Hello, doctors. Today, I want to share a principle that affects each and every one of us in private business, and especially chiropractors. It’s the law of efficiency.
In chiropractic, when this law of efficiency is broken, these things will follow: First, quality of work will be affected. Secondly, productivity will decrease. And thirdly, profitability will also decrease.
Chiropractors typically go straight to that last one. How can I become more profitable? And that’s how we end up chasing every golden nugget that comes down the pike. We think we need a particular piece of equipment, or a specific type of marketing to build our practices.
In reality, if we would learn to become more efficient with our existing patients, to retain them longer and duplicate them; then we could easily double our practices. Most chiropractors have enough business to do exactly that.
Now, God only put one limit on each and every one of us, and that limit is time. Efficiency is learning how to properly utilize the time that God has given us in a quality manner which allows us to grow. How does this affect each and every chiropractor? The law of efficiency can keep us from reaching the next level. No matter how your practice is doing, that law of efficiency can affect you.
Let’s take a chiropractor that’s been in practice for seven to eight years. In that time, they’ve taken whatever they learned from a “ra-ra” seminar, or a mentor who taught them some things, and put together a system. And that system that they put together over the last eight years has allowed them to grow from nothing to $15,000 or $18,000 on average a month. So, why can’t that same person take it up from 15 to 30, to 35 or 40?
Why can’t they do that? Why does is it level off? Because inefficiencies prevent them from succeeding. You cannot outgrow a stress point, it is a law. You, the chiropractor might not be stressed, but your system has stress. It could be in your procedures as a doctor. It could be in your staff. It could be in the floor plan of your office. It could be in your paperwork or your software or in your insurance billing.
When your system gets stressed, it won’t grow any further. It can’t do it. This is why a marketing scheme will sometimes spike your business, but the numbers will later settle back down to whatever they were before.
Here’s another example. Really, whatever you build your system on, whatever you build your practice on, that’s your foundation. It can get you to whatever level you want to go to, as long as you address the law of efficiency.
If I want to build a structure of 5,000 square feet, but build it on a 500 foot 6 inch foundation, what will happen? I will reach a certain point and will be unable to continue.
Most of you had an idea, when you came out of school, of what your practice and life were going to look like. It was going to be a self-sustaining, referral based practice! But that isn’t how it turned after you opened. If the law of efficiency is addressed, you will be able to reach those other levels, but as long as you are limited by a flawed system, you will be stuck at a certain level.
It’s very difficult, and you will work yourself to death. Some of you know what I mean! That friendship practice where the patients come and go when they want to, and try to dictate the care? Well, you’re working yourself to death. Blessed are those that go in circles for they will be called wheels. You can’t outgrow that law of efficiency, and that’s what I wanted to share with you today.
Here are some other issues that could be limiting your practice. It could be you! It could be your attitude, it could be your physical capabilities. You could be getting worn out physically because your practice is inefficient. For example, if you have to walk 20 steps from point A to point B because of your floor plan. If you had to walk 20 steps 50 times to see 50 different patients, how many steps is that? That’s 1,000 steps, right?
You could have utilized the floor plan differently and saved those steps! And how long does it take to take 1,000 steps? Figure it out. There’s a certain amount of time that you’re spending in your hallway just walking back and forth. At the end of a day, if we tried to put 75 people in there, physically it would wear you out. So the law of efficiency applies to both the physical and systematic approach of the practice.
I encourage you, Doctors, to address staff, doctor procedures, patient procedures, paperwork procedures, software, and insurance from the time they walk into the front door until they finish their care and stay with you long-term. It’s about long-term practice growth here! We should be building long-term patients for life. It’s easier to stay healthy than it is to get healthy.
And that’s what we offer as chiropractors, the ability to stay healthy long-term. All of our patients should be with us for the long term. Don’t let inefficiencies hold you back. Address these issues in your system. And if you don’t know how to, then seek out the help. Find it in a place that has integrity and ethics and a system that builds chiropractic up.
Have Questions About AMC?
click HERE
