FON: THE BUSINESS OF INTEGRATIVE HEALTH & MEDICINE

Ship charting new terrain, sun rising

Out of Crises Comes Opportunity: Will You Seize It?

You are sitting in your virtual boardroom, clinical space, or manufacturing plant, contemplating the future. In addition to us all doing our personal and professional best to lift our communities above crisis, we attend online sessions, keep up with a torrent of emails, and consider the troubling question about our economic future. Solely on that subject, one thing is clear: out of crises profound business opportunity is often born. This

Image of blog title with a motorcycle driving on the freeway.

Social Media’s Free Ride Is Over: Challenges and Opportunities

As an Integrative health organization that has invested significant time and resources building audiences on social media, you are now faced with a stark reality: You do not own your profiles… nor your followers, likes, and subscribers; you simply rent them. The rules of engagement are beyond your control. The social media ‘organic reach’ free ride is officially over. It has been for a while—ever since Facebook pulled in the

No Magic Formula to Grow Integrative Health Companies: Start Here Instead

Whether your business is a medical practice, supplement company, pharmacy, technology platform, nonprofit organization, or provider of other goods or services, one thing holds true: there is no single, magic bullet formula to grow your integrative or functional medicine enterprise. Word-of-mouth referrals and the activation of fanatical brand-ambassadors remain the holy grail of any organization. The above is absolute for integrative and functional medicine enterprises. But how does this low-spend,

Leveraging Medical Savings Accounts for Integrative Health Products and Services

You possess a powerful tool to enhance your business and expand your influence and goodwill for the good of your patients and customers. It’s called a medical savings account. Are you leveraging this tax-deferred tool? I have always wondered why integrative healthcare practices and businesses aren’t savvier at promoting the economic attributes of health savings accounts (HSA) and flexible savings accounts (FSA) to their current, and prospective, patients and customers.

The Integrative Health Business: ‘Administrators’ Versus ‘Builders’

I often see integrative and functional medicine business and organization leaders smothered from the weight of managing day-to-day operations: process and repetitive tasks allow neither adequate time nor sufficient resources to deal with strategic business development and execution. Rare are the super-competent administrators or business owners who are as savvy and productive in the areas of business development and growth as they are at keeping the ship moving… from a

Arrow on 'Pricing' Target

Establishing Prices for Integrative Health Products and Services

As an integrative functional medicine business owner or executive, you may serve a local, national, international clientele, or a group of constituents comprised of varying demographics and psychographics. So how do you best decide fair market value for what you offer? Determining Pricing for Products and Services If you are a physician who has opted out of commercial insurance and Medicare, you may charge for each patient encounter; or offer

Bag of soybeans illustrating a commodity

Is Functional Medicine Becoming a Commodity?

A commodity is defined as any “basic” good or service that is produced to meet a marketplace demand. Commodities are, well, commonplace—interchangeable, and indistinguishable from other products or services of the same type. Functional medicine should never be considered indistinguishable; widely accessible? Yes. Indistinguishable? No. I am deeply concerned that certain functional medicine enterprises are in danger of becoming a commodity. Let me be clear: I am a staunch proponent

Integrative Health Brand, image of blog title "Your Integrative Health Brand, and Platform - Invest or Fail" over a football field.

Your Integrative Health Brand and Platform: Invest or Fail

Whether you mainly trade on your personal brand or lead an organization, sustainable success is wholly dependent on relationships. It’s based on your reputation in the market, how your brand is differentiated, and how you make people feel. Your processes, sales-savvy, or technological prowess alone will not guarantee your success; if you solely rely on tools and process, your empty enterprise will ultimately fail. Don’t get me wrong: your systems

The Power of Effective Copywriting to Engage and Sell

Is your own copywriting hurting your integrative health brand? I write quite a bit: for this blog and my personal blog. I regularly craft comprehensive assessments and business development strategy documents for clients, and I’ve authored a memoir. Everyone looking to be a thought leader (aka key opinion leader or KOL) in the integrative health field—or wanting to be well-positioned within their local community—should write. I discuss this here and