for all four quarters of the first year)
j. Target date for completing an initial marketing plan.
k. Target date for opening your doors (Alternatively, you can start with this one and work backwards to figure out everything else.)

Copyright Blue Poppy Ent., Inc., 2009. All rights reserved.