Dr. Janel HitsonChanging the Face of the Chiropractic Profession

In working with hundreds of doctors over the last several years, there is one major, undeniable difference between the winners and the losers. It is a factor that is so simple, it is often overlooked. Those who overcome, they can not be denied!

Because it is harder to define the “winner”, I will describe the loser. Losers are the individuals who seem focused on “what can’t be done” and “why it won’t work”. You can give them a list of 100 things they can do to grow their practice and they will focus on the one or two things that don’t apply to them or their market- and thus disregard the list as a whole! The loser is the naysayer who always wants to point out the fault with no constructive suggestions as to correction.

Please do not misunderstand, it is good to think through plans and foresee possible pitfalls for the purpose of avoiding them. The loser points out the problems for the sake of avoiding doing anything.

There are a lot of losers in disguise; they are the naysayers who camouflage their negativity in catch phrases and in the form of “caring for your wellbeing”. The key to exposing these individuals is to ask the question, “Well, how would you improve this plan/situation/action step?” They won’t have an answer.

The winners, they are the ones that you can throw a dump truck of trash on their lives and they never see the garbage, only the precious metals hidden in the rubble.  No matter what comes against them they focus on the lessons learned and the next steps they need to take to achieve success. They seek mentors not for the sake of an extra hand, but for an experienced set of eyes.

Winners are those who can not be denied. They never see failure because their eyes can’t lose focus on success!

Staff

Achieving the status of the Million Dollar practice is not an easy feat that many will accomplish. Yet for those determined few who will set out to reach the masses, I will dive into more of the key concepts required.

Million Dollar Practices (excluding PI mills) will see a minimum of 75 patients in one day. That is a significant volume. It requires an exceptional staff!

Finding an exceptional staff is not an easy task. A decent work ethic is a dying art. As more and more parents are thrusting their spoiled overindulged children into the work force, we are seeing a decline in the internal value of a “good day’s work”.

Finding a staff that will treat your business as their own does not happen by accident, but it can and does happen! It all comes down to proper hiring and proper training.

I could spend hours and pages on this topic alone! You can spend hours and hours reading all the books, blogs, and great gurus on hiring. Let me simply say that an efficient and effective hiring protocol is critical to the Million Dollar Practice.

The death blow to many of my doctor’s growth has been a staff turn over right in the heat of momentum growth. This happens virtually every time. People do not like change, and when a practice starts to really take off, the staff is forced to work at an unusual pace. This causes discontent to those who lack work ethic and they will quit when they see the pressure coming. A doctor’s ability to quickly recover and replace before the momentum dies is an essential resource in reaching this level of practice.

Do these hiring protocols exist? Yes they do! If you will stick with me, there is a lot more to come!

The “Million-Dollar Practice” has been a coveted trophy in the chiropractic profession for decades. Technically, a million-dollar practice is one that collects $1000, 000 in one year or average collections of $83,333.35 + per month.

Very few doctors ever reach this accomplishment, especially among those who are starting their practices from scratch.

Even though this goal can be elusive, it has been done in recent history. I have mentored practices to this level. Even more importantly, I have mentored many who have tried and failed to reach this level; those failures have taught me far more than the successes. I have learned some key steps and principles that have led to the success of the few and the downfall of the many.

Over these next series of posts, I would like to share with you these lessons. What you do with the information is up to you. It is my sincere hope that a new generation of chiropractors will take this to heart and begin to change the face of this profession!

Million-Dollar Practice – Step one: Do the math

There are many first steps to substantial success in the practice of chiropractic, but one important first is knowing what you are getting into!

Running the statistical data for a million-dollar practice will help you to wrap your brain around what it will physically take. How you calculate the stats is simple. A million dollar practice needs to collect $83,333.34 per month. The national average for chiropractic collections per visit falls to about $50 per visit—a little less in some areas and more in others. When you divide that out, it means you would need to see 1667+ patient visits per month. The next question is, “Does your choice of technique allow you to see that volume?”.

Some techniques are incredibly efficient at diagnosing and unlocking subluxation; other techniques would make this impossible. When considering this fact, I have learned that it is the removal of subluxation that leads to healing, not the amount of time it takes to adjust a patient. If you would not be able physically to handle that volume of patients then associate practicing is the answer.

If you are a student reading this who has not committed to any specific technique (which I strongly suggest you do), the please keep “technique efficiency” in mind if a million-dollar practice is your goal!

So, the first question is, “Do you want a Million Dollar Practice”? Let me know your thoughts!