It’s time to hire a general or marketing consultant when…

You’ll know when you’re overwhelmed with issues and revenue losses; a general or marketing consultant can begin a turnaround…
When is the proper or best time to hire a general or marketing consultant? The answer to that question varies depending on the one asking the question and the situation at hand.
When operating one’s practice one can run into many difficult areas and may need help grabbing and getting them under control. When the owner is busy delivering, hiring, training staff, doing the marketing, doing the sales, etc., he or she will find it difficult to look at their practice objectively and locate the areas that need to be straightened out first.
Looking with an objective eye
There can be issues with marketing, staff, production flow lines, efficiency, financial planning, time management, and general management skills, such as how to close patients for care and getting staff more productive. It can vary all the way down to how to answer the phone properly.
One basic factor that I have taught for years is that if an area is not being controlled properly, then it is not under one’s control and therefore is losing money in that area and creating extra work. A consultant should pay for themselves in increased revenues.
There are many different types of consultants — from software to marketing to effective staff hiring, etc. Some consultants advise in areas like implementing new services to deliver in your clinic. A lot of service suppliers give advice on how to implement and sell their products to your patients. Most have training or courses one can attend.
Modern marketing
One major area one might need a consultant in is marketing. Today’s marketing has gotten very diverse and complicated in most cases. It used to be one could call the newspaper or yellow pages and get an ad placed. With the advent and continuing complications and competitions concerning social media marketing, a consultant is strongly suggested.
There are areas such as one’s website and search optimization, what Facebook will allow you to say in ads, which form of marketing is most effective for your practice, etc. There is also radio and television or cable ads. Newspaper ads are not yet totally ineffective, either.
Some advertising companies have expertise in one sector of the industry, say social media marketing, and others in different areas. This could require one to hire possibly several companies to consult on multiple areas of advertising. There are also companies that can do it all — fully direct all of one’s marketing and advertising campaigns and needs. If this is the case, unless one is very savvy in social media marketing themselves, it could be advised to hire someone competent in these various areas and make them one’s full-time, in-house marketing assistant.
All-around consultants
One of the more major needs for a consultant is in what I will call a “general all-round” consultant — ones who teach how to run a clinic more successfully.
In school one probably did not get the knowledge of how to successfully direct and run a thriving practice. That knowledge is offered by this type of consultant. There have been many good ones over the years and some are still around. They have everything from scripts, video training for staff, and seminars to attend, to one-on-one phone consulting.
One has to really assess one’s needs here. Does your practice need a total practice management overhaul or just some tweaking? When choosing this type of consultant, first see how one communicates with the individuals that will be consulting with them. Can one get their answers quickly and easily? The individual and independent type of consultant is generally less expensive than a full-service consulting company; however, they may not have all the bells and whistles one needs.
Regenerative medicine consulting
Another upcoming area that could benefit from consulting help is regenerative medicine. There are several good companies I could recommend currently, but here, too, is what type of delivery does one want to do?
What type of services does one want to deliver in the clinic in this field of medicine? How does one shift from an insurance-based chiropractic practice to a cash practice? How much time and money is one willing to invest into the changeover to working with a nurse practitioner or MD? These are very important questions to ask oneself making a selection. Most consultant companies will allow a potential client to come to a seminar to check them out. Take advantage of this if possible.
General or marketing consultant: finding the best fit
Interview potential consultants, check out their programs and costs, and check out what others using their services have to say about them. Cost should be a minor consideration in choosing the right consultant because the selection of the right consultant should increase one’s income to easily compensate for the costs, such as travel, staff pay for training, program costs, etc. One should also consider if they are willing to do the steps and actions suggested by the consultant.
Whether one hires a general or marketing consultant or goes the route of learning by themselves, there is always some type of help out there to assist a practitioner to be more successful, and to help one be able to help more patients with excellent care. Remember, too: One of the main factors is one should be enjoying doing their job. A consultant’s whole purpose should be to assist one to do just that.
ED SHARP has been a business management consultant for more than 30 years, helping and giving advice to chiropractors and their staff on hiring, sales, finance and marketing. He is president of Sharp Management & Consulting, which manages clinics and delivers customized coaching and consulting. He has produced more than 40 videos on management tips that may be viewed on his YouTube channel. You can find out more about Sharp Management & Consulting www.thesharpmanagement.com.
Contact EdBerkemer Law - New Website
23 March 2020
Task : Rebuild a client's website with slightly more extensive updates.
The previous site had many of the elements of the new site, but with some color and font inconsistencies. The client requested new specific buttons and navigation controls, and minor visual improvements.

Now the color scheme is consistent throughout the site, the buttons that were requested direct viewers to the pages they are seeking, and a new page was created to highlight a new service being offered on this site as well.
Your New Concepts- New Website
23 March 2020
Rebuilding a live site on a new platform.
Task: Rebuild a client's current website with minor updates on a different content management system.
This was a rebuild with slight improvements, the old site had been builtyears ago, but still looked alright, there were some glitches that needed worked out, but the overall look was maintained.

The color scheme on individual pages was kept generally the same, some of the black was replaced to brighten things just a little. In the photo below, a dark grey replaced what had previously been black, and a new page was created to highlight the company's services.

Christ's Cocoons New Website
23 March 2020
A new website for a local non-profit organization.
Tasks:
1. Create a clean, bright website for a local non profit organization.
2. Rebuild a client's current website with minor updates on a different content management system.
3. Rebuild a client's website with slightly more extensive updates.
For the local non profit, the charity was looking for a better organized site, brighter and cleaner, that would be easy for donors to visit and support. It was necessary to use current photos and content, and the logo needed a revamp.

The old website was made up of at least six different shades of blue, none of them worked together cohesively, and text was over layed on top of photos in a way that made the site difficult to read, navigate, and patronize.
The logo was simply a golden yellow rectangular cross, and did not state the organization's name.

Now, images are clearly displayed on the site, better depicting the mission and goals or the organization, the color scheme is consistent throughout the entire site, the new logo depicts what they do and their name, and the overall look is bright and clean.
Recent Project: A client’s new website
22 Nov 2019
The task: Build an all-new website for Vital Signs Financial Services
Requirements: No green on the new site, content specifications, include requested pages.
This project started off with an inspired retro image that related to the content of the website: financial services, and taxes.
Here’s the inspiration image:

I loved the image, but it wasn’t wide enough to serve as the cover image of the new site, so some photo editing was needed.
The idea of a vintage store front really piqued my interest, and when I found the next photo an idea was born:

From here, I merged the two photos:

Happy with that, I moved on to creating a color scheme for the new site, I color keyed each tone from the original vintage window photo:

I created this graphic, it shows each tone of grey I selected.
From this stage, building the website was straightforward, creating the pages, adding the content, creating graphics here and there.
It then came time for the client to review the site, and the grey did not go over well, and the client surprised me with a change of plan: green is good, and maybe some blue too… and lose the message about taxes, use other specific sentences (provided by client) instead.
Deep breath… new custom graphics… re-do all colors throughout the entire site… round two:
I really loved the vintage inspired look of the first version, and wanted to maintain that esthetic while honoring the new color scheme.
Inspiration image round two:

How I edited it using the text provided by the client:

Now we have color, and all of the text the client wanted, and it still looks like it *could* be a real photo. Definitely not my area of expertise, but not bad!
Then to overhaul all of the graphics, I’ll show you the one I shared earlier, revamped:

Green now, so there’s that squared away...
Finally, I needed to change the colors throughout the site, too bad I didn’t think to screenshot the grey version, but here is the final version:

So there you have it… for being just the second website I’ve ever made, I’m pleased with my work.
See it for yourself: www.vitalsignsfinancialservices.com