Rural Chiropractic

I just completed a huge project that took me several weeks to complete. It was inspired by my chiropractor, who recently shared with me the plight of a chiropractor he knows very well. This chiropractor moved from a small town in western Minnesota, where he had a hugely successful practice, to the big city. Now that he is in Roseville, just north of downtown Minneapolis, he is struggling like never before to even have somebody give him any credibility. That sounds all too familiar. My chiropractor suggested that maybe the thing for me to do would be to open up shop in a small rural town. That set the wheels in motion for me to make a study of the entire state to find possible places to go.

Now I had been in a small town in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. There were 25,000 people in the city, and 25 chiropractors who were all struggling for the most part. I certainly didn't want a repeat of that situation. Therefore, I set very specific rules for what a prospective town had to have. (Remember, as an audie I thrive on making rules!) I investigated the possibilities by zip code. Not only could there not be a single chiropractor in the zip code. There could not be a single chiropractor in any of the zip codes that border that zip code. I found a great online zip code map, and I looked in chiropractic directories to double-check. In the end, I had a list of 40 zip codes throughout the state that met the criteria. The closest one, though, is 89.4 miles away from my own zip code. So if I do end up in a rural place, I certainly won't be commuting every day!

Then, after looking at populations, I chose what appears to be the most populated of these 40 towns. I say "appears" because different sources give different populations. The most populated, thusfar, appears to be Edgerton, Minnesota. The actual town is 197 miles from my home in Richfield. Just before I began writing this post, I gathered a list, although quite small, of potential businesses I may want to partner up with, eg massage therapists. I WILL be contacting them very soon.

On that note, tomorrow I will be taking care of my first new patient since October. I am excited about that, and so is my new patient. Tomorrow also will begin my hopeful venture into becoming a community activist. In 46 years, I have never felt as though any one place I've ever been was "home". Now that my wife and I are settled somewhere, now that we own a home and are set in our careers (at least she is), I figure it's time to start getting involved in the community. I will be dropping by the Richfield City Hall to hand them my application to be part of either its Advisory Board of Health or one of its other seven commissions. My first choice is to be on its Civil Service Commission, since this field is where I spent twelve good years of my life when I still lived in Pennsylvania.

I have been setting stages lately. Stay tuned for the opening act!