What should go hand-in-hand with a big vision is the perseverance you’ll need to keep moving forward. If you’re a Game of Thrones watcher, there was a great line in an episode when Stannis Baratheon was being advised about the lack of wisdom in starting a battle in the snow. He responded: “We march to victory or we march to defeat, but we go forward, only forward.”
Sometimes, when things get challenging on your path as a business owner you have to commit yourself to moving forward, regardless of the discomfort and fear surrounding the next steps. When you fuel your big vision with perseverance and the spirit of “only forward,” you eventually meet your success.
Here are some steps you can take to keep moving forward despite adversity:
1. Make a plan
You would never leave your house for a road trip without a plan and at least a map(or GPS nowadays). It's the same for your business. Whether you have been in...
If you're feeling too busy or overwhelmed and don't have time to consider a new project or business development, it's high time to look at whether you're not charging enough for your products or services.
If any of the above is true, you need to raise your rates. If those reasons aren't compelling enough, consider that by not raising your rates, you're losing money because costs are increasing across the board. Not only are expenses rising, but by not raising your rates, you're losing income that can compound over years.
Raising fees can be daunting for some people because they emotionalize it. We wonder if patients will think we don't deserve it or...
When we started in practice after graduating with our Doctor of Chiropractic degree, we all thought we would blaze a trail of natural health, teaching and healing ADIO.
People would be lined up for our help. All we had to do was hang a shingle.
That was our plan. We didn’t need to do anything else. And let’s not talk about marketing, procedures, systems, or even proper care plans. Just get ‘em in, adjust them, turn the power on and you will have customers for life.
I mean, that is basically what we were taught in school. There was no career guides, counselors or maps to guide you from one step to the next:
Yes, we had to write a business plan, but basically the plan was to rent a space, buy a table and adjust. Am I right?
Now, if you have been in business/practice for any amount of time, you know that type of plan was a plan for failure. Failures aren’t a bad thing....
I have been seeing this everywhere and I can't stay silent about it any longer!
“You just need more NP”
“You gotta offer free..”
“Tell the story..”
“Educate more…”
“We do the work for you so all you need to do is focus on giving the best adjustment…”
Please do not listen or take this to heart, because this information is not 100% true.
Yes, it may work every once in a while, but for the majority of the time, it is just a "quick fix" and doesn't work long term.
> Unless you have ZERO new peeps walking in the door, you don’t necessarily need more, you just need to know how to get the ones in your office to say YES to your services. You certainly don’t need to give away your services, where is the value in that? Why would you GIVE AWAY your adjustment?
Someone once told me I needed to offer a “free first adjustment” to get them in the door...
We do.... "safe, gentle, no cracking or popping", "no long term treatment plans or unnecessary x-rays". This is the garbage that makes me want to throat punch Chiropractic "coaches or marketers".
I can remember the day when I opened my first practice even though that was 29 years ago. (Which I've done 3 more times) Having studied business I knew the necessity of having a unique selling proposition (USP). WHY will someone want to see ME or want MY services? My best advice came from my own Chiropractor who got me interested in the profession (who many would have considered my "competition" in my area). First, never consider yourself "in competition" with ANY Chiropractor. Take a look around, how many dentists are in your area? Our competition is not us. There is 95% of the population who do not see the Chiropractor. Second, you will never be better by disparaging another Doc, in our out of your profession. Chiropractors do enough "circle the wagons and shoot inward", don't...
Where you are right now is where you are meant to be. NOTHING in life happens TO us, it happens FOR us (we won't know the potential future benefit). [Go listen to Dr. John DeMartini tell his life story] If you take away your current struggles you won't be prepared to handle your future success. When times are shitty you don't have to like it but just have faith it's just fertilizer for something bigger and better coming down the road.
When the shit hits the fan, just stay calm, relax and do what you do (DWYD) with an understanding it's not where you want to be but its where you are. Know better things will come. Don't let shit-uations steal your joy and happiness." This too shall pass." - (Winston Churchill). Rise above. That's what winners do. (Michael Jordan was cut from his HS basketball team. This could have been the end of his career had he given up.)
The decision is yours. I know TOO MANY Chiros who dread their practice/profession (insurance sux, nobody...
Do you play Let's Make a Deal just to keep your doors open or "pad" your numbers?
That's what many docs do because it makes them "feel good".
Feelings don't pay the bills, allow you to take a vacation, or have a "rainy day account".
Your fees are your fees, your recommendations your recommendations.
Don't change your recommendations (or fees) based on whether or not a person has insurance or not, or thinks your fees are "too much". Too much based on what?????
A heart surgeon would never recommend a quadruple by-pass and settle for a double. Why? Because he believes he is saving that persons life and that is what they need.
Don't you feel that way about YOUR services? Most chiropractors don't and that is why we are seeing so many offices close, or docs just getting by. It shouldn't be like that, and it's not for me and many other Everest Docs.
Unfortunately, chiropractors spend too much time on wanting to be liked rather than being...
We talk about being able to “bob and weave” in practice. But what does that really mean?
I thought I would share with you something that I recently did in my practice that demonstrates the “bob and weave”
Many of you know I have very specific new patient times. These are non-negotiable. Meaning if there isn’t a NP scheduled there, NOTHING is. And if all my NP times for the day are taken we move to the next available NP time. I do not try to “fit them in”. That is not how it works in my office and I am sure many of you would disagree with me, don’t care.
In the last 3 months our growth has been tremendous. And as you may also know, I schedule adjustments at very specific times, and there are a specific number of people put into the time slots. Well, because of the growth, our Mondays and Thursdays at 10 have become overcrowded and patients are spilling into the 10:30 time which is...
Falling on ice can be painful. Failing in practice is one of the most painful and embarrassing experiences. My first practice in 1998 was a failure.
I was almost 2 years out of Chiropractic school. I had been an Associate for less than a year when I got engaged, left the practice and moved 400 miles away from my family. I thought NOW is the time to start my own business.
I was young, had no money, couldn't get a business loan(they laughed me out of the bank with my business plan), and knew very few people in the city I was in. A great time to open a business.
I found the location on a busy street with lots of traffic and pretty good signage. It was a second floor walk up with 2 rooms and a bathroom. That's it!
I bought a desk from Wal-Mart to serve as my front desk , 2 bench tables(which I still have today) and a Subluxation Station. I was ready to roll. The peeps should be flocking in.
I did screenings at gyms and...
Have you ever been lost? (Trust me it was more common in the day of paper maps, if you were lucky enough to find one in the glovebox.)
Unfortunately many in our profession are "lost". Primarily lost in their practice. Some have a direction in mind but no idea how to get there or achieve it. Others don’t even have a direction or an idea on what they want. The result is the same, they feel lost. Being lost is a frightening feeling. The the searching for a direction, the searching for that one thing (or person) to give us direction, to give us hope to deliver us to where we want to be. Until we can find this we are lost.
What does being lost really mean? I don’t know where I am. Do YOU really know where you are? Do you really know where your practice is? Is it where you want it to be? Is your life where you want it to be? If not, you are lost. We have all been lost at some point in our lives. Being lost...
