Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi, new member here looking for some advise on a business

Basically I want to start a small businesss where I would be the outsourced producer for Plastic Surgery practice marketing, mailing and presentation materials.  I would compose direct mailings, design newsletters, patient handouts, custom presentations, email blast newsletters and increase the follow-up with patients and potential patients by sending periodical letters from the doctor`s office. 

I`m based in LA and have been working in this field for 5-6 years and have built up a really solid contact base. 

I`m going to take existing documentation and handouts from plastic surgeons, improve the aesthetics and design, reprint them nicely and then give them copies

Going to design and print books that a plastic surgeon can give to every consultation.  The design of this will be customized for each plastic surgeon...I can take pre-existing content or have custom designed and printed brochures.  I will charge for the design and then also take a profit from all the printing and binding for these books.

Design and improve Powerpoint presentations for doctors that use this in their practice. Perhaps design some digital tools or presentation.

Automate mass mailings.  After every patient comes in for a consult, I will print and send out form letters thanking the patient for coming in.  This will save a ton of administrative time for the practice. 

Just brainstorming some ideas.  The field is flooded with web, SEO and other things like that....but I have seen the offerings for this similar work and I know I can do better. 

Looking for general advice......tips....and tricks.....

oh yeah...i want to steer away from the word "virtual assistant" and instead have it be some sort of "marketing" firm....that way I can charge a flat fee per month (plus production costs) instead of going hourly.......thoughts on that?       


 

Seems to me you have a really good start in that you`re focusing deeply on a niche. Yes, it`s true that the overall Web is flooded with all the things you`ve mentioned. But that`s the "general" view of the market.

More often than not, where a lot of entrepreneurs run into obstacles is that they have too broad a target market. A lot of advice comes down to finding a niche and focusing on it with some intensity. You`ve got that: the plastic surgery niche, and the promotional materials within that narrow field.

You also say you`ve built up a lot of contacts. Perhaps one thing you might do initially is to ask your client base. Do some "market research," in other words, to find out if there`s a need for what you`re proposing.

How do these practices currently promote themselves, or demonstrate what they can do for potential clients? You`ve apparently seen these materials, and believe you can do better. But!....do the surgeons themselves "perceive" a value in what you think of as something better? Ask them.

You could do a mock-up of some of your ideas, taking a composite view of "EveryPractice" and bring it around. Talk with your contacts, show them what you see as the current material, then show what you would produce.

I built my contacts mainly from volunteering time for plastic surgeon societies ane meetings.  That stuff really helped out alot to get my face and name familiar with a lot of different doctors. 

I`ve actually gotten several "soft" job offers ("call me if you`re looking to move on...",etc) and have done side projects on an hourly basis but never was organized enough to follow-up. 

There`s a meeting this weekend and I`ll see what some people say.  Basically looking to automate basic office correspondence and emails....the field is extremely busy and many offices I`ve been to have been short staffed or people wearing too many hats or a high turnover rate.  

i`m just brainstorming and coming up with a "menu" of services...i`m trying to stay away from websites and marketing since its pretty saturated.

spoke with a surgery coordinator...she said a lot of doctors offices are not busy and they have office staff do that....those were less busy offices.......having lunch with an OR supervisor today...will pick his brain for thoughts......   

had lunch.....he had some good input as far as what to do and said its something that can definitely be needed?

Anyone have good experience in this kind of thing?  Automated mailings and followups for a doctor`s office?  I realize there are some HIPAA concerns, but I can probably find a way around those....i`ve done some HIPAA compliance here in the past...  

Yeah, I would have to give some sort of consent form to do this. I`m coming up with several different solutions.  The best thing is that I have a lot of marketing material and consent forms at my disposal.  I`ll have to come up with something iron clad.

I have a few training CDs on HIPAA and have worked with it in the past.  Liability issues if you don`t do it right.

Update: I am possibly getting a HIPAA compliant (256bit encryption) ASP to automate this. The functionality is meant to be a backend for certain service industries but I met with the owner of the company and he said he can modify some of it to my purposes.

need to brainstorm and get everything together though.

Brainstorming is good....:-) And lots of it goin` on aroun` here.

What ideas do you need to work on?

I just need to get how exactly I am going to execute. I`ve started a website...its rough, I spent about 5 minutes using yahoo sitebuilder...I`ll spend more time on it this weekened and next week....I have jury duty next week so I`ll have time to brainstorm.....I do have a day job..hah

I`ll fill it in, just as an outline. Its not going to be actively marketed for about a month probably while I hammer out the kinks.