The Private Practice Success Podcast

14: The 3 Business Pillars for Private Practice Success

• Gerda Muller • Episode 14

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In this episode of the Private Practice Success Podcast, Gerda Muller explores the foundational business pillars essential for creating a long-term, sustainable, and successful private practice. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your practice, these insights will guide you on your journey.

In this Episode, you'll learn (amongst others):

  • The three key business pillars for growing an allied health private practice.
  • The three essential elements within each pillar that drives business outcomes.
  • The nuances of balancing marketing, diary management, and customer service to drive client acquisition and retention.
  • The significance of team capacity, leadership, and culture in talent management.
  • The importance of systems, deliverables, and a healthy money mindset in ensuring long-term success.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Private practice owners seeking to build or enhance their business.
  • Business owners aiming to improve team dynamics and operational efficiency.
  • Allied health professionals looking to understand the core components of practice success.

Join Gerda as she breaks down the three pillars of private practice success, offering practical strategies and insights to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about. Whether you're refining your current practice or starting anew, this episode provides valuable guidance to ensure your success.

Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

Well, hello there, fabulous private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller, and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast, and this is episode number 14. 

Today I want to talk to you about The Three Important Business Pillars required in order for you to build a long term sustainable and highly successful private practice.

So we're going to take a really big picture view, and we're going to break it down in very simple terms.

When you are building a private practice, you need three things. And most of us start with the first one - which is clients.

PILLAR 1: CLIENTS

So you cannot have a practice without having clients. And even if you are a solo practitioner, you are not an actual private practice owner, unless that first client has walked through the doors. And then slowly but surely you start to see more clients.

Now, in order for you to build the number of clients within your practice, you are going to need to focus on three things related to clients. 

Client Element #1: Marketing

The first of those things are marketing. So marketing is all about getting your name out there. Making sure that people know that you have hung up your shingle, and your door is open for business. That you are ready to help and support clients with whatever the problems or the issues are that they would like your help with. So marketing is really important. And of course, there's a wide range of potential marketing strategies that you can engage in. From social media marketing, from networking, to doing meet and greets with potential third-party referrers. 

There is so many potential marketing strategies that you can pursue. The bottom line, however, is that you will need to do some type of marketing. 

Then as more and more clients come through your door, you're going to really need to get focused on the second essential element when it comes to clients, and that is your diary management.

Client Element #2: Diary Management

More specifically, what I like to refer to as Dynamic Diary Management. And this is where you really need to have clarity around how you are booking in clients. Are you getting clients to book in weekly, fortnightly? How long is your sessions going to be - all of those type of things. 

Client Element #3: – Customer Service

And then the third element that's really important when it comes to clients, of course, is your customer service.

Right from the start, you want to have a clear focus on high quality customer service. And of course, these things, but particularly customer service, remains extremely important throughout the growth of your business. So whether you are a solo practitioner or you are what I like to refer to as a level five private practice, and you've got 10 or more clinicians - maybe even multiple locations - customer service needs to remain at a high level of quality. And for a lot of practice owners, this is a really big challenge, in ensuring that each and every person at your practice keeps on delivering that consistent level of customer service that you require them to deliver. 

So to recap, then when it comes to our clients, what we want to do, is make sure that we do marketing both at the start, but on an ongoing basis, you need to do marketing consistently so that you can get clients through the door. And then of course, keep busy. Then you want to focus on your dynamic diary management. And thirdly, you want to ensure that you deliver great quality customer service.

So those are the three elements that will mean that you will look after the client part of building a successful private practice. 

And then when you've nailed this client thing and you're busy and the phone keeps ringing and your diary is really full, what generally then tends to happen is people reach a crossroad where they decide to either continue in solo practice - or to expand into a group private practice. Which therefore means that they are taking on team members. So team is that second part of building a successful private practice.

PILLAR 2: TEAM

Now, whether you take on team members as contractors or employees, it doesn't matter. What we are just talking to in this instance for today's purpose is you are bringing other clinicians on board to help service the clients that is coming through your practice doors.

So just like in the case of clients, there were three essential elements that we had to address in order to build our client base. When it comes to building our team base and supporting our team, there's three essential elements in there. First of which is team capacity.

Team Element #1: Capacity

So this is where we look at the word capacity in two ways. First, numbers - so that is clinicians. available to see the clients. And here we need to focus on stuff such as recruitment, making the right job offer, onboarding people in great and good and proper ways. Also making decisions around the model of engaging clinicians. Is it an employment model? Is it a contractor model?

So this is where you look at the capacity. So capacity refers both to the number of clinicians, but also then, empowering those clinicians to do amazing work and therefore building their capacity to do the work that you've hired them to do. 

Then once you've got those team members on board, it'll be really important for you to engage and step up as a leader. So the second essential element here is leadership.

Team Element #2: Leadership

When you have team, you automatically need to lead, even if it feels to you that it doesn't come naturally. Any and all teams need a leader. So it will be important for you to acknowledge this. And to step into whatever your leadership style is to be mindful of the leadership style required by various clinicians on your team. And for you to keep on building your skills and your personal leadership capacity. 

And then the third and just as important element when it comes to team, is culture.

Team Element #3: Culture

We as business owners need to actively build and create there for the culture within our business. Because the thing is, if you do not create that culture, it will create itself. And then you have little control over what that looks like.

And once culture is established, it is really difficult to turn around, not impossible, most certainly doable, but it will be challenging and it will take time and negative and toxic culture has significant consequences on your business. 

So those are the three elements when it comes to team.  So to recap, it's the capacity of the team. It is the leadership that is required, whether that is you. And later on, you might even have team leaders in your business. And then of course it is culture. 

Then the third part, that is required in order to build a successful private practice is frameworks. 

PILLAR 3: FRAMEWORKS

So we started off with clients and once we've got the clients we go, okay maybe we've made a decision to expand the practice and bring on other clinicians. So now we are building team and then thirdly, we need to ensure that we put the frameworks in place to support the team. Because remember, you've brought the team on board to help you look after more clients, so that you can help more people.

But in order to support the team to do the work that you've engaged them to do, there needs to be really good, solid frameworks. So the frameworks needless to say is like the scaffolding that's going to hold up the team in order to support the clients. It's there for the foundations of your business. And it's very easy to overlook that part of building a private practice because it's the boring bits, right? It's not as exciting as recruiting and taking new people on board and interacting with them and getting somebody there to help more clients. So it's less exciting, but it's really, really important to get done.

Just like when we looked at clients in a team, we looked at three essential elements within frameworks. There are three essential elements that you will need to look at and build in order to have a successful private practice. 

The first of which is systems.

Frameworks Element #1: Systems

Systems is a term that we use and that generally refers to stuff such as your policies, Your processes and your procedures.

Another word that people often use, and people use these words interchangeably, is your SOPs or your standard operating procedures. All of that falls under the umbrella term of systems. So as a practice owner, as a business owner, it is your job to ensure that systems are in place, that these are written down. In other words, that they are documented somewhere and that your team fully understands them, have embraced them and are following them.  So systems is that first essential element. 

The second essential element here when it comes to frameworks is what I like to refer to as deliverables.

Frameworks Element #2: Deliverables

That is where you've really quantified what is it that my team needs to do.

You can bring on board the best, most amazing team members, but unless they know what is required of them, they won't be able to deliver on what is required. They won't be able to be productive, right? They won't be able to do the job that you've brought them on to do. So deliverables will include things such as key performance areas, the required key performance outcomes, and of course, key performance indicators.

And this is really important for the team to know what these are, to understand it, and to fully embrace and feel empowered in order to achieve it. So that is the deliverables part of your frameworks. 

And then the third one might be a bit of an odd one. But I'm sure you'll understand where I'm going with this once I explain it. And that is your money mindset.

Frameworks Element #3: Money Mindset

And yes, money mindset is a under frameworks because it really needs to filter into everything that happens within the business. And money mindset starts with yourself as the practice owner. And it's your job to have an amazing, a really abundant money mindset. And it's also your job to model that to your team, whether this is your clinician team or your administrative team. 

Now money mindset also leads into money behaviours. And that is about becoming comfortable with things such as having a budget, having a cash flow forecast, actually looking at these spreadsheets, interpreting it, analysing it, using it to make decisions. Running other important stats within the business that is your lead and lag indicators in order to make really important strategic decisions based off the numbers.

The thing is, if you are in private practice, you are running a for profit business. Which means that for every dollar you spend on bills, on wages - doesn't matter what it is - you need to generate that money, right? A private practice business does not get government funding. We do not generally get grants. Sometimes if you go through the process and you jump through a lot of hoops, you might qualify for a grant, but most of the times we don't get those. They go straight to the NGOs, which is perfectly fine, right? 

But it's really about going, okay - if I want to own and manage and build, grow and scale, whatever it is for you, a private practice - I need to acknowledge that it is a private business. So I need to get comfortable and empowered when it come not only to money mindset, but also the behaviours around money. Because that is the only way that we can keep the doors open and can therefore ensure that we get to do the work that we are here to do, and that is to help more people in better and more efficient and meaningful ways.

Recap

To recap the three big picture parts of running a successful private practice is you need clients, you need team, and you need frameworks. 

Within Clients, the three essential elements was: Marketing, Dynamic Diary Management and Customer Service. 

Within Team, it was: Capacity, Leadership, and Culture.

And within Frameworks, it was: Systems, Deliverables, and Money Mindset. 

So today I want to encourage you to really reflect on how much attention you are currently giving these various areas within your private practice business. Maybe there's a part that you're really good at. Maybe there's a part that you've totally neglected, and that is okay.

This is about becoming aware of it. And then also asking ourselves, okay, why am I neglecting this part? Am I, for example, avoiding maybe marketing because it feels uncomfortable and it feels like I'm selling myself, you know, just checking with yourself, whether there's any specific reasons why you are avoiding certain functions required within your business.

The thing is, in order for you to have a successful private practice, you will need to get comfortable making the time, and looking at all of these various aspects that we've just spoken about today. Because each and every one of them are essential in order for you to build a business that you deserve and desire. 


Alrighty, I hope that this was of help. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about. 😊

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Gerda Muller

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