How to Start a Chiropractic Office

Are you ready to graduate and wondering how to start a chiropractic office? Or have you already graduated and are now considering the next step in your professional life?

Starting a chiropractic office and entering the world of alternative health care doesn’t look the same for every person. Here are four approaches you can take.

Start from Scratch

Opening a new practice was the traditional route chiropractors followed for many years. However, it isn’t easy, and it is expensive. Getting your business off the ground requires you to focus on the business and not on treating patients. Here are the general steps to follow. 

Start by developing a business plan. If you aren’t sure where to start, our guide to developing a business plan for a chiropractic office is a good place to start. This plan should help you solidify your mission, vision, and values that provide the foundation for your alternative practice. 

Next, you’ll need to find an attorney and set up your business legally. Most professionals recommend against operating as a sole proprietor because it leaves you legally liable for debts incurred by the business. These days, many practices operate as LLCs or PLLCs. You must also find an accountant that works with healthcare businesses. 

Secure your license and malpractice insurance before proceeding further. 

As part of the planning process, you’ll need to identify a location for your new chiropractic office. Look for space with high visibility, accessible parking and ground floor location. It probably won’t be an office building, and that’s okay. You’ll also hire contractors and designers familiar with creating comfortable health care spaces to plan and build the space out. Remember, this might be your work area, but it must primarily conform to patient needs and tastes.

Before you get much further, it’s time to finalize that business plan and secure financing. Starting costs will be at least $100,000, and you’ll also want working capital. Check out our article on how to secure financing for a chiropractic office.

Once you have money, it’s time to build out, purchase equipment, and hire your staff. Take care in selecting your staff. You are building a team for success. Before hiring, list all the tasks that must be performed and then decide what you will do and what you will delegate. Hire the people that free you to pursue your passion. 

Hang on for the ride of your life. Starting a chiropractic office is rewarding, frustrating, exhilarating, and a ton of work. But you’ll be building something of your own. 

Buy an Existing Practice

Instead of starting from scratch, you may consider buying an existing practice to start your chiropractic office. 

People retire or leave their alternative health care practice for other reasons regularly. If you buy a thriving existing practice, you may get more for your money in the long run. Instead of using the $30,000 you’ve saved to start a business, use that money as a down payment to buy from an existing practice. Buying a practice with a steady stream of existing patients is buying an established revenue stream. It already has forward momentum. It’s up to you to just keep it moving forward and growing. You’ll still need to create a business plan and secure your lending. But the office, equipment, and staff will already be in place. 

Share an Office with Other Professionals

Want to strike out on your own but don’t have the resources to start an entire stand-alone practice? There is a growing trend for chiropractors to share space with other healthcare professionals.

Consider joining forces with massage therapists, acupuncturists, physical therapists, and athletic trainers. These professionals may have room in their clinics for you to set up shop.

This arrangement is a win-win for professionals because it allows you to share expenses. It also benefits patients by giving them multiple options to meet their wellness needs.

Consider Starting as an Associate

Maybe the best way to start a chiropractic office is to work for someone else first. Think of it as getting paid to receive on-the-job training. When you serve as an Associate Chiropractor at another office you learn the business before starting your own business.

This helps you improve your skills in chiropractic care by working with a mentor. You’ll also see what’s involved in the day-to-day operations of a successful chiropractic practice before branching out on your own.

Working for others provides an opportunity to learn back-office functions such as billing, insurance, accounting, marketing, and office administration.

If you are concerned about earning less as an Associate Chiropractor, remember when you start a practice from scratch, you’ll often be the last person paid.  While you learn the ropes, you may make more and bank more towards starting your own office.

If you take this route, be wary of any non-compete agreements the hiring chiropractor may ask you to sign. Signing a non-compete could lock you out of the market for three years.

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