Most people figure during ‘tough times’ they are going to have to cut back, contract, and settle for less.
Well, not you and not us. Winners don’t wake up and decide it’s ok to lose just because it’s going to be tough. They plot out and find ways to be victorious.
And that is exactly what we are going to do here as you continue to see more patients with less disposable income because of the triple whammy of inflation going up, income going down, and scarcity running wild in the minds of everyone – well, except you.
I want to challenge you to think different, dramatically different – even radical – about how you attract, create, forecast, and earn money. That first starts with knowing that your income is within your control.
Practice profit IS predictable.
To ensure it stays that way, there are a few concepts you are going to need to rely on. Think resourcefulness, maximization, and working smarter not harder by creating leverage.
We touched on these aspects within our discussion about patients last week.
By the way, if you haven’t grabbed your free access into my Recession Proof Practice Plan Video Training Series, it takes each of these topics to an entirely new level. It’s essential for you right now to get out ahead of what’s to come.
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When it comes to leverage, there are also ways to leverage up your income. Here are three strategies that you can implement immediately…
#1: You can take the same (or fewer) team members and simply find ways for them to become 20% more valuable. Sit down with each person to re-define and re-assess the flow of their day in order to identify missed opportunities and waste. Whether it’s a time log to see where they can shave unproductive minutes or refocusing on higher value creation opportunities over less valuable tasks.
This can be done for how the front team engages with patients as well as how the clinical team executes visits.
So many practices have treatment plans getting stale, patients that walk out without conversations because everyone is “busy,” or reactivation that is simply not getting done. Each of these offer substantial opportunity for production leverage.
It all comes down to setting a precedent that we are going to get better utilization, higher value visits, and greater prioritization out of our existing time, effort, people.
Approach this with intentionality and you will see the numbers rise.
#2: You can also do the exact opposite of this as a defensive measure to eliminate wasteful spending and effort. However, it’s important to understand the correct way to approach this as to not negatively affect production, efficiency, or capacity.
As you know, I’m not a “cut expenses” person, but it is okay to trim fat from time to time. Like sheering the bushes in the spring, it allows for healthier growth.
The key is to remember that you can always sell a five-figure case faster than you can find five hundred dollars (or maybe even five dollars for that matter) of savings – especially without sacrificing future treatment opportunity as a result.
Points add up faster when you are on offense, rather than defense. And points are how you win the game (just ask the Indianapolis Colts).
Still, you can protect your income by being ruthless with waste in all forms (not just money)… time, effort, attention, focus, and opportunity. It comes down to knowing your numbers and being in a position to set bigger goals not smaller goals.
Think of it this way: growing your profit by 10-20% is as easy as one or two new cases a month (your profit margin is always greater once overhead is covered); on the other hand, imagine how difficult it would be to trim expenses by 10-20% without changing your daily operations and impacting production capacity.
Cuts in expenses never completely go to the ‘bottom line’ because it will undoubtedly take from the ‘top line’ which you’ll learn all about in my video series where I cover Recession Proofing Your Income in a very advanced way. Including a not-so-obvious business lesson you won’t hear from anyone else…
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#3: Now, the best way to ensure you actually grow your income no matter what the economy is doing is to be disciplined about promoting health and not allowing the economy to become an excuse for delay or neglect. This is actually the biggest trap practices fall into that costs them, literally.
Answer this question: is health less important when times are tough?
I would argue it is more important, but it sure isn’t less important. So, why then, do so many practices accept patients not prioritizing their health during recessions?
Patients should be valuing their health more by focusing on prevention and proactive treatment – which is always a better investment than fixing problems later on when they are much worse.
Sure, there will be times when you have to customize payment structures in order to get patients to move forward. You might have to take some base hits rather than home runs but that’s okay. You can still swing for the fences with your A Patients by focusing on the top 20%.
If you need more guidance on how to handle these situations, I give you the exact verbiage to use with your patients in my Recession Proof Practice Plan Video Series, which you can access the entire free course right here…
Lastly, I want to shift gears here as we close this Weekly Report. Income isn’t everything… it’s more about what you have to do to earn it, what you have to sacrifice and give up to get it.
A worthy challenge I would offer to you in regards to recession proofing your income and actually growing your profit in the year ahead is to question the ‘how’ not the ‘how much’ – focus on system and process improvements rather than just the end result.
Everyone’s, and I do mean everyone’s, tendency is to water down and generalize, to become desperate for a dollar at any cost and by any means necessary.
Instead, do a deeper niching of your messaging to attract the right patients and be more specific and intentional with everything you do. Double down on using this time to get closer to your state of ideal, not further away.
Sure, there might be times you have to work harder or do a little more to keep things going and growing in a tumultuous economy – I won’t lie to you and tell you otherwise.
But, you do get to choose the terms, you get to define how to play the game.
Done correctly, you can better position yourself for the rebound by making strategic moves now, all while growing your income and refusing to settle for less.
After all, you should have a lot of motivation to give yourself a pay increase because your expenses are going up too, just like everyone else.
Use the three strategies I’ve laid out here to make recession-proofing your income not just possible but probable.
Next week, I’ll be sharing the next recession proof lesson that will guarantee your ability to not just withstand and survive but thrive and grow in the year ahead.
If you want to get a jump start, you can…