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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