Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Dr. Eden Fromberg, Founder of Holistic Gynecology New York, located in Ghent, NY, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Holistic Gynecology New York and Dr. Eden Fromberg (me) specialize in an empowering, holistic approach to female health, gynecology, and fertility in an expanded functional and structural medicine context. Holistic Gynecology New York's personalized, innovative OB/GYN care with a gentle, caring focus serves the personal orientations and individual needs of a diverse niche of female patients seeking comprehensive, meticulous, truly holistic care. Generous time and focused attention allow for the judicious integration of complex diagnostics, meaningful information, alternative perspectives, and a range of holistic options rooted in cutting-edge research, avoiding the potential risks and side effects of synthetic hormones, pharmaceutical medications, and surgery. Holistic Gynecology New York is an independent, female-owned, private medical micro-practice with no corporate affiliations or obligations, operating on a fee-for-service basis outside of the limitations and restrictions imposed by the health insurance industry and corporate medicine.
Tell us about yourself
I attended medical school with the intention of cultivating an independent, holistic obstetrics and gynecology practice. I wanted to empower my patients in ways that were clearly needed in the OBGYN field, honoring the innate wisdom of the female body in the context of respecting personal orientation and individual needs in an environment of informed consent and bodily integrity. I knew very little about the business of medicine and was idealistic to the point of being unrealistic. While I initially dreamed of working out of a tipi - having lived in one during college - the reality was that medical office space housing a lot of expensive equipment and privacy-protected information was more practical.
My first OBGYN job was in a rural farmhouse with an attic birthing center, the first of several OBGYN practices promising partnership within two to five years. One after the other, the practices, not profitable enough to avoid succumbing to the pressures of the emergence of managed care insurance and medical consolidation, were ultimately sold to hospitals and corporate entities. After returning from international volunteer work attending home births from a grass-walled loft office overlooking a rice field in Bali and dabbling at opening my own independent practice, I accepted employment as the first faculty practice physician at a historic hospital in Brooklyn that was later sold for condominium development, as was my subsequent hospital affiliation. It was at this juncture that my process of becoming independent truly began by affiliating my practice with an independent, fee-for-service, two-woman partnership that converted my paper charts to electronic medical records mixed with theirs, promising me a partnership within two years. After a series of delays, it became apparent that the licensing fees that they were earning from my affiliation were concealing their financial erosion, particularly after one of the partners became disabled from work. Under heightening levels of stress and burnout, I received three weeks' warning that the practice was being sold to a corporate entity that immediately stripped the business of staff and resources while making hostile attempts to take over my practice and convert me into an employee. Defeat was not an option, and I rallied my resources, ignored naysayers, hired former employees, and struck out on my own. I rented spaces from a series of physicians who turned out to be concealing illnesses and financial problems, leading to one expensive move after another. There was no turning back, and I learned from the adversity that increasing my independence by taking control of space and overhead would be the only path to freedom from numerous forces that were clearly beyond my control.
I converted the living room of my East Village, NYC, walkup apartment into an administrative space with the ability to work remotely and converted my patient records from a cumbersome, legacy, server-based platform to a portable, cloud-based platform. I rejected taking on the obligations of renting my own medical office or that within multiple offices and exploitive business arrangements, at which I was now an expert in sniffing out, and found what could only be called my dream space: beautiful, part-time, upscale NYC office space with a no-nonsense, solo female OBGYN landlord. Nothing could possibly go wrong until ten months later, when the dream was shattered by COVID-19 restrictions that closed down outpatient medicine in New York City, including my practice. I gave up my dream space and did remote consultations from home, which new telemedicine laws facilitated. Within six months, I moved into a house under construction on family land in the rural Hudson Valley, two hours north of New York City, built a medical office in the house, and began to see patients in person again.
I put out feelers to rent space in NYC again, with the conviction that I would only see patients in the city at most once every two weeks, keep my practice small, and be certain not to enter into a situation that was a stress bomb, exploitive or doomed. Serious talks with a well-established, upscale, holistic multi-specialty practice had all the red flags of exploitation, and I knew my needs would never be met there. Prioritizing an upscale, medically-appointed environment was associated with an unacceptable level of financial commitment and time input and, with it, a level of stress that was neither sustainable nor desirable. I chose instead to rent a flexible space in NYC in which I pay for the days that I actually use, in an acupuncture and massage space within a somatic movement studio where I have studied for years, with a landlord who I consider a friend. Not long after giving up gynecology stirrups for a pelvic wedge, any lingering doubts were vindicated by a study revealing that patients don't like stirrups and actually prefer a less medicalized gynecology environment. Many patients express a sense of love and caring that they feel in the current practice context. I have phased out surgery in favor of manual and movement therapies in my holistic OBGYN practice, and my extensive anatomical knowledge and meticulous surgical skills now inform techniques that improve and restore connection and communication in organ and tissue relationships. I once struggled to be on the frontier of developing clinical contexts for holistic and indigenous approaches that are now being recognized by modern research and gaining mainstream acceptance. Healing stress-related issues in my own body have given me insight into unraveling the complex challenges that my patients face when symptoms are overwhelming, and healing feels elusive. I now cook at home with locally grown organic vegetables and herbs, do yoga and walk on country roads and in the forest most days. I am building a healing spa in the basement, including a sauna and herbal pelvic steam bath therapies, and I am planning a medicinal herb garden, a cookbook, healing process circles, retreats, and courses to mentor other professionals in holistic gynecology, micro-practice development, and self-renewal.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I am now able to be idealistic while at the same time realistic. I provide the innovative, holistic care that I have pioneered over the years without feeling exploited and worn down by the circumstances of my work while being intimately immersed in the hands-on aspects of running my practice. I set appropriate boundaries, appropriately value myself and my services financially, and share a sense of fulfillment and empowerment with my patients and business associates. Being in an independent, fee-for-service medical micro-practice that allows for abundant self-care and renewal gives me the flexibility and creativity to provide the holistic medical care that I believe in within a sustainable and fulfilling context.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Being a business owner, you live intimately with the quality of the energy and relationships that you create. Running a holistic medical practice in which I am also the solo physician creates an intimate level of personal engagement, along with which comes tremendous responsibility. To sustain the demands this entails requires an ongoing process of working through and transcending insecurities, doubts, disappointments, and limited narratives to achieve the highest levels of personal integrity, ethical consideration, and mutually empowered relationships.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Take advantage of conditions that support growth and risk while realizing that this process is not linear, maintaining responsive flexibility with which to move forward, pull back, and change course.
- Loving and having a commitment to what you do is fuel, and taking care of yourself physically and emotionally by cultivating your own development is essential to maintain creativity and growth and avoiding burnout.
- Micromanage with integrity. Knowing how your business works and checking in on delegated responsibilities will best support your employees and associates in fulfilling your aspirations and presentation and save money and aggravation in the long run.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: http://www.doctoredenfromberg.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dredenfromberg/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dredenfromberg/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eden-fromberg-do-959738126/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.