Do you ever feel like the answer to this question is YOU? It’s okay if that’s your answer. As a Private Practice owner, we are the ones who must make every decision, sign every check, and make everything go right. After all, if something fails and doesn’t go right then it’s our fault as the owner. So many times, it becomes very easy for the Private Practice owner to “get in their own way” and slow things down, not allow things to happen, or steer things in the “wrong direction”. It’s tough being the Owner, we have this fear that every decision could be the one that sends our business into a downward spiral.
At a time like this with Covid 19, we can get in our own way quite a bit. We have had to lay some staff off or have staff who don’t want to come back for various reasons, we are having to negotiate all of these different types of loans and figure out where we can get money from, making sure everyone who has come back is actually productive, make decisions as to whether telehealth is the right thing to do or not, and the list goes on and on.
There are several areas where, as Private Practice owners, we get in our own way, but they typically can be boiled down into three major areas. Now more than ever is a great time and opportunity to look these three areas over and figure things out.
- We get in our own way with HIRING. Many times, the thought of a “new mouth to feed” can be scary. “What if we don’t have enough patients to fill the PT’s schedule?”. “What if we hire that new front desk staff and then it isn’t as busy anymore?”. These are just a few of the thoughts that run through our minds and can end up holding us back. So how can you keep from “getting in your own way” when it comes to hiring. Well, the answer is pretty simple. If you knew what your trends were in terms of things like patient visits, income, etc., it would give you a lot more certainty that it was indeed the right time to hire someone and you would get out of your way and JUST DO IT. If I asked you to make two lists: one of the things you are doing that you could get someone else to do and a second of the things that you are not able to do because you don’t have the time to fully dedicate to them, I bet both lists would be pretty long. Now if you had some metrics to track like: patient visits on a weekly basis, % efficiency of the schedule (how full your schedule is), number of patients on the waiting list, number of missed phone calls, etc., it would give you much more certainty over whether it was the right time to hire someone. As a Private Practice owner, you need to know the data about your practice. If you saw that your patient visits were stuck at let’s say 65 (assuming you are the only practitioner) and that your schedule was 90% efficient (meaning 90% full) and that there was a waiting list of over one week for New Patients, that would help you to get out of your own way and hire someone. So, the answer to this issue is to start tracking your statistics.
- We get in our own way with expanding our practice. “If I take on more space, I won’t be able to fill it”. “If I open that office I will have to work at both places, how will I do that?”. But why do we suddenly have these thoughts when it comes to expansion. We are obviously growing, that why the walls feel like they are blocking us in in our current space. But regardless, we feel like its to “risky” a decision. Again, I would tell you it is because we don’t have the data to make the decision with certainty. In the absence of information, we stick with the norm, which means we do what we did yesterday. Hence, we get in our way and don’t make the decision to grow and expand our business.
- We get in our own way and don’t delegate things. Have you ever asked yourself why you are so busy, and your employees don’t seem to have as much to do? Well the question here is related to the fact that we don’t trust others to take on responsibility and so we stay so overburdened while they have less to do. So, because we don’t delegate and get things off our plate, we get in our own way. Think about how much more time you would have for things like running your business, expanding your business, finding new income streams, spending time with your family, and more if you would change your way of thinking and get things off your plate. Quite often because we are the business owner and we want things done “perfectly” we don’t delegate things to others, and so we get in our own way. Think of it this way; is it better for something to be don 75% of the way on time or 0% of the way or severely late? If you continue to be the only one who “can get things done” then you will continue to have a lot of things on your plate that are not done or not done on time. Thus, you are getting in the way. Get out of the way and let others do things for you. Your staff want to they just don’t know what to do or how to do it. Make those things known and GET OUT OF YOUR WAY.
So, by now, I hope even the most disciplined Private Practice owner is realizing how they are getting in their own way. Heck, I just had a realization of a way I just got in my own way this week while I’m writing this.
The best way to get out of your own way is to realize that it is happening and then change your operating basis. Once you know that you are doing it, make the decision to do whatever it is differently and change your mind set. Now more than ever, it is important for us to change our mindset and change how and what we are doing as private practice owners. You hear it every day right now, “things will never be the same”. But if so, what can you do differently to get things moving and on the right track ASAP?
So, the question is: “HOW WILL YOU GET OUT OF YOUR WAY THIS WEEK”?
Training is a great way to become aware of ways you are getting in your own way and most importantly to learn what you can do so that it changes. Measurable Solutions has trained 1000’s of Private Practice Physical Therapists on how to do just this and it has resulted in their practices growing, their businesses flourishing and best of all FREEDOM FOR THE OWNER. If you want more information on how Measurable Solutions can help you get out of your way and have THE FREEDOM YOU DESERVE, check out our webinars at the link below: www.PTwebinars.net
