Grow Your Chiropractic Practice By Working Less « The Blog of Matthew Loop

Grow Your Chiropractic Practice By Working Less

(Today’s blog post is by Chris Burfield, the founder of Chiropractic Secret Society. Chris owns and operates a mega-successful chiropractic office in Texas, which grosses over 500K annually and has been regarded as a leading practice building expert.)

You know, over the years I’ve learned a lot from observing the way Big Practices are structured. For many, many years I thought that in order to see a lot of people you needed to have your office doors open 5-6 days a week and work 40-50 hours.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Think about this for a minute. Let’s say your open 35 hours a week and you’re seeing 150 patient visits a week…a moderately sized practice.

Now, let’s say it takes you 5 minutes to adjust each person (it should take you less than 5 minutes and if you’re really efficient, less than 3 minutes) but let’s say it takes you 5 minutes just for argument sake.

If you multiply the number of minutes (5) times the number of patient visits (150) your total comes to 750 minutes…or 12.5 hours.

Okay, now here comes the Eye Opener…what the heck are you doing the other 22.5 hours of the week?!!

You see, I used to keep my office doors open 35 hours a week and what I found was that I was wasting so much precious time.

Time is the one thing you cannot negotiate. It is, in my opinion, our most precious commodity.

So, I cut back on my hours. I went from being open 35 hours a week to being open 25 hours a week…and I found myself still sitting around, twiddling my thumbs…so I reset my hours again 4 months later to 20 hours a week…and then finally to 19 hours a week!

We spend 14 hours a week adjusting patients and 5 hours a week doing Report of Findings.

Now, just because I’m only working 19 hours a week doesn’t mean I’m not working on my business…but that’s just it…instead of working “IN” my business, the minimum hours that I’m open allows me to work “ON” my business.

Plus, as an added bonus, I get to spend more time with my family and loved ones.

Most Chiropractors and business owners in general, spend more time than necessary working “IN” their business rather than “ON” it.

This is the number one reason why my chiropractic practice continues to grow year after year!

So, if you’re still caught in the time trap of working 35-40 hours per week, then you need to cut yourself loose and cut your hours back.

I know, I know, “Your patients won’t accept the change. Your patients already think you’re not open enough. Your patients will drop out of care….blah, blah, blah…

Listen, I had the exact same fears….but I had to grow some big, brass balls and decided to cut the hours back…and you know what, my patients didn’t say a word. Of the 300 “active patients” we have, only 1 patient even said anything…this is how the conversation went…

Eileen comes in for her visit a week after we reduced the hours. She sits down in our open adjusting area and in front of everyone (approximately 15 patients) says…

“I don’t like your new hours.”

I ignored her at first…I didn’t say anything.

Eileen then chirps up again a minute later and says, “I called around to other Chiropractors in town and they’re all open longer than you. They’re even open through lunch, which you’re not”.

I turned to Eileen and in front of everyone I said, “Eileen, if you’d like to be a patient of one of those other Chiropractors…you’re more than welcome to…as a matter of fact, I can refer you directly to Dr. Hawkins just down the street and make an appointment for you today, how does that sound?”

Eileen just looked at me bewildered…she couldn’t even speak…some of my patients started to snicker.

The next words out of Eileen’s mouth were, “I guess I’ll just have to get use to your new hours”.

You see, that was the worst possible situation anyone could face…A room full of patients…one disgruntled patient ready to speak her mind in front of everyone, what could be more horrifying!? …and it ended up being nothing…because I wasn’t afraid to lose her…or anyone else for that matter.

The Truth is, you can’t be afraid to lose patients.

Remember, What you Fear comes Near.

Do you really want to Grow your Practice…then reduce the amount of downtime in your office by reducing your hours and start working “ON” your business rather than “IN” your business.

– Chris Burfield

Founder of Chiropractic Secret Society

(Chris also is the author and creator of the renowned Chiropractic Waiting Room DVD series, “Tic Talk.” Find out more by visiting his site here.)

About the Author

Matthew Loop is an author, speaker, investor, philanthropist, and the highest paid social media revenue strategist in North America. He helps brands, startups, and small business owners multiply their influence, impact, and income by harnessing the power of the Internet. Since 2005 he’s trained over 21,000 clients in 25 countries. Millions have viewed his free business growth tutorials online. Connect with him on FacebookInstagram, and Twitter.

Comments

12 Responses to “Grow Your Chiropractic Practice By Working Less”

  1. Chris is full of great information and his Chiropractic Secret Society site is amazing for chiropractors to network, brainstorm, and help each other out. If you haven’t checked it out…it’s a must. There is no other avenue for like minded doctors to gather at will and come up with great ideas.
    Again Chris, like always, a great article. Thank you! Too many are afraid to lose a patient over these issues. Interestingly enough I turned a new patient away that drove a half hour to see me and then he was trying to dictate how he wanted to be treated: no adjusting….as his wife sat there saying she has gone to every chiropractor in the area and said they did it for her…just doing massage, electric stim, etc, but at the same time none of them helped her. I said, well I am more than happy to help the husband, but obviously the other way hasn’t worked and if that’s what they want then they have to go elsewhere, as that’s not chiropractic. They walked..and you know what, with all the complaining they did about a handful of the chiropractors she saw…I was happy to see them leave.

  2. Great stuff. I guess I can do affiliate marketing with all the extra time when I cut my hours back. Or open another practice. I love the tic talk dvds. I have them playing on several tvs in the office.
    Thanks for the posts.

  3. More practice is one the main factor why a chiropractor is getting better on performing chiropractic treatment. Your article was so true. I wish all chiropractors are having their own practice to improve their Chiropractic treatment.

  4. I think you can’t do that. You can’t improve your chiropractic in working less. It needs hard work. Chiropractic care needs a lot of patient, knowledge about it and a very hard work. That job is not just any job, one mistake on performing that can be fatal.

  5. Matthew Loop says:

    Thanks Dr. Chris…. You got it, you could scale back on the hours and still be more productive 🙂

  6. Matthew Loop says:

    I agree, Dr. Russell …. Chris is setting the bar very high with CSS. His intention, dedication, and passion for the profession and helping others shows 🙂

  7. Shipamndimi says:

    Very nice Blog, I will tell my friends about it.

    Thanks

  8. TSwain says:

    Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post!

  9. Blanca says:

    And this is the main reason I read dcincome.com. Awesome post.

  10. Brent Tieri says:

    Great blog! I need to check out CSS!

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