Which do you want filling your practice?
Patients gained through…
Benefits of This Type of Patient
Patients referred by family and friends:
- Spend 10x more money out of pocket than those gained by marketing/advertising. That’s why cash based practices primarily pursue this type of patient. Oh, and btw, the physical therapy private practice of the future will be 50% cash based.
- Costs 5x less to get than ones gained through advertising.
- Get better 3x faster than typical patients so you look better as a practitioner!
This is the BEST type of patient you can get! What should be filling your house? Most practices across the country have only 2-5% of their house filled with this type of patient.
How Do You Get More?
Most private practice owners are trying to “run” a practice when what they should be doing is building a strong team. The first leads to a mediocre practice at best while the other produces an exciting practice that multiplies new patient volume. Stop spending all your time on treating, billing, paperwork, bookkeeping, more paperwork, paying bills, and ordering supplies. Start spending more on what really matters.
“Patients are ALWAYS judging you by the quality and performance of your staff.” – James Ko, PT/Founder
We are in the “service” and care business NOT products and agriculture. We rely heavily on “human” resources and that’s what we will be judged by. How good are your people? Do you train them? Do you have a company culture? Are your patients a community of loyal members or do they forget about you the instant they walk out the door?
Common Causes of Poor Team Spirit and Training
1) You Don’t Have Time
You are doing too much; treating patients; marketing to physicians; paying bills; raising a family. But if you want to grow your practice you must make time for training. It has many benefits. It’s an investment, not a task or an expense or a burden.
“Training staff is the closest you can get to cloning yourself.” -James Ko, PT/Founder
2) Not Training on the Proper Things
Many practices do “meetings” but few do trainings properly. I’m not talking about in-services or treatment techniques. I’m talking about training that leads to a company culture of high performance–training that leads to more family and friend referrals. Meet all you want–you won’t increase your bottom line.
3) Using Money to Incentivize Employees
If you want highly motivated employees, leave money out of it. It doesn’t work. Money often corrupts the relationship between staff and owner. The only thing that works is tapping into their motivational center and increasing that potential. I know it sounds a bit vague and ambiguous but it works.
“A business doesn’t become successful…the person and the people do. Then the business follows.” -James Ko, PT/Founder of IndeFree
The big mistake made by most private practice owners is they have no formal training plan. If you don’t train, you can’t become one of the best in your community. Just as a professional golfer, ballerina, football team, or violinist can’t become one of the best without TRAINING and a COACH, so it is with a private practice–you won’t either. You must know when, how much, and on what to train your staff. This is a skill never learned by most physical or occupational therapists. So most PT/OT practices lack a strong team.
“Training staff is a $10,000 task. For every one hour you put into training (on the correct things), you will see at least a $10,000 return within 6-months.” -James Ko, PT/Founder of IndeFree
Common Misconceptions
“The only way to get employees to perform better is through bonuses and monetary incentives.”
Over the past 15 years, I’ve tried it all. From bonuses to raises, to monetary gifts and benefits, none of them work. For physical therapy private practices there are only three things that increase staff loyalty and performance and none of them have anything to do with money. Here’s a great article from Inc, “7 Unusual Ways to Motivate Employees”.
To learn the 3 Secrets for Team-building for private practices, bring your staff to the IndeFree workshop.
“Training is a waste of time. Whether I train or don’t train, we seem to do the same (financially). Isn’t marketing more important?”
Marketing might bring you in some more new souls but training your staff and building a strong team that is united toward a common goal leads to much more than that. If you are training on the correct things and creating a culture of loyalty and Creative Service Care, you can exponentially grow. The typical practice doesn’t have enough active patients bringing in family and friends, nor prior patients returning for care. This causes a big problem.
Be wary of…
Consultants or courses that focus primarily on marketing and advertising to grow a business. Dramatic and exponential growth can only happen when you learn how to build a strong team that join together to grow a loyal community of patient followers. 
Important note on the future of private practice…
The physical therapy cash based practice will become the new leaders in the country…
…and the practice of old will be gone, forever. Times are changing. The practice of the future will be tapping into family and friend referrals for MOST of their volume, AND the physical therapy cash based practice will lead the charge into the new age of private practice. If your practice isn’t at least 50% cash based by end of 2016, you may not be in private practice any longer.
What the wise do.
Motivate and train your staff the easy way, bring them to the upcoming “Team Training” Workshop by IndeFree.
Don’t you want more cash pay? Don’t you want more friend and family referred patients? Do yourself a favor and start learning the skills now. Don’t wait. Don’t struggle. Get the skills, forms, tools, posters, strategies, and more at a workshop near you. “Team Training” Workshop by IndeFree.
More resources on staff training and team building:
- A great article on how important it is to have only motivated staff.
- Programs on how to motivate employees.