Can My City's Population Support A Ketamine Clinic?

How do I know whether my city’s population can support a ketamine clinic?

You may have been pondering opening a ketamine clinic for quite some time now, and as you’ve been vacillating on it, someone else has opened up a clinic in your city.  So how does one know whether your city or metropolitan area can support another ketamine clinic?  Since ketamine treatments are novel and generally not covered by insurance at this time, it can be challenging to know for sure.

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculation On Starting a Ketamine Clinic

Simply put there’s no definitive answer, however, you can do some back-of-the envelope calculations that may support you in getting some clarity. 

First, start with your city’s metropolitan area. For example, let’s say it’s 750,000 people. (You can easily find this data by Googling, your city name + metropolitan area population + current year)

We also know that about 20% of the US population suffers from a mental health condition, resulting in 150,000 people in the area.

 Assuming that only 2.5% of that population is able to both afford IV ketamine and willing to try it, that would be 3,750 patients to target.  It seems like a lot of potential patients.  Also, that doesn’t include those with chronic pain either who may be benefit from IV ketamine treatments as well.  But that’s okay, since it's better to make conservative estimates. 

The Unknown: Starting a Ketamine Clinic Can Be Scary

There is no absolute way to know for sure whether your city can handle another or even the first clinic, unless we use a retrospectoscope. Furthermore, it will definitely take time to build up a patient base and a referral network, potentially up to one to two years.

“Good things happen slowly and bad things happen fast. Those were comforting words, and they comfort me today.”

~ Abigail Thomas, A Three Dog Life

Part of starting up a business is to acknowledge that there is always a possibility of failure. So it takes a lot of courage to start something new.   Not knowing can actually be a part of the adventure.  

 Read more about what it takes to start a clinic here at our What Does It Take To Start A Ketamine Clinic blog.

Don’t Feel Ready Yet? One Question to Ask Yourself

You’ve done the calculations and now you think this might actually work. But something is holding you back from actually pulling the trigger in starting your clinic. Before I started our clinic, I had many excuses for not starting, like not having the right business partner, or not having enough time to work on building a clinic. But eventually I got to a point where one question got me motivated to finally take action:

"When I'm 75 years old, will I have regretted not taking a chance on this idea?" 

Did I want to be that person who said they would have done something, but never did it? How would I feel when someone else opened a clinic (or a third clinic) in town. I didn’t want to be sitting there thinking, “That could have been me!” I got to a point where I would have taken the shot and missed rather than not to have tried at all. 

By keeping a low overhead (especially when first starting out), being persistent, and doing excellent marketing/branding, you can improve your likelihood of success.

Are you ready to start the ketamine clinic of your dreams? Join our email list and be notified about the next free webinar and open registration for Ketamine StartUp.

Are you wondering if your city’s population can support a ketamine infusion clinic? If so, check out our blog and find out how you can answer this question!

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