This Isn't Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart rules the retail industry because they offer quality products at the lowest possible price. My business model (The Honor Box system) is not (despite what some may think) patterned after the Wal-Mart philosophy.

The Honor Box is not designed to discount chiropractic care and offer my services at the lowest possible price.

If my patients can afford my regular prices, that's what they should pay!

The Honor Box is there to remove any financial obstacle from a patient receiving all the chiropractic care they need.

Any patient who uses the Honor Box and pays less than the standard fee without first honestly examining their budget and then determining the most they can possibly afford is abusing the system.

The Honor Box isn't there to provide a "good deal."

It's exisitence is there to provide a necessary service regardless of a patient's ability to pay.

The $1.73 Lesson

I've been running the Honor Box for about five and a half years now.  People still ask me, "How in the world can you run a business like that?"

It's hard sometimes.

Like the other day, last week, in the Box was a payment of $1.73 (A crumpled dollar bill wrapped around 2 quarters, 2 dimes and 3 pennies)

Now, when I get payments like this, I need to keep my emotions in check.

If I'm not careful, an anger will begin to brew inside stemming from the thought that someone is taking advantage of me.  If I allow myself to imagine that patient paying me a fee less than a McDonald's Happy Meal-- while at the same time spending their money on Vegas junkets and a new SUV, my blood will boil.

So instead, when I find a small payment in the Box, I MUST give my patients the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe whoever made that payment really doesn't have enough this month.  Maybe they're truly struggling to put food on the table for their family.  Maybe they are in danger of getting their power shut off by the electric company.  Maybe they are at risk to actually getting kicked out of their home.

Maybe, the reality is that that $1.73 represents a huge sacrifice on their part.

Like Jesus taught in terms of recognizing the widow's mite as a great offering, I need to gratefully accept whatever gets deposited into the Honor Box.  I need to accept all payments without judgement and without scorn.

Because, when it comes right down to it: it is NOT my patients in whom I place my faith that my business may succeed.

It is, in fact, my Heavenly Father who fills the Honor Box with the money I use to care for my family.

It is in Him whom I place my faith so that I may indeed "run a business like that."