By Dr. Tom Boch on May 17, 2010
This article is a little story about how I bought an $80,000 Lexus for less than $4,000.
OK, you are right it is not a new Lexus. I have not bought a new car in the last 15 years and don’t ever intend to again even if I live to be 100.
My wife and I have always wanted a Lexus 400 since the day they came out in late 1989 as the 1990 first year model. Lexus and Infinity were racing to be the first with an ultra luxury V8 touring sedan after years of making small econo-boxes for the previous 20 years. Lexus just won the race.
I did purchase a 97 Infinity Q45 some time back but got rid of it quickly after paying $17,000 for it and putting 6K into repairs the first 6 months.
Back to the bargain Lexus. The car lot I found this sleeping beauty on only sells Hondas and Toyotas. This 93 Lexus was the owner’s car. He has purchased it from the original owner, a retired Army Colonel who took amazing care of it. It had just turned over 100,000 miles which is just getting broken in for a Lexus. He was selling it cheaply because it needed $1500 in repairs to the electronic dash display. It worked and didn’t work. He did not want to spend the money and I could put up with it – for awhile.
My wife Linda is amazingly good at finding resources on the Internet. In about ½ hour of research, she located an electronics company in Massachusetts which specializes in repairs of this type. We go the electronic display repaired, with a lifetime warranty, for $70!
We have not put almost 10,000 miles on the car and it has everything a new one has – except for a fat payment book.
On the other hand, when shopping for a Consultant, cheaper is probably not better. Actually, AMC will help you for a full year at no charge to get your practice growing again. I don’t know how it could be any more reasonable than that.
That’s a better bargain than a $4,000 Lexus any day!
Posted in Chiropractic Foundations
By Dr. Tom Boch on March 15, 2010
Is there anything more important than money in your life? There should be quite a few things! How about your family, dearest friends , your spiritual life – heck, what about a beloved pet? I know a grocery clerk who spent over $7,000 on her cat just to hopefully buy it another year to live when it was old and sick.
Money is just a means to an end. Money represents what it can buy and the time and energy it took to generate it. If the average person stopped to think before spending their money just a little longer – like a cooling off process, counting to 10 perhaps, maybe they would make better decisions. Who am I to be pontificating about all this? I have made every dumb , emotion driven mistake you can related to money, so in that regard, I am an expert at spending foolishly. I should clarify that to say I WAS. Now, that I am older and definitely wiser, my attitude toward spending has taken a 180.
Having raised 4 children 2 boys and 2 girls, (the girls have definitely been more of a challenge), I tried to teach them some money lessons I had to learn the hard way. The boys are doing a great job. The girls are catching up.
There are several principles, I have attempted to pass on to my kids when it comes to spending their money. It can be summed up with some key questions such as…Do I need this or, do I merely want it? How will it benefit me now and later? (this is why spending money on things like food and rent are so easy to answer). One key question centers around feelings related to spending. When my oldest daughter was about to make a major purchase (a vehicle), I told her that she should compare the short term feelings of happiness generated by the new car smell with the longer term feelings of facing a $400 payment every month. I know that is much easier question for an older person to answer objectively.
Whether you are young or old, your spending habits can make or break you. One thing I have observed about Chiropractors, is that once we start to getting our head above water financially, we always manage to spend just a little more than we take in. It’s like the practice will continue to grow and that the money will continue to roll in forever at the same rate. I have learned that it just makes more sense to hope for the best but plan for the worst.
My dad was an engineer who achieve quite a high level of success in his career. He got a nice letter from President Reagan when he retired from running our nuclear reactor research projects in Oak Ridge Tennessee. He was the original negative thinker. His approach was to always assume the worst so that whatever the outcome, you would be ready. I can’t say I agree with the whole concept, but as in so many other areas, the older I get the smarted he has gotten.
Since I mention cars, stay tuned for my story about how I bought a $79,000 Lexus recently for 5 cents on the dollar!
Posted in Chiropractic Foundations
By Dr. Tom Boch on February 22, 2010
What chiropractor doesn’t get all warm and tingly inside at the very thought of going out and doing a spinal screening? No, you say? Well, in my coaching with AMC Family Members, I have this conversation quite a lot.
Before we get started, you need to understand that effective spinal screenings are just one of over 100 new patient acquisition tools and procedures that AMC has available.
When someone joins AMC, they do not have to take a blood oath to do spinal screenings or they are banned from the tribe. No, we coaches always encourage and guide in proven directions, but the final decision is yours.
Continue reading “New Patients in the Northeast, Part 2 – Spinal Screenings”
Posted in New Patients | Tagged AMC, Chiropractic, Chiropractic Practice, Chiropractor, New Patients, Northeast
By Dr. Tom Boch on February 15, 2010
Contrary to what you may have been told in chiropractic college, hanging out your shingle is not all it takes to get new patients and start your practice. All of you who have been in practice for longer than a month, know that new patients are the life blood of your practice. Until everyone knows and understands what it is that you do and about the many benefits of chiropractic care, not all of your acute patients will still be in your practice as maintenance patients this time next year.
We need a steady supply of good new patients to maintain and grow our practices. The things is, that practicing up here in the NE (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont & New Hampshire) is a different game that requires a different game plan, compared to practicing in the south, the central US or the west.
I know of what I speak, because as NorthEast Director of AMC, I have not only observed what works up here, but in the last nine years, I have personally coached over 200 practices, from Florida to Hawaii, and from Wisconsin to Texas. At last count, I believe I have had AMC Family members as coaching clients from all but 1 or 2 states.
Continue reading “Getting New Patients In the Northeast … Part 1″
Posted in New Patients | Tagged Chiropractic, Chiropractic Practice, Chiropractor, New Patients, Northeast
By Dr. Tom Boch on February 8, 2010
As I write this weeks’ blog article, I am looking out the window of my home in South Central Pennsylvania, and I don’t think I have ever seen this much snow on the ground as it continues to fall from the sky in blizzard-like conditions.
It seems as though it will never stop. Of course it always does. The first year I moved here was the winter of 1977. We were living in a small apartment with 3 small, but growing children. Using AMC practice management principles from Dr. Owen, I had gotten off to a great start, even though the practice had been set up just a few months ago.
We were seeing 70-80 patient visits a week by that time. Then the snows started in January. Have you ever noticed how snow storms, the really bad ones, seem to come in weekly “waves”? That is exactly how it happened that year. Just when the practice was up and running smoothly – WHAM!
Continue reading “Let It Let It snow, Let It Snow…..on your practice?”
Posted in Chiropractic Foundations | Tagged Chiropractic, Chiropractic Practice, Chiropractic Roots, Chiropractor, Dr. Tom Owen
By Dr. Tom Boch on February 5, 2010
They say that, many times, you can pinpoint the exact time and location where your life took a “life changing turn.” My new friend simply asked me, “Have you ever considered going to chiropractic college?” That was easy to answer because I had never heard the word in my short 17 years of life when I thought I knew everything I needed to know already.
As a result of that one question, I went to Logan college in St. Louis in the fall of 1964. By going straight through winter and summer, I was able to graduate in 3 years. I had finished 3rd in my class. The 2 ahead of me had 4 year undergrad degrees. I had come straight out of high school, so I was just barely old enough to get a license at age 21. I had even gotten an A+ in the one management class that was given in my senior year.
My wife, who was 5 months pregnant when I graduated, and I immediately moved to Florida to open our first office. The old joke told is that, in that first office, my entire practice totaled just ½ of one new patient. That is a new patient who never comes back for their report.
Continue reading “Surviving and Thriving in the Great Recession of 2009? – Part 3″
Posted in Chiropractic Foundations | Tagged Chiropractic, Chiropractic Practice, Chiropractic Roots, Chiropractor, Dr. Tom Owen
By Dr. Tom Boch on February 3, 2010
So, here I was a 17 year old high school junior who grew up totally illiterate about matters Chiropractic. As I said earlier, I literally had not heard the word Chiropractic until I met a man who changed my life completely.
I had always had an innate interest in “natural” things like diet and exercise. The problem I had as a high school junior is that I did not have a clue what I wanted to do for a career, which made it very hard to decide which college to attend.
In those days, you could wait until you graduated. Today, with the so-called “helicopter parents”, panic starts to set in if little Johnny or Suzy’s parents can’t get them in to the right preschool as the first stepping stone toward admission into Harvard or Yale. Actually, one of my sons is a double graduate of Harvard Dental School, which was a complete surprise to his mother and me! In another article, I will prove my earlier statement that with the right attitude and tools, you can accomplish anything in Chiropractic, and your life. I will describe to you how my son might have never amounted to much without that attitude and tools.
Continue reading “Surviving and Thriving in the Great Recession of 2009? – Part 2″
Posted in Chiropractic Foundations | Tagged Chiropractic, Chiropractic Practice, Chiropractor
By Dr. Tom Boch on February 1, 2010
Is it over for Chiropractic and your practice? Will we ever experience the golden days of practice when almost anyone could hang out a shingle and develop a great practice in a relatively short time? Maybe an old timer can help you out.
There are some in the profession and the political arena that would have us believe that life as we knew it will never be the same. If you accept those pronouncements and beliefs then it will most definitely be true for you.
I have been around long enough to know that if you have the right attitude, and the right tools, any negative situation can be turned around. When I say that I have been in the profession for awhile, perhaps I should clarify that just a bit. You might learn something from someone, like me, who has been an active participant in our beloved profession for over 40 years.
Continue reading “Surviving and Thriving in the Great Recession of 2009? – Part 1″
Posted in Chiropractic Foundations | Tagged Chiropractic, Chiropractic Practice, Chiropractor
