Getting into the healthcare field is almost never a bad choice. It is completely recession-proof as people will forever be in need of taking care of their health. And being a chiropractor is one of those jobs that could prove to be the right choice for you.
Of course, there are a lot of things to consider when you are thinking about becoming a chiropractor. Not least of which is the cost of your degree and certifications. The education required is also a burden for some as it is long and if you are juggling that with a family on top of it, it may put this out of reach for you.
Then again, the job itself can be quite rewarding on a financial and personal level. For starters, you are helping people to feel better. That is always a good enough reason to get into the healthcare field. And it also pays really well.
To let you decide for yourself whether or not it is worth it, we will go over several things to keep in mind when starting your research.
Sometimes you’re a middleman
Although you are an essential person to some when it comes to managing their pain or helping them overcome it, there are some limitations placed on your practice.
For instance, if a patient has a car accident, you are not able to treat some of those injuries. If there are X-rays to do and certain procedures required based on the type of injury, you often have to have a physician come to your office and have a visit with your patient to give a diagnosis.
Though, technology is helping to solve that problem by offering televisits for Emergency Medical Conditions (EMC) under the Florida PIP law which you can take advantage of depending on your location. This way you can send all the patients’ vitals to them and have your patient do a remote check-up under your supervision.
If that isn’t an option then you have to deal with waiting for others to be able to do your job which is a common complaint among chiropractors.
Income varies
The good news is that being a chiropractor can put you in the higher end of income levels in the healthcare field without being a medical doctor. The bad news is that the income varies according to experience and where in the country you are.
That said, the pay is still very good and is above what somebody would expect starting out as a nurse or a sports therapist. On the low end, the entry-level income would be somewhere around $35,000 in a low-cost area of the country. This figure would be higher in a major city in the Northeast, for example.
On the high end, you could expect to be earning into six figures and beyond. If you own your own practice with multiple chiropractors working under you then you can make a lot more than that with a busy clinic.
The middle of the range is around $60,000 so that can be a good figure to start out with while you are trying to decide if you should go to school or not.
Growing the practice takes a while
Word of mouth is the best way to get business as people trust their friends who have used somebody’s service already. The hard part is getting the first patients through the doors.
You’ll have to understand marketing to make sure that your practice takes off quickly and you can start making a living and also pay your student loans. Which means that it is going to take a lot of long days and nights before you start seeing some stability in your practice.
It may make sense to hire a marketing agency to take this on for you so you can focus on what you do best. They will know how to run ads on social media, use SEO for blog posts and handle your local search on Google My Business. You can do all of this yourself but it is very time-consuming.
Make sure that you have enough money to get you through the lean times of the first year of business. This should not only cover your business expenses but also your personal ones. Unless you have a partner making enough for both of you, you’ll need
