April/May 2000

Entrepreneurial Spirit

By Nancy J. Beckley, MS, MBA

Using rainy day time to be more innovative in your career and more adventurous in your life.

How do you like the new column? Many of you called to say it is a refreshing break from managed care. I received a lot of positive response on the concept of entrepreneurship. It seemed to catch a lot of eyes and inspire enthusiasm.

The past few years have been tough on rehab providers, particularly those working in skilled nursing facilities and outpatient programs such as comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities (CORFs), rehab agencies, and hospital outpatient departments. Those working in rehab hospitals and units will experience similar struggles with the October start of the mandated prospective payment system (PPS). My sense is that there are many of you who have been entrepreneurs in the past, but are currently stuck in the spiral of growing malaise in our industry, particularly as it is driven by governmental programs like Medicare.

Readers Respond

You have been entrepreneurs in your own programs perhaps, and maybe you have been entrepreneurial when working for other employers. Many readers that I talked with described being bogged down by details in their day-to-day work life and details in their personal life. One person commented that he was looking for time to be entrepreneurial, others said they wanted to be entrepreneurial, but they did not know how. A few called to excitedly tell of moves they were making to unleash their creativity and rejuvenate their spirit.

I heard from Dottie, who just signed up for an advanced ropes course in Colorado later this summer, and is taking a beginning ropes course this spring to get prepared. She told me that just the thought of doing this activity has moved her forward in envisioning a future beyond Medicare. David said that after 4 years of listening to different rehab consultants who all had conflicting advice, trying to first build a Medicare-certified CORF and then trying to save that CORF, he was going back to the basics of what propelled him into private practice to begin with; he is unleashing his creativity to allow his spirit to show him the right direction.

Kay, a physical therapist turned professional and personal coach, has unleashed her creative side by adding a pinball machine to her office. Deb Swain, PhD, a private-practice speech-language pathologist, and the president of the California Speech-Language Pathologists in Private Practice, reports that her practice is booming with cash clients. She does not accept Medicare, and she still has a waiting list. The organization is hosting a spring meeting for speech-language pathologists who are interested in tapping their entrepreneurial spirit and starting a private practice. The theme of the conference is “The time for private practice could not be better!”

Personal Experience

Let us take a look at unleashing your creativity and freeing up the entrepreneurial spirit from within. First I will tell you about an experience I had many years ago that is still motivating to me. While I was in college, I worked every summer at a private camp in northern Wisconsin. Each summer I did a few different jobs—acting as an instructor in water safety, water skiing, canoeing, and tennis. One summer we set a record in Wisconsin for rainy days. Translate that to the camping experience and it equals a lot of rainy day activities. It was also the summer that I was the drama director. As a counselor, I had to make sure that each of these days was fun and exciting for our campers as well as make sure that letters home to parents reflected the campers’ enthusiasm despite the nonstop rain.

I had to be creative when my job and, more important, more than 100 campers’ summer dreams depended on it. As the drama director, I had to select a play to be performed at the end of summer, which involved most of the campers either on-stage or off-stage. During the rainy summer, it seemed my job was to entertain and motivate campers, camp counselors, and the camp owners. One of the most important parts of working on this play was convincing the other counselors to participate in the daily follies and burlesque shows that I started to keep everyone entertained.

I played piano pretty well, found a tuxedo in the costume closet, and a candelabra in the props collection, and invented a Liberace impersonation. I found that with the props it was easy to pretend to be someone else, by really being me! It caught on. Other counselors teamed up with improvisation acts, and soon the campers wanted to be on-stage participants as well as audience participants. We created many acts that summer and had a lot of fun, not in spite of the rain, but because of the rain. My mother tells me she still has my letters I sent home that summer because they were so full of enthusiasm.

Now a more recent experience. While at my local Chamber of Commerce networking meeting, I mentioned that my first car was a teal blue Firebird with a lot of power under the hood. It was just a casual comment, but later in the day I was paged to the lobby of my building. The sales manager of the local Pontiac dealership appeared with a brand-new Firebird TransAm with the largest engine available in a street car. He handed over the keys, and told me to fire it up and spin out, which I promptly did, and the experience was absolutely unbelievable. What great play for me, and what a great way to produce adrenaline and positive energy to move me forward in both my professional and personal life.

That afternoon I closed a big account, and had trouble keeping up with all the great marketing ideas that were popping into my head. My next stop is the Richard Petty Driving Experience. Can you imagine me at Daytona heading into turn two at 160 mph with 30 degrees of banking? The anticipation of this experience alone is propelling me forward!

Your rainy day assignment Are you looking to unleash that creative side in you? Do you want to be more entrepreneurial in your career, more adventuresome in your life? I have a couple of different rainy day activities for you to try out.

• Take a trip to the toy store and stroll the aisles. Look at all the toys, stop and look at those that interest you, touch them, close your eyes—what are you thinking? Pick out three toys that have sparked something in your mind. Perhaps it is a puzzle, a board game, Mr Potato Head, silly putty, a hula hoop, a Barbie doll, a ship or airplane model, or a coloring book and crayons. Take those toys home and play. It is ok to involve family and friends, and it is ok to reserve this playtime for yourself. The most important thing is to get involved and listen to your feelings.

• Find a place where you can grab a few moments from the interruptions of the day. It could be the beach, your backyard, your office, or during a bubble bath. Close your eyes, relax, and think about smiling. What brought that smile to your face? Think about other things that have brought a smile to your face and lightened your spirit. What were you doing? Who were you with? When was it? Draw energy from your reflections and bring them forward in your mind during the coming week. Observe your response, as well as any reactions from those around you. It really is not about Medicare, and it really is not about managed care. It is about you.

Create your world, your own opportunities—the time could not be better! Next column we will take a look at creatively marketing you and your practice.

Nancy J. Beckley, MS, MBA, is the president of Bloomingdale Consulting Group and Rehabilitation Seminars in Tampa, Fla, and an entrepreneur in spirit. Questions and comments from those seeking to unleash their creative side are encouraged at (888) 999-0275 or via email at bcgbeckley@aol.com.

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