Treat Your Business

Thrive Through Summer Bonus EP03 - How To Step Away From Your Clinic Without The Wheels Falling Off

• Katie Bell • Season 1

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✨ Welcome
Hello and welcome back to episode three of Thriving Through Summer! I’m Katie Bell and this is the third of four special bonus episodes for clinic owners who want to protect their profits and, most importantly, their peace this summer. Today I’m diving into a topic that really hits a nerve, how to step away from your clinic without the wheels falling off.

🎯 Episode Summary
I’m recording this at 37 weeks pregnant, having just been for my final scan. So, trust me, I’m living what I’m teaching! I’m preparing to step away from two businesses, and as a recovering control enthusiast, I know exactly how it feels to worry the wheels will come off when you take a break. If your stomach tightens at the thought of leaving your clinic, you are not alone. This episode is all about flipping that fear and stepping into real leadership, giving your team the chance to rise and shine.

The real issue isn’t taking time off - it’s preparing for it. Most of us send a few vague messages and hope for the best, only to end up answering WhatsApp by the pool or coming back to chaos. I’ll share how to set boundaries, create simple SOPs, and step into your CEO role so you can truly switch off and trust your team.

💡 Key Takeaways

  • Decide now what you will and won’t be available for
  • Step up into leadership and let your team take ownership
  • Create a simple summer SOP - one page, clear roles, emergency contacts, and key processes
  • Delegation is about developing your team, not just dumping tasks
  • Your business should run without you in the room - that’s true freedom
  • Celebrate your team stepping up and make this summer a leadership lab

🔗 Resources & Links

🙏 Sponsor Message
Thrive Through Summer is sponsored by VBS Medical Ltd, exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland of K-Laser Therapy & Indiba Radiofrequency Therapy.
Learn more about K-Laser Therapy: klaseruk.co.uk/why-klaser
Discover Indiba Radiofrequency Therapy: vbsmedical.com/product/indiba-radiofrequency
Book your free trial at vbsmedical.com/contact – quote "THRIVE" to receive a free set of goggles or Indiba cream with your equipment purchase.

🌞 See you next week for the final episode in this bonus series, Thriving Through Summer!

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: Today's episode is sponsored by VBS Medical Limited. It's the exclusive distributor of K-laser therapy and Indiba radio frequency therapy in the UK and Ireland. K-laser and Indiba are non-invasive therapies that enhance and accelerate the healing process complementing standard of care. Broadening therapeutic opportunities, improving clinical outcomes, generating new profit, and distinguishing your clinic from the competition.

[00:00:27] Katie Bell: K-Laser and Indiba have a medical [00:00:30] device regulation approval, meaning they have scientific publications to validate their clinical applications in practice. To learn more, visit www.vbsmedical.com and book your free trial today.

[00:00:43] Katie Bell: Welcome back to episode three of Thriving Through Summer, and this is episode three of four in this little bonus series that I've created for clinic owners who are ready to protect their profits, and most importantly, their piece. This summer, today we're going to talk about something that tends to really [00:01:00] hit a nerve, and it's about how to step away from your clinic this summer without the wheels falling off.

[00:01:05] Katie Bell: And this feels really relevant to me because, for those of you who listen regularly, some of you may or may not know that I am actually 3 7 weeks pregnant recording this podcast. I have been for my final scan today and we are ready to rock and roll, ladies and gentlemen. And so obviously clearly the thing that you need to do is record more podcast episodes, this really when I was putting together my plan for this little series, [00:01:30] it really resonated with me because I'm not only having to do all of this that I have been teaching you, but I'm having to exit two businesses for a. Period of time, one is going to be longer than the other. Because one is an older business than the other.

[00:01:46] Katie Bell: And there are certain roles and responsibilities that I have in both businesses that warrant when I need to come back to certain things. And also I am a serial entrepreneur and I'm a recovering control enthusiast.. [00:02:00] With the best will in the world. I'm planning to step away from both of my businesses this summer and the wheels won't fall off because I couldn't step into this podcast and deliver the coaching that I do if I wasn't walking, the, walk, talking the talk and making the shit happen in my business and in my life.

[00:02:19] Katie Bell: So if it makes your stomach tighten a little. Or if your brain goes straight to, but no one else does it like I do. What if something goes wrong? What if the team need me and then I'm not [00:02:30] there? I just wanna say, you are not alone. This is a huge mindset and leadership hurdle for so many clinic owners.

[00:02:37] Katie Bell: But I need you to flip it because what if this summer became the moment you finally stepped into leadership and gave your team the chance to rise? Or your va, or your pa, or your receptionist or whoever you have got around you in your support network. Let's get into it.

[00:02:58] Katie Bell: [00:03:00] Welcome to the Treat Your Business Podcast with Katie Bell. I'm Katie, and this is the place where clinic owners like you learn the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts needed to transform your clinic into a thriving business. One that gives you more time, more money, and more freedom. Born from a passion to challenge the idea that average is normal.

[00:03:21] Katie Bell: We empower clinic owners to create extraordinary businesses, incomes, and lives through our world class coaching programs. We help you step out of [00:03:30] overwhelm and into confidence, turning your clinic into a business that fuels your lifestyle, not draining it. So are you ready? Let's dive in.

[00:03:40] Katie Bell: So the problem isn't time off, it's how you prep for it.

[00:03:42] Katie Bell: Okay. The real issue is that clinic owners can't take it. It's not that we can't take time off properly. It's that we don't prepare for it properly. We just hope it'll be fine, and we try and control everything and hold onto too many [00:04:00] things, and we don't delegate early enough and we don't get help early enough.

[00:04:03] Katie Bell: So we send a few vague messages. About our expectations. We have a last minute chat with a team member that's really vague. And then we head off crossing our fingers. And what happens is that you are on WhatsApp by the pool. You are answering team questions while you are loading the dishwasher at the Airbnb.

[00:04:19] Katie Bell: You're checking your booking system instead of actually switching off from it. And it's exhausting. Some of you might be listening to this thinking no I can have protected time off Katie [00:04:30] and many of you will be members and that means that we've worked with you really hard on protecting your time off and boundaries and putting systems in place.

[00:04:37] Katie Bell: But what can happen is that you come back to an absolute shit show. So yes, you've not checked your emails for two weeks, but you have 150 million emails to deal with questions about everything that demands your attention, and you come back and work twice as hard as you would normally do, and it doesn't really warrant then you having any time off at all.

[00:04:53] Katie Bell: It's exhausting, isn't it? But it is totally avoidable. But what if you made one simple decision this [00:05:00] week and it's that you decide now what you will and won't be available for. Because the moment that you step out of being a clinician and a physio or an osteopath or a sports therapist, and step into and step up into being the CEO of your business and your life, not the crutch to it.

[00:05:20] Katie Bell: Then you give your team what they actually need to succeed without you. We need to give them tools, clear [00:05:30] SOPs, decision, trees, comms guides. We need to trust. You need to stop micromanaging and we need clarity on who's doing what and when. A confident team is a really well prepared team and a prepared team gives you the peace of mind.

[00:05:50] Katie Bell: We have a very strong accountability chart. Within both of my businesses. And that clearly defines the key roles and responsibilities for each staff member where [00:06:00] they sit within the accountability chart, what everybody's measurable is. So there is no like, oh, I didn't think he was meant to be doing that.

[00:06:06] Katie Bell: No. That is your key role and responsibility. You are expected to take full responsibility for that, and you are being measured in this way. So delegation is like a leadership muscle. Delegation isn't just dumping, and that's where I see clinic owners go wrong when they first start to delegate to VAs and then to maybe their practice manager who becomes their ops [00:06:30] manager and integrator delegation isn't dumping.

[00:06:32] Katie Bell: It's developing. You are not just offloading tasks. You are handing over ownership of tasks, but you have to then give them the structure and the support to do it well. So that has to start with a bit of inner work. It has to start with asking yourself like, what decisions am I currently holding onto that someone else could own?

[00:06:58] Katie Bell: Like, [00:07:00] why does everything have to come through me? What tasks do I always default to because of habit or control? And here is the big one. You are going to be a massive bottleneck in your business without realising it. And for those of you who are not birthing a human in the next three weeks I can honestly say this has been the biggest journey to getting myself out of any bottlenecks in the business because I am literally not going to be here.

[00:07:29] Katie Bell: [00:07:30] OK Here's the challenge. Let's see what happens guys. 'cause you are going to hear from me every week still because I have prepared and I have planned. And the team have got structure. So what should happen is that I return and you don't actually even know that I have not been here because we have put that preparation in place.

[00:07:49] Katie Bell: And whether you are taking a week off a long weekend three weeks, four weeks over the summer, this is your chance to have this like mini retirement away from your business and. If everything [00:08:00] has to go through you, your business is super fragile. Delegation takes a lot of effort upfront, but it takes a few minutes to explain the why.

[00:08:10] Katie Bell: Not just the what, but the return is massive for you. You have more time, more confidence, more strength in your business, and it's a skill, and the more you use it, the better that you get at it. So if you bring in a va. We have fabulous VAs that work within Thrive. And we have a full-time ops [00:08:30] assistant as well.

[00:08:30] Katie Bell: And I have an integrator. When I delegate things, I have to put a process behind it or I have to explain this is the outcome that I want. This is what I've been doing so far. But I recognise it's probably absolutely shit because. I'm not a process person. I'm a visionary. So would you be willing to either write the process for that task or Here is the process that I follow, but I want you to update it in the way that it works best for you.

[00:08:56] Katie Bell: But this is the outcome that I want when I want it, and this [00:09:00] is why we need to do it. So this summer, what's one responsibility that you are holding onto? You could step back from to let someone else step up. So create a summer, SOP, standard operating plan, procedure process, whatever you wanna call it.

[00:09:23] Katie Bell: This is a game changer before you go anywhere, create a super simple summer SOP, that's like this is your [00:09:30] clinic's summer sat nav. It tells your teams where to go, how to respond, and what success looks like. It's not a 10 page manual. It is a one pager. It's who's in charge of what? Making responsibilities.

[00:09:43] Katie Bell: Crystal clear what emergency protocols, what counts as an emergency, and who to contact 'cause it's not you guys 'cause you're on holiday. So if your front fire alarm goes off or your burger alarm goes off, or you bloody broadband shuts down. Because by the way, it [00:10:00] only ever happens when you go on holiday or something was to happen.

[00:10:03] Katie Bell: These are the people that they first can get in contact. And when does it escalate to you payment and booking processes. What's the plan for chasing unpaid invoices, managing no-shows, updates, schedules, key things that need to happen. What's the marketing plan for over the summer? What's going out when, who's posting it?

[00:10:21] Katie Bell: Our email campaign scheduled communication boundaries. Who contacts you when and how? Are you checking in once a week or not at all? [00:10:30] And you can leave a voice note or a short loom video for your team before you leave saying, here's what a great summer looks like. Here's what I'm excited for you to own, and here's how I'm supporting from a distance.

[00:10:44] Katie Bell: And that might be that you were away for a week or two weeks or three weeks or whatever it is that you've got coming up, but it shows leadership without micromanaging your team. I remember when I first took a mini retirement from the business and I think it was, I. About year three of owning [00:11:00] a clinic.

[00:11:00] Katie Bell: We were multiple six figures already by that point. We'd got team built up, but I was like, I was like the circus performer. I was juggling everything. I was still in everything. And I set this challenge that I was going to go across the world on a different time zone. I was going to take this many retirement out the business for several weeks.

[00:11:17] Katie Bell: And it was a really good training ground and a good stress test because I had to. Get rid of stuff quickly. I had to delegate. I had to get the right people in place and I had to [00:11:30]really step into being a leader rather than a manager of everything. So this summer doesn't have to just be a test for your team, but it can be training for your team.

[00:11:45] Katie Bell: It. A leadership lab, you've got team members who are probably way more capable than they're currently doing, but because you never give them space or you, or they never get a chance to prove it, they like you. You just control everything. They can't [00:12:00] flourish. They can't thrive in their role. So you could invite your team leads or your rising stars to run a weekly team huddle or take on a specific mini project or target, like reactivating past clients.

[00:12:13] Katie Bell: Tracking KPIs and present a quick report to you when you return and when you come back, let's celebrate the wins that reinforces initiative and confidence and buy-in. Because remember, in your business, your job isn't to do [00:12:30] everything. If you think your job as a visionary and as a clinic owner is to do everything, you are never ever going to get out of what you are in now, it's, you're just going to be consumed all the time.

[00:12:41] Katie Bell: Your job is to build a business that runs even when you are not in the room. That's true leadership, and it starts with trust. So I want you to, I want to lovingly challenge you to [00:13:00] let go of something. Use this time to reflect on what am I holding onto? What am I bottlenecking? The more your business relies on you, the more fragile it is.

[00:13:13] Katie Bell: If we were in front of. Somebody that was looking to buy businesses, and they we all lined up all the podcast listeners right now, and one of the things that they're going to look at straight away is how much do you, how much does your business rely on you? They're also going to look at your cash position.

[00:13:29] Katie Bell: [00:13:30] They're also going to look at your reoccurring revenue. They're going to look at your business model, they're going to look at your marketing, all of those things, right? And some of you are years away from wanting to exit this business, but we are here to build a business. Doesn't rely on us. 'cause then we've just got jobs.

[00:13:47] Katie Bell: Delegation, leadership and systems are not luxuries. They are non-negotiables. If you want true freedom, they're all learnable. But you've gotta be [00:14:00] ready to stop being the bottleneck. You've gotta be ready to step into that CEO role and you've gotta be ready to step into learning skills that you don't currently possess.

[00:14:11] Katie Bell: And developing self in a way that you have not yet developed. Because if you had, then you would be running a much bigger company and you would be working a lot less than you are. So if you are ready to stop being the bottleneck, if you are ready to step into that CEO role, [00:14:30] then , I want to invite you to set yourself up for success.

[00:14:34] Katie Bell: And you've got some options. I've been talking about our Evolve program, which is relaunching again in September. We've just finished our last cohort who have all just graduated and, this is for clinic owners who are relatively new into business. You have a business already, but you are basically generating all the revenue by yourself.

[00:14:54] Katie Bell: You probably don't have reoccurring revenue streams or programs or packages. [00:15:00] You probably have no marketing plan or try and do too many things at once. You are very unclear on your numbers, and you're probably making between one and 5K revenue each month. You want to build a sustainable, scalable business, but you just don't know where to start.

[00:15:14] Katie Bell: Head to the link in the show notes and join our wait list. We kick off again in September. It's a short, intense, immersive course that is going to mean that you start 2026 in a completely different space. [00:15:30] Joining the wait list gives you first access priority booking. We only have limited places available 'cause I will not compromise on quality and a space to finally start building the clinic you actually want to run.

[00:15:40] Katie Bell: Now, maybe you are a business owner that is beyond £5k a month and you need more support to scale your business to the next level. You are currently being a manager and not a leader. You don't how to manage your team and get the most from them, and you are just being the circus performer and juggling everything.

[00:15:55] Katie Bell: Then the link in the show notes also for clinic growth. Strategy call is [00:16:00]there 60 minutes, one-on-one with my team to get really clear on what you need to do next in your business to scale it in a sustainable way. Your business doesn't need you in every moment to grow. It just needs your leadership, and this summer, your leadership starts now.

[00:16:19] Katie Bell: I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Join me next week for the final four or four in this little bonus series, thriving Through Summer.

[00:16:27]

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Katie Bell

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