Our vision is to see every health practitioner loving their work and achieving their vision. Creating and running a well-managed practice makes that more possible. Here are some top tips for you from each of the topics we covered in the series of six workshops.
Have a business strategy in place
A vital start in building a well-managed practice! As the old saying goes ‘Fail to plan and plan to fail’ We recommend getting crystal clear on what you want to achieve and commit it to paper or your favourite digital format.
- Start with the end in mind: Know what you personally want in all aspects of your life, now and in the future so that you can pro-actively work to create what you want now and work towards what you want in the future
- Be very clear and passionate about the purpose of your practice
- Identify your core values – being consciously clear about these will give you a point of reference for everything you do and decide
- Once you know what you want, map out the steps to get there
- Keep the plan simple and user friendly
Turning plans into actions
A plan without action is just a dream. In order for you to achieve your vision, be clear about what needs to be done by who and by when.
- Give yourself and your team key milestones with timeframes
- Be clear about what your focus needs to be – choose the ONE THING each day/week/month to concentrate on and implement
- Delegate or ditch the things you know you should not be doing
- Take time to document processes and procedures
- Make the most of your 86400 seconds each day!
Marketing your practice
Avoid the feast and famine cycles by having a marketing plan in place which supports you in doing regular marketing and not just having surges of activity when the phone isn’t ringing as much as you’d like.
- Be clear about your message – you can do all the marketing in the world but if your message is unclear, inauthentic, dull…the phone won’t ring
- People buy why you do what you do not what you do – speak about the impact not the technicalities of the treatment
- Have a very clear idea about who your ideal patient is and position your message accordingly
- Think about what you would like people to be saying about you when they see any of your marketing and make sure that’s the feel and brand you are always projecting
- Identify your key patient sources and document the steps you’ll take in each area to attract more patients
Embrace social media
Social media is here to stay and can be a cost-effective marketing tool when use correctly.
- Be on purpose with your social media
- Follow the 80/20 rule – make 80% of your posts valuable, enjoyable content for your audience and 20% promotion
- Have a content and relationship plan – outline what you will put out there and who you will engage with
- Do a few platforms really well rather than many in a bit of a ‘hit and miss’ fashion
- Measure results and take action accordingly
Encourage a returning and referring culture
Ensuring patients complete the recommended treatment is of course good for your business but more importantly it is good for the patients’ wellbeing. On the subject of referrals, the majority of clinics report that most of their new patients come from referrals and most often these ‘just happen’ – you can definitely encourage more.
- Keep the best interest of your patients at the very heart of every conversation you have with them
- Do not means test your patient – your role is to give them the best recommendation in your expert opinion (which is presumably not financial expertise…)
- Care for your patients – if they cancel or don’t turn up and you were expecting them to continue care, follow up – check in that they are okay!
- Listen for opportunities and ask patients for referrals – it helps you to help more people
- Thank your patients for the referrals you receive
Managing people
Whether you have self-employed, employed or a combination, leadership and management will be one of your key roles as a practice owner.
- Hire for attitude, train for skill
- Make sure that every team member knows and is passionate about the purpose of the practice
- Clearly outline everyone’s role and define how they will know that they are meeting your expectations (Key Performance Indicators)
- Don’t be ships in the night – have regular 1-2-1’s with each of your team members
- Learn to be the last to speak and listen to understand rather than thinking about what you’ll be saying next