5 Easy Ways to Expand Your Practice With a Chiropractic Practice Appraisal

“But I am not retiring anytime soon so why would I need a chiropractic practice appraisal?” he asked.

“Well the simple answer is that you don’t need to have it appraised but you might want to have it appraised” I stated.

“Why, what would be the benefit to me and my family or patients?” he asked

“Let me explain. You told me you have a preventative, proactive outlook on health and well being and that is what you teach your clients, correct?” I enquired

“Correct” he stated.

“Alright, you also told me last night at the bar ……. (for clarity this is a recap of a conversation I had with a chiropractic friend of mine awhile ago at a seminar. I am not in the habit of frequenting bars 🙂 ……… that you wanted to grow your practice by 15 or 20% to make things easier financially now that the kids are getting older and University is coming, not to mention to have a bigger impact on your community.”

“Yep you are right about that my friend” he stated emphatically

“So how are you going to do that? What exactly do you need to work on? What do you need to do more or less of? My guess is if you knew exactly where the holes were in your practice you would already be plugging them and we wouldn’t be having this conversation?” I countered.

He pondered my comment and then said with a grin “Damn you do know me pretty well. Things are so busy with the practice and leading the team and the kids and all their activities that I just don’t seem to have time to work on the practice anymore.” he stated with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“Well you sure are not alone as many of our friends from school and the docs I consult with tell me a very similar story. That is why I am committed to doing more of these appraisals because hidden within the goodwill checklist we create is practice building gold. The metrics that you specifically should be focusing on in your practice to grow it to the next level. It is usually different from practice to practice which is why it is customized to your data and your practice.” I stated.

“Let me share five of the most common ones with you right now. Remember the focus of the goodwill checklist is to discover how REPRODUCIBLE THE PROFIT YOU MAKE IS. Anything that increases the probability that another chiro could come in and reproduce the same profits you are, makes the sale price of the practice that much greater. The double dip is not only does it make the practice worth more in the long run but between now and then you will serve more people, feel more fulfilled and make a ton more profit to help put those kids through University. Here are 5 of the more common ones.

 

1. TEAM TRAINING – Do you have a written system and protocol for how to train your team? Do you train regularly or let entropy take hold and only train when something is broken? The real efficient offices actually hire outside trainers to ensure their team is really sharp because they realize what a great return on investment they get from investing in their team.

2. EDUCATED CLIENTELE – Do you invest the time to repeatedly educate your practice members to the value of the care you are providing. Do you do a report of findings, regular structured table talk and progress reviews? Educated clientele are much more likely to return and will likely stay even when there is a transition in the doc.

3. REGULAR TEAM MEETINGS AND EVALUATIONS – Do you do a weekly team meeting with an agenda and rotate the chair person? Do you do a quarterly team evaluation so you can support and challenge your team to be their best? (This not only keeps them accountable to growth, but makes them feel more valued in the practice)

4. MARKETING PLAN – Do you have a written marketing plan that is getting followed to a tee? Do you calculate your ROI on the ideas and projects in your plan and cut your losers short and let your marketing winners run? Once you find the “winners” in your community, this not only makes you more money in the short term but you can “sell” this with the practice ensuring a profitable practice.

5. SYSTEMS – Are your business systems in your practice more doctor driven or team driven? In other words could you replace yourself with another doc and have the practice still run with great efficiency? Test this= go on an extended vacation and see how smooth your systems run with a locum.

 

“With these five examples it looks like I have some work to do my friend. But once I have the appraisal at least I will know where to start and what to work on to increase the profitability of the practice in the many years I have until I retire. Not to mention the increase in value of the practice when I do go to sell it because it will be so much more reproducible for the next doc I turn the reins over to.”

 

“Tell me more about how to get a practice appraisal started?” he asked. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT GETTING A CHIROPRACTIC PRACTICE APPRAISAL DONE FOR YOUR PRACTICE.