Confused by our financial crisis? Insights for entrepreneurial physicians.

I am filled with questions AND anger, as I experience all this chaos around us at present. Especially as I have not read ANYTHING to suggest that this craziness was unavoidable. And yes, I feel very ignorant about what has gotten us here, and what it will take to move us out of the muck!

Thanks to Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to be Rich, a little sane help is at hand if you too feel panicked and clueless about what is going on in the world of finance.

He has put together a thoughtful and sensible post, 10 links to walk you through today’s financial crisis — and make you smarter than 99% of other people that offers glimpses through the dust and haze into the heart of what really seems to matter when it comes to managing one's finances.

It's a meaty post with lots of reading material to plough through, but it's worth nibbling at steadily if you want to understand the forces shaping the collapse of so many institutions AND the implications for us as individuals and as physician business owners.

He cites an interview with Warren Buffet that, despite some distractions, makes for fascinating reading if you have significant staying power.

It appears the news isn't as bad as we think (if only the politicians would stop screwing around and actually do some meaningful work!) -- but it is going to be painful for a while.

The one key piece of advice that emerged for me was Don't over-react! Stay the course of controlling spending and continuing to save each month. This has worked in the past, and is most likely going to keep working in the future.

I hope this helps you sleep a little better at night!

Update on Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 12:46PM by Philippa Kennealy

Here is another great resource to help make sense of our chaotic financial situation and what got us into trouble in the first place - it's from American Public Radio's Marketplace, that has ongoing pretty simplified-for-us-regular-folks coverage.

Need some stress relief as a physician business owner?

Are  you or your employees or your patients or customers having a tough time right now?

Is the stress of these chaotic uncertain times getting to you?

In a generous show of community, Duke Integrative Medicine and eMindful have teamed up to offer FREE online classes on stress reduction for anyone to attend, between September 27th and October 10th.

Here is their press release:

"eMindful and Duke Integrative Medicine Offer Free Stress Reduction to Those Affected by the Financial Crisis on Wall St.

eMindful.com, a web-based mindfulness training resource, and Duke Integrative Medicine are offering those people affected by the recent events in the financial markets free, online classes offering stress reduction and management tools. The classes are being taught by researchers at Duke Integrative Medicine and will be conducted in virtual classrooms where students see, hear, and interact with their teachers and other students.

Vero Beach, FL (PRWEB) September 25, 2008 -- eMindful.com, a web-based mindfulness training resource, and Duke Integrative Medicine are offering free online classes in stress reduction to people affected by the recent events in the financial markets. Developed and taught by researchers at Duke Integrative Medicine, these classes are conducted in virtual classrooms where students can see, hear, and interact with live teachers and other students. Entering the virtual classroom is simple - and no software is required! Even novice computer users have easily accessed and enjoyed the eMindful classes.

According to the American Medical Association, stress accounts for approximately 85 percent of all illnesses. Excessive stress impacts people's sleep patterns, eating habits, and emotional well-being. eMindful's online, real-time classes offer simple, effective techniques for combating stress in day-to-day living.

The free classes will begin on Saturday, September 27th, and will be available periodically until October 10th at no charge. The courses are interactive and offer experiential exercises utilizing the techniques learned in class. Class times can be found at:   http://www.emindful.com/schedules/MBSR.html

There was a time in the not-too-distant past where people lent a hand to each other just because… eMindful and Duke Integrative Medicine would like to lend that hand now.

Email: info@emindful.com

If you are interested in joining one of the 1 - 2-hour stress reduction classes. Please include your name as well as the class and time you are interested in.

The following classes will be offered:

Five Good Minutes - taught by Jeffrey Brantley, M.D., and based on the popular book by the same name. This 90 minute class will teach brief stress reduction skills and focus on how to deal with anxiety and fear. Jeff is a consulting associate in the Duke Department of Psychiatry and the founder and director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) at Duke University's Center for Integrative Medicine

Learning to Manage Stress with Mindfulness - taught by Ruth Wolever, Ph.D., Director of Research at Duke Integrative Medicine and Sasha Loring, M.S., M.Ed., a psychotherapist at Duke Integrative Medicine and long-time teacher of mindfulness and mindful eating. This one hour class will teach stress-reducing techniques and provide guided meditation.

Mini-Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction - taught by several of eMindful's MBSR teachers, this highly experiential two hour class will teach basic mindfulness skills and provide opportunities to practice them in the live classroom."

I encourage you to spread the word to your staff, family, friends, and patients or clients ... you might just be making a real difference!

How entrepreneurial physicians get answers to burning questions

There is always something new and helpful to discover on the web.

But first:

How many of you are LinkedIn?

How many of you know how to use LinkedIn?

And who knows how to put up a killer LinkedIn profile? For some assistance, I recommend a look at Guy Kawasaki's LinkedIn Makeover blog post.

This subject came up yesterday when I was helping a client with a job search. He wasn't aware of any of the social networking tools that are being used for effective career development, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Twitter. And for those of us who are physician entrepreneurs, these platforms are great places to find resources, introductions and potential business!!

Well, today, I discovered LinkedIn Answers - the place to pose a question to the vast professional community that exists on this social network. You can ask your question by various categories (e.g. Career and Education, Professional Development, Startups and Small Businesses and Technology).

Examples of questions include:

• Career advice for someone in tough circumstances
• How do you build rapport with the gatekeeper so they want to help you...?
• How do you regroup from letting go of a client who a) became a friend and b) started eating up all your time and energy?

And in case you want to read more about using the most helpful social networking platforms for professional and business development, here are some useful articles:

Internet Job Hunting - Using Social Media

Web 2.0 Dominates Trends in Internet Job-Hunting

Looking for a new job? Use Twitter.

How Twitter can help at work.

Web conferencing and document sharing tools for entrepreneurial physicians

Having just gotten off a web conferencing meeting, I decided to research a few options for you, in case you want to meet with patients or clients remotely to review documents or results, to do "webinar" type presentations (for example a webinar to teach a group of patients about diabetes self-care) or to collaborate.

There are two web conferencing categories: Free services and Paid services.

Some of the free services I have come across are:

• Yuuguu: you can share your desk top and give presentations.
• Yugma: you can share your desk top, use a whiteboard and give webinar presentation for up to 10 users. 
• Vyew: same stuff (for the free application, you are likely to see some ads).
• DimDim: you can share your desk top, use a whiteboard and give webinar presentation for up to 20 people for free.

And the paid services (of varying rates) are:

• WebEx: from $49 a month (less if you pay annually)
• GoToMeeting: from $49 a month.
• GoToWebinar: from $99 a month
• MS Live Meeting: variable fees based on number of users

Taxing tax questions for the physician business owner

I have taxes on my mind at present, as I suspect many of you do.

So I appreciated coming across this article from the Wall Street Journal Small Biz section today on how to handle those not-so-easy-to-classify expenses.

Great rule of thumb, from the article!:

"If court rulings and IRS pronouncements don't offer much guidance, then it's time for what tax pros refer to as the "laugh test." Can you write off an expense without snickering about pulling one over on the IRS? "If there is a concern in the taxpayer's mind, that probably means it's not deductible," says Keith Hall, national tax advisor in Dallas for the National Association of the Self-Employed."

One gem I unearthed in the article was a reference to the National Association of Self Employed (NASE) -- an organization providing a litany of resources (education, member-benefit discounts and group rates) for micro-businesses. And then there is NASE Women in Business which offers an array of links to resources specifically for women entrepreneurs. Whether it is access to health care insurance at group rates, discounts for sending holiday bouquets to valued clients or expert advice from CPAs and attorneys, the member benefit list is long.

I'll be checking this out!