Defining Your Practice

Dr. Patrick Bodnar

© 2006 by Patrick Bodnar and Parker College of Chiropractic. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use, reproduction or dissemination of this information may be subject to civil and criminal penalties.

1

Acting According to a Plan

Is the difference between ending up with what we ___________and

what we ___________.want

get

Practice Planning Steps

1. Summarize your business

2. Analyzing your customer/market

3. Budgeting, Fee Structuring & Forecasting

4. Clinic Layout/Design

5. Location analysis

6. SWOT Analysis

7. Business/Financial Model

8. General Business Tasks

9. Billing/Collections Procedure

10.Marketing Plan

Options in Practice

• Sole proprietor (owner)

• Associate

• Independent contractor

Sole Proprietor

What people like:• Freedom to make

own decisions• Lower overhead• Equity• Sense of

ownership

What people dislike:• Taking

responsibility for their decisions

• High risk• Longer hours• Managing people• Requires money

and credit to start

Associate

What people like:• Low risk• Paid partially on salary• Gain experience• Easier to get time off• May include benefits

What people dislike:• Higher overhead• Paid partially on

percentage• Still have to get

patients• No sense of

ownership• Sometimes difficult to

dev own treatment style

Independent Contractor

What people like:• Lower risk• Equipment and

supplies may be provided

• Running your own practice

• Overhead usually lower than associate

• Share personnel

What people dislike:• Performance of

proprietor’s personnel may affect your business

• Overhead higher than sole proprietor

• More difficult to establish own identity

Square One

• Purpose

• Benefits

• Mission Statement

Purpose

• Your purpose will put you in touch with why you are truly doing this

• This honest approach will help you negate conflicts in clinical recommendations as well as business decisions

Defining Your Purpose

• This is the most personal aspect of building or defining you practice– Why are you motivated to do this?– What do you want to receive from this?– Why is it important that you succeed at

this?– What meaning will this bring to your life?

Benefits

• These are the ways or how you will affect your patients’ lives

• This is what they get for their money

• This is the reason they may choose to come to you

Defining Your Benefits

• This is the information patients may want first– What do you want your patients to

experience?

– How will your service affect the quality of patients’ lives?

– Why should patients choose you?

Mission

• Captures your core purpose, attitude and orientation to your customer (patient), and outlines your identity

• It creates the necessary driving force to grow your practice

• It is the definition by which you operate

• Responsible for the desire, or lack there of, to serve your community