Written by Rebecca Mennecke
Starting a Business as a Hmong Professional Isn’t Easy, But the Impact is Incredible
Lifelong Chippewa Valley resident Bobby Lor founded ChuSeng Health Clinic, specializing in chiropractic services for people of all backgrounds
Solving problems is what Eau Claire resident Dr. Bobby Lor does for a living — well, solving back problems anyway.
A professional chiropractic, Dr. Lor helps patients maintain proper alignment through the use of spinal adjustments and caring for every patient’s neuromusculoskeletal system — or a patient’s bones, nerves, muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
“I find chiropractic to be extremely rewarding when a patient comes into my clinic with back/neck pain and leaves feeling better,” Dr. Lor said. “Every now and then, I'll get those cases where I'm reminded just how amazing this profession really is. I've had patients who threw out their back and literally can't even walk from their car into my clinic. They're scared that they'll never walk again, but after a few treatments they're back to normal.”
Dr. Lor graduated from Northwestern Health Sciences University in 2014 with his Doctorate of Chiropractic degree and opened his practice — ChuSeng Health Clinic — in his hometown of Eau Claire shortly thereafter. Now located at 2725 Morningside Drive in Eau Claire, his practice provides a variety of chiropractic services, including adjustments, massages, hot packs, exercises, and more.
Throughout his many years as a practicing professional, Dr. Lor shared there were many instances where patients would come into his clinic sharing experiences of pain and discomfort, only to later walk out of his office pain free.
“I had a case where one of my regular patients called me on a weeknight and asked if I would open my clinic and help treat her lockjaw because her mouth is stuck open and won’t close,” Dr. Lor said. “This is one of those cases you only ever hear about in chiropractic school, but don't ever expect to treat. So here I was on a Thursday night with my hands in my patient's mouth for 10 minutes until it finally closed.”
“I've also had a patient who had been dealing with a shooting pain from her knee to her foot every time she took a step for the last 10 years,” Dr. Lor continued. “It affected her so much that she would be walking on the side of her foot just to avoid the pain. After about a month of treatments, she said it was gone and that she's finally able to walk normally.”
The rewards of starting a business are immense, particularly having the opportunity to pursue one’s passions. But there were challenges to starting ChuSeng Health Clinic, too, Lor shared. The biggest challenge of launching his practice, Dr. Lor said, was finding an employee who was fluent in both English and Hmong.
“The majority of my patients areare were Hmong,” he said, “but all my paperwork, all my claims, and all the insurances I was working with are in English.”
Other challenges he faced included high startup costs, finding and using chiropractic computer software, complex business forms, networking, and growing his business.
Starting a business can be challenging — understatement of the century, for sure — which is why Dr. Lor recommends finding resources that can help individuals launch their business successfully. For Lor, that resource was the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.
“When starting a business, it’s about the people you know and having a couple key personality traits,” Dr. Lor said. “I would advise young entrepreneurs to have a good business attorney (I’m lucky my wife is a business attorney) and a mentor to advise you along the way. And most importantly, business requires a lot of determination and patience to overcome the inevitable obstacles.”
Dr. Lor further specializes in automobile accident and workers’ compensation cases.
“Nothing is more satisfying than helping a patient through the healing process, both physically and mentally, following a major trauma, like a rear-end or work accident,” he said. “It is a daily reminder of why I love my profession. And it’s loving what I do that gets me through the multiple challenges of curing people while running a business, especially during curveball times like the pandemic.”
Dr. Bobby Lor currently lives in Eau Claire with his wife, MaiVue Xiong (who you might know as the Executive Director of the Pablo Foundation and Of Counsel to Bakke Norman!), and their two daughters and son.
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