Deciding to start your own ketamine clinic and finally take control of your income, your time, and your destiny is a very exciting decision. Now it’s time to find the best way to get from idea to actually starting a ketamine clinic.
There are two paths you can follow. You can do it all by yourself or invest in a program or consultant that shows you exactly what you need to do.
When I started my own clinic I went with the first option, but only because there were no ketamine courses or consultants to get help from. I spent hours researching everything I thought I would need to know about starting a ketamine clinic. It took me months of late nights and weekends trying to figure out everything I needed to know. I even enrolled in an MBA program to learn more about how to run and market a business.
Even with all that time spent preparing I ran into a lot of problems that I never even thought of. A few of them cost me thousands of dollars, a ton of stress, and almost prevented me from keeping the doors of my clinic open.
Looking back, I REALLY wish I could have found ketamine consultant who had already done it to help get me started. Today, there are a few training programs, mentors, or ketamine consultants who can teach you how to start your own ketamine clinic.
Now the only question that remains is…
How do I choose the right ketamine course or consultant for me?
There are only two things you need to know when searching for a ketamine course or consultant. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to open up your own ketamine clinic or any business.
1. Have they started a successful ketamine clinic themselves?
2. Have they been able to teach others how to open a successful clinic?
Let’s unpack that first question a little bit because there’s a lot of nuance and detail hiding in there.
Have They Found Success?…
Successful is a very important word in this question. Success can mean different things to different people. From helping as many people as possible to opening a dozen locations across your state.
Right now we’re only concerned about a very basic idea of business success. Was their clinic profitable on its own? That means they had enough patients to pay their expenses and provide a livable salary. Without any outside funding.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it's necessary to seek some outside funding to start a clinic. Whether that’s a bank loan or an investor. If you're in an area with other established clinics you will need to meet their level of service from the start.
At some point, a clinic owner will have to stand on their own. When that day comes, are they making money? A well run ketamine therapy practice should certainly be profitable and self sustaining within 6-9 months.
A ketamine business consultant who has NOT been able to create a profitable clinic is kind of like a surgeon who has only read textbooks, but never performed an actual surgery. To really know what you’re doing you have to actually do it and do it correctly.
Unfortunately there are some unscrupulous consultants who have never earned a penny of net profit from their clinics. These same high priced consultants sell their advice and expensive consulting services on the business model they failed to be successful at. In my opinion, this is an extremely unethical way to conduct a consulting practice. I could right a blog on just that topic alone...
But, let’s continue on this idea of actually doing it.
Have they actually owned and operated a successful clinic themselves? Have they put their neck on the line, been there in the trenches, and risked it all as an owner?
Ok... That’s a bit dramatic but stay with me...
Let’s go back to our surgeon example. There’s a certain amount of stress and pressure that comes from creating your first incision on a real patient. This type of stress is something that can’t be taught or expressed in any book or lecture. It has to be done to know what it feels like and learn learn how to handle it. If you’ve never done it, you’ll never truly understand and neither will an inexperienced consultant. It’s as simple as that.
There will be times when things go bad. A shipment of ketamine didn’t come in and you don’t know how you’ll your treat patients the next day. Business was slow that month and you’re not sure how you’ll pay all your expenses.
You have to be the owner to understand these situations, the emotions that come with them, and how to overcome them.
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to be an owner to go through and solve these problems. Employees can be present when these problems arise, but the anxiety and stress aren’t the same for an employee. It’s not their business. They’re going to get paid either way. It’s the owner who will have to go without.
A large part of running a business is controlling your mindset so you can deal with the problems that come up. It’s easy to become overwhelmed if you’re experiencing too many problems you don’t know how to handle. A successful owner will have found a way to navigate those specific problems. They will also have discovered how to manage the stress that comes with them.
Another good thing to know is if they were a founder. Meaning did they start the clinic from nothing instead of buying into it after it was successful. This is an important distinction.
Starting a business is very different than growing a business that was already successful. They each have unique situations and problems that arise.
When you start a Ketamine Clinic you need to get a special license from the state and the DEA. If you don’t, no one will ship you ketamine. You also have to find vendors for your supplies (don’t forget to get a backup) and then set up accounts with them. There are also legal and scope of practice research and knowledge that goes into opening a clinic.
Someone who bought into a clinic that had already solved these problems won't know how to handle them. They won't understand the intricacies of completing and sending the proper paperwork to the government. They won't have weighed the cost of whether to pay more for an item or sacrifice customer service. (Sometimes it's worth it to pay more to know you're going to have a problem fixed when it comes up.)
These are all important things to consider if you want a successful clinic.
Other important decisions only a founder would have made are:
-Finding a location and negotiating a lease
-Deciding how many infusion chairs to start with and how you’ll expand
-Whether to create a website yourself or hire someone else to do it
-Branding and logo design
-Who to hire first and when to hire them
-What payroll and scheduling system is best
-Creating policies and procedures
-How to minimize expenses and maximize profits
-All problems you will have to deal with as you start your own clinic.
Do you want to learn from someone who’s actually made these decisions or someone who has only read about them?
A quick recap before we move onto the second question…
Find someone who has started their own successful and PROFITABLE clinic from scratch. And was able to pay their expenses with enough left over to pay themselves.
Here are three questions you could ask to determine if someone would be a good fit to teach you how to open a new clinic.
-Were you an original founder of your clinic?
-How quickly were you able to make your clinic profitable?
-What roadblocks did you overcome when opening your clinic?
Now that we’ve established some basic qualifications let’s move on to the second question. Which is equally important.
Can they teach what they know?
We've all had a teacher who should have never been teaching. Just because someone is excellent at what they do, doesn’t mean they can teach others how to do it. Doing and teaching take a different set of skills.
One of the easiest ways to determine if they’re a competent teacher is to look for student success. Do they have any testimonials or reviews from people who have opened their own Ketamine Clinic? If so, be sure to read and watch them.
This will be a big indicator of their ability to take their knowledge and help others apply it.
Investigate whether they have testimonials or not, look for transparency in their training. Check their website to see if they have any free training or a free preview of their program. Check their social media to see what information they’re putting out to help would be clinic owners.
The information they put out for free should be helpful and valuable by itself. This demonstrates a value first mindset. People like that tend to care more about helping others succeed than making a quick buck.
This also gives you a chance to see if their teaching style meshes with your learning style. We’ve all had a class with a teacher that we didn’t click with.
While a necessary evil in school it doesn’t have to be now. There are plenty of people to learn from and it’s important to find someone you can easily follow.
Read or watch their entire free training to get an idea of their style and if you can easily follow it.
They might even have a free trial of their course. Either a single lesson or a trial period so that you can actually see their program in action. That’s always a bonus and a really good sign!
Kind of like when the grocery store gives out free samples. It’s demonstrates confidence that the product their offering is great.
The more transparent they are about the program the better you should feel about enrolling. Anyone who tries to hide their information until you give them money should be looked at with caution.
Now you should have a pretty good idea on whether a ketamine program or consultant is right for you. From here it should be easy to do a little bit of research to confidently make a decision on where to invest your money.
I would personally love the honor of helping you on your journey to starting a ketamine therapy practice. I would like to invite you to schedule a free 15 minute ketamine clinic strategy session with me. No sales. No pressure. Just a call to help you decide if starting a ketamine therapy practice is right for you. Click here to book your free call now.