So how do I start. I''ll give you a brief history about me.
I came to Osteopthy fairly late in life. Perhaps a mid life crisis.
Before the bad here's the good. Osteopathy has positively changed me and my family. It's to say had I not done it I would have been crippled with neck pain and arm pain and would have lost the use of my arms due to compression of the nerves in my neck and shoulders. I was suggested surgery by my doctor. Osteopathic treatment solved the problem in 6 weeks!
Now the bad..
After 5 years of bloody hard work approximately 200,000 words of tick box essays a final FCC exam that gave me night mares for a year and £30,000 in fees was it worth it?
That's for you to decide.
Unfortunately after two years of advertising it still hasn't taken off to the point where I can live off it. I'm getting more in debt by the month with no end to bills.
At the moment I am considering whether to pack it all in.
It's a shame, I have helped many people and can feel and see way beyond what's normal.
There are a couple of reasons why new Osteopathy businesses are doomed.
The main problem is people don't know about it. In the end you describe yourself as a mixture of Chiropractic and Physiotherapy!
Osteopathy as a profession does not promote itself. The main blame for this must lie at the feet of the GOSC the governing body. These are the ones who will persecute you if you if someone complains. The charge you £750 for the privilege. With regards to promotion of the business they do nothing to help. Physiotherapists pay only £150 for this. Seriously why pay 750 when you can pay 150 plus you have a job at the end of the course. Seems like a scam to me. The other way is to become an Osteomyologist it costs 185 which is much more reasonable.
The schools succer you in with the possible promise of jobs at the end. They're only concern is to keep themselves going. Sadly there are no jobs at the end. YOU have to get your own business going yourself.
Think about it.
You have to explain to everyone you meet what this stuff you do is. You then have to convince them to give you money rather than the better known Chiropractic professions. They all know what a chiro is generally they would rather go there. Chiro is mainstream Osteo is weird stuff. You may as well call yourself a googleplexy flexy. What you say is that? I don't know it's the same as the word Osteopath to most people! However that all changes when you make them better after they've tried every thing else.
I am too a newly qualified osteopath and I can totally sympathise with your plight!!!
ReplyDeleteI would like to start by saying that I am passionate about osteopathy, and really enjoy treating patients when I manage to get my hands on one! However , the reality at the end of the day is that passion alone is not enough to pay the bills.
I do feel conned by osteopathic colleges especially the London school of Osteopathy who sell you a lie! I have spent well over £25 000 and I have devoted 5 years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears to become an osteopath...and eventually unemployed. I wish I could say it was maybe just me and that I have had a run of bad luck but all my class mates are in the same boat as well as the year above me. The class that graduated 3 years ahead of me, hardly any of them are practising osteopathy anymore as there is simply no jobs for osteopaths.
In addition the medical health profession do not acknowledge us and our own governing body do not provide any support. The GoSC charge us radiculous amounts for the privaledge of calling ourselves osteopaths, making our financial situation even worse. Blow upon blow, the London School of Osteopathy have proven to be utterly useless and provide no support especially when we have paid our fees. In fact they couldn't even be bothered to attend our graduation ceremony....pretty shocking!!
To anyone thinking of studying osteopathy, please think twice as it is a hard uphill battle unless you have £25 000 to waste or would like a great part time job!!!
wow - this blog has stunned me. I run a web agency who specialise in creating websites for those in the manual therapy and orthopaedic sector. We do lots of osteopaths - but we also do lots of chiropractors and physiotherapists too. Will you guys wake up! People search for osteopaths in google all the time. Yes they search for chiropractors and physios too but you can easily target yourself in google as an alternative.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to set up your own practice the hard bit is to get your treatment room or practice sorted. Once there the easy bit is to get new clients as google advertising is free (well the organic bit anyway). Obviously you need to pay for your site but once there it just keeps ticking over and ongoing costs are minimal
oh and give me a call (www.leonmedia.co.uk) on 01702 558001 if you want to find out how a website can help
ReplyDelete@ Michael Shelley,
ReplyDeleteWell, full marks for spotting the opportunity for a sales pitch!
You promise "easy clients" with your website service. As an old-timer I've heard all these "easy client" empty promises before, so I will say to any osteopaths reading this, you need to evaluate these claims.
How? By using EVIDENCE BASED ADVERTISING.
Simply ask the following question of Mr. Shelley or anyone else promising "big bucks fast":
"Could you please give me the names and phone numbers of a few osteopaths who have used your website service (or whatever), and would highly recommend it as a way of getting new clients."
EVERY time I have asked this question, I have been met by a deafening silence.
It's bad enough that the training colleges sucker in students with empty promises of lots of clients. But that's just the beginning; once you qualify you will find plenty of other people out there - e.g. purveyors of advertising - who know a sucker when they see one!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely understand your frustration but I do feel like you have been somewhat naive. Before starting studying (or even during) you should have realised that most osteopaths are self-employed.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot compare the job situation between Osteo's & physio's & blame this on GOSC. As we are all aware physiotherapy is well entrenched in the NHS and in private practice. There are many facets to the physiotherapy profession that lends itself well to working in hospitals and specialist practice. These people are specifically trained within specialist fields i.e. neurophysio, stroke rehab etc so as to be able to work in these places. Therefore it is only to be expected the number of jobs advertised for Physio's are much greater than osteo jobs (where most of us work in clinics no bigger than 3-4 people!).
It is not GOSC's role to find or create you a job nor is it HCPC's role. I do agree with you the GOSC fees are outrageously high and feel like we get little for it. I am not sure however that I would want the osteopathic profession to be absorbed into HCPC just for the sake of saving some pounds.
Like any small business it does take years to build. And like most small business' loss making in the first few years is often the case. Unfortunately often we are not in a financial position to absorb this loss. I am not sure tho' that you can put the blame on your losses at the door of the GOSC or osteopathic colleges. I think it is more the reality of owning a small business.
I approached osteopathy like your self at the age of 30+ wanting a career change - especially to work for myself and get rid of the boss. My experience has been that it takes many years to establish yourself and make decent money and you have to be spot on with your marketing.
ReplyDeleteI like many of my fellow students have really struggled to establish profitable practices. In my area there really is an over supply of therapists and there seems not a month goes by when a new therapist appears on the scene.
Osteopaths have four strikes against them (1) the high registration fees that eat cash flow (2) lack of public, NHS and GP recognition, (3) no organisation that is promoting the profession - GOSC sure as hell are not promoting it (4) the current recession people are cutting back their expenses
I would recommend thinking long and hard about becoming an osteopath. It takes 4-5 to qualify and there is no guarantee of making decent money. If you must become a therapist, better to qualify as a physio and then do some post graduate conversion to learn the manual therapy skills. You will then have a (more) respected (physio) qualification and more opportunity to work in the NHS if you like to, for example.
Me. I have left osteopathy because it was just so hard to make a decent living and I went back to engineering. I have no regrets in quitting osteopathy.
The osteopaths here in Alberta are turning clients away, their waiting lists are so long! Perhaps contact us about working here for a year to get some experience and savings! - albertasqip@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://studentosteopathcon.blogspot.com/2010/02/student-osteopath-cons.html
ReplyDeleteAs a chiropractor who almost went out of business, just like you, I can truly sympathise with your experience. In my first year in practice I earned just £18,000. My college gave me an amazing education but did not prepare me at all for the real world of running a business.
Everything you said about osteopathy is true for us chiropractors as well, the grass only appears greener on our side of the fence.
Even though I consider myself to be an excellent chiropractor, I just did not know anything about how to survive as a chiropractor. But is it really the responsibility of the chiropractic colleges and the professional body to teach us “survival” and “promote” the profession?
I used to think so when I was starving and going out of business... But our of desperation I got into contact with a very, very famous marketer, who very kindly took the time to listen to my plight and offer me training in marketing (for a mere fee of just $35,000 - which I can verify upon request).
I did not have $35,000 but even so I took him up on his offer getting him to agree to let me buy his tuition as and when I could afford it.
I studied with him directly for 2 years, having to spend a lot of extra money to fly out to the USA to see him.
Based on what I know now I can tell you that it is impossible for the colleges to teach you what I learned because they have zero expertise in marketing that works. Nor do they have the funds to be able to afford someone who can teach you what you need to know. What they should be telling us is:
“When you finally qualify you will need to spend an additional $35,000 and 2 years learning the skills of marketing, then you will be ready to go into business as an osteopath/chiropractor!”
There are not many jobs in osteopathy or chiropractic because hardly anyone understands marketing well enough to be able to offer them. However, since I studied at the feet of the master I now have 1 chiropractic, 1 sports therapist and 3 osteopath associates working in my practice, and I am looking for a further associate.
My home town is not an affluent town at all, in fact the opposite is true, and yet last year my marketing attracted 827 new patients to our practice. I now make almost 20x the income I made in the first year.
ALL BECAUSE I LEARNED HOW TO MARKET AN OSTEOPATHIC/CHIROPRACTIC BUSINESS.
Anyone can learn how to do it, I have taught what I learned to other chiropractors and osteopaths. If you are interested I have a link here with a video interview of an osteopath that I have taught:
http://www.chiropracticmarketingstream.com/new-patient-programme
It is not a shameless plug of my product, I just want you to see what is possible.
Oh and bye the way, it does not involve any internet marketing - internet marketing sucks in my opinion and is the last thing you should be working on, the cherry on the cake if you like.
Whether you've been in pain for a few weeks or twenty years, come see us. We will diagnose and treat the root cause, reduce your pain and need for narcotics as well as provide educational materials on how to improve your own function and quality of life. Here we are treating by Dr. Works, Dr. Osteopathy, Chronic Pain Car accident and Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment.
ReplyDeleteNice blog and absolutely outstanding. You can do something much better but i still say this perfect.Keep trying for the best.Osteo Sydney CBD
ReplyDeleteDraper Marketing Providing the best Chiropractic, Social media, PPC, Copywriting, Web development, Graphic design, Content development, and SEO service. Phone – (323) 791-3441
ReplyDeleteVisit here : Chiropractic marketing