Acupuncturist

She found career satisfaction after entirely changing her first career path to open a business in a field which would honor her cultural heritage while achieving an acceptable work-life balance and steady business income. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND

GS was born into an Asian family whose traditional values included unwritten responsibility to continuously care for all family members, especially the elderly. 

CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

GS’ parents encouraged her to be a good student and a ‘responsible’ citizen. Her goal was to obtain a good job with sufficient earnings to take care of herself while saving extra dollars to be able to help her family if necessary. GS assumed that medical doctors led interesting lives and seemed to be well paid, so she kept such a career path in mind for the future, when choosing elective courses in science and psychology. 

EDUCATION

Due to working hard in high school, GS was admitted to a well-regarded university, where she majored in ‘General Management’ to learn the fundamentals of working in the business world. Mindful of her earlier interests in medicine and psychology, GS trained as an EMT at a medical school while majoring in economics with a minor in neuropsychology.

FIRST CAREER NEVER A BINDING COMMITMENT

Following college (university) graduation, GS was trying to find a job in finance when a friend who worked in Human Resources at a Hollywood talent agency, suggested that she interview for a job within that career path related to the entertainment industry. At the time, it was not a goal for GS to work in Hollywood but since her finance job search was not yet productive, she decided she had nothing to lose – other than the cost of a round-trip plane ticket to California (her friend invited GS to stay at her apartment while GS was in town) – GS flew to LA for the interview, did a typing test and answered personality questions about how she handled stress. GS was hired “on the spot.”

CHALLENGE – FULL JOB DUTIES NOT INITIALLY UNDERSTOOD

It was only after GS started working at the talent agency that she really learned what the job actually entailed. She started in the charitable department, working on foundations for many of the clients. After one year, GS was promoted to an Assistant for Head of Motion Picture Talent, which was a ‘big jump.’

Initially, the new job seemed ‘cool’. On the first day, GS recalls running down Rodeo Drive to return her boss’ Oscar dress to Chanel while on the phone with a famous actor. GS described that scene as “something straight out of a movie.”

At the time, GS was earning about $14 an hour, working 80 to 90 hours per week. She would put on a suit each morning and rush to work to arrive before her boss so GS could park the boss’ car, get her coffee and breakfast and start rolling calls by 7:30 a.m.

GS had two computer screens, three phones and a nonstop day.

(Editor – Better to ask all the details before accepting a job offer, than having to cope with job duties you wouldn’t have accepted if you knew before starting.)

FAMILY NEED CAUSES CAREER REASSESSMENT

After about two years of working at the agency, GS’ grandmother got sick and needed kidney dialysis. Growing up, GS was always attached to her grandmother, who was born in Shanghai, China, where she was trained as an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat doctor), at Yale’s Medical Program in China, before moving to the U.S.

When her grandmother got sick, GS asked herself: “What am I doing with my life? Yes, I had a job that people would step over me to get, but I felt no connection to it. I wanted to feel a connection to my heritage.”

So, GS chose to abandon her existing career to pursue becoming an acupuncturist and open her own business to provide such services. She assumed that even if she earned less money, her work-life balance would be far less stressful. 

(Editor – Per Wikipedia: Acupuncture is a form of ‘alternative medicine’ and a component of traditional Chinese medicine in which needles are briefly inserted into the body. It has been called a “pseudoscience” because its theories and practices are not based on scientific knowledge but nonetheless, many who are treated sincerely believe that their health and lives have been improved because of the acupuncture treatments. 

Acupuncture is most often used to attempt pain relief, though acupuncturists say that it can also be used for a wide range of other conditions. Acupuncture is generally used only in combination with other forms of treatment. Acupuncture is generally safe when done by appropriately trained practitioners using clean needle techniques and single-use needles. When properly delivered, it has a low rate of mostly minor adverse effects.)

CHALLENGE – ADDITIONAL EDUCATION REQUIRED

Based on having graduated from accredited university courses with excellent education reputations, GS could easily have been admitted to any acupuncture school to which she applied. She chose to apply and attend her acupuncture school for several reasons: more rooted in traditional Eastern medicine than some of the other options; good reputation and reasonably priced. 

Having chosen an acupuncture school, GS visited her grandmother and showed her the textbooks in Chinese language, much appreciated by her grandmother, “which meant a lot to me,” said GS. 

It took several extra years for GS to graduate from acupuncture school since she was now married, had two babies, and was diagnosed with breast cancer when her first child was only a year old. GS is still taking medication to prevent her cancer from recurring and will be doing so for another five years. 

Completing the acupuncturist career path was not easy. She sat for comprehensive exams in years one to three, which are like the exams required in medical school. Following graduation, GS sat for three different board-certification exams. 

CHALLENGE – FINANCING A NEW BUSINESS

To commence her new career, GS wisely chose to work as an entry-level acupuncturist within a clinic owned and managed by others, where she continued to learn practical techniques and more about the business of providing customer services while managing multiple administrative personnel.  

Upon deciding that she had learned all that she could learn about acupuncture and its business side, GS decided that she would take a reasonable risk to open her own business to have more control over her work life and hopefully achieve higher earnings eventually. 

(Editor – The main hurdle to opening a new business is somehow accumulating enough financing – either cash already on hand or a loan or a combination of both, to cover the cost of providing an office / clinic, purchasing basic office equipment plus the necessary professional equipment (e.g. needles and sterilization), insurance and advertising – for the time estimated before enough customer income will be earned to cover basic office expenses plus more for the living expenses of yourself and any employees.)

GS used a combination of financing to get her business “off the ground” – her personal savings plus a loan from her mother. 

GROWING A NEW BUSINESS

Before opening her business, GS talked with many small business owners to capture ideas, based on their real-world experiences. Some of the most valuable advice was “You get what you pay for – don’t count every dollar so much that you’re ‘cheaping’ out on things that are super important, like a good HVAC system. Some things you must pay for, such as permits and legal issues but understand what you can do yourself.”

Before affording a fixed office / clinic space, GS purchased a mobile van, which she outfitted with all necessary equipment to treat clients at their convenient locations. GS called this arrangement a ‘concierge’ business – traveling to patient homes and charging a premium for travel costs. 

When GS opened the door for her new, fixed-location business, a few people she had treated in her mobile business became early clients, who helped spread the word about GS’ new location. She found herself busy very quickly. After the first month, she had to hire staff to accommodate the growing number of clients. Within a year, GS had a staff of 15 people: 5 acupuncturists, 4 massage therapists, 3 managers and 3 front-desk assistants. Eventually, GS arranged her work schedule to see patients twice a week while the business has a waitlist every day which accommodates clients on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

Cultivating talent is important to GS. She has hired people who are acupuncture students to work at the front desk and develop their talent within GS’ business. GS estimates that she spends 25% of her time seeing patients, about 10% doing events or talks, about 20% developing and training her staff and the rest on administrative work. 

In addition to ‘word of mouth’ advertising, GS designed and paid for the printing and mailing of 1,000 mailers but not a single new customer resulted from that effort. So, GS hired a PR agency to manage her business’ social media accounts and referrals exploded. She now has a monthly budget for marketing and publicity. 

Through a mutual acquaintance, GS reached out to a ‘social influencer’ for advice on dealing with other influencers. The influencer visited GS’ location and asked some of her influencer friends to do so as well, in exchange for complementary treatments. These influencers led to more website visits than ever before. 

An initial business issue was how much to charge for acupuncture, which in GS’ market area, is still viewed as a luxury, unlike high income areas where acupuncture is viewed as more of a health necessity, where prices can be higher. GS needed to make sure that her services were affordable, so she decided to accept insurance payments, which creates for GS some administrative hassle and costs paid to the insurance companies, all which GS has concluded is a necessity, nonetheless. 

To promote continuing business among her clients, GS has created a relatively low-cost membership to encourage repeat business from already satisfied customers. Describing services her business offers, GS said, “We treat a wide range of conditions. I personally treat fertility, stress, anxiety, and difficulty sleeping. My team also treats a great deal of back, shoulder, and neck pain as well as headaches. There’s really no single bucket of concerns that we treat, as acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine is a whole scope of medicine.”

CHALLENGE – WILL THE CULTURAL IDENTITY OF BUSINESS OWNER DETER SOME CUSTOMERS? 

GS’ mother cautioned her as GS was considering a business name, to avoid referencing an obvious Chinese name, out of concern that some people dislike all Asians, especially during a time when the covid pandemic is widely believed to have originated in China. 

GS thought about her mother’s concern but decided to honor her cultural heritage and proceed, nonetheless. GS believed that she could grow business from one satisfied customer to another, eventually creating a group of clients unconcerned about GS’ ethnicity. If racists decided not to become clients, so be it. 

CAREER SATISFACTION

GS has achieved career satisfaction for several reasons: a manageable work-life balance, much better income than what she could have achieved at the entertainment agency business and most important: engaging in an activity consistent with her cultural identity as a self-described ‘mixed Asian’ female. 

This career story is based on an article written by Elle Hardy as a ‘told-to-essay’ published by Insider Inc, within online Apple News on 1/14/23.