Dr. Kathryn Haynes, left, inverts Shawn Medsker at Total Health Chiropractic's North Market Street location.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press• Name: Total Health Chiropractic
• Locations: Downtown, East Ridge, Brainerd, Hixson, East Brainerd, Ooltewah and Highway 58.
• Products/services: The doctors at Total Health help patients relieve pain without drugs or surgery. Symptoms such as headaches, neck pain and back pain can be relieved by taking pressure off certain bones and nerves, chiropractors say. Using natural methods also can help patients avoid the often negative side effects of modern medicine and surgery, co-owner Lance Silverman said.
• Age: Founded in summer 1996
• Startup investment: $50,000 per store
• Annual sales: $2 million to $3 million for all stores, making it one of the biggest chiropractic practices in Tennessee.
• Target market: While Silverman reaches out to "anybody with a spine," the primary demographic in Chattanooga seems to be middle-age women, he said, who are "a little more proactive in taking care of their health than men."
• Biggest hurdle: Educating the public and overcoming the stereotypes associated with chiropractic are difficult, Silverman said. But he's reaching out to potential clients with a mass marketing campaign and hopes that it will go a ways toward changing minds.
• Biggest reward: "When people get it," he said.
• Challenges in the future: "Obama's health plan has so many knowns. As an employer, as a health care provider and as a patient, it could be a double hit for us," Silverman said. "We'd have to pay out more for employees, and what we collect will go down."
• Lesson learned: Silverman and co-owner Dominick Tomasino rent many of their buildings across their business, but they wish they had bought them, they said.
• Five-year goal: Silverman plans to open three more offices in the next five years, primarily in North Georgia.
- Compiled by staff writer Ellis Smith, esmith@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6315