Can You Level Up Your Health AND Grow Your Chiropractic Practice At The Same Time? Here Are 3 Ways To Do It Without Adding To Your Stress Level

In a session with my business coach recently, he said to me “…you can’t improve your health and grow your business at the same time.”

Now, I know that sounds Debby-Downer-ish, but his intention wasn’t to be pessimistic.  He was truly trying to help me be realistic and give myself some grace. 

Well if you’re anything like me, when someone says you can’t do something you’re going to find a way to do it anyway.  

So for the last few days, I’ve been devising plans to take my health to the next level.

“Maybe I’ll start with a juice cleanse.

Should I follow that up with a Whole30?

I could make it a rule that I’ll walk 4 miles every single day.  I better buy a treadmill.“

There’s just something about being told I can’t do something that flips on my Rebel tendencies (read The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin to discover what motivates YOU). 

I haven’t felt good about my clothes size since my “baby” (who will be two in just a few weeks) was born. 

And honestly, I’ve just not wanted to do the work that it’s going to take to fit back into my old jeans.  

But now, thanks to a well-meaning remark from a friend and advisor, I’m ready. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about what he said for the last few days. 

Is it true???

Can you really not regain your health AND grow a business at the same time? 

I’m far from convinced you can’t (thus my “watch me do it anyway”-ness described above). 

Here’s why:

First, nothing is impossible. Nothing. 

I mean, 2-3 centuries ago no one would have believed that cell phones would become a reality, for example. 

And yet now they’re everywhere. 

Second, what most people are lacking isn’t the ability to get healthier and make money simultaneously.  They just haven’t ever learned how. 

Well, my friends, I’ve been there, done that and watched tons of other women in chiropractic do the same.

So what does it take to improve your health AND grow your business at the same time?  

Here are 3 ways to do it without adding to your stress level. 

STRATEGY #1 – DELETION 

If you’re serious about improving your health, you’re going to need about 300 minutes a week for exercise, according to recent studies.  That might sound like a lot of time, but broken down, that’s just 50 minutes 6 days a week. And you CAN make 50 minutes a day for your health.  You’ll have to start by eliminating the unnecessary.  

Here are some examples of what you might want to Delete: 

  • When someone asks to present their business opportunity to you, say no. Growing two businesses at once is really really hard.  Be clear about what you top 10 goals for the year are, and if starting a second business isn’t one of them, then it’s ok to decline even what may seem like a “good opportunity.”

  • Consider going out of network so you can eliminate the time it takes to conduct pre-authorizations, perform outcome assessments, and chase down unpaid claims. Plus, alleviating the fear of an audit will be good for your cortisol levels and you just might start sleeping better at night. 

STRATEGY #2 – AUTOMATION

Making things run without your conscious effort is the name of the automation game.  Chances are really good that there’s at least a handful of tasks you perform in your practice that could be more automated.  Using today’s technology to make things happen more efficiently in your practice will give you back precious time AND energy. 

Here are some ideas of what you could Automate:

  • Go digital with your marketing efforts.  Standing at health fairs and screenings for hours and hours can leave you depleted and exhausted.  They’re just not very efficient ways of going about attracting patients to your practice! If you want to spend less time marketing, ditch the screenings and get online.  You’ll be able to market your practice wherever, whenever it works best for your schedule. And your Thursday morning yoga class will be just as good for your practice as it is for your autonomic nervous system. 

  • Create (or get) a digital library.  I can’t tell you how much time I’ve given to sending the same photos of stretches and same videos of exercises to patients over and over again.  Each time, having to go hunting for the resources I wanted to share because I didn’t have a systematized, automated way of getting this information to patients.  Take the time now to create a system that allows you (or better yet, your office staff) to manage this communication more efficiently. 

STRATEGY #3 – DELEGATION

I know how hard it is as a business owner to trust anyone else to do things in your practice the way you want them done.  But there are truthfully very few things that you and ONLY you can do in your practice. Even if you’ve tried delegating tasks to a team member before and it didn’t work out, that doesn’t mean you should give up on growing a team forever. 

If you are just getting started (or perhaps re-started) with being a boss, here’s what you might start delegating first:

  • Let someone else manage your social media accounts.  Chances are good you fall into one of two camps–you either hate social media so you avoid using it if it would help your practice grow, or you feel like you’ve got a good handle on what to post but it simply consumes too much of your time and energy.  Either way, there’s someone out there who can manage your social media accounts for your practice, and she can even do it better than you. 

  • Pass the responsibility on to your office staff of writing the weekly email newsletter.  Again, you’ve got to let go of control! Your team member will likely spend less time than you writing these newsletters, and it could free up your bandwidth to meal plan and prep healthy meals instead. 

Obviously, the time spent on all of the tasks above will vary from person to person.  But I did a quick estimate of what I thought each task would require, and I came up with a total of about 10 hours a week.  

VOILA!!

If you apply all of what you’ve learned here, you’ll then have a practice that’s still growing while getting 10 hours a week back that you could dedicate to your health instead. 

So now that you know how to improve your health and grow your chiropractic practice at the same time, let me ask you…. What might stop you from taking action?  

If you’re like most people, you’ll need more support and accountability. So if you’re a Mama Chiropractor who wants to make her health a priority over the next 12 months–without settling for a part-time income, even if you do work part-time hours–then join me for the next round of the Mama Chiropractors 21-Day Reset now!

Posted in Blog, Chiropractic Business, Motherhood & Chiropractic, Time Management