The benefits of gratitude may seem obvious and something we already know, but they can be easily overlooked. We focus on our daily challenges and can take for granted the people who support us, and who have done so in the past. Faced with patient and practice demands, we can under-appreciate the opportunity we have to live an extraordinary life helping others. So it is good to take time – right now -- and then to give thanks.

Now, back to those Christmas catalogues from L.L. Bean and Patagonia. Both show how patient, long-term ownership and excellent management, products, and services can build generational wealth over decades of brand-building and customer loyalty. In both cases, the owners who resist the quick sale and instead focus on purpose-driven growth and lasting customer relationships can build legacy companies that dwarf what any early buyer would have paid.

2026 is going to be a pivotal year for every healthcare business owner. Perhaps more than any other year before. I’ll explain more about this in upcoming newsletters, but please note: 2026 can be the year you see your Best Ever. BUT FOR NOW, let’s get your marketing structured and stronger than ever. In healthcare marketing, you are selling the invisible.

One of the simplest ways to smooth out that roller coaster is to assign a trusted staff member a small, defined role as marketing coordinator — just four hours a week. Their job isn’t to “do all the marketing.” It’s to make sure your systems keep moving — recalls, referral programs, tracking metrics, and keeping new ideas alive. This small shift removes one of the biggest log jams in most chiropractic offices — marketing inconsistency — and replaces it with predictable, sust

When opening a new office, the new business owner, of course, builds their new business on their behavior. It is their ambitious determination that is driving the initial growth of the practice. So, yes, a Personality Driven practice works at the launch of a new endeavor. What else is there? A dream, and the raw desire to manifest it. However, after the practice is up and running, it needs to transition into a Goal Driven and systematized business.

We’re about to enter the final quarter of 2025. Will 2025 be a “winning” year for you? Are you set to beat last year? Will the next 3 months be better than in earlier years? It can be. IT STARTS WITH A PLAN

Everyone at work fills multiple roles. For example, the front desk may also include a collections role and a promotion role. The doctor may also have the role of CEO, Clinical Director, and business owner. In life, we also wear many hats: father, husband, sometimes handyman, etc. Just clarifying each role -- and its goal -- can help improve the outcomes in your practice.

What is the first thing you need to do to improve the number of new patients into your chiropractic and healthcare practice? Before you start promotions, improve what you are promoting – and never stop.

Using Football and Sports to Market Your Services You can position your office as a resource for athletes of all ages and all types. This gives you instant and outstanding credibility. Promote the fact that football and all athletics are improved through chiropractic care. 4 quick tips on what you can do now and 4 tips on how to implement them.

I have known chiropractors who did well with a 3-day onboarding process, as well as a 1-day process. We routinely monitor the following with our clients and discuss them monthly in our management meetings where we set up monthly strategies for improvement. First Visits to New Patient Percent Patient Visit Average (Retention – Visits/New Patients) I want to highlight seven factors that are sometimes overlooked.

Then there are the entrepreneurial doctors, those who want to grow their practices beyond themselves. By setting goals and systematizing their procedures, it is possible to “scale,” or grow without a corresponding increase in overhead or ownership time. Unfortunately, most doctors who work to scale their practices experience the Practice Roller Coaster. This is common, but after a while, the zest for practice gets hammered down so that practicing is no longer a hobby.

In a business, it is common for procedures and processes to become abbreviated, overlooked, and dropped out. When this happens, the quality of the outcomes or products deteriorates. When quality decreases, the business begins a seemingly inexplicable downward spiral. I call this Procedure Atrophy and cover it in my book, The Goal Driven Business. (page 164).

your intention and attitude towards your patient have a direct effect on how well they improve. There are studies that demonstrate this, and I have provided a few citations at the link below. People respond directly to the intention, thought, and compassion of a provider. (And their teams!) In fact, some chiropractic techniques incorporate the doctor's intention as an essential part of their protocol.

A practice is a network of relationships that's created and sustained through service and communication. If you aren’t communicating with your patients – active and inactive - you won’t have much of a practice.

A practice manager helps put in the systems – the standard operating procedures -- in place that allow all your internal and external marketing procedures to be effective. And not just marketing. Patient retention, patient services, patient reimbursement and so on. They take the load off of you, so you are not the bottleneck!

Regular business growth is an arithmetic progression. Scaling is a type of growth that progresses geometrically over a specific period. It's not step-by-step growth.

We are free and independent -- and have been given the opportunity to grow our business and serve our communities. And this is what you and your team are doing. To all of us here at Petty Michel & Associates, you, and your team, represent the American Spirit of 1776.

From a marketing standpoint, you must distinguish your health services as unique from comparable alternatives. If you just go along to get along, you run the risk of becoming a mishmash, an alloy, a blend that gets lost in the crowd

A few years ago, I participated in a community outreach project that provided education and other services to underprivileged children in Milwaukee. My particular service was an athletic program for kids from 7 to 15 years old. Our class lasted an hour from 7 pm to 8 pm. At the beginning of each class, I would bring up a word or a subject that we would discuss. For example, I might bring up the word "compassion," "courage," or even "study." There was one evening that remai

I call this being trapped, mostly unknowingly, in a Personality-Driven Practice. It is hard to break out of this gerbil wheel. Making the shift from personality driven to goal driven. This is what we call a Goal Driven Business, which you should have after 4-6 years in practice. Unfortunately, most doctors get stuck in the hero role of the entrepreneur who still needs to command the daily operation. The first step is to define your goals.