If you're not connecting on a personal level with your fellow physicians, you'll probably be another specialty practice waiting around for referrals. However, to make a meaningful connection, you need to understand the different types of referring practices and tailor your outreach strategy accordingly. Every physician should be familiar with his or her sources of referral business.

As an increasing share of healthcare costs has been shifted by employers to their employees, copays and deductibles have gone up substantially. This increase has left providers with a significant amount of outstanding self-pay revenue to collect. In a recent interview, Jay Gonsalves, president and owner of the Action Collection Agency of Boston, offered his outlook on this topic. "I believe that health reform will create higher copays and deductibles for consumers to be responsible to have to pay, not unlike the direction managed care has been heading in the past years."

In an ideal world, you'd be able to hire an experienced professional marketing director to manage your program-that is if your practice is large enough and has room in the budget. But if someone else handles marketing development, such as a physician, a practice administrator, or another executive, it is vital that the person is able to devote the appropriate time to the job. Ideally, this is an individual who understands the importance of relationship building and customer service. This individual will make sure that physicians are on time for appointments and that they follow up appropriately with referring physicians.

Of all the tools in a healthcare marketer's toolkit, the focus group is one of the most valuable. However, just as a carpenter shouldn't operate a table saw without proper training, a physician practice shouldn't conduct a focus group without the right knowledge. The foremost mistake medical groups make with this exercise is trying to accomplish too much in what should be a narrowly focused session, says Kenneth T. Hertz, CMPE, a senior consultant and principal at the Medical Group Management Association.

How do you compete in a crowded market when other facilities offer unique services, such as spa-like amenities, or have the advantage of strong name recognition? For St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, the answer was to reach out to the 20-somethings known as transitional professionals. Research performed by St. Mary's agency, Mortar PR in San Francisco, which included informal discussion groups with a variety of age and gender groups, as well as more traditional market research, showed that families were leaving the city and the elderly population was in decline.

The thought of holding a team building retreat might sound like a frivolous bonding experience to some busy physicians. But in the ever-changing and highly innovative healthcare industry, retreats can be a critical component in helping maintain your practice's focus on quality care and productivity. "The challenge for physicians is that they have to care for their patients, but they also have to manage their practice," says Randy Bauman, president of Delta Healthcare in Brentwood, TN. "They have to realize that not only are they in charge as a doctor, but they are responsible as a leader and a manager. They need to step back and look at their business with a strategic perspective."

Editor's note: This is part one of a six-part series on specific ways to invest your money. Future columns will cover the following areas: alternative investments (hedge funds, private equity, real estate), mutual funds, fixed-income investing, separately managed accounts, and life insurance or annuities.