The Rural Minnesota Chiropractic Initiative

The title of this post is what I call my effort to bring my services to underserved areas of Minnesota. The remainder of this post is actually a re-post of my progress that I wrote this past Thursday in my Facebook notes. I will also attempt to post the same cute picture that I posted there as well:

My chiropractor, Dr. Joe Donahoe in Roseville, MN, told me that if I wanted to be very successful in my practice that I should look for a town out in the middle of nowhere. So, being the audie that I am, I decided to do that in a very methodical way. Using the criteria that a zip code had to have no chiropractors listed in it, according to the Minnesota Board of Chiropractic's list, AND no chiropractors listed in all the adjacent zip codes, I cam up with a list of 40 towns. While the closest of those towns is 118 miles from where I live here in Richfield, MN, I chose to seek out the more populated towns instead. Redby came out on top, but I didn't find any info on the place anywhere. So, next on the list was Edgerton. But according to the latest census, Edgerton is actually bigger than Redby. Not only that, I did find business listings and a whole bunch of stuff on the city of Edgerton.

I found one massage therapist listed in Edgerton, so it was obvious where I would start in my search to open a new door. Her name is Joni, and I've been in contact with her by e-mail for about a month before actually making the trip to Edgerton to visit her yesterday. The trip was exactly 196 miles from where I live to her office. Edgerton is right on the "edge" of the Minnesota state line, just before you cross over into South Dakota, and is located in Pipestone County. The drive was long and boring. Once I got outside of Bloomington, I saw nothing but wheat fields as far as the eye could see for the ENTIRE trip! I did stop at Minnesota's famous Emma Krumbee's restaurant in Belle Plaine to have breakfast on the way there. What I saw RIGHT before I got into Edgerton was indeed a sight to see -- HUNDREDS of windmills dotted the landscape for as far as you could see! WOW!

Joni and I came up with a business plan. For now, my office hours in Edgerton will be from 3-10 PM on Wednesdays and Thursdays. But if nobody signs up on a particular day, I won't drive all the way there for nothing. Joni will do all the advertising and setting appointments for me. That sounds like a pretty neat arrangement, and I pay her a percentage instead of a flat rent. Pretty cool! Also, the next closest chiropractors to town is 17 miles away in Pipestone or 21 miles away in Luverne. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this pans out.

So the plan is that I will travel down there on a Tuesday night if I have patients scheduled for Wednesday, and I will drive back to the Cities on Thursday night, assuming I have patients scheduled on Thursday as well. It is a 3-1/2 hour drive. Yesterday I drove down and back all in the same day, and that way definitely too much! Then I would work at the Guthrie, like I have been, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. The job at the Guthrie, and with Mill City Security, will stay unless things get SO busy in Edgerton that I end up increasing my hours there.

Sure it would be a bit of a strain with Bianca and I not seeing each other for a couple days. But she did suggest a while ago that I look for work elsewhere since nothing is panning out here in the Cities. So, that's what I am doing here. Although Austin, Texas WOULD be a nice change! (haha) Besides, I have come to accept the fact that I am a MINNESOTAN now, and I better get darn used to this winter crappy weather. I've become accustomed to living in the constant below-freezing weather. But it is when the temperature drops below 10 above zero that things start to get unbearable, and I start screaming that I need to get out of this place. Oh well. C'est la vie!