Re-Evaluate Your Practice Systems; Decide If A Consultant Is Right For You
The need for management consultants in the chiropractic profession has increased in the last decade due to the changing environment. With greater competition between chiropractors, with some physical therapists trying to provide spinal manipulation, and with greatly reduced insurance reimbursement, chiropractors need solutions.
The only way to stay ahead in a changing environment is to change you. Unfortunately, some chiropractors have gone so far as to retire when the going got tough. Others had to seek employment outside the chiropractic profession just to survive.
Some chiropractors have found ways to build their businesses on their own and boomed. These doctors usually have excellent business sense, are good adjusters and are inspired to succeed. However, many other chiropractors who have opened practices in the last decade just get by or have yet to reach their goals for practice success.
To help chiropractors reach their goals and their full practice potential, management consultants provide much-needed assistance. Let’s take a look at some of the problems facing chiropractors, and learn why many chiropractors turn to management consultants for guidance.
When a chiropractor has not reached his goals, it is for one of two reasons. Either the doctor become burned out and lost the motivation, purpose and inspiration to help others; or he never had an inspired purpose at all. Without motivation, one has no reason to do the things necessary to succeed.
If you lack motivation, you must restore or find the passion for practice that will help you change, implement new things, and overcome the barrier to success. All the good ideas in the world are worthless if you refuse to use them. You must ask yourself these questions: “Am I happy in practice? Do I get excited about helping people get well? Am I always looking for better way to serve more people? Do I look forward to going to the office?”
If the answer to any of the above is no, you have a problem. The problem is that you need to restore, regain or find a passion to serve and become motivated to practice. You do not just burn out over time. You burn out from a loss of purpose, which can be restored. Good management consultants not only address your business, but the business of success. You need to first recognize you need help and then get it.
The second reason a chiropractor may fail to reach her goals relates to systems. The human body runs on systems. You get sick when one of your systems does not work. Chiropractors get a sick practice when one or more of their systems are failing. Your practice systems include systems to get new patients, systems to educate patients, systems to handle finances, systems to schedule and run a proper appointment book, systems to eliminate missed appointments, etc.
You either have good systems, bad systems or no systems. Many chiropractors turn to management consultants to improve their systems or to develop and implement a missing system.
How do you know you have good or bad practice systems or procedures? It’s simple. Look at the results they produce. You wouldn’t describe your system to do in-office workshops as good if it brought no new patients. You might have a system you have become comfortable with that may have worked in the past; however, if it no longer produces a positive result, you need help.
To say spinal screenings don’t work or that outside lectures and public speaking don’t provide new patients is wrong. Your system of doing them may not work. There are systems that do. To say your patients don’t refer means you aren’t doing the right things to get them to refer. You need the right system.
Failing to win can be extremely frustrating. Some doctors lose their motivation, not because they don’t believe in chiropractic, but because they cannot pay their bills. Ten new patients in a week may be all it takes to bring back a doctor’s motivation and enthusiasm. Most doctors can easily regain a passion for practice when they are winning. To win you need the right systems.
If I wanted to fly a plane and spent $100,000 to buy one, I would become frustrated if every time I tried to use it, I crashed. Chiropractors pay an average of $100,000 to earn their degree: No wonder it’s frustrating not to win.
You know you can’t fly a plane without training on how to do it. Just because you become a chiropractor doesn’t mean you know how to fly the plane. Management consultants can help you fly the plane. They can help you reach your goals. Smart doctors know when they need help. Knowing how to fly the plane comes from either trying to fly on your own and succeeding, or hiring an instructor to guide you.
Not all management consultants are the same. You need to choose wisely. You need to know their purpose and know if their systems work. You need to know what your problems are, and be sure the program you choose addresses those problems. Get a copy of their agenda, speak to doctors in their program and decide if they are for you. Most of all, you must know your strengths and your weaknesses in order to succeed. That is the first step to personal and professional satisfaction.
