I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard chiropractors say “yeah, but my business is different.” In fact, I think as a profession a majority of clinic owners believe that chiropractic is a different business than most others.
But is that really true?
Is it the business that’s different or is it CHIROPRACTORS that are different?
We are an odd bunch! Consistently, doctors try to run their business with no specific marketing strategy and hope patients will just walk in the door. They have no office systems to ensure a consistent patient experience. And they manage their business by how much is in the checking account when it comes time to pay bills. It’s crazy!
As much as many doctors truly believe that their business is different, ultimately it is an excuse not to change.
A Business is a Business
Businesses are all relatively the same, INCLUDING Chiropractic. There are core components that apply to all businesses whether its a Subway, a car dealership, or a chiropractic clinic.
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Lead Generation
* Lead Conversion
* Client Fulfillment / Success
* Financial Management
If any of those systems break down (or don’t exist at all), your business is going to underperform and not serve the number of people that you would like to serve and ultimately you won’t reap the benefits of owning the business that you should.
Once we determine that a chiropractic clinic, like any other business can, and should, operate like a machine with a series of interconnected systems that all create a consistent result, the next step is creating those systems.
Sounds overwhelming, right?
All of the various moving parts that happen from day to day and week to week and now we are talking about creating a system for each! For certain personality types, that probably sounds exciting. For most, it seems like an insurmountable task that just causes the brain to spin.
Too many books and courses take a very linear approach to systematizing a business. Start with one particular aspect that they suggest and move through them all progressively one at a time.
There’s a better way! To maintain momentum in this process, like anything else, it’s important that we see some results of your hard work or you will lose interest and it will be another one of those projects you told your team you were all excited about and 30 days later its no longer spoken of.
Begin With the End in Mind
The key is to begin with the desired change you intend to create. What would you like to improve about your business? People own businesses for two reasons; to make an impact by solving a problem for other people and to make money that provides for the lifestyle for their family that they desire. If you’re wanting to try to improve some aspect of your business, it likely is not where you want it to be in one of those two areas, or both.
You may have a goal for your practice that you are trying to reach. Let’s call this a Strategic Objective. Some Strategic Objectives for your practice could include any of the following:
* Increase average monthly collections to $60,000/mo for Q4 of this year
* Increase patient visits to 1200/mo for Q4
* Improve percentage of patients reaching their first progress evaluation to 75%
* Reduce Cancellation / No Show percentage to under 6%
* Increase Future Appointments per Active Case to 9
But there are lots of ways to achieve the same goal. Breaking those goals down into the various parts that contribute to their achievement is going to be necessary so you can focus on one Key Strategic Objective. We discuss that in Breaking Through Practice Plateaus. Click HERE to read that post.
