One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

It is my week to blog, and it’s taken me some time to think about what I’d like to say. At first I thought it would be best to keep private the most recent events in my life and business, but then I realized that sweeping everything under the rug never does any good because it just resurfaces. I could have hidden away and hoped nobody noticed, but eventually anyone on CAN would figure it out. I am no longer an owner of Back to Balance Acupuncture Center – I’m starting over.

Tom and I worked extremely hard to get the clinic up and running, but we found that we had different desires on how we wanted to work. I then decided I’d rather do things on my own, whether I took over the practice or left to start over again. The outcome is that he took over the practice and I am now back to square one. I was sad to leave behind a beautiful space that I put a tremendous effort into, and to have to leave behind a number of really wonderful patients whom I had quickly developed fond relationships with; they really made for happy days at work. But I believe this was all meant to be, as a natural part of my existence, and that all I have to do now is put one foot in front of the other and continue on with the next right thing.

At first the prospect of starting all over again seemed daunting to me. Those feelings quickly dissipated and now I am seeing it as a window of opportunity. I’m excited! I’m feeling fresh and ready to go. I’m feeling enthusiastic because I can take with me all the knowledge I already have about starting a practice and put it into place the next time, and I can have the freedom to do things in whatever way I choose, really, for the first time in my life (I'm 26 years old; my entire life was school until this past August, and working for other people - so really, I'm psyched for freedom!). I anticipate it being easier the second time around, because I am already familiar with so many of the processes and steps that need to take place to start a business, and the particular orders they need to be done in for maximum efficiency. I have learned very much from my small past of trial and error processes (many were humbling to me). I have a much better sense of what works and what doesn’t work. I can take more time to ask people in CAN for their experiences and opinions and to then tweak it to my liking. I can use my wonderful experiences and knowledge from my work at Manchester Acupuncture Studio and bring into my new work the things that work for me there. I can think more about what my ideals are in terms of the parameters of the clinic space, location, amenities and set-up. I can re-vamp my business plan to include in it a much better sense of how to budget and market. I can see a little more clearly just what I am getting myself into (sometimes scary, but most of the time uplifting). In short, I feel that there is so much I’ve learned, albeit the hard way in some respects, that I can improve my future with it.

I’ll keep you all posted on my new adventure. It’s been a pleasure partaking in the CAN blogs and I look forward to updating you next month!