After years of study and dedication, you’re finally ready to enter the world of chiropractic care. It’s an exciting time, and one that can be a little overwhelming. You may be inundated with emails, flyers, letters and ads trying to sell you the latest and greatest tools for chiropractors. Which do you choose? How do you set yourself up for success in this field?
The first thing to do is create a business plan. This is a no-brainer. Developing a business plan is something no entrepreneur should skip. And that’s what you are — an entrepreneur. Think like a small business owner, not a healthcare professional, when it comes to building your business and succeeding as a chiropractor.
Creating a business plan is not always easy. It takes a lot of thought and requires you to answer a few questions before you begin your practice.
Creating a business requires creating a marketing analysis and evaluating your competition, as well as creating a realistic financial plan and budget. Check out some examples of business plans for chiropractors if you’re not sure where to begin.
Find your tribe. The term seems cliche, but it’s critical to succeeding as a small business owner. Even if you’re working for someone else at their practice, patients aren’t guaranteed. Connect and network with people in similar industries, whether those are yoga instructors, hiking groups, health food stores, or even your local chamber of commerce. Give back to your community and make it known that you care about more than just a paycheck.
Create a name for yourself so that you’re the first chiropractor people think of when they need your services by:
Be present in as many ways as you can, especially while you’re building your client base. When you do get busy and don't have as much time to attend community functions, make sure someone on your staff does.
Invest in your digital presence as well. Have active social media accounts that are targeted toward your ideal client, and stay connected with that audience. Marketing through the right digital channels helps you reach a patient base you may not through in-person activities. Targeted ads allow you to reach people who are already looking for your services.
Once you’ve established a loyal patient base, ask them to write testimonials for your website and social channels. This builds trust and creates powerful word-of-mouth marketing opportunities. Get them to share their reviews on their own social media as well.
If someone is looking for a chiropractor in your geographic area, they will most likely turn to a search engine first. Make sure that your website and online presence reflect a stellar reputation with many happy patients. If there are bad reviews, make sure you respond to those and try to repair the relationship.
Keep your patients happy and at ease from the check-in process to interactions with your staff. Create an automated check-in process so that patients don’t have to wait long once they arrive at your office. The less time they spend waiting, the happier they’ll be.
Train your staff to be friendly and helpful. An unpleasant front desk experience is one of the fastest ways to stop repeat business. That goes for your behavior as a chiropractor as well — establish your reputation early on as someone who cares. Actively listen to your patients and practice a kind, authentic bedside manner.
But keeping your patients happy goes beyond their initial office visit — making them feel valued when they’re not there will keep them coming back. The more administrative tasks you can automate, the better. Set up texts to remind your patients to schedule an appointment, as well as links to patient education. Educating your patients, knowing their problems inside and out, letting them easily make payments, and creating a clean, welcoming environment are all critical to your success as a chiropractor.
Platinum makes all those things easy. With easily accessible patient notes and automated reminders, there’s less for you to remember while making your patients feel valued. Outsourcing the most time-consuming administrative tasks like billing and investing in a system that does the thinking for you frees up hours of your time. That’s time you can spend on your patients, as well as your non-work life. Choose a practice management software solution that simplifies your life instead of complicating it.
Be intentional in where you spend your time when it comes to seminars and conferences. It’s important to stay in-the-loop when it comes to chiropractic trends and industry changes, but the number of gurus, motivational speakers and webinars promising instant success is seemingly endless. While many of these offer useful information, they can also suck up hours of productivity, with little return on your investment.
Sometimes the act of gathering information and learning can feel like forward momentum. Often, however, it’s just a way to procrastinate taking action. Set firm dates on the calendar and organize all your information in a way that leads to action.
Sometimes, what works for some of the most successful entrepreneurs may not work for you. That could be because of different personalities, or a difference in resources and connections. If you don’t succeed using methods others have suggested, that doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It just means you need to try something else. And usually that something else is hard work and effort. Building a successful chiropractic business doesn’t happen overnight.
The key to a successful practice is happy patients. If you’re good at what you do, and can back that up with testimonials and online reviews, your business will grow. Set yourself up for success with a solid business plan that includes a budget, and make sure your patient management system is robust enough to handle everything from patient check-in to comprehensive notes, records, and billing.
Platinum offers everything you need to streamline administrative tasks, including billing that results in more payments, faster.