Howie’s comments: years later, now every time I speak with Ho Sun he’s complaining about how busy he is and how patients need to wait a month for a new patient appointment.
In fact, many of us now fondly reminisce at the first months of our startup when we weren’t sure if we would make it, and say it was the best part of our startup!
Once again, you should look at the first several months as one long soft opening and not be discouraged if you’re only seeing a few patients every day. I considered January 1 as my “opening” day, but in December saw about 27 patients the whole month (that’s 1.3 patients per day for those of you counting).
During this time, I developed good habits that ensured the success of my practice for many years to come, such as learning the ins and outs of my EHR and PM system, coding and billing, meeting referring docs, etc. If you’re worried about going broke, consider taking ER call, working at the VA or county hospital, or moonlighting at another practice or even optical shop on weekends. I didn’t do any of these things and did just fine.
But you’d be surprised at how quickly you can break even. I had positive cash flow in my first month of January, although this was due to my lease being structured that my first five months were rent free.
