Assignment 24

In this Assignment I will start by talking about the opportunity of my business plan. The  opportunity has to do with solving the needs created by patients who are suffering from repeated bodily physical pain. This may include, but is not limited to back pain, ankle pain, knee pain, elbow pain, and neck pain. The similarity that all these types of pain have is that they are internal, are repeated, and have to do with  movement. This means that the person experiencing the pain cannot enjoy simple things such as walking, turning their head to look around, stand up, or bend over without putting so much stain on their body the the action becomes something that they almost entirely avoid. There are a few ways these people can look for treatment. The most common one is in the hospital. However, doctors that work in hospitals are often not sufficiently trained in chronic pain because they did not go to school to specialize in these areas. As a result, surgeries to alleviate the pain are over diagnosed, when in many situations it is not a surgery that would be most beneficial for the patient. Also, this problem is compounded because doctors often over prescribe narcotics to alleviate the pain that the patient is feeling. Narcotics help numb pain , so while it does help the patient feel better in the short run, in the long run it is not a sustainable course of action because of the long term health effects that narcotics provide. Also, this does not really fix the problem, which is the reason that the pain exists. Instead, it tends to focus more on blocking the pain itself, which is not ideal for a long-term solution. This opportunity provides a way for patients who suffer from this chronic pain to seek help by  targeting the source of the pain instead of the pain itself. This provides healthier, deeper solutions and reduces the possibility that the pain will reoccur. The market to which I am selling to are older, ideally wealthier people who have pain. Many doctors are already moving in this direction to help patients, but the vast majority are still comfortable working in hospitals, making it the perfect time to look into pain clinic options. In this situation, the patients are not loyal to the hospitals at all, but rather to wherever they will receive the best service for their health. This is important to keep in mind because we must keep in mind that the number one priority should always be to provide the best possible care for the customer. This is a great opportunity because it is ahead of the curve. With hospitals becoming more and more expensive, sometimes charging 50 dollars for a single Tylenol, people will start looking for other solutions.  This is a very practical solution that appeals to customers both because of its high level of service and also because of its more personal care.

This is an innovative business concept because not many people have done it yet. We are on the early side of providing people with high quality care on a smaller scale that specializes in individuality. We are selling a solution to pain. While the cost is complicated because the cost is dependent on the amount of visits, the difficulty of solving the pain issue, and the results of how successful we are, the cost system would be based on typical rates that hospitals charge for similar nerve block procedures, injections, and surgeries. However, our costs would be reduced because the smaller scale pain clinic means dealing with less bureaucracy.

The small scale of this business will appeal to customers because they will receive more personalized care. Hospitals are our competitors, but many patients will seek us simply because they care about their own well being much more than any loyalty they may have to a specific hospital. While the number of employees depends upon how many customers we receive, I would expect to start with anywhere from 1 or 2 doctors, working together with 1-3 assistants. This should be enough to see anywhere from 50-70 patients on a weekly basis. However, as we get more customers I would expect this number to go up. The doctors are the most useful resource we have because of the value they bring, and how hard they are to replace. Following up with patients and increasing how many customers we have to grow the business are two future goals that I would like to have. In the next 5 years, operating with anywhere from 3-5 doctors and 5-10 assistants is where I would like to be.