So here we are… on the cusp of starting another year in practice?
Are you ready?
No, I mean are you really ready?
Let’s make sure you are!
Because if you’re not, you will likely succumb to the one business truism that almost always rings true.
– Those that fail to plan, plan to fail –
And January 1st is not the time to start planning, right now is.
So let’s get going on our roadmap to a successful next year.
THE PLAN
Set aside some time today to write down the plan of how you will shape your personal and professional life next year.
Personal
While for the sake of brevity I won’t cover the ‘personal plan’ in detail, I mention it because it’s really what you should start with.
Examples of what you may have in your personal plan include:
-Spend more time with family doing…
-Take a vacation for 5 days in August at…
-Help XYZ charity by volunteering…
-Make the down payment on…
-Pay off…
Essentially the personal plan is how you want to spend your time. I actually recommend you write this out for next year, for 5 years and for 15 years at a minimum. Each year you can then see how on par you are for shaping your plan and refocus in the weak areas or make alterations accordingly.
Professional
While it may be slightly different for everyone, I view my ‘professional plan’ as the path to 2 basic goals.
1. Improving the health of my community through chiropractic treatment and education on how to achieve ‘real’ health
2. Accomplishing my ‘personal plan’
By providing chiropractic services and planning your in-clinic and external health talks and getting them on the calendar (if you alter the dates later it doesn’t matter, just get it on the books!), you in effect have already taken care of personal goal number 1.
So how about number 2?
Now it’s time to make the plan for how your practice is going to look in the coming year and the action steps you will take to get it there.
I recommend you start by writing out the ‘numbers’ and ‘dollars’ you want to attract to your practice.
Figure it out per month and multiply by 12 to get the goal for the year as you will want to be able to visualize and track your progress from both time perspectives.
A few examples include
-Pre-tax Gross Income
-Pre-tax Net Income
-Patient Visits
-New Patients
I also like to figure out the number of missed appointments (i.e. Less than 15% of total patient visits). If you recommend care plans, you may also want to include the number of new patients that will ‘take’ care (i.e. 8 out of 10).
Next write out the front office, doctor and CA protocols you need to get in place or improve so your office runs more efficiently and with a higher level of customer service. If you don’t have good protocols in place, find a successful friend or chiropractic consultant and learn some.
Now for each month write out your marketing plan.
Include 3 Categories: Internal Promotions, External Marketing Events/Advertising and Internet Marketing (includes Social Media, SEO and Paid Ads).
The Secret Sauce to Success
You’ve got your blueprint in place. Now you need to meditate on it so to speak.
I recommend you get out of the office, go to a place where you can have uninterrupted focus, and have a brainstorming session with yourself for a couple of hours. I fly a lot so I typically get all this done while on a plane with a set of noise cancelling headphones strapped to my head and a cup of black coffee on my tray table.
Once in and ‘at’ the right place, fill in and mark up your blueprint with ideas and strategies until you are mentally exhausted and emotionally excited about the coming year.
The reality there is nothing complicated or mystical about this process.
You just have to do it.
Do Not Procrastinate! The sooner you get this done, the more prepared you will be to set your plan into motion on or before the first day of 2014.
