Decreasing the Volume in Your Life

Recently I received an email from Dr. Mark King of MPI who conveyed a short and impactful quote from someone he is working with Wes Gipe of Aileron. 

Volume is Vanity

Profit is Sanity

Cash is Reality  

When I read this, it hit me right away. But volume equals profit and cash, you say. Not always. Far too often, I come across chiropractors who have plenty of new patients and office visits but are not cash confident.

Skyrocketing overhead, nose-diving insurance reimbursements, and financial mismanagement lead to cash flow issues, debt, and inevitable stress. You are overworked, burned out, and your patient notes are piling up. There is no end in sight. Or is there?

Volume can mean many things. Practice Volume, how busy you are in life, how many side gigs you have, etc.  It's all noise.

At the same time, I received the email from Dr. King, I was reading the book Present over Perfect by Shauna Niequist. It was serendipitous.

In this book, a great chapter called "You Put Up Chairs" and a little story in the chapter resonated with me.

"Years ago, Aaron and I were talking with the pastor of a fast-growing church, and another friend, a more seasoned pastor. The first pastor was telling the story of how the church had exploded, how they couldn't stop the growth, how it was utterly out of their control, an inexplicable, unstoppable phenomenon.

The seasoned pastor pushed him gently: "You've built this, and it's okay to say that. You've intentionally and strategically built a very large church. It's okay to say that."

The young pastor kept protesting, preferring the narrative of wild and unexplained growth. "We had nothing to do with it," he insisted.

"Well, not nothing," said the older pastor. "you kept putting up more chairs."

And then our minds sort of exploded because it didn't occur to us that there was another option. We were all raised to build, build, build. Bigger is better, more is better, faster is better. It had never occurred to us, in church building or any other part of our life, that someone would intentionally keep something small, or deliberately do something slow.

So, the old question persists: But what are you going to do?

I am going to take down some chairs.

As I pondered this concept, I took out my little "Big Ideas" book I carry around with me and started to brainstorm on some "chairs" I needed to remove in my practice and my life. I also reflected on how I had already done a lot of this in my practice already.

Here are a handful of variables you can consider for yourself and your practice. Undoubtedly, there are more, and you will have unique scenarios. The key is to think through this and get clear for yourself and your family.

·        How can you increase the margin in your practice?

·        Can you remove patient facing hours and still see the same amount of people?

·        What tasks can you remove from your day-to-day and have the delegated our outsourced?

·        What trivial expenses can you cut from your operating costs?

·        Are you focusing on your Unique Ability?

·        How can you achieve cash confidence?

·        Start saying "NO" to many more things instead of an automatic "Yes."

·        Is there an insurance plan that pays you dog S**T, and you won't take it anymore?

·        Can you raise your cash fees?

·        What things in your personal life aren't serving your family and are not the best use of your time?

·        Can your practice start implementing marketing that sifts, sorts, and screens for the right types of patients who aren't price shoppers?

·        Do you have plenty of white space (free time) on your calendar?

Take 30 minutes out of your day and start writing out ways to reduce the volume in your life and practice by removing some chairs.

Remember, your metrics of a thriving practice should focus on profit, not volume. Let's cut out the noise and make some music