181 The 10% Fix That Changes Everything in Your Clinic

Welcome

Welcome back to Treat Your Business, the show for clinic owners who want real, honest advice and tried and tested ways of doing things. I’m Katie Bell, and this is the new era of bigger insights and bolder conversations to help you grow a clinic and a life you love. Let’s dive in.

Episode summary

What if you did not need more clients to grow? In this episode, I’m sharing why the fastest, simplest way to take your clinic to the next level is often not about adding more, but about getting 10% better at the things already happening inside your business.

I talk through the compound effect of small improvements across three core areas: conversion, retention, and pricing. When you turn the dial up by just 10% in each of these, you can increase revenue and profit without spending more on marketing, hiring more staff, or chasing the next shiny strategy.

This is a CEO level shift. Moving from guessing to leading, from reacting to deciding, and from being in the business to actually running it.

Key takeaways

• Small improvements compound fast. A 10% lift in the right places can create a huge difference over a year.
• Conversion matters more than you think. If you’re converting 70% of new patients into ongoing care, improving that to 80% can increase weekly sessions without spending another pound on marketing.
• Retention is where profit often lives. The real profit is rarely in session one. It is in sessions 2, 3, 4, 5, and beyond, when clients stay long enough to get results.
• Pricing increases do not need to be scary. Even a small increase, applied consistently across your client base, adds up quickly over 12 months.
• Most clinics do not have a lead problem, they have a leakage problem. Money comes in, then leaks out through poor follow up, weak rebooking, and missed reactivation. Fix the leak before you pour more in at the top.
• Systems beat goals. If you do not have a system for tracking and improving your numbers, you will keep hitting a ceiling, no matter how hard you work.
• Knowing your numbers is leadership. When you understand your numbers, you can do less, make better decisions, and feel more in control.

Resources

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

If this episode has been a nudge to step out of the day to day and focus on what actually moves the needle, take it. For most clinics, that 10% is the difference between stress and control, between busy and profitable, and between feeling stuck and actually growing.

Thanks for listening to the Treat Your Business podcast. Hit subscribe now and keep joining me for bigger insights and bolder conversations to help you build a clinic and a life you love.

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by MBST, the groundbreaking technology revolutionising recovery and rehabilitation. Offering a non-invasive, drug-free solution for musculoskeletal conditions and nerve injuries, MBST works at a cellular level to stimulate regeneration. Expand your services and deliver long-term patient improvements without increasing your workload.

Learn more at mbstmedical.co.uk. 

Resources & Links:

Subscribe to our Channel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thrivebizcoach?sub_confirmation=1

Website: https://Thrive-businesscoaching.com  

Transcript

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: I want to start with a question today. What if you didn't need more clients? What if the answer to taking your clinic to the next level wasn't about doing more, but just getting 10% better? 10% better at converting 10% better at pricing? 10% better at retaining because that 10% will literally change your business.

[00:00:29] [00:00:30] Welcome to the Treat Your Business podcast, the show for clinic owners who want real, honest advice and tried and tested ways of doing things. I'm Katie Bell, and this is the new era of bigger insights and bolder conversations to help you grow a clinic and a life you love. Let's dive in.

[00:00:47] Most clinic owners really overcomplicate growth because we often think that we need new services or we need new team members, we need new marketing strategies, we need lots more ideas and we are constantly looking for the [00:01:00] next thing. We are magpies and we are always thinking about ideas and more and more in the clinic.

[00:01:07] And I am. I was absolutely this person in both of my businesses until quite recently, probably I would say maybe on the lead up to maternity leave. Like I just literally couldn't work any harder and there was this, like I'm hitting the ceiling in both of my companies. Because I can't keep doing the same [00:01:30] things and expecting different results and we need, I needed a shift and it was this whole, I don't wanna be constantly looking for the next thing.

[00:01:38] Constantly busy, constantly churning all the time. We just need to get, we just need to turn the dial up by 10% on stuff so often. We're ignoring what's already right in front of us. So our like current inquiries, our current clients, our current pricing model, our current team performance.

[00:01:57] There is so much [00:02:00] opportunity literally sitting inside your business. You're just not optimizing it. Let me show you how powerful this is, and I first got introduced to the word compound sat round the pool in Mar Marbella when I was working with a business coach. Oh my goodness, I'm gonna say it was.

[00:02:18] Probably 10 years ago now. And we were talking a lot about the compound effects. In fact, there's a great book called about compounding. But let's just say you're converting at 70%. Okay? So [00:02:30] 70% of your new patients that attend the clinic or coming to your studio for a class convert into ongoing care.

[00:02:38] If you can improve that to just 80%. Just a 10% change. You've increased your number of sessions happening within the week without spending a single extra pound on marketing. Let's look at retention. If your average client comes for 1.6, [00:03:00] 1.82 sessions, and we increase that by 10%, it's not just better care.

[00:03:08] But it's significantly more revenue from the same person, and that is often where your profit sits. Your profit doesn't sit in your new patient assessment. It probably doesn't sit in session one. It definitely sits in session 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, whatever it is. And I say that from a place of [00:03:30] we only treat. And we only work with clients for ongoing if they actually need it.

[00:03:35] Like we're not selling them anything they don't actually need, but we are enabling them to get the results that they're looking for. So let's say pricing. If you increase your session your price by 10%. Not massive, not scary, but across every single session that adds up fast over a year. Like I remember, not this April or April before we increased our parties [00:04:00] membership. And it was, I think my team decided they wanted to put it up by, I think it was three pounds a month. And I was like, what is the fack and point like? Just can we not just show and put five on it? And they felt comfortable. It was not me making these really these decisions anymore and then having to implement it in the clinic.

[00:04:22] So we went from I think 55 to 58 or 58, 6. I can't remember that. But actually when we looked at it [00:04:30] across 278 members a month, over 12 months of the year, it was loads of money. And so when you combine those three things, conversion, retention, pricing. You don't just grow, you multiply and more profits.

[00:04:47] Because to do all of that doesn't mean more staff. It doesn't mean often, doesn't mean more staff. It doesn't mean doing, changing the structure of your business. It, and this is what most of us don't see. [00:05:00] We're too desperate to drive new more, more into the clinic. So the reality is that we often don't have a lead problem.

[00:05:09] Or if we do, we also have a sales problem. The thing that's happening after those inquiries have come to the clinic, we have a leakage problem sell gross. So there you are often not converting enough. We're not rebooking enough, we're not following up, we're not reactivating. And so money's coming into the business and then leaking straight [00:05:30] back out.

[00:05:30] And instead of fixing the leak, we just often go and try and pour more in at the top. Why aren't we fixing this? Honestly, it, I often hear it 'cause it's easier to look for something new than to look at your numbers. There's avoidance, there's procrastination, there's overwhelm. This fear of judgment, this fear of numbers telling you, like sometimes I, I know I've looked at things.

[00:05:55] This is when I was like really in the nitty gritty of the clinic and I used to open a spreadsheet [00:06:00] and then seven hours later I'd lift my head and I'd gone totally down a rabbit hole. And often you haven't got a system to track things properly. And the bigger problem that I see a lot is that you just set no time aside for the.

[00:06:14] To actually review, to actually think, and this is where leadership comes in, whether you are a one person band or a, got a team of 50. James Clear from Atomic Habits says you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. So right now, most clinic owners don't [00:06:30]have a system for understanding and improving their numbers.

[00:06:34] And this is the shift. This is the CEO shift that you absolutely have to make. From guessing to leading, from reacting, to deciding, from being in the business to actually running it. Because for many of you listening to this, you're still very clinical and that's great and like lots of you wanna keep that open.

[00:06:54] And I'm here for that. But you. You are just gonna hit a ceiling. You are [00:07:00] just gonna stagnate and top out and most of you have, so you can't just keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something different to happen. When you understand your numbers, you can make better decisions.

[00:07:13] You can actually do less. Who here listening to this podcast would love to do less and make more money? You'll feel more confident. You'll stop chasing everything and you know where energy where attention goes, energy [00:07:30] flows. So when we are giving on numbers, attention, energy goes there, right? It's like giving a sign to the universe, which is I'm managing money.

[00:07:39] I'm ready. I am ready to receive more money. Like we put our attention on it rather than bury our head in the sand. And you focus then on what actually moves the needle. This is exactly why we have to go deep into knowing your numbers [00:08:00] as a foundational element in your business. When you get to the next level, what we call elevate levels, this is where your multiple six figures, you've got a team.

[00:08:11] When you get to that level there, ha, this stuff has to be in place. You can't just pretend you know it, you can't just be looking at it every so often. This has to be like what you are living and breathing and you are talking about, and you are looking at, and you are in control of. And yes, as your business grows, there is more layers that you are [00:08:30] gonna, you are gonna need to know, but there is some basic stuff, some foundational stuff that you absolutely must know.

[00:08:37] Within what we teach within Thrive. This is why we have to revisit this over and over and over again. It's why, in fact, probably the week that you are listening to this, I am, we are at Ickly Island. Fabulous. Las paradise Peninsula. It's not a peninsula paradise, whatever it is. We really focus on, we're going deep for a [00:09:00] whole day on knowing your numbers.

[00:09:01] Not let's just load loads of share. It's get it done. In the room. We map your numbers out, we identify biggest gaps. We show you exactly where this 10% lever is, and for most clinics, I promise you this, 10% is the difference between stress and control is between busy and profitable. It's between feeling stuck.

[00:09:21] And actually growing. And once you see it, everything changes. So again, I [00:09:30] hope this is. A sign to get yourself out of the day to day and focus on what actually moves the needle so that you can approach the summer feeling more in control of your business. Feeling like you can actually have some time off and the business is not gonna, gonna go under.

[00:09:49] Nothing's gonna happen 'cause we've projected for it. We know it's gonna happen. Rather than another few months go by when you are not clear. And if you really like, [00:10:00] don't know how to do this, 'cause I didn't know how to do this. The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

[00:10:06] The definition of insanity for me is trying to figure this shit out for yourself when there are people out there that can help you, your accountant, have bigger, better questions and conversations with them get help. Ask for advice, be coached. Don't try and figure this stuff out for yourself because I promise you, unless this is like your zone of genius, [00:10:30] you are gonna come unstuck.

[00:10:32] I hope you've enjoyed this very quick episode this week. Have a fabulous one, and I will see you back next week. 

[00:10:39] Thanks for listening to the Treat Your Business podcast. Hit subscribe now and keep joining me for bigger insights, older conversations to help you build a clinic and a life you [00:11:00] love.