New Palmer program teaches future chiropractors about business

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By Jennifer DeWitt | Friday, May 02, 2008 |

Students and staff at Palmer College of Chiropractic knew the curriculum covered everything they needed to become skilled chiropractors. But what needed to be adjusted was their business acumen.

Topics such as financing, marketing, bookkeeping, how to hire a lawyer or negotiate a lease were not part of day-to-day studies at the Davenport campus. But they were necessary for anyone looking to open their own business. Teaching those lessons was the impetus behind Palmer’s new Center for Business Development.

“The curriculum here is really rigorous. It focuses a lot on science, anatomy and biology and our students become very proficient in understanding how the human body works and how they can help people,” Dr. Dwight Bailey, senior director of the new center, said.

Through the Center for Business Development, located at Palmer’s Brady Street campus, students have access to supplemental education and coaching to help them go into business for themselves.

Opened earlier this month, the center offers a series of modules aimed at helping students and alums have a greater insight into the issues they will face if they choose to open their own practices or go to work for another doctor. The eight workshops — held every other Saturday — are taught by Palmer faculty, alumni and professionals in fields such as law, accounting, marketing and real estate.

In addition to the business skill development, the center offers services focused on self-discovery and career development.

Bailey’s own career path includes being a clinical psychologist — mostly in the U.S. Army — as well as supervising student services for the University of Iowa’s MBA program.

He said Palmer’s new center owes its evolution to a group of graduates who, as students, went to the administration requesting more business education and planted the idea of bringing different speakers on campus. Out of that was born Destination Success, an annual symposium Palmer launched in March 2007. That event became the foundation for the Center for Business Development.

“After that was such a phenomenal success, the school picked up the ball and said ‘We’ve got to keep doing this,’” said Bailey, who was hired three months later to help launch the center.

In addition to his medical and higher education background, Bailey has entrepreneurial experience having owned and sold several startups over the past eight years. Among them was Froggy’s Playground, a child-care facility that began in Davenport and relocated to Illinois with new owners. “I typically open a business and look for buyers and float the business,” he said, adding that his first-hand experience aids in coaching the Palmer students.

Palmer offers the modules free to any of its students or alumni. The eight workshops are continually repeated throughout the year on the Davenport campus. Students at Palmer’s other two campuses — in Port Orange, Fla., and San Jose, Calif. — will have access through streaming video and Webinars. Within five years, Palmer hopes to take the pilot program to those campuses and set up their own Centers for Business Development, Bailey said.

For Ryan Cooper, who will graduate in October, the timing of the business training is perfect. A native of the Detroit, Mich., metropolitan area, he plans to return there and open his own practice.

“Going through Palmer, you learn great clinical and technical skills to be a great clinician … where a lot of chiropractors — not only Palmer students — fall short is our business skills, our entrepreneurial spirit,” said Cooper, who was involved in organizing this year’s Destination Success symposium.

Cooper, 24, will be a first-generation chiropractor, so he wants to know how to make a business plan and get financing for start-up as well as polish his business communication skills. “I knew nothing about running a business. But I knew one day I’d have my own practice.”

Fellow student Curt Ahern, of Rochester Hills, Mich., has similar a goal after graduation in October. For the next trimester he will be working an internship in Brooklyn, Mich., learning the ins and outs of private practice from two chiropractors there. But the 24-year-old is soaking up all he can from the Center for Business Development.

Ahern, who someday would like to come back and teach a session at the center, hopes it will evolve into helping students realize their vision for chiropractic success.

“Do they have a vision of serving others? I hope it makes you dream more and have a vision of what you want to accomplish. Here we are ready to graduate in four months and a lot of us don’t have that experience on how to open a practice,” he said, adding most believe their only initial choice is to work as an associate with another chiropractor.

Ahern believes the center will provide the tools to give graduates confidence in opening their own successful practices right away. “A lot of times they feel (working with another doctor) is their only option. Maybe it’s fear, or not knowing what they really accomplished.”

In fact, a large part of the center’s mission is coaching, which fills Bailey’s days and brings his psychology background to the front. “I sit down and talk about their visions for their practice. We set goals,” he said. “They’ll say ‘I want to be in this city.’ I’ll challenge them to look at the demographics there, what a practice may look like in that city. How does their practice fit with their personal life — how much money does the practice need to make to have the lifestyle they want?”

While the center is focused exclusively on preparing Palmer students, Bailey said he sees eventually opening it up for a host of health-care professions, such as physical therapists or dentists. His goal is for that to happen in the center’s eighth year.

Participating in the center is voluntary. While the modules offer no degree, Bailey hopes one day it will provide a formal certification. The center also is working with two banking partners to provide guaranteed loans to students who complete six of the eight modules.

“Palmer wants students to be confident to go out to be successful entrepreneurs as well as chiropractors,” Bailey said.

Palmer Center for Business Development

Where: Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport

Why: Developed to help Palmer students and new graduates learn best practices in how to successfully run a business.

Services: The center offers eight workshops, free of charge, that explore various business topics, including new practice design, financing, business plan development, marketing and real estate issues. In addition, the center offers coaching and career development.

More information: To attend, contact Marsha Hardacre at marsha.hardacre@palmer.edu. Business professionals and chiropractors wanting to offer their expertise should contact the center at (563) 884-5858.

Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com.