Ballet

Well, I'm trying to figure out my dance schedule for september.. who knew when we first started this resolution challenge that I'd ever be this into dance? It's been just shy of a year since I started but I am totally hooked, especially with Ballet. Last week I had a 5 day ballet workshop that was just awesome. Each day from 6:30 - 8:00 we had class, and after it was all over, me and the other TBC girls were like "we want to do ballet 5 days a week all the time!"

Oh, btw TBC is Tequila Ballet Club.. 4 of us girls who hang out together. It was originally just "Ballet Club" and we'd meet before ballet on saturday mornings at the juice bar and chill out, but then one evening we planned for a Tequila version of our club cuz Chelsea had gotten back from Mexico with a bunch of really nice tequila. We rented bad dance movies and watched them while gossiping and drinking martinis. It was an awesome night and TBC was born. The other kick ass thing about TBC is that 3 of us girls are all 5'11/6 ft tall. Me, Alesha and Chelsea are the 3 tall girls in our class so we immediately bonded together. Tyra is our 4th, and she kicks ass but is very short, so we have funny jokes about how we 3 would be walking down the street (believe me, 3 6ft tall girls walking down the street turns heads) and Tyra would be running ahead with a little trumpet announcing our way.. of course, when Tyra came up with this idea she was doing this seriously goofy little jig while she pretended to blow a trumpet.. so it's pretty comical to picture.
OK.. that was a serious Aside, but the moral is, TBC rocks!

So.. back to the original post.
I have been wracking my brain over how I'm going to do dance classes this September cuz the times for all the classes I want to take, except ballet, are really crappy.. like 6:15 to 8 at night. Last year my modern classes started at 8:15 at night, so I could go home after work and have a nice dinner and hang for a bit with Paul before heading off to dance. I really wish the classes this year were in that same time frame, cuz that really worked for me. le sigh.. Anyways, it's hard to figure out what to do, so I was considering just taking ballet at Lynda Raino, then taking the Adult Ballet classes at Academy of Ballet, and David's other Ballet class at Allegro. Still have to work out the time, but that might work. however, the bummer with going to 3 studios is that it's way more expensive. If I do 4 classes at Lynda Raino it's only like $140, but doing individual classes at 3 different studios will cost me like 60 bucks per class. Argh.. hard to figure out what to do..

"The Splits"

Alright, My resolution this year is very challenging.. I have decided I want to be able to do the splits.. now, I don't know if this is possible for me or not.. but I'm going to try my best.

I just measured on the wall how far I have to go to be able to do the splits.. basically layed on my back with my legs against the wall and measured how many inches away from 180 degrees I am.. well.. it is a sad state of affairs.. 28 inches to go o.O idk what the exact angle is, but it's probably about 110 degrees now.. so yeah, a ways to go.

So, I figure that if I aim for 2 1/3 inches a month, by the end of the year, I'll be there :D That being said, I'm sure the first number of inches will go faster than the last ones, but.. it's a rough guideline.. Oh yeah, also, that 28 inches is without any other stretching.. like, just right off the hop. I'm sure if I layed there and stretched for the next 15 minutes, It would be a lot less, but whatever.. :P

I want to be able to do the splits in all 3 directions also.. but this way is easiest to measure, and also it's the hardest way to do the splits.. splits to the front are easy, I used to be able to do that years ago, but I've never been able to do the splits in the middle before..

OK.. noone else cares about this, I'm sure.. I'm just writing to keep me on track.

End of Year wrapup

Well, I made it thru the whole year with pretty well sticking to my resolution.. there was a couple months I didn't, but all in all, I'm really proud of myself.

Dance is a pretty big part of my life now, so I'm so glad I finally did that, cuz I've been wanting to do it for so many years. I completely love my classes and I'm learning so much. I just dropped 900 bucks to cover the rest of my classes til June, so I'll definitely be keeping on with that.

My second resolution about the business stuff all worked out just fine. I have things on track and have been dutifully plugging all the information into my spreadsheet that Bryce helped me out with. Business has been going well and I'm learning more and more about what works and what doesn't.

I've been thinking a lot about what I want my resolution to be for the new year.. The purpose of my last years resolution was to get exercising 3 time a week and make it part of my regular routine, and I definitely accomplished that. So, I think it'd be a little redundant to have the same resolution for this year. I already will be doing that with dance classes. One thing I do want to do tho, is start taking 1 yoga or pilates class a week in addition to my dance classes. There is a floor barre class at the dance studio that I can go to, and I have 7 free classes to use up with paying for the coming semester.. so I may start with that or I may find a good drop in class.. Also, I'm already paying a ton of money for my dance classes, so I'm not sure if I want to pay for a yoga class or just do it myself at home. I also tossed around the idea of having my resolution be something like drinking 2L of water a day. But.. that's a little tedious to track.. So I'm undecided on that one. I could probably stand to drink more water than I do tho.. when it's busy at work, I often forget to drink water. Anyways, I'll keep brainstorming about resolutions for the coming year.

Now for the sappy bit:
I'm so glad Bryce talked me into being a part of this resolution challenge. It's really cool to see how well everyone is doing who took part in this, and I'm really happy for that. There's a lot that a person can accomplish in a year and I think we all did really well and I'm excited to see what we'll accomplish next year!

Phew, oh good, it wasn't that sappy

Oops

Well, I meant to post for last month but I was in Vancouver over the weekend for Halloween. My resolution is coming along fine. I've been doing 3 dance classes a week as well as other random stuff like stretching at home, walks around town, or going out dancing. My dance classes are awesome. My favourite is still the ballet class, which sadly is only once a week, tho I do love the modern classes. It's been 2 months now, and I'm learning a lot, it's really fun and addictive. Even the other night, I went to a friends birthday party, which was a "30 year old Rockstar Party" they had it at a dance school and set up rockband in one room and DDR in another room. Well, there was barre and mirrors and whatnot, and my friend Kelsey who dances a lot was there.. and alot of the girls at the party do Bellydancing. So, me and Kelsey and this other girl Michelle were making use of the Barre, practicing all these different dance things, it was a blast. Plus Michelle is a trained dance teacher so she was helping me with my pirouettes and giving me some core strengthening exercises. Not often you get to practice pirouettes at a party, so it was a definite highlight, considering I'm obsessed with dance right now.
Even the other night in Vancouver, Paul and I were over at Al and Jamie's place, and the boys were watching movies .. I wasn't particularily interested, so I was practicing my ballet exercises. Same thing at home. I tend to have kinda tight hamstrings and hip flexors, so I've been inspired to stretch more at home to improve my ballet.

So.. other than that, work is going well. I'm finally at the point where I'm not stressing over money anymore. This is a nice place to be. I went shopping for frivolous stuff like a purse over the weekend, and was completely cool with it.. no worry about if I could afford it or not. Things are great at the clinic, I made a decision that I don't really want to market for FRA patients anymore, cuz I wasn't enjoying those treatments as much as my regular ones. And since then, I've been getting tons of regular patients in again. It's fantastic. I love all my new patients, and there's been a lot. last week alone I had 4 new patients. Over the summer, I remember being stoked that I had 8 new patients in a whole month. So 4 in a week is huge. and I had almost that many the week before too.

As far as marketing goes, we just started a new marketing campaign.. it's this "door knob advertising" thing. It's basically a bunch of coupons on a strip that gets hung on every door in a specific area around the clinic, has a distribution of about 9000 homes I believe. Anyways, we do it for 3 months in a row and the cost is only about 400 bucks to each of us. The ad looks quite nice, they designed it for us with our basic ideas and content. So they just delivered the first run, I'm looking forward to seeing if it pans out. It's actually really interesting to see where I get the majority of my business from, and overwhelmingly so far, it's been the yellowpages. I'm glad I paid the extra cash to get a bigger ad in both yellowpages. It costs me about 80 bucks a month, but it's well worth it. I may consider going for something even larger next year.

Ballet

Been a month of dance classes so far and I'm loving it. Modern 2 nights a week and Ballet on saturday mornings. I have easily gotten all my workouts in, and continue to do my marketing plan and tracking for work.

the end

So I think I can Dance?

Alo
Here I am, writing my last "summer" blog. Truth is, summer is not the ideal time for me to workout. There's way too much going on. So therefore, I have not done my "workouts" but have been doing other stuff like tubing down the Cowichan river, and playing Poi or frisbee at the park. I don't really know if that stuff counts.. so, whatever, maybe I lose 2 points, I don't really care too much if I do or not cuz I'm not going to pretend I did workouts.
So I'm really excited about September. I start Dance classes in a couple weeks from now. I have decided to take 2 Modern classes per week, and 1 Ballet class. I'm super stoked about this, I've pretty well been talking about it every day. Infact, I specifically spend 300 bucks on more sheets for my clinic so I wouldn't have to worry about doing laundry on the nights when I have my dance classes.
Anyways, the place I'm going is the only studio in town that offers classes for adults only. They specialize in modern (contemporary) classes as well, which is perfect, as that was my whole reason for wanting to start these classes. I'll be taking the level 1 class, since I'm a noob. I can't wait to start learning new stuff!!
You know, that's one of the reasons why I'm taking classes too.. I find running on the eliptical machine or whatever just about the most boring activity ever.. so to do that 3 or 4 times a week.. ug.. I'd much rather be doing something that's not only exercise, but also fun, and something where I'm learning a new skill or ability. The great thing about this type of dance is that I've never done anything like it before either, so it's completely new!

So, other than exercise, I've been working on my business stuff like a madwoman. I have this massive excel spreadsheet that Bryce helped me out with. I've been entering all my data in there, which I can then use to do different marketing stuff with. Like seeing what worked and what didn't for marketing already. I've been enjoying that a great deal. Who would have thought I'd get so excited over equations? (oh wait, this is me we're talking about, of course I'd get excited over equations.. lol)

July

Kristy says:
that reminds me, I have to write that blog..
Kristy says:
ug
Kristy says:
as if my day isn't busy enough!
Bryce says:
Yeah, you haven't had 30 other days to write it.
Bryce says:
slacker
Kristy says:
speaking of which, tomorrows paycheck will be my 2nd highest paycheck ever
Bryce says:
Not like you have to write much.
Kristy says:
hehe
Bryce says:
"did my revised workouts (walks + workouts), and my marketing plan made a huge leap with a new database that bryce help me design".
Bryce says:
done
Bryce says:
Do i get your blog points now?
Kristy says:
no, I get them! thanks for writing it for me tho
Kristy says:
lol
Bryce says:
You should just copy and paste this whole conversation up
Bryce says:
that'd be funny
Kristy says:
I will
Kristy says:
lol
Bryce says:
Perfect

Le Update

June is almost over, and things have changed for me now that the warmer weather is upon us. I have been doing less traditional workouts.. but it's mainly because I have been so active with other stuff. Work is super busy, of course, but I'm also walking atleast an hour every day just getting to work and back (oh the joy of being car-free), buzzing around doing stuff on my lunch, etc. We've been doing a ton more outdoor activities like frisbee in the park, bocce ball.. (that's hard work, right? ) hiking around town to different markets and festivals, and taking Nathan's dog for walks and all that. So I feel like I've been pretty active. I don't know how to quantify that amount of activity in terms of workouts.. but I think I'm probably pretty good on the activity level.

I've been making great strides on marketing efforts around the clinic, and they are paying off immensely. I've made a marketing "calendar" and each month has more ideas of things to implement into the clinic. So I already have the basic stuff on the go (business cards, a website, large ads in both the telephone books, etc). Then I have ongoing referral marketing thru BNI.. that's a weekly meeting and usually atleast one other "dance" (getting together with another BNI member for coffee to talk about ways we can promote each other and get to know them better).. So that keeps me pretty busy. The Marketing calendar idea is great cuz I write down my ideas for the month as well as target goals. So for instance, April's patient count was 43 office visits and 5 new patients. I set a goal for May of 50 office visits and 8 new patients, and at the end of the month I exceeded that goal with 57 office visits and 8 new patients. That was pretty exciting. Then May's ideas for marketing, I did a internal promotion in the clinic with a little display for FRA offering 50% off the first FRA treatment, and made up some flyers for it and whatnot. I also did an Open house for the women's only gym down the road, and donated a gift certificate as a door prize. I also donated a gift certificate to the Schizophrenic society for some golf tournament they were holding.

This month's idea was to start up a facebook group for the clinic. As of today there are already 103 members in the group, and I only made it a week ago, so that's looking pretty successful. I plan to write articles for the group and then I have access to over 100 people to send that out to. I just want to get the clinic into everyone's subconscious so when they hear someone needs a treatment or whatever, they immediately think of our clinic. The other thing I plan to do for this month is send out a Mail out to existing patients announcing my new designation (Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner .. yay! ). Reason being is 2 fold.. of course for the announcement, but also to touch base with patients that have fallen off of care, and just remind them that I'm still here. The third thing I'm working on this month is getting some articles written for a clinic newsletter. So, busy for me around here, which makes me a happy girl.

Bryce and others take the lead!

that's right people, I lose points for the month of may. I only worked out twice!! you heard me 2 times.. yeah.. it's pitiful. That being said, I do generally walk about an hour a day getting to work and whatnot, so it's not like I'm a complete slob.. however, I'm not counting that sort of thing as my workout.

So.. why was my workout schedule trashed, you might ask? This was my busiest month *ever* for work. I had so many patients booked in, it was completely awesome. And my paychecks were huge.. yay me! I look forward to this being the norm throughout the year.

I worked more on my business plan.. we're doing monthly checkups as a clinic about marketing ideas and goals. It's awesome to get everyone in on these ideas and working together. Infact, I have a staff meeting later tonight to go over stuff like this.

Anyways, back to work.

werk it!

after a slow start to the month, I'm getting caught up. I worked out on Tuesday, Wed, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So that's 7 workouts. 5 more to go in a week and a half, that's doable.

Worlds Hugest Slacker

yeah, I'm doing HORRIBLE on my resolution so far this month. I think I've only worked out twice (thank god for those Tuesday night workouts) .. I can't remember if I've done any other workouts at home. Actually maybe one, but I'll have to think about it to make sure.. So for now, It's already April 15th, and I have 10 workouts to go ><
Tonight, atleast, is our group workout, and I'm pretty well going to have to work out every day for the rest of the month to make up for my slackin. If there was ever a chance for Bryce to beat me in the challenge, this is possibly the month.

Tuesday night bailage

So, everyone bailed out on our tuesday night workouts because of the hockeygame last night. Except me. I did my workout downstairs at the gym in our building instead of at the pool. Anyways, I upped my weights on dumbell press and rows to 20lbs, but it was damn hard, and I think once I'm back at the pool where they have more selection of weights, I'll be using the 17.5 lb ones. 20 was just too much of a jump, I felt like I was going to have a brain aneurism trying to lift those damn things. The Rows were fine with a 20 lb weight tho, so I'll probably keep that up
Anyways, 1 workout done, 11 (or more) to go

Phew

Well, I got the last of my workouts in last night after work, in the knick of time. And, after speaking with Bryce at the party on the weekend, I was relieved to find out that my business thingy is done in quarters, so I don't have to actually do anything on it every single month, which is a relief, cuz I did crap-all in March for any sort of written plan. So, yay, I still got my 3 points!

This coming month will probably be easier to not procrastinate on working out, since it's the last month before I turn 30, and so I will probably have being in shape more on my mind to try to drown out the feeling of getting old. Atleast that's the hope.. lol

Ladies and Gentleman, the moment you've all been waiting for!!

the March Update!

I've been slackin on posts this month, so here it is, with a mere 4 days to go. In truth, I'll have to post once more at the end, since I haven't finished everything yet, goal wise. But here's the update.

So, it was a decent month for workouts. As is my trend, I still procrastinated a bit on workouts and so am having to do a few more at the end of the month to pick up the slack.. but, thank god for that tuesday evening thing, I'm actually not too far behind.

Workouts: Rough week was this: Tuesday night workouts with our group of friends, we get there at about 7 and do about an hour and a half of workout stuffs then go down to the pool for a sauna. I have been doing my weights, which I upped again a couple weeks ago.. then 30 minutes of cardio, then stretching and mat work.
Saturday Qi Gong class: This is over now, but for most of the month I had a 4 hour Qi Gong class on Saturdays
other : working out in the gym donstairs.. usually only 1 per week with the other stuff, but now that Qi gong is over, I'll have to do more.

A few funny moments: So Paul and I went to workout together downstairs on friday I think it was.. and he always does an hour on the stairmaster.. every day.. he's crazy. Anyways, I was kinda thinking.. how hard can an hour really be. So I decided to do an hour too. Anyways, I finished the hour ans was feeling all proud of myself, and it really wasn't that bad at all. And I said to Paul about how I burned 912 calories (which I was thinking was pretty awesome) and asked how much he burned and he said 1300.. haha.. I felt pretty lame after that. No wonder he's so skinny now.

Anyways, I have 2 more workouts to go, which I'll do 1 tonight and 1 on monday since I'll be in Vancouver for the weekend

Le Workout

So, just incase anyone is wondering what I've been doing in my workouts, this is it:
1st set of stuff:
Flat Dumbbell Press with 2 15 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets
Squats w/ 2 10 lb weight - 10 reps x 3 sets
Dumbbell Row- 2 15 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets

2nd set of stuff:
Military Press - 2 10lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets
Lunges - 2 10 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets
Reverse Fly - 2 8 lb weights - 12 reps x 3 sets

Other:
Lat pull down - not sure the weight, it's the 4th notch on the weight machine

Mat work:
-Pelvic Tilt: 10 x 2 sets
-Modified dead bug (laying on back with legs in the air, and you do kindof a reverse leg lift) - 10 on each side x 2 sets
-Cat/Cow - 10 x 2 sets
-Another one I forget the name of - you sortof "wag your tail" for lack of a more glamourous description - actually, the yoga name for it is "Tigeress" I think
-Planks: 2 sets of 45 seconds each, front, and side planks
-this thing on the ball where you lay facing up, have your feet on it and pull them under your bum as you are keeping your body raised up in a plank - 10 x 2 sets

Cardio:
30 minutes on the Eliptical - I burn about 400 calories according to the machine in this time. So I'm booting along relatively fast.

Stretching:
Hamstring and Hip flexor stretches mainly.

So it usually takes me about an hour and a half to do all of this workout. I'm doing the entire thing atleast twice a week. Some days I'm just doing the cardio, and some days I just do the weights. But Tuesday nights we have a group of us that goes to the Commonwealth pool, so that is my exact routine on tuesdays and one other night at the gym in my building.

The weights are a lot faster the way I do them than the way the boys do them.. rather than sit around and grunt or whatever they do in between every set, I just work a different muscle group, so I can go straight from my DB Press to my squats to my DB Row without taking a rest, then do that 3 more times. As a result, it takes me 40 minutes or so to do my whole weight regime, then I can get to the mat work and cardio.

So there you have it. And, FYI, I just finished this exact workout minutes before starting on this post, so I only have tomorrow's workout to do and I have met my resolution for the month. Yay me.. and I blogged about it, and I worked on my financial plan. I made a whole spreadsheet for tracking exactly when and how many patients/money I'm bringing in. It is quite fascinating. In fact, when Sean saw it, he said he wants all of us at the clinic to make one up so that we can see how different marketing things effect business.

Jam out with your clam out

So, the month is coming to a close.. mighty fast, I might add. With only 29 days I'm having to squeeze in those last two workouts tonight and tomorrow, but I can tell you forsure that I will have met my quota of workouts this month as of tomorrow afternoon.

I realize, once again, that I am a horrible procrastinator if I let myself do it. I will almost always leave til tomorrow what I don't want to do today. Case in point: Paul is in San Francisco right now. Before he left, I had this little vision in my head about how I was going to clean up the house on the very first day he was gone so that, for a whole week, I could live in a nice, tidy, boy-free house. Well, monday ended up being very busy at work, and by the time I finished everything, I plopped down on the couch, and spent the entire night watching stupid tv shows. I think I must have watched about 3 hours of this show that I'd never even heard of before called "Jon and Kate plus 8" about this couple who had a set of twins, then tried for a 3rd, and had sextuplets. yep.. 6 babies at once. Anyways, it was a trippy show, and they kept airing one after another so I somehow kept watching.. transfixed to my tv for the entire night. I didn't do a damn thing around the house. So tuesday, turns out I don't have patients, so I think to myself "cool, I'll have time to watch this safety course thing that I have to do, and tidy up the house" .. Nope again. I slept til 11:30 (granted, I have been sleep deprived for the last 3 weeks, so I did actually need the sleep) and then Paul and I lamented about how much we miss each other over msn. Then I had a waxing appointment, then met my friends for our tuesday night workout at the Commonwealth pool. Still no house cleaning. .. Yesterday I got off work early and ended up spending 4 hours visiting friends downtown instead of going home, then went to this womens self defense seminar until 10pm. So here it is Thursday.. I haven't done the dishes even once since Paul left, and the house is a sty. On the up-side tho, atleast I'm on schedule with my workouts :P

Getting there

I'm doing better on my workouts since my last post. I still am going to have to workout a fair bit next week to meet my quota of 12, but that's ok, cuz Paul is down in San Francisco, and I'll have a lot of time to kill all by myself at home.

So, I have done my weight workout 4 times this month(3 in the past week), that is going well. I upped my sets from 2 sets of 15 to 3 sets of 12. I'm using 10 lb wieghts for most of everything now. The squats and lunges are getting a little less lame, so all is well there. Been stretching as part of that workout also. My qigong thing is going well, I've been doing the meditation almost every night before bed, however, I'm only counting the 3.5 hours classes as being a "workout". Other than that, I've done a hike, went swimming, and tonight this Taekwon Do class, so I think as of Saturday I'll be at 7 workouts this month. That means I pretty well have to workout every day next week to make my quota. That's ok tho. I plan to do weights on Sunday, cardio monday, weights again tuesday (I am going to the pool with a group of friends to workout and then sauna tuesday night), Wednesday If I do anything I'll do cardio, then I'll do my last workout on Friday probably, cuz Thursday is usually a really busy day.

In other news, I have got a haircut, and it is awesome. It's an inverted bob, pretty short in the back, a little longer in the front, just below chin length. Anyways, I got that done on Wednesday, and I've been having a blast so far figuring out how to style it. Believe it or not, I even started wearing makeup to work cuz my hair looks so awesome, I figured I better put on makeup too. Aggie and Liz are having a hayday with me, turning me into a girly girl. It's quite fun actually. I don't think I'll go quite to the extent of Liz tho, who gives massage in high heels. lol.. plus, I'd be like 6'3" in heels, and I save that for special occasions :P

Anyways, I'll get a camera and get Paul to take a pic of my new hair.

Over and out.

February 12th

ok, this month has been terrible for my workouts so far. I did that stupid Bikrams yoga with Aggie a couple weeks ago, and my back has been fucked ever since, so I have only been doing really chill stuff like a hike here and there or some Qi Gong. I have yet to do my weight workout this month! I know, that is terrible and I'm going to have to get my act together if I want to meet my schedule of 12 workouts for this month. However, Paul is going away to San Francisco for a week for work, and I know I'll probably work out every day out of sheer boredom while he's gone. So that will help things along a great deal. Also, I am starting Qi Gong classes again on saturdays, and that is 3.5 hours of Qi Gong, so I'm going to count that as a workout once a week, but I won't count the at home practice because my "workout" resolution was actually supposed to be for hard workouts, not gentle things like Qi Gong.

Next friday I am also doing a Tae Kwon Do class cuz this guy in our BNI group who runs a school has invited the group to a free class. Honestly, I get the impression that tae kwon do is kinda crap, but I'll give it a go. I am suspicious of anything where you can have a black belt in 3 or 4 years of going to only 2 classes a week. If that were the case, I'd have a black belt in Karate already from the 5 years I did of it when I was a teenager, and quite frankly, I don't think I deserve a black belt for my knowledge of karate, so I don't know how this is any different. I feel like these programs that propell people thru the ranks really trivializes the spirit behind the meaning of "black belt"

As wikipedia says: The term black belt has become widely known as way to describe an expert in martial arts

Maybe my idea of "expert" is different from the idea of other peoples.. who knows.. but as I see most martial arts as life long endeavors, I don't see how someone can be an expert in so short a time. I mean, if it was a 40 hour a week program, then sure.. (even after my 4 year TCM program of over 40 hours a week of class and studying, I still don't feel like an "expert" at all) but 2 hours a week? Come on! It's a joke.

January comes to a close

Workouts: Check
Marketting Plan in the works: Check
Blog about it: Check
Money bryce is going to owe me at the end of the year: Cheque

Section 1: Situation Analysis

Current Service: General practice with TCM style Acupuncture, Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine and topical oil and tincture sales. I also teach a few classes on TCM related subjects at the Monterey Center.

Current Marketing: BNI (business referral group), Business Cards, Website, Health shows, community talks/workshops.

Current Marketing Advantages: The ability to go in on marketing costs with my colleagues;
There are no other acupuncturists in this area of town, about a mile radius; The clinic has a pre-existing website and branding that we all are able to use; specialization of Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture gives me a niche market

Current Marketing Challenges: lack of money for expensive marketing ideas, the city is quite saturated with acupuncturists already

I have been in business for 1 year. My patient base is 71 patients, with 32 of them coming to see me regularly at the moment. I am seeing roughly 10 patients a week.
There is a breakdown of the number of patients I saw per month for the last 11 months since I started:
March 2007: 20
April 2007: 16
May 2007: 31
June 2007: 52
July 2007: 57
August 2007: 39
September 2007: 37
October 2007: 33
November 2007: 24
December 2007: 29
January 2007: 42