We plan to move out of the city into a rural area in the next 6 months, is it worth trying to build up my practice before that, and learn some skills (not to mention, building my confidence) that will make it easier for me to build my practice again once we move?

Dear Catherine, building a practice takes a lot of effort, consistent effort.

You are definitely right about building your confidence by practicing what you have learned. That is the most important thing, so I definitely would not wait for 6 months before doing anything.

On the other hand, building a practice takes a lot of energy, especially in the early months. Probably more energy than what your income will amount to in 6 months.

Well connected?

Unless you are really well connected and respected in the community you are living in now. Then you still have to educate people to trust you as a health practitioner now. But it makes it easier.

One idea would be to focus on treating people, rather than building a practice. Set a goal of how many people you want to treat. Maybe you do this as a fund-raising event. 50% of every Dollar made (or even 100% if you can afford it) goes towards a community project.

Maybe the community project is in the rural area where you are going to move to. That way you could arrive there with a BANG (not to speak of your confidence in treating).

You could use it as PR ( in the city where you live now and in the rural area where you are going to.) People would not have to be sold too much on the treatment, but more on the value of the community project.

Ok, just an idea.

Exit Strategy

The other option would be to build up a practice that you actually sell when you leave. For that to work, you would need to have totally different goals (not how many patients you want to treat):

• A specific number of regular clients
• A profit target
• Marketing materials
• Systems that are working
• Possibly even staff

In all that it would be important that the relationships are built with the brand of your practice, not so much you as a person. That way whoever buys it gets value, rather than losing out because you walk out.

The biggest risk is that the practice is not yet well enough established in 6 months to get a good enough price for it.

The other risk is that you will not find a buyer who has go the money to purchase it.

So if you go this route, it would be good to have a buyer in mind from the start (maybe even start it as a partnership with an agreement on how the other person buys you out).

Building a Trial Practice or Practicing

I do not think that building a practice in the city has much impact on how well you will build it in the country. As you already know, it is a lot about personal relationships.

If you try it half heartedly in the city, you might even have it more difficult to do it again, because of how slowly it grew.

I definitely think practicing your modality is most important. Maybe there is the possibility of employment (or being a contractor) for the next 6 months, so that you can focus on practicing, rather than building the practice.

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Do you think it’s worth running a natural health ‘open evening’ to discuss health issues and as an aside promote my practice? I’m a massage therapist, reflexologist and Reiki practitioner.

Hannah, that is a great idea and it is very much worthwhile.

Here are some things to think of:

• Plan it on an ongoing and consistent basis
  Running evenings like that as a once-off might not bring the results you are looking for. Over time, people get to value them and tell their friends.
• Give your participants value
  They need to leave, blown away by what they have learned and how that has positively impacted on their lives. (Could just be emotional support to deal with a specific long-term problem, does not have to be a quick fix).
• Target your market well
  Choose topics that you can help with and let the people you want to treat know. As an example if you work with older people, hold the evenings in retirement villages.
• Invite your friends
  A bigger group is always more exciting for the participants. The networking they do can be a benefit as well. Also, having the support of people who love you helps.
• Invite other complementary health practitioners
  Guest speakers can deepen the conversation.
• Use it for PR
  Remember the post about creating newsworthy actions.

Something else to consider is whether to charge for these evenings or keep them free. Free might bring more people, but they might not value it as much.

I ran events like that for health practitioners, talking about different marketing topics. I charged $5. Looking back that was too little, because it did not translate into direct sales and gave a lot of what they wanted already.

With a harder sales approach (e.g. offering a discount if they purchase something that evening) it might work. I don’t use that because I do not think that it builds positive long-term relationships.

So if you do not expect quick sales, but want to build your network long-term, it is a great way of achieving it.

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that my wife Caroline is currently promoting her new service: Postnatal Exercise Classes.

One of the things she did was sent out a media release. Ever since, she has been running outside every day a paper was delivered and looked through every page to find herself.

At a rough guess it has been 3 weeks since she first sent it out (to about 8 newspapers and magazines). So far only one article. And a call back from a journalist who is preparing another article.

And that even though she had called every paper after sending it out, she had even sent it to different people within the same paper.

Persistence

Again, as so many other things, this is a question of persistence, keeping at it, continuously delivering new great stories (maybe about some community project your are doing) and building a relationship with the journalists or editors.

Patience

Once the article is in, does the phone ring non-stop?

No it does not, but what I do know from earlier editorials is that people cut it out, put it in their drawer and ring back later. Sometimes massage clients of mine received calls half a year after the editorial, referring to the newspaper article someone had read.

So even though it is work, it pays out, especially when you keep doing it and people get used to reading about you in the paper.

Final note

As I am about to publish this post, I notice that Jack Humphrey just published a blog post about public relations as well. His main point is to create some newsworthy action.

In the last few weeks, a Yoga DVD for pregnant mothers was launched in our city. They offered a free Yoga class in the park to celebrate the launch. That got publicity so much more easily. They said that they had just sent the media release in and got calls from every newspaper. And they even got a press photographer to the launch.

So media releases need to be newsworthy. Think about some ways that you can make them so, even if that means more work.