{"id":346,"date":"2009-12-01T12:29:17","date_gmt":"2009-12-01T19:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/?p=346"},"modified":"2010-06-07T08:48:30","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T15:48:30","slug":"grow-your-chiropractic-practice-by-working-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/grow-your-chiropractic-practice-by-working-less\/","title":{"rendered":"Grow Your Chiropractic Practice By Working Less"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Today\u2019s blog post is by Chris Burfield, the founder of Chiropractic Secret Society<\/a>. 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.)
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You know, over the years I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

Nothing could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n

Think about this for a minute. Let\u2019s say your open 35 hours a week and you\u2019re seeing 150 patient visits a week\u2026a moderately sized practice.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s say it takes you 5 minutes to adjust each person (it should take you less than 5 minutes and if you\u2019re really efficient, less than 3 minutes) but let\u2019s say it takes you 5 minutes just for argument sake.<\/p>\n

If you multiply the number of minutes (5) times the number of patient visits (150) your total comes to 750 minutes\u2026or 12.5 hours.<\/p>\n

Okay, now here comes the Eye Opener\u2026what the heck are you doing the other 22.5 hours of the week?!!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Time is the one thing you cannot negotiate. It is, in my opinion, our most precious commodity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, I cut back on my hours. I went from being open 35 hours a week to being open 25 hours a week\u2026and I found myself still sitting around, twiddling my thumbs\u2026so I reset my hours again 4 months later to 20 hours a week\u2026and then finally to 19 hours a week!<\/p>\n

We spend 14 hours a week adjusting patients and 5 hours a week doing Report of Findings.<\/p>\n

Now, just because I\u2019m only working 19 hours a week doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not working on my business\u2026but that\u2019s just it\u2026instead of working \u201cIN\u201d my business, the minimum hours that I\u2019m open allows me to work \u201cON\u201d my business.<\/p>\n

Plus, as an added bonus, I get to spend more time with my family and loved ones.<\/p>\n

Most Chiropractors and business owners in general, spend more time than necessary working \u201cIN\u201d their business rather than \u201cON\u201d it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the number one reason why my chiropractic practice<\/a> continues to grow year after year!<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

I know, I know, \u201cYour patients won\u2019t accept the change. Your patients already think you\u2019re not open enough. Your patients will drop out of care\u2026.blah, blah, blah\u2026<\/p>\n

Listen, I had the exact same fears\u2026.but I had to grow some big, brass balls and decided to cut the hours back\u2026and you know what, my patients didn\u2019t say a word. Of the 300 \u201cactive patients\u201d we have, only 1 patient even said anything\u2026this is how the conversation went\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like your new hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ignored her at first\u2026I didn\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n

Eileen then chirps up again a minute later and says, \u201cI called around to other Chiropractors in town and they\u2019re all open longer than you. They\u2019re even open through lunch, which you\u2019re not\u201d.<\/p>\n

I turned to Eileen and in front of everyone I said, \u201cEileen, if you\u2019d like to be a patient of one of those other Chiropractors\u2026you\u2019re more than welcome to\u2026as 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

Eileen just looked at me bewildered\u2026she couldn\u2019t even speak\u2026some of my patients started to snicker.<\/p>\n

The next words out of Eileen\u2019s mouth were, \u201cI guess I\u2019ll just have to get use to your new hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

You see, that was the worst possible situation anyone could face\u2026A room full of patients\u2026one disgruntled patient ready to speak her mind in front of everyone, what could be more horrifying!? \u2026and it ended up being nothing\u2026because I wasn\u2019t afraid to lose her\u2026or anyone else for that matter.<\/p>\n

The Truth is, you can\u2019t be afraid to lose patients.<\/p>\n

Remember, What you Fear comes Near<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you really want to Grow your Practice\u2026then reduce the amount of downtime in your office by reducing your hours and start working \u201cON\u201d your business rather than \u201cIN\u201d your business.<\/p>\n

– Chris Burfield<\/p>\n

Founder of Chiropractic Secret Society<\/em><\/p>\n

(Chris also is the author and creator of the renowned Chiropractic Waiting Room DVD<\/a> series, “Tic Talk.” Find out more by visiting his site here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Today\u2019s 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\u2019ve learned a lot from observing the way Big Practices are structured. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[100,103,101,102],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chiropractic-marketing","category-uncategorized","tag-chiropractic-practice","tag-chiropractic-secret-society","tag-chiropractic-waiting-room-dvd","tag-chris-burfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357,"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcincome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}