451: 14 Common Mistakes That Young Chiropractors Make When Starting Their First Practice

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I would argue that most people who decide they want to be a chiropractor, in their heart, just want to help people and make a good living while doing it. That doesn’t seem to be too much to ask, right?

Unfortunately, for many chiropractors, they struggle to do just that. They get out of school, excited about their new career, only to find out that it’s not as simple as getting a job, helping a lot of people, and making a good living.

Sure, there are plenty of jobs out there for chiropractors, but most of them are well below 6 figures. I’m not the type of person who believes that money is the only thing that matters, but I do believe that the average chiropractor should make an income that warrants the amount of time, energy, and money that it requires to become a chiropractor.

In short, if chiropractic colleges are going to charge an arm and a leg to chiropractic students to get a Doctor of Chiropractic degree, I think it’s OK for chiropractors to expect to make a 6-figure income. The good news is that lots of chiropractors make a 6-figure income. The bad news is that they rarely do it as an associate.

If you want to make a 6-figure income as a chiropractor, you are most likely going to do it by starting your own chiropractic practice. Like it or not, you’re going to have to venture into the world of small-business ownership, and that’s something that chiropractic college DID NOT prepare you for.

Thankfully, there are a TON of business and marketing resources out there for chiropractors. This hasn’t always been the case. In fact, when I graduated from chiropractic college in 2004, it was really hard to find help unless you were lucky enough to have a chiropractor (who knew what they were doing) take you under their wing, or you could afford ridiculously overpriced (and often not very helpful) chiropractic coaching. Those were basically your only options.

Today there are books, videos, podcasts, training courses, online coaching, virtual summits...the number of practice-building resources available to young chiropractors is almost endless. And as an added bonus, most of these practice-building resources are very affordable. Heck, the free stuff now is better than the expensive chiropractic coaching was back in the day.

The bigger problem nowadays is that chiropractors almost have too many choices for advice. Seems like EVERYONE has advice to give. There are even chiropractic students out there giving practice success advice before they’ve ever practiced a day in their life. Crazy!

With so many resources and so many voices telling young chiropractors how to be successful, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Young chiropractors who listen to 100 different “experts” with 100 different keys to success can find themselves being pulled in 100 different directions. That’s rarely a good thing.

With all that being said, that brings me to the point of this article. Over the last 7-8 years, I’ve had the chance to help many young chiropractors as they start their chiropractic careers. When a chiropractor is starting their practice it’s a very stressful time, and it’s also a time when new chiropractors make new chiropractor mistakes.

Thankfully, many new chiropractor mistakes can be avoided. But it’s hard to avoid things that you don’t even know what they are. Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s not helpful if you are trying to minimize mistakes.

Common Mistakes That Young Chiropractors Make

So what I decided to do is create a list of some of the most common mistakes that I have seen new chiropractors make during the early stages of their careers. This is NOT a complete list of mistakes and I’m not going to do a deep dive into each one. I just want new and/or struggling chiropractors to be aware of these common mistakes, so they can start taking steps to avoid (or correct) them.

Let’s get started...

1. Finding Time Instead of Making Time

Chiropractors often think they will “find time” to do the important things. That’s a mistake. As a general rule, people don’t find time. They make time.

So if it’s important for the success of your chiropractic practice, schedule time to do it. Don’t just hope you will find time during the week/month. You mo...