Executive Summary
The practice of business managers initiating entrepreneurial ventures is fast being replaced by professionals setting up business ventures to tap into their skills; Equilibrium Holistic Wellness Clinic is one such business that is being initiated by three medical professionals. In addition to ability to meet clients’ needs flexibly and on demand, services provided by the clinic will be of high quality. The availability and accessibility of the premises will lead to a wider reach of those who desire efficiency and effective healthcare. Ownership will be by the three partners who will share on expenses while retaining individual customers. The goodwill and sharing of expenses will ensure the company is not critically crippled as it seeks to build a name for itself in the initial stages.
The partners will work independently from each other. They will retain their customer base to allow for a smooth transition with expansion being encouraged. Each will provide services in alignment to the mission and vision. As no one will be a boss to the other, authority will be shared equally. Due to the expected demand being high, work should be done as professionally as possible.
Each one will be liable to a malpractice license. They will be expected to comply with the rules and regulations to avoid their license being revoked. Discipline is therefore critical to all for success and growth of the enterprise. This will assure clients of accountability, and commitment to their overall welfare.
All services will be provided in the establishment. In place is pre-legal coverage to cushion the partners against future uncertainty. They will be fully prepared for any happenings that they might not have anticipated. They will also focus on the business at hand taking advantage of opportunities presented without any fear.
The partners are experts in their fields of specialization and hence clients will be assured of quality from the clinic. In the event a diagnosis cannot be conclusively made reference will be made elsewhere to avoid wrong treatment and increase confidence of the customer in the clinic as placing their health before revenue generation.
The partners will have a common joint receptionist to aid in the office. Each will then have a personal assistant to enable smooth running of services in the Equilibrium Holistic Wellness Clinic. The employees will be kept up to date with new changes in the market to avoid redundancy and low quality work. Seminars and conferences will provide necessary training to equip them throughout the transition from a home entity to an office organization.
In the initial stages the business will be advertized through word of mouth, as each partner already has an established clientele. As the business grows marketing strategies such as media advertising, newspaper journals and promotional sales will be used.
The proximity of the clinic to various medical centers will make it easy to reach by patients needing the service. The unique blend of services offered and standing experience from the partners will yield a competitive edge in the business against similar entities. We expect to meet the running expenses and costs with minimum strain.
EQUILIBRIUM HOLISTIC WELLNESS CLINIC
Objectives
1. To establish a practice that is balanced to meet the needs of clients beyond what they have received before.
2. To provide services that meet the expectations of the clients in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and quality delivery as compared to those provided by other service providers.
3. Increasing the client base from just the loyal customers to a wider market and to be the market leader.
4. Ability to be the medical centre that will serve the changing requirements of the society with ease and flexibility.
5. Maintaining a balance between cash inflow and outflow by ensuring that the business does not operate under losses with a low rate of debt.
6. Marketing the entity in a creative and innovative way to allow for expansion and creation of a reputation that sells itself.
7. Meeting all appointments made and ensuring that those which are missed are for valid and uncontrollable reasons. Clients who are regulars should be treated with a high level of care and their welfare monitored.
Mission
The mission of the clinic is targeted on the person as a whole through integration of emotional, physical and spiritual healing by utilizing practices such as meditation and acupuncture.
Vision
The vision of Holistic Healing is to integrate three independent home complementary and alternative businesses into a single multiple practice medical office with the same vision and values. The business owners will remain independent owners of their individualized clients but will serve as partners in the expenses of the businesses while offering other services via their partners’ expertise.
ORGANIZATION PLAN
Keys to Success
1. Educate patients on regular visits and checkups to ensure diagnosis is made early when needed.
2. Strong emphasis on patients being cared for.
3. Clients should be empowered on the need to have yearly checkups and preventive mentality as opposed to curative one.
Staff and Office Organization
1. Reduce on patient waiting for long hours therefore providing a quick way of receiving them.
2. Provide motivational packages to reward staff when they perform and offer opportunities for growth.
3. Ensure all staff is treated well so that they will reciprocate the same to the patients.
4. The system in the office should be flexible to meet the client’s needs while avoiding bureaucracy.
Finances
1. The plan will be used to aid management in decision making process.
2. The business should be able to avoid overspending and work on a budget.
3. Patients should be attended during working hours with an emphasis to ensure quantity in equal measure with quality.
Marketing and Sales
1. Location should be strategic to meet the demand in the market.
2. The business should have networks in place to ensure it has a good base to offer referrals from incase they are needed.
3. Marketing should be aggressive through volunteer work, motivational speeches, business meetings, ER calls and workshops.
4. Specialty care should be easily reached when referrals are made.
COMPANY SUMMARY
Equilibrium wellness centre will provide overall preventive health care for all members of the society. It will also cater for the needs of people from all ages and surrounding environment. The clinic will make ample use of well trained staff and new equipment. The referrals and facilities in the vicinity will ensure patient’s welfare is fully maximized.
Location and Facilities used
The clinic will need a 3 roomed office space as a start up. There will be also a reception area which will be shared by the three partners. Parking will also be provided for convenience of the clients.
Company Ownership
The company will be owned independently by the three partners. They will however share on the expenses incurred. They will coordinate their services on accordance to the set mission and vision of the clinic.
Startup Summary
The wellness clinic will be started with office space charging 1250 a month. This includes cleaning fees. There will also be goodwill of 2000 dollars in the initial startup. This will be redirected to interior decorating, office furniture and filling system. The partners will each use their previous personal space in their office and aid in decorations.
RESOURCES AND STAFFING
Services offered
In general it will provide services such as massage, acupuncture, nutritional services and aromatherapy. The costs will be dependent on the time used by the physician and amount set aside for each procedure (Porter & Teisberg, 2006, p. 85).
The philosophy in place entails that overall healthcare is a balanced lifestyle incorporating nutrition, education and exercise (Lachney, 2010, p. 61). Focus will be on each individual to ensure that they are well catered for.
Everyone will be treated with no discrimination on race, colour, creed or economic and social status. Also those patients with no insurance will be taken care of. There will be an open invitation to all who desire our services.
Information Management and Technology
To be able to follow the set rules and regulations in place an electronic medical records system will be used. It will have the following features.
a) Hardware
There will be use of advanced up to date computer software to enable verification of patients, efficiency in information transfer and avoidance of breakdowns and malfunctions. This will have an effect of reducing administrative and operating costs. Any important information will be accessed easily.
b) Billing
There will be an outside electronic billing system used. In this case physicians will be able to carry on with the welfare of clients fully. Electronic billing is a faster payment and collection procedure. The charges are 7% of all expenses incurred.
c) Electronic Media Records
This will be used in the front office to allow for security and efficiency of the business. Each client records will be safe and risks will be low, the expenses incurred in maintaining records will also be significantly reduced. There are several benefits of this system:
Increasing revenue collected as more patients will be provided with services and costs will be low. Collection and payment procedures will be easy.
Reducing all expenses in regards to data analysis costs, paper storage and staff costs.
Improving quality of services provided and records kept.
Risk is reduced through maintaining secure information which can be analyzed and kept in compliance with the laws set.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Marketing Strategy
There is increased demand for high quality healthcare in the world over. Statistics in place show that people desire cost effective healthcare (Lloyd, 2010, p. 33). It is predicted that population will grow at the rate of approximately 3.5% per year.
Market Segmentation
The largest group is between ages of 40-49. Since the entity will be open to all age groups, patients will be received from surrounding regions and local regions. With the competition in place it is evident the ratio of doctor to patient is low therefore markets will be available and demand is high.
Target Market Segment Strategy
The wellness clinic will be located in the town center. It will be at the centre of various medical facilities for ease in convenience and focus will be on the whole community. The segmentation strategy used is geographic because of a number of reasons (Cherney, 2010, p. 118).
The rural and semi rural patients will not be able to travel long distances to reach the services offered. Cancer and hypertension patients who are normally very sensitive will also not be able to move to far-away places to reach the specialized services. The clinic was generally a home practice before transitioning to the office setup therefore most of the clients’ base is composed of family units.
The message should therefore be similar and directed to all races, creed, social and economic status of people who seek the services. There is no need to target a particular group of people as services are open to all. With the expected growth rate being high geographic location is encouraged.
Services Business Analysis
The wellness clinic is part of a larger medical industry thus there will be provision of either specialist or general services. This makes it well suited to rural and semi rural areas which do not have propositions of a wide medical base being viable.
Competition and Buying Patterns
In general, competition among the various medical practices and the surrounding areas is not high. The growing population and the low number of doctors create this situation. The goals can therefore be reached easily. When one is choosing a specialist, they require one who is skilled, knowledgeable and has good listening skills. They need a physician who has their health concerns need at heart. They want to be served promptly with very short waiting hours.
They require services that are convenient in terms of booking for appointments and also working hours of the doctors. The staff should be helpful and friendly and seek to work cooperatively with their specific insurance providers.
Strategy and Implementation Summary
The strategy and implementation for a successful business is to create a high profile name and to ensure it is recognized and of a renown reputation. This will be achieved through public speaking, networking, promotional events and print advertising. The marketing tools followed by sales strategy which puts emphasis on highly motivated employees, well trained staff, pleasant and convenient location and commitment to provision of world class health healthcare will give our clients the best experience in the industry. Every element is within our internal ability to change thus easy to incorporate. With the limited number of doctors, the education of needs and benefits of preventive health care are low.
Competitive Edge
Wellness clinic will have a competitive edge in connection with position, timing, quality of care availability to patient, after hour care, weekend hours, quality time, pleasant staff and office environment. This will lead to high rate of referrals and patients being content.
Marketing Strategy
Momentum will be created prior to opening up of the new clinic. This will be done with coordination of the advertising group to ensure everyone is informed (Bodeinheimer & Grumbach, 2008, p. 124).
EVALUATION PLAN
Management
In the initial startup, wellness centre will have two employees. They will be paid hourly wages and will have health benefits. As the business grows, there will be need to add more employees to help with referrals and any other responsibilities that emerge. The partners will each work full time and all their benefits and taxes will be paid by them individually.
There will be creation of a policy and procedures that will ensure that operations are carried out professionally. This will be in relation to sick pay, leave, vacation, hourly wages, and payment to help maintain a proper organizational structure.
A mandatory meeting will be held every Wednesday to ensure that all employees are addressed. It will be from 10.00 am by everyone including the doctors will be expected to attend. A prior list of issues to be discussed will be made to allow for a smooth meeting and saving on time. The practice will thus improve on its practices through the contribution of the whole organization.
All employees and physicians are expected to better themselves in regard to knowledge and skills. The staff will be allocated specific duties to perform on a daily routine. The responsibilities should be completed strategically and efficiently. Once in every two months the physicians will have a one on one meeting with each individual. They will also have access to administrative consultants and will be required to make use of the suggestions provided.
The employees who do a poor job will be issued with a memo. After two consecutive memos they will be put on probation. In the event that the mistake is not corrected, the employee will further be dismissed. Every memo will be in the presence of a witness and will be recorded.
Employees will enjoy full healthcare and dental benefits. They will have good salaries in reference to the level of skill they possess and overall contribution to the practice as a whole. As the business grows the plans will be upgraded. Ultimately we will create an entity that puts in place loyalty, contentment and continuity in the workplace.
Financial Plan
It is estimated that the start up expenses will around $22000. These expenses will mainly include the money required to buy office equipment, furniture, medical supplies, stationery and other setting up expenses. The start up capital to meet these expenses plus the starting cash balance will be met through contributions by the 3 partners.
They will then purchase a building worth $225000 through a loan whose collateral will be guaranteed by the three partners. There will be no personal individual liability but it will be limited to the amount contributed by each partner. The mortgage runs for a period of 15 years and will be serviced through the organizations cash flows.
The salaries will be reduced in the fourth and fifth year of running the business to ensure the company does not become bankrupt. This will be due to expenses and related taxes incurred.
CONCLUSION
Management will develop preceding concepts and strategies as the year’s progress. There will be proposed training carried out and new products introduced to be in line with the mission and vision of the organization. There will be emphasis on technical skills as the industry is fast changing. With the change from home based to office based statistically has led to high growth.
This being the new trend at the moment will see to it that the business is positioned and promoted as a market leader. With the location and set goals and objectives success will not be far reachable. Security of loyal customers will be a priority to be assured of continued growth and expansion.
The low competition will act to make the entity more of a monopolist. This will help in saving on costs incurred in marketing and persuasions. As there was already a client base, the business will not be starting from scratch thus operations will not be very uncertain.
Although the entity has goodwill and equity from individual partners there is need for a loan to enable the purchase of the building to provide for long term assets in the organization. This will allow corporate strategies to be met. The loan is repayable in 15 years.
REFERENCES
Lloyd, R. (2010). Quality Health Care: A Guide to Developing and Using Indicators. Kentucky: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
Porter, M. & Teisberg, E. (2006). Redefining Health Care: Creating Value Based Competition on Results. Harvard: Harvard Business Review
Lachney, M. (2010). Holistic Healing of Body, Mind. Spirit, and Emotions. New York: Prentice Hall
Bodenheimer, T. & Grumbach, K. (2008). Understanding Health Policy, 5th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical.
Hartline, M. & Ferrell, O.C. (2010). Marketing Strategy. Cincinnati: South Western College Pub.
Cherney, A. (2011). The Marketing Plan Handbook, 3rd Edition. Chicago: Cerebellum Press
