Today, I returned to work after 3 1/2 amazing months adventuring around South America! The trip co-incided with 10 years working with Kelsall Steele and finance4chiropractors.

We started our trip in Rio, Brazil, visiting Iguazu Falls on the way into Argentina. From Buenos Aires we headed south to Perito Moreno, a huge advancing glacier and to the coldness of the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia.

Zig-zagging north through Argentina and Chile, hiking in the Torres del Paine National Park (Chile), wine tasting in Mendoza (Argentina) and horse riding on the Argentinean pampas were a few of the things we filled our days with!

Bolivia was the next on our list visiting the largest salt flats in the world, Salar de Uyuni, the highest capital city in the world, La Paz, and the biggest expanse of rainforest in the world, the Amazon. They were all incredible trips!

With an internal flight to Colombia, we ended our trip with just over 3 weeks to explore the colonial towns north of Bogota and relax on the Caribbean coast before flying back home to a rainy London last week!

Awesome adventures but good to be back! Look forward to speaking to you soon!

Claire (Team co-ordinator)

We have recently introduced a new service under the finance 4 chiropractors banner, offered by a well established company MyRuby. My Ruby provide telephone services and diary management for chiropractic practice owners who need admin support whilst they treat patients, but who don't want the costs and hassles associated with employing a full time member of staff.

"85% of new patient callers won't call back if there call isn't answered"

This professional, efficient solution means you can have reliable admin assistance without having to deal with:

- sickness / health issues
- HR issues
- holiday cover

Ideal for a small business and / or if you are working alone, for a low monthly cost, based on usage, your own "MyRuby" assistant will help you to:

• Answer patient telephone calls regarding consultations, procedures and follow up
• Manage appointment setting and diary management online
• Liaise with patients and medical insurance companies to handle payment and treatment queries
• Provide email confirmation and appointment instructions to patients

At the moment, MyRuby are offering a free week trial so you can see the benefits for yourself! For more information, please visit the finance 4 chiropractors web page

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone enjoyed the festive season and haven't been hit too badly by the various illnesses that seem to have been lingering around!

Our working hours have now reverted to normal after the Christmas holidays so we look forward to speaking to everyone again in due course!

Once again, wishing you a happy and prosperous new year from everyone at finance 4 chiropractors

Although our office is open over the Christmas period, our team is going to be operating on a skeleton staff from 24 December 2008 to 2 January 2009. Every day (except the bank holidays) we have ensured that one member of our team is available by phone to deal with any important issues that you may need to be dealt with. The whole team will be checking emails frequently whilst away from the office so if you do need anything, please send an email to your usual contact within our team and they will get back to you as soon as possible.

We are not sending Christmas cards this year as instead we are donating to our chosen charity, South West Children's Hospice but from all our team, we take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2009!

Yesterday Ross and I met with Andrew from Peninsula Services to discuss whether the services they offer would be useful for our chiropractors.

And in short, we think "yes" !

Peninsula offer assistance with Employment Law and Health and Safety, both are areas that we get asked frequent questions about and although we do try to assist where we can, it isn't our area of expertise.

With the law and regulations ever becoming stricter and as everything changes at a very fast pace, employing the services of such a company will ensure peace of mind that you are abiding by the rules and will avoid any nasty implications from any oversights within your business.

Over the next few months we will be adding new pages to the website, including articles that will explain further the service offered by Peninsula Services and an online questionairre to see if you are already complying. If you are not you may like to take advantage of the Free Health Check that Peninsula are offering our customers where they will come into your practice and see which areas need attention.

Please contact us if you would like any early information about these services or keep an eye out for further details over the coming months

You may be wondering why there has not been any posts on the BLOG for a few weeks.....well I have been away on holiday in Thailand, getting some well appreciated winter sun! After coming back last week to jet lag and the cold of the UK, I am now slowly getting back to into routine so BLOG news will be resumed as normal from tomorrow!

As always if anyone has any comments on the BLOGs we write we would love to hear any feedback so we can improve the information we provide

Best wishes

Claire

Team co-ordinator
support@finance4chiropractors.com

finance 4 chiropractors have a trade stand at the UCA seminar on Saturday so please come along and have a chat with us

Adam from Pruhealth and Kevin from Royal Bank of Scotland will be "manning" the stand from about 8ish through to after the final tea break.

They can discuss the various services and products we offer.

We hope to see you there!

Jeremy, (specialist financial advisor for chiropractors) is now the proud father of baby Emly Elizabeth Squibb who was born at 7.14pm Monday 22nd September 2008 and weighed 6lbs 1.75oz

Despite now having a bit of time off for parental leave, Jeremy has already called into the office several times and checked his emails .......dedication for you!

Congratulations to Jeremy and Rachel from all the team at finance 4 chiropractors and hope you dont have too many sleepless nights!

On Friday our team went out for the afternoon to Fifteen, Cornwall (Jamie Olivers Restaurant) for a delicious lunch and a few bottles of Fifteens own Rose wine (!!) This was due to be followed by rounders on the beach but thanks to the good old British summer we had to return to Ross's house for games inside, which was equally as fun!

The afternoon was primarily organised as Mandy Beeton, the team manager is due to emigrate to Australia in about 3 weeks so this was a BIG THANKYOU lunch for all Mandy's hard work and committment over the past 8 years.

We have lots of Australian chiropractors come to the UK and indeed vice versa, clients returning to their home country so we may even branch out finance 4 chiropractors worldwide!  

Photos of the event to follow!

Lloyds TSB are fastly moving in the healthcare market and already deal with many dentists, they are now moving into specialising in chiropractors as well.

As independent financial advisors, we always search the market for the best rates and options for our clients and whilst RBS are still very competetive and we hold a good relationship with the healthcare division, Lloyds are starting to match products as well as offer a great service.

Ross and Mike visited the annual conference to continue to build relationships with lenders for our clients and they spent time presenting to the 40 or so healthcare managers about chiropractic in general, our experience over the past 20 years with the profession, the valuation of practices and the services we offer our many clients.

All in all a very productive and interesting day!

John Whitewood who has worked with finance 4 chiropractors for over 3 years has decided to take an early retirement to play more golf and travel with his wife.

John, a director at Exclusive Benefits, organised the short term finance and leasing for chiropractic equipment for many chiropractors over the years as well as some of the loans for practice purchase. 

Mark steps into John's position now as the new member of our team and Mark has in the past assisted John with many chiropractors finance so is very familiar with your profession.

So whilst John will be missed, we wish John the very best for his retirement and hope we get a postcard or 2 from some far-away places!

Don't forget to sign up for regular e-news updates from finance 4 chiropractors! Simply visit our homepage and follow the link or use the link below

http://www.finance4chiropractors.com/forms/subscribe.htm 

We have asked a chiropractor to complete a feedback questionairre following a practice valuation and .... great news, we scored really well.

We scored 1/5 (where 1 is excellent and 5 is poor) for the knowledge of the valuer and 2/5 for both organisation of the whole process and the presentation of the final report (maybe a couple of minor things we can work on to improve these even more)

Overall, the practice valuation was perceived to be good value for money and a valuable tool to help with the sale of the practice. The client has kindly agreed to provide a testimonial for the website so this will follow shortly in their own words

Post from Ross Martin.....

I am very proud to write of my recent ascent of the largest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis!

As part of a party of thirteen, we all made it to the very top of the 1344m, taking between three and four hours. After a small celebration at the top, we considered the job all but done. Just the quick descent back to the pub! 

However I can personally vouch on the difficulties of a rocky path for the joints!

... must look for the cod-liver oil.

For those of you have have dealt with us in obtaining finance, you may have spoken with Kevin Saunders, Lesley Bartolomeo or Jim Moran. These 3 healthcare managers will still very much be dealing with cases in their dedicated areas but we now have a new main point of contact, being Paul Harding.

Paul will also be able to place your case with a more suitable heathcare manager if necessary so a more personal service can be offered

Paul's profile is being updated on the meet the team section on the website so check it out in a week or so

 http://www.finance4chiropractors.com/about-us/meet-the-team/paul-harding.htm

Jeremy our IFA, was last weekend an intregral part of Helston Town Band's winning performance at the West Of Engand Championships last Saturday.

Having achieved an unparalled record of two firsts and a third in three years, the band have now been promoted to the Championship Section where they will compete against the best bands in the land, but will first compete at the National Finals in Harrogate at the end of September.

"Sorry for the delay in reporting this - took me 3 days to sober up!"   Jeremy Squibb (IFA) 

The bowling evening on Friday night was a big success and a good time was had by all.

Not sure whether the finance 4 chiropractors team won or our friends at MORE software as we mixed the lanes but there were some very high scores, including Ross's personal best of 152!!

He even took a photo to prove it!

Our very own IFA – Jeremy Squibb has been invited to dance in the annual Flora Day celebrations in Helston on 8th May.

Dating back hundreds of years, the festivities involve dancing through the streets all day – the highlight being the Midday Furry Dance where the ‘Gentry’ of the town are invited to take part.  This year, as well as playing in the band for three of the dances, Jeremy and his cousin has been invited to join 150 other couples for the prestigious dance of the day.

All in all, he will cover some 16 miles – both dancing and playing during the day to entertain the tens of thousands who flock to Helston for this unique experience.

Photos to follow in May.

MORE software, the company who provides us with bespoke bookkeeping software and technical support for our chiropractic clients have challenged the finance 4 chiropractors team to a triathlon!

Not the usual, running, swimming, cycling type though - this triathlon is to be:

BOWLING   .........     DARTS     ..........       POOL

As it happens they have rather a few good bowlers on their team ...... although we are rather practiced on the Pool side of things - so should be interesting!

The night will be rounded off with a curry and drinks (maybe purchased by the sore losers!)

Over the next few weeks, we hope to be able to announce an exciting new addition to the finance4chiropractors team in the shape of a general insurance broker being able to advise on insurance areas such as :

Vehicle

Premises

Private home and contents

Public liability

We also hope over the next few months to be able to develop a bespoke insurance product designed purely for the chiropractic market.

More information to be posted in due course.

finance4chiropractors team member, Jenny Jordan has just got back from a week in Martinique, lapping up some winter sun  .........followed by a week in Florida, visiting theme parks from dawn til dusk!

Unfortunately for us, Jenny is looking rather tanned and healthy in comparison to the rest of us! But welcome back to work Jen .....

Congratulations to Dani and Helen!

Helen Stubbs –  has now completed the accountancy qualification of AAT, passing her final "technician" stage exam...

And…

Dani Small has passed her intermediate stage AAT and is now moving into the final "technician" year.

Well done to you both!

finance 4 chiropractors team member, Helen Stubbs, travelled away on Friday with St Austell Hockey Club for a relegation showdown with rivals Horsham in the English National Hockey League.

St Austell below Horsham in the table emerged the eventual winners after a ferocious battle with a last gasp effort to take the score line to 2-1 in St Austell’s favour.

Finally a win this side of Christmas for St Austell who are now sitting pretty above the relegation zone.

Goooooo Helen!!!

Yesterday, Dani Small, who works as part of the finance4chiropractors team, played her first game representing the County of Cornwall for ladies football......and they won 3-1 !!

Well done Dani!

We have today held our quarterly finance 4 chiropractors team meeting - the first one in 2007!

During the meeting my colleagues reminded me that they are often able to provide up to 100% commercial finance for the purchase of chiropractic practices. Their finance also comes with competetive rates and some discouted options for finance 4 chiropractors customers.

We also introduced to the team a new member, Jeremy, who is a financial advisor and is able to offer advice to chiropractors regarding pensions, life cover, income protection insurances, investments, residential mortgages and other financial products.

See our website for more information on the team / our services and our contact details  www.finance4chiropractors.com