Guest guest Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 My feeling now is that if you had a problem with money going in to acupuncture school you are going to have money problems after UNLESS you change something in the way you do things. doug On Nov 19, 2004, at 1:47 PM, Chinese Medicine wrote: > Message: 11 > Fri, 19 Nov 2004 01:53:35 -0500 > Pete Theisen <petet > Re: New to the group and a potential TCM student: > > > Jeremy wrote: >> Hello everyone! I would just like to give a brief introduction of >> myself as well as ask a few questions about TCM: > > Hi Jeremy! > > The only people I know who are doing even OK financially in TCM are > people who had a *lot* of money going in. You are not in that situation > so I want to say you should expect to be downright poor for a *long* > time after you graduate. Poor as in poverty stricken, even. " Ill > housed, > ill clothed, ill fed . . . " > > I started my own clinic two years ago. I have three patients in the > slow > season and maybe ten in the tourist season. The stumbling block is > Medicare not covering it. Because they don't, over half of the insurers > don't either. It has been proposed for ten years that it be covered but > it has not happened. > > If you *love* TCM and don't mind working hard for nothing, have at it. > That is how most of us are, except those who started out rich, or have > rich spouses, lovers, daddies - you know. > > Oh, yeah. Don't open a clinic in any town that has a TCM school, you > have to compete with the student clinic that charges $25 for the full > service visit. There are two TCM schools in my town. > > Regards, > > Pete > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 Hi Jeremy, I can't seem to find your email address on anything and would like to discuss some of this " off-forum " because we're getting into personal, nitty gritty stuff here and I would like to be able to help. Email me if you'd like to discuss this further. Barbara bbeale _____ Douglas [res19zl9] Friday, November 19, 2004 2:34 PM Chinese Medicine money money etc.. My feeling now is that if you had a problem with money going in to acupuncture school you are going to have money problems after UNLESS you change something in the way you do things. doug On Nov 19, 2004, at 1:47 PM, Chinese Medicine wrote: > Message: 11 > Fri, 19 Nov 2004 01:53:35 -0500 > Pete Theisen <petet > Re: New to the group and a potential TCM student: > > > Jeremy wrote: >> Hello everyone! I would just like to give a brief introduction of >> myself as well as ask a few questions about TCM: > > Hi Jeremy! > > The only people I know who are doing even OK financially in TCM are > people who had a *lot* of money going in. You are not in that situation > so I want to say you should expect to be downright poor for a *long* > time after you graduate. Poor as in poverty stricken, even. " Ill > housed, > ill clothed, ill fed . . . " > > I started my own clinic two years ago. I have three patients in the > slow > season and maybe ten in the tourist season. The stumbling block is > Medicare not covering it. Because they don't, over half of the insurers > don't either. It has been proposed for ten years that it be covered but > it has not happened. > > If you *love* TCM and don't mind working hard for nothing, have at it. > That is how most of us are, except those who started out rich, or have > rich spouses, lovers, daddies - you know. > > Oh, yeah. Don't open a clinic in any town that has a TCM school, you > have to compete with the student clinic that charges $25 for the full > service visit. There are two TCM schools in my town. > > Regards, > > Pete > > http://babel.altavista.com/ and adjust accordingly. If you , it takes a few days for the messages to stop being delivered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 I don't know if I would agree with this. Before going into Oriental medicine, I was a management consultant and made several times the national average salary. Now I find myself taking short term contracts to fund my work as a healer. It isn't that I don't know how to start or run a business, as I have started and run several of them. I have taught entrepreneurship, and so I know that I have the theory. That said, even after doing everything right, I am finding it longer to get things perking along than it should have. The reality is that people still don't really know the benefits that we can offer them. I am finding educating people to be a real uphill battle. I know that once people start to realize that it isn't just some fringe practice, and that it really does work, then things will start to turn around. I can honestly say that on Vancouver Island, here in BC there are few practitioners making a good living at it. - Mark Milotay On Fri, 2004-11-19 at 14:33, Douglas wrote: > My feeling now is that if you had a problem with money going in to > acupuncture school you are going to have money problems after UNLESS > you change something in the way you do things. > > doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 Mark wrote: " The reality is that people still don't really know the benefits that we can offer them. I am finding educating people to be a real uphill battle. I know that once people start to realize that it isn't just some fringe practice, and that it really does work, then things will start to turn around. " Barb wrote: " many people drawn to acupuncture school are " artsy " , free-spirited and a little rebellious and don't like to be bothered by the more structured portions of the profession, especially the concepts of money, marketing and competition. I think this dimension has played a part in the downfall of many. " Put these two statements together and I think you get to the root of the problem. Mark is right that we have not yet been successful in getting OM the widespread respect it deserves as a healing resource. Barb is right that many in our field are put off over the idea of marketing the healing art they love and even feel a spiritual affinity with. Over the years I have heard countless people say that all we need to do is become the best healers we can and the rest will take care of itself. I actually respect the anti-commercial sentiment of this philosophy but I think, as Barb wrote, that this has hurt the financial aspects of our profession's growth. While I too would much rather spend my time thinking of how to become a better healer for my patients than thinking of marketing schemes, I think there is nothing wrong with doing smart public education when you consider that this will truly help the public get better health-care services. The fact that it will also help individual OM practitioners make more money should not stop us from dealing with marketing. There is such a thing as ethical marketing for an ethical cause. I just read a recent survey done by the AAOM that showed practitioners ranked the need for public education/outreach as the #2 task our profession faces behind legislative concerns. I would rank it #1. While individual practitioners can and should work at marketing their own services, the real great leap forward Mark wrote of can happen only when our profession as a whole, with the leadership of key organizations, decides to make public education/outreach a true priority. How much further along we would be as a profession if we had concentrated on this over the last several years rather than on differences of opinion over education standards and the like. Matt Bauer - Mark Milotay TCM List Friday, November 19, 2004 5:59 PM Re: money money etc.. I don't know if I would agree with this. Before going into Oriental medicine, I was a management consultant and made several times the national average salary. Now I find myself taking short term contracts to fund my work as a healer. It isn't that I don't know how to start or run a business, as I have started and run several of them. I have taught entrepreneurship, and so I know that I have the theory. That said, even after doing everything right, I am finding it longer to get things perking along than it should have. The reality is that people still don't really know the benefits that we can offer them. I am finding educating people to be a real uphill battle. I know that once people start to realize that it isn't just some fringe practice, and that it really does work, then things will start to turn around. I can honestly say that on Vancouver Island, here in BC there are few practitioners making a good living at it. - Mark Milotay On Fri, 2004-11-19 at 14:33, Douglas wrote: > My feeling now is that if you had a problem with money going in to > acupuncture school you are going to have money problems after UNLESS > you change something in the way you do things. > > doug http://babel.altavista.com/ and adjust accordingly. If you , it takes a few days for the messages to stop being delivered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 21, 2004 Report Share Posted November 21, 2004 Hi, Mark Milotay wrote: >... I know that once people start to realize that it isn't just some > fringe practice, What if you reversed that and decided that it IS a fringe practice that needs better marketing to bring it mainstream awareness? > and that it really does work, then things will start to > turn around. I can honestly say that on Vancouver Island, here in BC > there are few practitioners making a good living at it. > We examined a very specific product in Richmond-BC, where there's a substantial very understanding Chinese population, and decided that the clinic model would cause failure/perennial bloodletting. We're tuning a much more proactive approach. We expect that our approach will actually help a bunch of clinics somewhat, with an overall effect much better for them than for us. And we'll grow our niche fairly quickly. bye, vic -- Vic Williams (604)433-5189 -- www.strategicprocess.com -- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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