My first office and ebay mostly

www.fnchiropractic.com

I've been forced by unseen evidence to remember good circumstance in order to avail myself to fight bad circumstance. I have a good list which overpowers a bad list. In this little excerpt I identify the good in my practices.

I started my initial practice in Tulsa with no fortitude. It was luck, graciousness, ebay and reality which fueled what it is I do.

My first office was on Garnett Road. I was gifted by Dr. Smith with equipment. Adjusting tables, intersegmental traction tables, e-stims. That was a start. I already owned therapy tables which I purchased in KC from a deceased chiropractor. I was set for a bit. Had a computer and purchased software on a budget where EZ-Bis took in payments over ten months for a thousand or so. I purchased an ultrasound unit for $1200 from a local company which later went out of business. I moved to an office and had to change. Dr. Kats gifted me with a desk, office chairs and furniture and his time. A dentist friend gifted me with office chairs and file cabinets.
My introduction to ebay was in purchasing an x-ray machine and processor. Went to New York on Long Island to pick up x-ray. Went to Long Island over a weekend with a girl who never seemed to sleep. Got a guy to set up the unit on the side of his brother's business and my total was $1400 for a $10000 project. The x-ray was paid for by my travel and time and I made it up in about two to three days. My first processor, I had to pick up outside San Antonio and the total for that rivaled half the cost of my actual x-ray machine. On ebay I ended up buying another processor from Branson which I picked up and that was about two years after my initial processor. The automatic processor is very important and probably the biggest headache in x-rays. That can get expensive. That second AFP was a total of $400 plus my gas and time to drive to Branson. The first processor was gas, time and about $700. The actual cost was so much because I got auction anxiety and I refused to let someone outbid me. It wasn't a good buy.
Another all-time ebay purchase for me was for therapy equipment. This company in Fort Scott, KS expanded their facility and I banked. They are a non-profit organization and put a bunch of stuff up on ebay. I won on three bids and requested to pick up personally. The items I won were for about $450 and they were two stim units and one combo which were worth new about $15000. When I went to Fort Scott to pick the stuff up, I was in the middle of a fire sale. Everything had to go. I looked at the size of my Chrysler LHS and all the stuff and systemacally loaded up. Couldn't see out the rearview mirror and only spent an additional $150 on things like extra ortho products, med desks, pictures, therapy desks and stim units. That was totally cool. Total bank. My office was transformed.
Ebay got me therapeutic pictures, clinical diagnostic tables and therapy tables at a fraction of the cost. X-ray film? Ebay. Hundreds of films for pennies. I even bought tons of cassettes and then re-sold them. Top quality Kodak, Fuji and AGFA. I brought hundreds of thousands in hard-costs down to less than tens of thousands. I have been so blessed by all of this.
Anyone can do it. The only problem is that it does take time and patience which most do not possess. I even had a candy machine in the office which came from ebay and one of those neon "open" signs. Ebay is crazy and it has made me a living.

I had an assistant in the first office and, when she was irritated with how I handled business at one point, I took her through my process: I pointed out to her everything and where it came from. It was enlightening to me. Our whole argument began out of her disliking my paying for Billy's trip with us to KC for a seminar. I told her that the least I could do for Billy was give him a trip out of town since he has referred well over twenty of the people we see. He contributed probably over twenty thousand dollars to my practice because he is my friend and I saved him from surgery and he knows chiropractic. I really miss Billy. So I showed my assistant how much of the practice was not her and it definitely was not me. It started with the blessings from Dr. Smith, Dr. Kats, the dentist and ebay. None of it was me. I didn't do it. I did pay for some things, but in the end, it was just earning and learning. No big deal and just how it is. I put in sweat and tears but that didn't make what we did. It is just how it is.
I don't think K ever got the picture, but I sure did. And Billy got an enjoyable trip out of town and the best steak dinner ever at Hereford House in KC.

Today I am blessed with a great situation and I only see it as being great and greater. Its just a matter of time when people find that I do more with less, and, much of the time - its not even me doing it - its just being and living and knowing that I know that I know that I know. So simple that it can be complex. This life is sometimes crazy.