Reduce salaries Once you create quality operation systems in the clinic for booking, collecting payment and billing, you will realize that your support staff won’t need to have a lot of experience which means you can pay them less. Remember, if you lay someone off make sure you use an employment lawyer so you can provide the proper amount of severance benefits without getting sued. month if you become what’s called PCI compliant. Being PCI compliant means you are certified with their fraud prevention governing body to make sure your internet con-nection and IP address are uncompromised during transac-tions. Getting certified took about 10 minutes over the phone and my POS merchant company pays the fee for this service. As a result, I now pay $50 less per month and get my PCI fees reimbursed for what I paid in the last 90 days. Incorporating In my previous article, I preach the importance of becoming incorporated so you can pay less tax and retain more dollars. Regardless of what some accountants say, being incorporated is much better than being a sole proprietor. This is because when you are incorporated, you are using pretax dollars to spend on expenses; while when you are a sole proprietor you are using post-tax dollars to pay for business expenses and then have to wait for a tax refund once per year. Being incor-porated also gives you the option of only paying yourself the amount you need for your personal expenses so you can keep as many dollars in your possession inside your business bank account. Diesel car In 2013 I bought a SUV that runs on gasoline. In 2015, the car was replaced with the identical vehicle, only that it ran on diesel fuel. The difference in fuel cost was astounding. Diesel fuel is cheaper and gets over 30 per cent more mileage compared to traditional gasoline vehicles. Switching to a diesel vehicle reduced my fuel costs by 55 per cent. Acupuncture needles As you know I practice acupuncture and we go through about 50,000 needles per year. By sourcing several different suppliers I went from spending $3,500 per year to spending $1,400 for the same quality and amount of needles. Merchant fees The point of sale (POS) machine for debit and credit card services can be a large business expense. Simply ask your provider for what’s called a “rate review” every two or three years, and they will give you an updated competitive rate to prevent you from renegotiating your contract with another company. I did this and they reduced my fees by 17 per cent, which saves me an average of $122 per month. In addition – and this is important – you can save an additional $50 per www.canadianchiropractor.ca Credit cards Always go over your credit card expenses and make it a point to try and reduce your bill by 10 per cent. Making sacrifices like eating out less, and only buying what the business needs will reduce what you spend. After all, what gets measured gets improved. Please email me with any questions about the sources I use and I will happily pass on the information and savings to you – for no cost at all. My email is [email protected] October 2015 Canadian Chiropractor 19
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