Over time, I have developed standards for how practices can and should look.  Please understand that for a poor location, the standard is not to compare this to other locations.  Rather, it is to consider how this office contrasts with those around it.  Some of the aspects of the office image are, therefore, relative.  Nevertheless, there are aspects of the location that are not flexible while other aspect are just nice to have.  This this episode, I speak about issues of Visibility and Accessibility.

So many people are challenging their basis assumptions about politics, life, and practice.  I thought It might be a good time to list five of the things I recommend about determining who to trust and how to evaluate their expertise.  

Regardless of what stage of practice you are in, I think you will find this one helpful. 

Every week I talk to doctors who are considering moving their offices.  Admittedly, most of the time they have good reasons to want to consider a change.  But, occasionally, I actually wind up talking them out of doing so.  While this may not make a great deal of business sense, I still think we  have a responsibility to provide the insights to our friends on why it might be a great idea or why they might want to reconsider their choices.  This episode is all about the logic of making the change.

Doctor Demographics offers on-site evaluations and marketing services.  We can learn things at your office that will not be knowable from any other source.  But we wanted to let you know what we do so you can do the same thing if you are evaluating a location without us.

There are a few facts that doctors have to deal with these days.  One of the big ones is that there are more large, competing practices moving into desirable or even marginal areas.  How does another practice handle it?  Do you have to move?  No!  But you do have to differentiate. It is necessary for doctors to consider what makes them different in terms of benefits and features.  This is based upon some outstanding research that is discussed in the lecture.  Do NOT give up! THINK!

To be honest, this is a little closer to a rant than a full-blown podcast episode with lots of numbers.  I have been speaking to some new associates and this podcast grew out of our discussions.  It matters what kind of practice you are joining and the location of the site.  You are making some big commitments.  This episode is about the fundamental facts you need to know.

Please forgive me for frothing at the mouth but I do so only because I really care.

In this episode, I examine how real estate market research has helped define how far is "reasonable" for a practice to draw patients or customers.  Now, I have to confess that I only went into the numbers and time-distance that were appropriate for a few kinds of practices.  But the theory holds up and can be projected for every type of professional practice.  The implications of this are that different practice types have unique standards from which they are likely to draw a patient base.  And they hold up to scrutiny on a legal and marketing basis.

I suspect that if you are involved in a legal case or are contemplating setting up a covenant area that will pass muster, you may have to contact me to get those numbers.

This may be the most important session we do this year as it has a serious impact upon the practices that are trying to enforce or challenge covenant areas in employment contracts.  I am getting serious interest from attorneys and brokers on this issue.  My approach is market-based.  The idea is to present a rationale that will stand up in court, not on some obscure legal basis, but rather on the way the market operates.  I look back at case law (briefly) and communications/market theory to come up with a way that these boundaries should be considered.

I am neither an attorney nor a practice broker but I think this may be the most reasonable way to make these agreements and be able to enforce them to the satisfaction of all parties.

in my work with practice realtors and brokers, I have come to understand just how vital they are to the success of selecting a practice location.  But not all of them are the same.  This is a brief session for those who are evaluating using a broker or realtor to find or set-up a practice location.  For those who need a little help, I am offering to share my referral list (I get no kick-backs, by the way) to get you a few more steps down the process to success. 

This is not so much a "sales pitch" as it is an explanation on how  you can utilize the marketing services we offer to a limited number of practices in the U.S.  I also discuss what makes these services unique.  Many of our listeners have asked for a brief explanation and training on how to use marketing research information to implement on on-going marketing plan 

Every aspect of general and specialty practice sites have their own set of criteria to consider.  In this episode, we will discuss the factors that make sites for endodontic practices so unique.  Rather than looking for straight population-to-endodontist ratios, the variables are more subtle and relate to the demographics of general dentists (their referral base) and the demographic characteristics of the patient base particularly important.

While we have a much longer and detailed video on the issues of competition, this is a short session dealing with the key issues relating to competition ratios for all professions.  We get into the relationship of how demographic character will influence whether there are too many professionals of a particular discipline in a given area.