Paying A Branding Consultant To Help Grow My Medical Practice
Those who follow my blog will know, I’ve grass roots built everything. My logo, my website…everything. There comes a certain time when you have to take a step back and think about the direction of the business and where I want to take this business to. Thats exactly what I am doing with my business. Attempting to take it to the next level.
Every Time Your Business Doubles It Breaks
Its been said many times before, by many entrepreneurs. Every time you double your business, something breaks.
We now have 4 physicians and 3 PAs working in my practice, and we are still expanding. Along the way, things have definitely broken as we scale.
The rules that I had in place for when it was just me, many of them no longer apply now with seven of us practicing medicine. Every time your business doubles in size, you have to adapt.
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Be Scrappy In The Beginning
Keep costs low in the beginning. In my opinion, there are few things worse than a high debt burden worrying about how you are going to repay that capital. Be relentless about keeping your costs low as you are starting your practice.
As you grow, you will have to decide where to allocate your money and resources to grow.
Paying A Branding Consultant To Take My Medical Practice To The Next Level
The last time I updated our website was 5 years ago, when I built it. The same applies for my logo that I paid someone $25 on fiverr to make.
Most businesses do a refresh every 5-7 years. Have you ever driven by a McDonald’s and noticed that they seem to change in the way they look every 5-7 years?
Many businesses have to continue to refresh their brand to continue to stay relevant. This is not applied every brand, some luxury brands tend to do extremely well on maintaining the status brand over many years. Think Gucci or Prada.
My website looked dated.
The brand consultant also opened my eyes to the fact that our branding for my medical practice sucked.
Our website was one name. We called ourselves by another name. Our marketing ads had yet another name that we called ourselves (we dropped the “clinic” in our name in our ads).
They pointed out to me that it was highly confusing. We essentially have 3 different names that we identify as.
What Separates Us From The Competition
First questioning the branding agents asked me is of course what my product is and how do I want to be portrayed.
Second question: “What separates us from the competition.”
Have you ever thought about that for your business?
We deliver primary care. The practice of medicine is more or less the same for most primary care. We don’t have a secret way to treat an ear infection or high blood pressure that other clinics do not know about.
So…what does separate us from the competition?
- We look much more premium in aesthetic compared to the competition
- We are relentless in delivering a wonderful patient experience
- We focus on our employees being happy. Happy employees usually do better work and it shows in how they act with patients.
- We try to automate what we can to reduce costs
- We treat patients like we would want to treat our own family members. Everyone is a VIP
How Much Does Branding A Medical Practice Cost?
It was a lot cheaper than I thought. Branding took 6 weeks and costs us about $9,000. That includes everything from slogan, logo, and a social media kits. The whole packet is over a hundred files that they gave us for branding of our clinic.
If you think branding is a joke, you’re most likely wrong. The same group that did my branding also did branding for many other medical practices and also does branding for large socal media groups. I am very happy with the product they delivered and can’t wait for our updated website in August 2024 to go live with the new branding.
Why Do You Need Branding For Your Medical Practice
When you start out, people are going to come to see you as a physician. This is an amazing thing to start with!
Be kind, be available, and provide a great service.
However, you started a practice to run a business. The reason why single doc practices are worth nothing, they have no brand. Many of their patients were in their practice, because they loved the doctor. You want patients to eventually switch over from saying you have to see Dr. Yourname to you have to see “your brand.”
This way you can bring on associates and employees who will continue your mission even if you take a day off.
This is one of the big reasons I didn’t do DPC. You can go with a brand like MDVIP, where they have a brand you can attach to. However, you are going to pay 1/3 of your earnings off the top to them as long as you practice.
It is VERY difficult to build a brand with a DPC. These patients are cash paying to see the doctor, usually not the brand. This means that you will have a difficult time scaling your company and/or delegating tasks to other people.
