Three Ways to Push Through the Early Days of Starting a Peds DPC

When you first start a new business, there might be many days where you doubt yourself. This is especially true if you are starting a pediatric direct primary care practice. Direct care has been around for a while, but it’s a fairly new idea among pediatricians. I still clearly remember all of the confused and doubting looks that I got from people when I first started my peds DPC practice in 2018. 

However, I am here to encourage you. You are the bravest of the brave. You are doing something that most doctors are afraid to do. If you are at the point of opening your doors and welcoming patients into a practice that you have created, you are among the fewest of few doctors who own their own practice. While private practices are getting swallowed up by large health systems and private equity, you are standing on a hill by yourself and showing people a better way to do healthcare. 

Let’s talk about a few strategies that you can employ to keep you busy and productive while you are waiting for people to catch onto the genius idea that you have. Sticking to a schedule and routine and giving yourself daily goals to meet will go a long way to quiet the voices in your head (and maybe also in your life) that are telling you to quit. 

Have a Clear Plan 

Sit down and create a marketing strategy and schedule of deployment for yourself. For example, when my husband first started his insurance agency from scratch, he made himself talk to at least 25 people every day about his business. He didn’t come home from the office in the evening until he was able to check that task off of his list. He kept notes about all of the conversations that he had and spent time connecting people who owned small businesses to each other. Slowly, his database grew and he started to write insurance as a result of those conversations. It was a daily grind and somewhat unpleasant in the beginning, but he stuck to the plan and has grown his agency to the point where he now employs 5 people because it has grown so much. 

If you don’t know where to start, I wrote an article on tips for marketing your pediatric DPC practice and how to promote your peds DPC practice through content creation, SEO and social media. 

Another part of your plan should be to define who your ideal customer is and target your marketing towards that population. Your ideal customer will depend both on what your particular interests and abilities are as well as the needs of the population in which you live. For example, I was a newborn hospitalist prior to starting my direct care pediatric practice. As a result of my time working with newborns and their mothers, I furthered my education and obtained my lactation consulting certification. My talents and interests were focused on helping new mothers and their babies thrive. Due to these factors and other economic reasons, I chose to open a home visit only direct primary care pediatric practice. My ideal client was first time mothers who were interested in breastfeeding and wanted to have more personalized care for their babies in the comfort of their own homes. This led me to target my marketing towards these families by networking in my community with like minded organizations such as birthing centers, doulas, obstetricians, etc. I also spent time on Facebook answering questions in mom-focused Facebook groups. Additionally, my own social media posts were focused on topics that concerned new moms with newborns. 

A third thing to do in the beginning is to focus on your patient number goals. DPC Pediatrician has an excellent calculator in the free start up guide. If you understand how many patients you need and what to charge them, you can focus your efforts on achieving those goals. 

Stay in Community 

Oftentimes, entrepreneurship can feel like a lonely road to travel. It is important to find a community of like-minded people that can relate to both your struggles and your joys. Even though the pediatric DPC community is relatively small, it is very mighty. I would not have gotten through those early years of practice without the support of the other pediatricians who own DPC practices. We have a private Facebook group (called Pediatricians who do DPC)  that allows for open discussions about everything from starting a practice to where to buy supplies to help with difficult patient cases. There is also an annual Pediatric DPC Mastermind meeting where you can learn more about Pediatric DPC and be in community with other doctors. Lastly, DPC Pediatrician is a great resource for all things pediatric DPC. 

In addition to pediatric focused groups, there are many family doctors, internal medicine doctors and even specialists who have adopted this model of practice. Oftentimes, there are groups in your local community that you can join or talk with other doctors individually. When I first started, I reached out to family practice direct primary care physicians who already had established practices. They were very helpful in directing me to local resources and getting things like my cash pay lab account set up. 

In addition to the direct primary care community, you can also find community in your local area with other small business owners. Whether that is through networking meetings, supporting each other’s business marketing efforts or one-on-one meetings, don’t discount the valuable resource of chatting with other small business owners.  While they won’t be able to relate to the doctoring side of things, they can almost always relate to the trials and tribulations of being the owner of a local business. 

Anticipate the Snowball Effect

As a snowball rolls down a hill, it gathers a little bit of snow at a time until it becomes large enough to take you out. This is an excellent analogy as you think about all of your tiny marketing efforts and how they add up over time. When I first started my practice in a place where no one knew me as a general pediatrician, I felt like everything I did was  like “shouting into the wind.” As I spent my days on networking, blog posts, social media posts, visiting other doctor offices, etc and then seeing nothing immediately in return, I would often become discouraged and think that no one was listening. However, after starting from scratch and doing these things consistently, I had a month where many patient families joined my practice all at once. It felt good to know that my marketing efforts were paying off. 

Building a practice is a long game. Eventually, your consistent efforts will pay off. 

Concluding Thoughts

In addition to consistent effort, it is important to keep your goals in mind. Write down all of the reasons why you are choosing to own a direct primary care pediatric practice and re-visit these reasons often. Focusing on your why will help you to get through the tougher times. Lastly, celebrate small wins and milestones along the way. Don’t wait until you have reached your “ultimate” patient goal number to celebrate how great you are doing. Pick smaller milestones along the way and reward yourself for your efforts.