The following testimonials are shared so that readers may see how the policies, procedures, and protocols in this book can actually be applied to the evolving practice of a young facial plastic surgeon. As I (their fellowship director) recommended, each of the physicians whose stories I share chose to limit their practice to facial plastic surgery, from the outset.
First we hear from Dr. Marshall Guy, who established a solo private practice in the Highlands community, just outside Houston, Texas:
I had the pleasure of completing a facial plastic and reconstructive surgery fellowship with Dr. McCollough from July 2014 until June 2015. In addition to the amazing surgical training, I was able to get much-appreciated advice on how to open my own business, as I planned on starting my own private practice. Since he had successfully opened practices at least three times over his career, I knew he would be a treasure trove of information.
I can remember the long car ride we went on together for a meeting, where I had the chance to pick his brain for his advice. After we returned from that event, I wrote down nearly two pages of notes on what we had discussed. I am glad I did this because I still refer back to those notes now as my business continues to grow. And although times have changed since he opened his most —recent office location, the advice is still very much applicable.
Using his recommendations has helped my new facial plastic surgery office grow quickly and reach profitability much faster than I had anticipated. Throughout this book I am sure you will learn many of these tidbits, but I have elected to share a few of them now.
The recommendation I remember hearing over and over again is be a facial plastic surgeon. If this is what you truly want to do, then this is what you need to do. I am very proud of my otolaryngology training and the skills that I developed there to help make me a better surgeon, but if you go out and become an otolaryngologist and facial plastic surgeon, you will inevitably be an otolaryngologist and do very little facial plastic surgery.
With a new office where every patient counts, turning away general otolaryngology patients was certainly not easy. But I have found this statement to be so true. As a facial specialist in an area with over 20 plastic surgeons and three other fellowship-trained facial plastic surgeons, as the only one exclusively practicing facial plastic surgery, I have had numerous patients indicate that is why they came to me. They wanted a facial specialist. That is hard advice to follow in the beginning, but well worth it if you want your practice to be facial plastic and reconstructive surgery.
The second recommendation made to me by Dr. McCollough is one I’d like to share. Go where everyone else is. Open up shop across the street from the busiest plastic surgeons and facial plastic surgeons in town. People associate that area with aesthetics. They expect to get cosmetic surgery when they are there. There is a reason that people haven’t set up shop in certain areas, so don’t go set up shop in those areas. At first, Dr. McCollough’s advice seemed counterintuitive, as I felt it would be nice to be the only one somewhere. But that doesn’t usually work because all the people who came before you already looked at that area and that market didn’t work. By being where everyone else is, you will get plenty of patients.
The final recommendation Dr. McCollough made to me relates to overhead (the cost of doing business). I found a space I liked and could afford that is right across the street from one of the busiest plastic surgeons in my area. I was approached by every device manufacturer and skin care company to buy their products and machines. They all make great pitches. But what distinguishes us from others who perform aesthetic services is our surgical ability, which we bring to our practice with no overhead (other than the loans it took to reach that point in our training).
Being saddled with another large capital expenditure when you are out on your own can mean the difference between a successful practice and an unsuccessful practice. And most of the expensive devices are more effective when you already have patients to market to instead of getting them in the door in the first place.
I set out on my own in 2015 with the advice provided by Dr. McCollough. And although I have had to learn some things along the way, using his guidance and recommendations has really made this transition much easier and more enjoyable.
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