RE: Practice start-up

[Guest guest]

Hi

Mike,

I just want to say that the biggest

mistake I made in starting up was leasing computer equipment. I knew nothing and was relying on the

advice of a “traditional” start up consultant who insisted that leasing

was the only way to go, and “don’t bother reading all that fine

print, just sign here”. So I

did. Only a couple years into the

practice did I realize that the monthly payments X the number of months added

up to more than double the original cost.

Then I discovered, much to my dismay, that it

actually costs MORE to prepay than to keep making the monthly payment. And even

more distressing, the equipment for which I will be paying $1500/month until

the middle of 2008 actually had to be mostly replaced in 2006. Turns out “forever”,

as in “this is so much computer power it will last you forever”, is

actually about 3 years. Then, even

if the server still works (which it didn’t), you have to have a

newer/bigger/faster one anyway, because the EMR

software upgrades and improvements have outgrown the original one.

Looking back, had I known then what I

know now, I could’ve simply purchased my computer system outright on a

credit card (one of the zero interest offers) and paid it off by now, probably

with no financing charges. Now I

know that wouldn’t work for everyone; medicine being my second career, I

already had sufficient assets and credit history to have some high limit cards

(bought a new car on Master Card last month -

don’t get too excited, it was only $12K). And I have the advantage of a husband

who gets a big kick out of shamelessly shifting balances from one credit card

to another. I am amazed they keep

letting him do it, but he has probably shifted about a half million around

without paying any financing charges over the past 20 years. I have never known him to miss a trick

in that game. Maybe I should rent

him out!

The other thing I would never do again is

lease a copier. Again, the

consultant insisted that it was necessary, but when I realized that I didn’t

need it and tried to give the thing back to IKON, they wouldn’t take it. Turns out there was

no provision in the lease for early termination, so I HAD to keep the thing. At the end of the lease (after $700 more

in payments), then they wanted $1200 in “maintenance, toner and paper”

fees for the months the thing had been in storage and not used at all, and

another $1000 to come pick it up. I

did NOT pay those additional fees, but it took threatening to go to the state

attorney general to get them to back off. In the end, they took $350 to sell the

thing to another office in the building where the thing was being stored. So, A) a paperless/paperlite office does not NEED a big copier, and B)stay away from IKON if you decide you must have one.

Good luck to you!

Annie

Practice start-up

Hello all. I am considering starting a solo practice and using the IMP

model and was wondering what financing you had used to start up.

What terms did you use. Did you lease equipment or just buy it. Any

thoughts would be helpfull.

Mike