best alliances are with other health-care providers – including medical doctors. I want to challenge that assumption and offer a more effective approach. I believe the best alliances you can foster are with your current patients. Increasing their knowledge and giving them the tools to refer will lead to the best ROI for your time. When it comes to anything outside your practice I’m going to be blunt and to the point. Choose people to align with that are like-minded and believe what you believe; otherwise, this will be a complete waste of your time. It does not have to be another health-care provider. It can in-clude gyms, business owners and com-munity program co-ordinators, just for examples. The key to building alliances is focusing on the need of the other party and not just telling them about chiroprac-tic. If you can fulfill their needs and add value to their bottom-line the relationship will likely be sustainable. Knowing the numbers If asked, would you know exactly what your expenses are to the point of know-ing where every dollar goes? Would you know what your patient visit average is, or what your cancellation rate is? Would you know the rate of return you are getting on your investments and how much your advisor is costing you? Do you have financial goals and plan to execute them or, like many Canadians, are you unclear in this area? You might be wondering why this is even relevant. Having a clear understating of your practice statistics and expenses, and having your finances in order will give you the ability to run your practice from a position of abundance and not need-iness. This will allow you to make your clinical recommendations based solely on what the patient requires. This will definitely be noticed by the patients and give more credibility to you and the profession. Failing to clearly define patient care times and put aside specific time to work on your practice are two mistakes that lead to poor focus and lack of growth. Delegating more and focusing your free time on what will give you the best re-turns will give your practice the drive it needs to serve more people. Serving more people means healthier communi-ties – a thing we can all agree is a step toward the greater good. Remember, though, the change needs to begin from the inside out. Good luck! ACTION STEPS CHECKLIST Make your top 10 list, work on the top three and enrol your staff to take on the rest Schedule time in your week to work on anything that doesn’t have to do with patient care Focus your time on the one or two things that produce the greatest ROI Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College 16 Canadian Chiropractor April 2015 www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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