Avoid Vendor and Service Contracts in Your Functional Medicine Practice
Are you a practitioner entrepreneur who owns a practice and is curious about vendor and service contracts?
Should you have service contracts set up with your vendors? Are they necessary?
Many new practitioner entrepreneurs in the functional health space who are setting up new clinics are in the position where they might feel tempted to sign these contracts. Unfortunately, if you do so, you might become locked into terms that are impractical, unnecessary, and downright expensive.
You need more flexibility in your business than what these contracts will often allow.
Types of Vendor and Service Contracts in a New Business
When you set up your own functional medicine business or build your BHRT practice, you will likely be interacting with multiple vendors.
These could be people providing any type of goods and services for you, including agreements with suppliers of medical equipment, software, accessories, business equipment, or supplements.
Specialized training programs which help you build certain facets of your practice, like pellet insert training for BHRT, may also come with service contracts. Some require signed contracts to use their pharmacies or dosing calculators. Here’s the thing, not all training programs require such agreements before purchasing pellets. And, you can learn how to calculating dosing yourself.
Why is it so easy to get stuck in a service contract?
Practitioner entrepreneurs and other health service providers who are starting their clinics are bound to be excited, busy, and wrapped up in their new venture. (If this is you, congratulations!)
The result is that they may not take the time to consider what a service contract entails before signing on for a long-term commitment.
If you are a functional medicine practitioner entrepreneur, you’re probably working on getting started and earning more revenue as soon as possible. But don’t be blinded by an unnecessary service contract that could end up being more of a burden than a help.
Possible Problems With Long-Term Vendor Service Contracts
If you get caught up in a service contract, you may not notice any problems for the first few months — in fact, it might seem easy. But after a few months in, you may realize that the service or good that is being supplied either isn’t needed on a long-term basis or isn’t particularly benefitting your practice, given how much of your precious cash you committed to it.
In particular, be careful who you join forces with on the marketing end of things. It might be nice to feel like you have a major player like a well-known company on your side. But remember, those big companies also have much more power, money, and sway than you, making it difficult to get out of the contract if you change your mind.
In particular, be wary of cable and internet providers who may offer a discount at the start and then lock you in for several years (you may have already had this experience with a personal cell phone provider or gym membership).
Practitioner entrepreneurs can get stuck in contracts with EMRs. Remember that if someone is trying to sell you something, they’ll be making a commission. Sales reps selling anything, including supplements, can be great, but they can also be sneaky. So don’t go into any service contracts blindly, even if it seems like the perfect deal.
Watch out for contracts requiring you to purchase goods from specific pharmacies or ask you to pay for access to other programs. Also, be wary of non-compete clauses.
Choose a Pellet Training Provider that Does Things Differently
Whether you are looking for BHRT pellet training or some other type of specialty health service, there’s no reason to be locked into a contract.
We will make sure that you have the time and money to focus on your business instead of locking you into a long-term agreement, so you can get the training you need without the obligation.
With our comprehensive BHRT Provider Pellet Training Program, you can rest assured that there are:
- No contracts requiring that you purchase pellets from us or any specific pharmacy
- No contract requiring you to pay for access to dosing programs
- No non-compete agreements required
Click here to learn more about our comprehensive training programs, or schedule a call to get started!
Enjoyed this article? Here are three more to help you:
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