COLUMN KEYS TO YOUR PRACTICE Quit the juggling act T Three easy steps that will lead to better focus BY ANGELO SANTIN here is no doubt that chiro-practors have to constantly balance responsibilities. Not only do we have to be great healers, we need to be effec-tive communicators and marketers, and have the responsibility of doing all the small things necessary to run a business. Having said this, however, the primary focus should always be the delivery of excellent care to the patient in front of you. This is the most fruitful and efficient way to grow your practice. We can all admit, however, that the day-to-day business aspects can creep into our patient time or worse, don’t get done at all. I want to share how working on your practice, and not just in it, will help your practice grow to the next level. Step 1: Delegate Many chiropractors are micromanagers. This adds many non-essential tasks to your day that, with time, will likely be detrimental to your focus with patients. Many of you have unbelievable staff that you are underutilizing. You need to art-fully share your vision of your clinic with your staff and highlight the importance of their help in letting you focus on just your patients. Once this is clear I want you to take a moment to write down the 10 most important things you do in your office. Here is the challenge: I want you to pick your top three from the list and enroll your staff to help you with the re-maining items from the list. Finally, and most importantly, you must acknowledge and reward your staff for the extra effort they will put into this. I can’t state enough how important this step is. wonderful staff, the next step is for you to schedule some time into your calendar to work on anything about your practice that does not have to do with taking care of patients. Please do not take this step lightly. If you don’t book this time and make a commitment to it, you will always fill the time with something else. From personal experience, ignoring this special time will lead to lack of clarity in practice and the inability to actually do the work needed to reach your big goals. to expedite the process and share the things I know to be the best ROI for your practice. Professional development Step 3: Maximize your return on investment (ROI) Step 2: Allocate the time Once tasks have been offloaded to your I want you to spend the time on what will give you the greatest returns down the road. You will be able to figure this out eventually on your own, but I would like There is no greater return than spend-ing the time and resources on advancing your and your CA’s knowledge and certainty in chiropractic. This includes seminars, professional development days and other forms of extra training. Another great idea is hanging around successful and like-minded chiroprac-tors. Most of us learn by observing, hearing stories and sharing lessons from practice. Remember that the extra training doesn’t always need to be ex-pensive. They can be done as cost-effec-tively as possible and will most often produce the greatest returns. ANGELO SANTIN, DC, operates a busy subluxation-based family practice in Thunder Bay, Ont., and is president of the Thunder Bay Chiropractic Society. Dr. Santin is also a Carter Universal proficiency-rated chiropractic coach. He can be reached at [email protected] or 807-344-4606. 14 Canadian Chiropractor April 2015 Building strategic alliances Most people in our profession assume the www.canadianchiropractor.ca
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor April 2015: Page 14
