Tea Nguyen, DPM (00:53.944)

So you want to become a business owner. A friend told me that she was burning out from her job when that required her to take calls, which became one of the biggest sources of anxiety for her. And it's really hard to sit back and just say, well, that's the specialty you chose, know, tough, tough luck. And she had taken some time off to reflect on what her next move is because her job burned her out that much. She ended up having to take a medical leave of absence and Somehow she thought the only plausible option was to be employed again by finding another job. And ultimately, I know that we all do this because being employed sounds easier. It's familiar. It's something we're comfortable with. It's a paycheck every two weeks, right? There's beauty in that consistency. But the thing is, what's that thing they say when you do something the same over and over again?

Thinking that you're going to end up with different results? Yeah, that's insanity. So if you hang around me long enough, you're going to get some tough love from me from time to time because at the end of the day, I just want my friends to be filthy rich, living abundantly and happy. And that really is my only goal in life. So I've been sprinkling some factual seeds that offer more than just wishful thinking for people who come up to me and say things like, I'm scared to start my practice, but I know what I'm doing just isn't working. It's not sustainable. I'm miserable. I'm having to take time off. I'm having to take medical leave because my job was just burning me out so badly and they won't accommodate what I truly need. So my friend here, she finally said to me exactly that. I want to do this, but I'm really scared. So to me, she has what it takes to do this. She just needs a little bit more convincing. And so that's what I want to do for you today, is to help the doctor who is in between decisions. So I hope this episode nudges you towards the future that you truly want. Today I'll share with you the Lean Startup and what it takes to have a minimal, viable business. And if you already have a business, this is a nice refresher too, so that you get grounded and think more like a direct care doctor who runs this sustainable, profitable, low stress practice. And who doesn't want that this day and age?

Tea Nguyen, DPM (03:18.424)

So here are the six things I put together to help a doctor understand what it really means to own a business. Number one, business is a numbers game. You as a doctor have everything you can possibly know about medicine to take care of people really well. You can take care of the complications, you can do a workup, you can give them a proper diagnosis, you have all the credentials. When you run your own business, your own practice,it's not about getting more credentials. It's not about getting more certifications. You need some for your licensing, right? But that is not the thing that you need to attract people into your business to charge them money and to have this going on for you over and over again. So number one, business is a numbers game. The more that people know about what you do, the higher the chances you'll make the money you want to make. So if your schedule is not full,the simple solution to that is tell more people until everybody knows exactly what you do. And when somebody first hears information, they're not really going to need it, right? They don't really need your service in that moment for the various specialties that is represented here in direct care. But the moment that they do need your service, hopefully you're top of mind because you've inundated them with marketing attempts, social media,word of mouth, amazing testimonies online and so on. So all that to say is if you find yourself in a situation where you've got to practice, but it's not full, it's because not enough people know about you or it's not clear what you do. You're offering too many services. So you're not really a super specialist in a certain thing. So this is a numbers game. Detach yourself from what you think it's supposed to be that people are just supposed to like you and trust you and do business with you.

It's more than that. It's you being everywhere, omnipresent, using multi-channel mechanisms to be known. That's all it is. It's a numbers game. Number two, business is also a mental game. So erase what you think you know and treat everything that you do as a research project. Stop trying to control the future because you can't and stop trying to predict an outcome that you have no experience in. And

Tea Nguyen, DPM (05:44.92)

I don't know why we do this, but we do. We all think that something is supposed to go a certain way and then it doesn't. And then, you know, our egos get hurt. We're a little bit bruised and we're like, this isn't for me. And that's not how this works at all. It's a mental game. It's the person who lasts the longest is the one who actually wins. So yeah, you're going to be pushed down a lot. You're going to get negative Google reviews. People are going to say you're crazy for doing this and yada, yada, yada. It's what happens in my brain, right? So what? You keep going. It's a mental game.

This is new to you, so it feels really weird and you haven't built the skin that's required to have this kind of practice and that's okay. This takes time. So all of those experiences that you have, well, it's just teaching you something new about yourself. So learn those lessons and especially from people who have the experience to teach you. So don't go looking for answers from people who aren't where you want to be. Number three, business is an endurance game. So I just touched on this. You won't...

actually lose if you don't give up. Failing is what I call a feeble concept. You don't actually fail if you're learning. Things that don't work is a redirection. It's an important redirection. You have to learn from it. Why did it not work? Did not enough people know? Was it in the way that I framed my offering, the way I provided the message? Was I unclear? Was I confusing? Was I providing too much, right?

These are all parts of business development that you can learn. It's so much easier than learning whatever we've had to learn in medical school. I guarantee that. So if you realize that business is just an endurance game, last man standing as a person who wins, and you always learn from what's happening, then you will never actually fail. That's business. This is the game. And number four, business is also a team sport. Now you may start as a team of one. I know I did. But to grow is to learn how to delegate because your time is valuable and it's limited. And as we get older, we have less of it, right? So we have to get smarter with our time by building a team so that they eventually work for you. They're building, they're helping you build a practice that generates money with less effort. So you're not the person who has to do every single thing.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (08:05.344)

As business owners, we do find ourselves in the beginning doing 20 different jobs. I remember when I opened my practice, I was sweeping, was wiping the floor, cleaning the toilet. I was doing the supplies, the inventory. I did everything. It was exhausting. And it wasn't until I let go of some of that need to do everything my way that I decided to hire people and say, okay, you're good at that. You do that. I don't want to do that anymore. So it's letting go of that fear of not knowing how to hire because a lot of us don't know how to hire, but you got to get practicing to know what's good and what's not good, right? You got to just do it, learn from it, and then hopefully you build on that so that you never start from scratch again. And of course, working with a business coach can help you get there a lot faster. Listen, nothing we do in business is unique. And I think that's a reality that we all have to understand is that starting a practice this day and age is not unique.

From one practice to another, we all have the same problems. We need clients, we need them to pay, they need to know what we're offering, it needs to be mutual, and then we gotta rinse and repeat over and over again. So honestly, business structure, there's really nothing unique from me, nothing unique from you. Set the foundation and then you can tweak and niche it down to how you want it so that it fits perfectly for you. All right, I went off a little tangent there. Okay, so let's get you back on number five.

You need to decide that you want this kind of hard because it's all hard. Working as an employee has its perks, right? It's consistent. You can rely on a paycheck. You can do very little or you can do a lot and it's the same paycheck to some extent, but you're restricted by the employer's rules, right? Or the insurance rules. You're confined to the system.

And I'm not saying that's not right, it's not wrong, it's just a personal preference. But if you're in a situation where you are employed and you feel like you don't have any freedom to practice the way that you want, you deserve to get paid more and you want less stress, then you have to start your own practice. I mean, that's how I started. I wanted all those things and I had to give up some other things for that, which is the comfort of a job. And I had to learn how to run a business. So it's all hard.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (10:29.358)

I'm not going to sit here and tell you, what I do is so much easier. I mean, there are some things that are easier because it's fun, but it is hard. You have to learn how to speak to people who don't know medicine, right? You got to build your team, especially if you've never built one before. You have to know what to look for. You have to know what to audit. You have to know the numbers to understand if you're on track or not. But all that to say is you can learn this stuff and you'll learn it along the way. You don't have to know everything straight out the gate when you open your practice. This is the pregame plan. You just gotta get some stuff in place first and then things will fall into place. When you treat your business the way it's supposed to be treated, it's a numbers game, it's a mental game, it's an endurance game, it really is a team sport. So there are some things that are hard, but you can learn them. You've done hard things before. Owning a business is just like, you gotta learn a few more things. That's all I really wanna say.

Alright, so you need to decide which is the hard for you, you know, things that are hard now get easier later. Things that are easy now are hard forever. Right? So think about what do you want for your future self and how you behave when things get a little uncertain, when things show up. Do you like that? Are you afraid of that? Do you embrace it and say, okay, well, I can grow from this? You have to decide. And that's the difference between an employee and a CEO.

The CEO will always bet on themselves. They will always be resourceful. They will recognize they have limitations and seek out professional help because their freedom is that important to them. And then lastly, number six, you really want to think in terms of steps and systems, kind of like a protocol when you take care of a patient. know, a patient comes in with this one problem. You're like, you you got a checklist, X, Y, and Z needs to happen. That's thinking in systems. When it comes to your business, you don't want to offer 20 plus services and confuse yourself, your entire team and your brand. You can offer a lot of things. It's just from a branding perspective. You want, you want to get clear on like a few packages, maybe one single package even until you hit your first hundred K. So one package until you hit your first 100 K before you start introducing variables, you want to refine your protocols. And that's what I like to teach is to simplify first and then you can scale. So when you think of

Tea Nguyen, DPM (12:54.998)

In terms of steps and systems, what I really mean by that is what's the next best thing? Ask yourself what is needed now is the thing that will keep you grounded. So keep it simple, make it repeatable, and most importantly, you gotta have fun. So you start messy and then you refine as you go. Now, here is the checklist of what's actually needed right now. If you're in a position and you're thinking about opening your practice, and you're still uncertain, let me tell you exactly what needs to happen. And I've got eight things right here. The first thing is decide the problem you're going to solve that has cash potential. What does that look like for a specialist? Maybe you're looking into women's care or men's care or doing hormone replacement therapy, for example, or orthobiologics, or you're doing functional medicine. You're giving non-surgical alternatives. Those are great cash potentials, they already exist. There's a lot of equipment and package bundling that you can do. And that can be a really great way to start. I like letting doctors know to pay attention to what is a non-covered service. Some specialties have a lot of these like podiatry. We have a lot of stuff that's not covered by insurance anyway. So that becomes an easy avenue to introduce cash services and have those awkward cash conversations with people. Whereas other specialties, this may not. They do not exist. Maybe it's never entered your hemisphere. Maybe you don't even know where to start, which is why I'm here to help you see what other specialists are doing. And then you can adapt to what you think is cool for you. two, decide your business name. Decide your LLC, your business name, fill out the paperwork. You can hire somebody. I'm sure there's somebody online that can do it. I don't know. Legal Zoom was something I started with. You can get an attorney if you've got one. I don't have any legal advice on this, but Get your LLC started so that you can open a bank account, which is number three. What you want to do here, which oftentimes gets overlooked, is if you have decided on a business name, just check the USPTO to make sure that it's not trademarked. If it's trademarked, that means somebody else owns it and you don't have the right to use that name. So it's a free government website that you can check out and just see if that name exists anywhere. And if that name exists, is it...

Tea Nguyen, DPM (15:13.594)

similar or could it be confused for the services you provide? So I would recommend that. So number four here, malpractice insurance. If you work for somebody, they may pay for your malpractice insurance. If you want to start your own practice simultaneously, you may need to get a separate malpractice insurance. Now, the caveat to this is when you're employed, there are restrictions as to your freedom to build another practice or business. So you want to look into the nuance of what that really means to be employed and start your own practice by talking to a healthcare attorney in your state. Number five, a website and an email. That'll legitimize you a little bit more. So instead of having like a at gmail.com email, you can have at yourbusinessname.com and you can purchase that from Squarespace. Squarespace is where I build my website and you can purchase the URL, the domain. So for me, it's like drtpadiatry.com. I purchased that name. I built my website mostly by myself, and then I have the email, which is all inclusive if you just go to Squarespace and plug it all in as to what you want. Number six, getting a Google Voice phone number. That's free, and it's attached to your phone. So for a short period, answer your calls. It's not a big deal. It won't delegitimize, I don't know if that's word, your business. After all, if people are paying you cash, they want high touch care, it's okay if you answer your own phone calls.

It'll be a pleasant surprise for them when they hear a doctor answer the phone because this is the kind of practice that we have. We are truly providing an intimate experience. And yeah, you can answer your phone if you like, or you can pass it off to an assistant. And what's nice about the Google Voice is that you can use your laptop to make phone calls too, kind of like Zoom. You know, you can chat with people with a video or not with a video. So that's free and that's simple to start with. And number seven, you want to think about

How do you see patients? Is it going to be telehealth? Because if that's the case, you don't really need an office space. But if you need to see them in person, you can start really small and just sublease a room from an existing doctor's office or another adjacent healthcare professional. There are a lot of options to just rent a room. And there are a lot of people who are not in the office five days a week. So you got to get a little creative there to find the space to start your practice. And then number eight, don't forget this one. Once you get

Tea Nguyen, DPM (17:40.792)

your LLC, once you get an address, a business address, please don't use your home address, then you can claim your Google business right now so that you can start generating testimonials with your name in there. And a lot of doctors don't know this, but when you work for somebody and people give you a Google review and it belongs to the company you work with, once you leave, you can't take those testimonials with you.

So it's really important to start owning your brand and taking control of your digital space so that you can own it and then it grows with you along the way. So just quickly rehashing the eight things that's needed right now. Number one, define the problem you're trying to solve that has cash potential. Number two, establish your LLC. Number three, open a bank account so you can separate your finances. It saves you a lot of headaches down the road.

Number four, get your malpractice insurance are some that offer part-time rates if you're just a part-time practice at the moment. Take advantage of what those discounts can look like. Number five, get a website and the email address to start talking like the business you are. Number six, get that Google voice number so that people know where to call if they need you. Number seven, a place to see patients, whether you be telehealth or renting a room. And then number eight, claim your space on Google Business right now. All of that will allow you to start seeing patients and accepting money right now. And then the last thing I'll add here is you're probably wondering, but how do I actually make money? Okay. The simplest way is called the Single Package Success model. This is the one thing I harp on when I teach doctors about money. You want to make a lot of money with less effort, right? Then you got to simplify your processes meaning you're not going to just charge the office visit of 100, 200, $500. Instead, you will be thinking about packaging your service or your solution in the upwards of $3,000 to $5,000. So if you create a $5,000 package and you sell 50 of those, you've already made a quarter of a million dollars. You've made $250,000 with just yourself. And I've known doctors who are making half a million with this model.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (19:59.52)

working by themselves, maybe a part-time assistant on the phone or something, but you simplify in order to scale. Now, if you're somebody who wants to get there faster, I am starting the next coaching cohort at the end of February. This is a small group of up to five doctors who are serious about launching a direct specialty care practice. If you have been thinking about starting your practice and you're ready to do what is required to get there, take the first step by filling out the direct care readiness assessment down in the show notes, there will be a link. From there, once you complete it, I'll hop on a call with you and guide you along so that you don't have to guess at how to make this work for you. You'll know exactly what is needed. If you happen to be listening to this past the deadline, that's okay. Take the assessment anyway and we'll get you on the waitlist for the next cohort. Just don't wait on doing this because the longer you do, the further away you are from the life you've worked so hard for.

I've been doing this for almost three years and I wanted to share a kind note that I received from one of the doctors I worked with several years ago. She was employed and suddenly got let go, totally out of her control, right? And she was uncertain as to what to do next. So here is what she said. Two years ago, T helped me take the leap into direct care and I couldn't be more grateful. She guided me through the many unknowns of becoming a business owner, things that are never taught in medical school or residency, while also helping me build the confidence to truly bet on myself. With her support, I created a sustainable value aligned career. I now work a blended schedule, two days a week in my own practice and three days at a nonprofit. Remarkably, I earn more in those two days in my practice than I did working full time at another office. Teas coaching didn't just change my business, it transformed how I approach my work and my life. I was so touched to get this note. And listen, it doesn't stop here. She goes on. I ended up finding a wonderful, educated man who is a provider and wants to take care of me. You helped me raise my standards and level up. We got married. So much has changed. And I finally feel aligned with my life. Listen, when things start to line up for you, you attract what was always meant for you.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (22:19.672)

Now I can't guarantee that your love life will change like this as it has for the doctor, but it's really possible when all of the things line up to you doing the things that you love the most and it makes sense for you and it brings you joy and it fuels you, it gives you energy. You really don't know what else you're capable of. So don't wait on this. Just fill out the form and I will catch you next week. Take care. 

Thank you for listening to the Direct Care Podcast for Specialists.

Remember, you always have the power to choose. So what will you be choosing today? Wishing you peace and possibilities.