You might say it is clinical expertise. Or motivation? Or marketing Or …philosophy.

After visiting chiropractic offices nationwide for over 30 years, I can tell you that none of these factors are the most fundamental. Important, yes. But sooner or later, they all get derailed and sidetracked because of one factor — management.

HOW GROWTH TRAPS YOU AS A CHIROPRACTIC AND PRACTICE OWNER

Growth creates its own barrier. As you see more patients and your visit volume grows, so does your administrative and marketing duties. In fact, they grow about twice as fast. But for the most part, they aren’t noticed as you are busy with patient care. After a while, tasks backlog and pile up, staff get confused, and the floor cares in and down goes your practice.

As you grow, you run into a mostly invisible organizational barrier. This creates a big dilemma: How can you be at your best as a caring, empathetic doctor focusing on delivering the highest quality outcomes possible to your trusting patients — while at the same time managing a growing business.

You can’t.

You need a trained, Goal Driven manager to take care of the practice administration for you.

IT’S THE MANAGER!

But you don’t have to take it from me.

Michael Gerber pointed this out in his famous book, The E-Myth, in the 1980s.

And recently, after analyzing hundreds of businesses and thousands of business people, Gallup scientifically came up with the following conclusion:

“Based on our largest global study of the Future of Work, Gallup finds that the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success.”

A PRACTICAL MBA FOR YOUR PRACTICE MANAGER AND YOU

There are no intensive training programs for practice managers in the chiropractic profession. There sometimes are some short classes at seminars on various “management” subjects, but nothing formal or comprehensive. And nothing for doctors to be trained as CEO’s, though some chiropractic colleges offer two-year MBA programs for $20,000 or more.

Over the last year, we have been building a training program for practice managers.

The program is primarily for managers, but doctors will also receive training as Clinic Directors. It is an 11-week program with 30 short classes taught in live webinars over 11 weeks. It includes round table discussions with the managers, weekly homework for the manager graded by me, a private manager’s club, and many other innovative teaching procedures.

The outcome is a Goal Driven practice manager and practice Clinic Director who knows how to move their practice forward to achieve its fullest potential and comfortably stay there.

Over the next several weeks, I will post articles and videos on practice management and leadership for you and your practice manager in addition to the usual Tuesday emails.

If you are interested in this program, just reply to this email, and we will contact you.

I am only accepting a maximum of 7 offices as this is the first Founder’s Round for charter members. So don’t wait if you are interested. The class is filling, and once we are full, that’s all I can take.

MANAGEMENT SUPPORTS EVERYTHING IN A CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE PRACTICE

You can attend seminars and learn new adjusting techniques, buy new therapy equipment, and purchase all the advertising you can. But when the rubber meets the road, you need people and systems to support you. Who will train and coach your team, write up and practice new procedures, and handle the growing administrative responsibilities?

If you have a trained manager and you have been trained in our new Fast Flow CEO Method, the admin tasks will be managed proactively and responsibly.

And you know what? Managers want to be trained. They want to improve and be more valuable to the practice.

WHEN YOU NEED A PRACTICE MANAGER AND WHEN YOU DON’T

If you are operating comfortably at 40-50% of your full capacity, you have the time to be the practice manager yourself. If you want.

But if you are growing, operating at 80% or more of you full capacity, or if you have a large practice, with multiple doctors, providers, or ancillary services, you are losing revenue if you do not have a trained Goal Driven practice manager taking care of practice administration.

MANAGEMENT TIP FOR THE WEEK.

Do what you do best.

And delegate all the rest.

Ed

As a chiropractic or healthcare business owner, you ultimately have 1 of 3 destinations you want to achieve.

1. Cruise at Maximum Altitude. Reach your full operational capacity, stay there and cruise, accumulate wealth, and enjoy the ride.
2. Cruise at Maximum Altitude and Expand. Reach your full operational capacity, then clone yourself and bring on other doctors, providers, or heaven help you, other offices.
3. Attain Maximum Altitude and Sell. Reach your full operational capacity and sell your business.

Operating at full capacity would be adjusting and treating as many patients as possible comfortably with full staff support. It would be your maximum production level where you, and all the doctors and providers, were fully booked.

Getting to your full capacity is one thing. Staying there is another altogether.

There are several reasons why it can be so challenging to maintain your maximum capacity. Some causes are apparent, some hide in plain sight, and some are difficult to recognize, accept, or overcome.

Here are a few:

1. You are a chiropractic or healthcare entrepreneur. You like the challenge of growth. But you get bored easily. After you reach the top of the mountain, you look around for another challenge, and in the process – oops! You stop doing what worked.
2. Passion, Inspiration, & Fast Marketing. You can often achieve high production because of sudden inspiration from a recent seminar or tapping into a new marketing niche. In either case, passion doesn’t last forever, and fishing holes are soon fished out.
3. Your team is not ready. You don’t have the team in place to support the higher volume.
4. Doctor AND CEO. You don’t have the time and energy to provide high-quality care to more and more patients AND manage your business at the same time.

Other snares, barriers, landmines, pirates, and even false prophets block your growth, pull you down, or lead you astray and keep you from hitting your maximum altitude, but the above four are common.

Here are remedies to the above 4 hurdles:

1. Yes, you are an entrepreneur — but keep doing what works. It may need some adjusting now and then, but if you were calling the new patient after their first adjustment and treatment when you were growing and doing well – keep doing it!
2. Generate your own inspiration weekly. Read, watch videos, go to where you go for spiritual revival, and talk to positive colleagues. Talk to your coach(s)! You could go to a hospital or talk to nurses and see what happens to people who didn’t see you! Remember, the Power comes from above down and then inside out.
3. Invest in building your team. It takes time to build an expert team. Ensure you hire right and then regularly coach your team.
4. Systems. The dilemma of being an expert doctor while also a competent CEO is solved by implementing systems, especially management systems. Michael Gerber discussed this in his book, The E-Myth, a standard text for most owners of service businesses. My book, the Goal Driven Business, expands upon it.

Apply these 4 remedies now — and when you do reach your full capacity, you will have a much easier time staying there.

If you are looking for a guide or a flight instructor to help you reach your cruising altitude, let me know!

Seize Your Future,

Ed

It was a warm summer day when I was driving my Kawasaki Intruder south down Highway 101 in Oregon near the California border when the fog rolled in. Although I had gloves on, they didn’t help. Hitting a cold fog bank on a motorcycle, the wind chill hits you hard. I was cold, but when I noticed that the front wheel was shaking because I was shaking, I decided that was enough. I found a roadside motel and called it a day.

After a two-hour shower just to warm up, I settled into a chair in my room and started reading some material from a client’s office. It talked about the 3 Phases of Care for patients. I knew about these phases, though never paid much attention to them, and I don’t expect many doctors I worked with paid much attention to them either.

Then, it hit me: these Three Phases of Care are like three goals of care:

1. Relief – Goal 1
2. Correction-strengthening – Goal 2
3. Maintenance-Wellness — Goal 3

Then I had this kinda mind-blowing experience: Could these three goals for patients also apply to three goals for a practice? This was a mind-altering question, and after the room stopped swirling, the answer was obvious – YES. The three goals for a patient were similar to the three goals for a practice.

1. Profit — Goal 1. (This comes from immediate production from marketing. Not enough cash flow is painful!)
2. Service — Goal 2. (The best quality at full capacity comes from a strong practice where all major issues are corrected and in alignment.)
3. Higher Purposes. — Goal 3. Our why, our mission, our reasons for Goals 1 and 2.

From this experience, we named our seminar series in 2008 – 2010, The Three Goals. And it was from this that I later named my book, The Goal Driven Business.

3 GOALS FOR YOUR CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTH ORIENTED PATIENTS

I think to be agreeable and to give patients what they think they want, doctors often focus on relief care, and once the patient feels better, the patient leaves. Trying to convince patients to stay longer can seem like pressuring the patient, or it just takes up too much time.

Yes, educating your patients on correction and wellness does take more work. But your patients want this. They just don’t know it. They are symptom oriented – trained and treated by a medical system rather than an actual health system.

The hardware store thinks it is selling a hammer to a man. Yes, but they are also selling something that puts a beautiful painting on a wall at his home that makes his wife happy. The hardware store is selling… a hammer, a hung artwork, and happiness.

As the doctor, are you selling just a hammer, or are you also selling happiness?

3 GOALS FOR YOUR CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE PRACTICE

Unfortunately, the habit of only treating symptoms carries over to practice management. We don’t take the time or feel we have the time to invest in ourselves, let alone our staff. Constant training, coaching, and sometimes counseling for yourself and your team are required to become stronger and more in alignment with the goals of a healing office. In the end, this improves income, service, and practice freedom.

For happier patients and a happier office, apply all 3 Phases of Care, or Goals, to your patients and to your practice.

Ed

I can show you how this is possible. Read the Goal Driven Business and contact me!