Start Up Funds: New Practice

[Sneezing]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

How much money do you figure it would take to start up a new practice? I am assuming this would be in a 'normal' cost of living town. Not a NY, LA, Chicago, but more Denver, St. Louis, Nashville, Portland cost of living.

I'm toying with the notion of pocketing the funds from moonlighting in years 3 and 4 (rather than loan or house payments) to go towards starting a new practice. I have heard stories at certain progams where residents are able to double and even triple their resident income. I figure it could be possible to put aside $70,000 towards the start up of a new practice post residency.

 

[worriedwell]

It isn't really very expensive at all to start a private practice.

Malpractice insurance for the first year is actually quite cheap (a few thousand bucks generally)

Then you have office rent (varies by location), office supplies (business cards, envelopes, letterhead, notepads), phone, and office furniture (obviously can be a few thousand dollars) but many people start by renting from someone established and basically use everything they have including furniture for a bit until they get rolling and then the do their own office.

If you want to establish your own space immediately, you are going to need to have something like $10,000 at most.

If you are going to take insurance though, then you really have to consider hiring an office manager or someone to handle tracking down reimbursement and handling scheduling, mail, paperwork etc.

And if you want to set up infrastructure for a practice with employed therapists or other services, then you may need to rent more space and to set up a medical records system etc.

Finally, the next question is how much to pay or "invest" in advertising. That is also extremely variable depending on your area and how you do it.

Its an eye opening and interesting process (or stressful depending on your comfort level with the unknown) and something that you are ill prepared for by residency. It really requires business skills more than anything else. But it doesn't neccessarily require much money to start.