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Every entrepreneur dreams of scaling their practice to new heights. However, simply growing your clinic or practice is not enough to achieve sustained success. To truly make an impact, you need to approach growth strategically. Check out these ten successful tips for scaling in a sustainable and effective way. From building a strong team to utilizing technology, these strategies will help you take your business to the next level. 

Are you looking to grow your business or scale it? In order to highlight the difference, an article by Harvard Business Review highlights the main difference: “Growth means adding revenue at the same pace you are adding resources; scaling means adding revenue at a much greater rate than cost.”

These days, it’s not easy to be an entrepreneur. So if you don’t want to become a statistic, ensure that you tap into these 10 ways to scale your business:

1. Create and follow a plan.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The most successful businesses have a vision for growth and then reverse engineer the steps required to achieve each goal as part of their planning process. And then—most importantly—they follow their plan.

All too often, companies set goals at the beginning of the year, getting people excited and pumped up. But by March, hardly anyone is following a cohesive plan. Building various lengths of objectives will help keep you focused and aligned.

My company follows the entrepreneurial operating (EOS) system, where everything is broken down into “rocks,” which are the most important things we need to accomplish in the next 90 days. We also have a one-year plan, a three-year vision and our 10-year target; this last one being our North Star for our company and our employees.

It’s important to note that when creating your plan, you don’t aim so high that you can’t meet your targets, nor do you want to make things too easy that you don’t challenge yourself.

As you evaluate your methods to achieve your goals, if you find yourself saying: “it’s the way we’ve always done it,” this is a clear sign you need to revisit that process and innovate your plan.

2. Maintain focus.

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get distracted by shiny object syndrome or be tempted to offer many products and services. Instead, have a core focus and niche so you stay in your lane and deliver what’s promised to customers.

Determine what your key revenue drivers are and double down on those. And if you’re interested in launching a new product or service, test the market first to see if people want it and will actually pay for it. Too many companies spend money on R&D and marketing a new product or service only to find out it’s a failure because no one wants it; don’t let that happen to you.

3. Document your processes.

It’s tough to scale without established, documented organizational processes. To ensure everyone is working off the same page, develop KPIs and SOPs that break down the steps and strategies you follow as an organization and within your teams. Once documented, they are easily accessible by new hires or team members, reducing ramp-up time and training.

4. Have proper lead gen and marketing plans in place.

Without a healthy and growing pipeline, you won’t be able to scale. Inbound and outbound marketing is a must for brand awareness and new business growth. Work closely with your clients and use them as raving fans to attract more business. Asking them why they value your product so much and sharing this feedback is the perfect way to bring in new clients.

5. Be a squirrel when it comes to funds.

Yes, you’ll need to spend and invest in the business, but be intentional when you do and learn to save where you can. Do not buy things you don’t need that won’t directly correlate to a proven ROI for your business.

For example, you can be the CEO but don’t have to take a CEO salary; you should be the last person who gets paid and will often be the lowest-paid employee on your team at first.

In addition, don’t plan too far out or count on money you haven’t closed yet. Always work within the current operating income so you don’t overextend yourself. Finally, track your burn rate consistently so you know how much runway you have with your reserves.

6. Partner with financial professionals.

Managing our business’s finances is crucial to your ability to scale, so ensure you have a solid bookkeeper and CPA to lean on for counsel.

7. Invest in yourself.

Becoming a better leader and businessperson takes work, so don’t be afraid to invest in a coach. Do your homework and be clear about how and in which areas that coach can help. Also, consider joining a community like Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) or Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), which can connect you with other entrepreneurs with similar scaling goals.

8. Strategically hire FTEs.

If you need to have FTEs, hire people who may cost more money but bring the skills to perform and immediately put speed on your side.

Most small businesses trying to scale make the mistake of trying to hire, train and onboard entry-level employees to save a few bucks, but they often end up spending more overall in the time it takes to achieve the same results with a more experienced hire.

Also, ensure all teammates have a number or metric you can measure them by. This way, their role is very clear and they know what success looks like.

9. Outsource when you can.

Not every position needs to be an employee. Consider hiring fractional CFOs, COOs or contract workers for positions or jobs that don’t have full-time work—or when client contracts may be short-term. This ensures you get an experienced professional aligned with your capacity.

10. Learn to delegate.

It’s tough to create and execute your vision if you’re in the weeds of your business. Learn to delegate so you can work on the business instead of in the business. Trusting the professionals you’ve hired to do their jobs will free up your time to focus on your number one goal: scaling your business.

Following these 10 principles can help you move from growing to scaling your business and avoid being a casualty of a challenging entrepreneurial climate.

Perform Practice Solutions helps you understand your customer’s needs, reach your goals, optimize your time, and save money. With our innovative coaching platform, transparent billing platforms, and marketing services, we provide frustrated and hard-working PT, OT, and Chiropractic owners with an alternative way forward. Visit our Facebook page or give us a call at (833) 764-0178.

Reference: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2023/03/01/the-top-10-ways-to-strategically-scale-not-just-grow-your-business/?sh=32f3dc84f9e4]

Small details make the difference between a good business and a great one. Practices that show that they care about those details are generally more successful and more popular among their clients. But it can be tough to know what your clients are thinking and feeling. Here we guide your practice on how to be good at both eliciting and listening to customer feedback.

Your customers are your most valuable source of information when it comes to product design and user experience. That’s why we asked members from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

“What’s one method you use for getting high-quality customer feedback?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Follow Up

“Many, many more people are willing to give reviews than will actually bother to leave them. Asking nicely for them, usually in a follow-up email after service has been completed, works surprisingly well for generating reviews. No one is going to fault you for asking, and every new one is worth its weight in gold.” ~ Adam Steele, The Magistrate

2. Use a Net Promoter Score

“Ask your customer the ultimate question: “From a scale of 0 to 10, How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a colleague or friend?” Followed by: “Why did you rate us that way?” It does not waste your or your customers’ time and it is measurable, actionable and allows you to compare how you do over time.” ~ David Henzel, MaxCDN

3. Ask Them Often

“Ask often and in the right places. Remind customers about the ability to leave reviews across multiple platforms and at a variety of times during their client experience. For example, we send convenient email reminders for feedback after each tutoring session. ” ~Chuck Cohn, Varsity Tutors

4. Send Emails

“This is an obvious option, but it’s often overlooked in favor of more contemporary approaches such as social media. Since the customer is communicating one-on-one, they’re less likely to put on a show (as they would on social media) and are more likely to give quality feedback.” ~ Andrew Namminga, Andesign

5. Ask for the Good and the Bad

“Every one of the 4,000-plus people who have traveled with us received a survey at the end of their trip. It’s easy to fill out and explicitly asks them what was we did well, but also what we did not do well. Especially as a founder, it can be hard to ask people what they don’t like about your company. But you absolutely must, because you’ll learn the most from the tough love.” ~ Cedric Hodgeman, UBELONG

6. Get Feedback on Third Party Sites

“We are an IT company and ask our clients to leave feedback on third party sites like Clutch.co, Greatagencies.com, Upwork.com, and Appfutura.com. These sites call or email clients and get a thorough feedback and publish it online. They ensure that feedback is authentic and high quality. Once published online, our prospective clients can read it. In addition, we get video testimonials.” ~Piyush Jain, SIMpalm

7. Connect With Key Customers

“Conduct both focus groups and one-on-one executive briefings for your key customers. We host ours over lunch so we can build enough trust and dialogue to cut through superficial feedback and really understand how to serve them better.” ~ Christopher Kelly, Convene

8. Use Anonymous Surveys

“We tend to shy away from social media for user feedback. It doesn’t give us the metrics we’re desiring to improve our business operations, and it can be an easy outlet for customers whom are vocal, but not necessarily constructive or helpful. Using surveys to ask specific questions has greatly improved our feedback loop and allowed us to improve our customer experience with much greater accuracy.” ~ Blair Thomas, EMerchantBroker

“It’s important to get honest and helpful feedback from customers, but you have to pose the right questions. It’s important to know what you’re doing right as well as what you could be doing better. You can ask pointed questions in emails, phone conversations and on social media. You may have to prompt customers. Ask what they do or don’t like about specific products/services.” ~ Shawn Porat, Fortune Cookie Advertising

10. Create a Public Slack Group

“When I first started using Slack, I was impressed with such a useful product for team communication. However, I thought there would be more value in hacking the product to be an open forum for people outside the company. I asked my most active users to join the group to discuss topics related to the business in an open forum with custom integrations. I now have direct access to valuable feedback.” ~ Scott Weiner, ClosingBell

11. Train Your Customer Service Team to Have an Open Dialogue

“We train our customer service team to have an open dialogue on incoming calls with customers. This allows us to get raw, unfiltered feedback that helps us improve our product.” ~ Daniel Lambert, BoardVitals

Perform Practice Solutions helps you understand your customer’s needs, reach your goals, optimize your time, and save money. With our innovative coaching platform, transparent billing platforms, and marketing services, we provide frustrated and hard-working PT, OT, and Chiropractic owners with an alternative way forward. Visit our Facebook page or give us a call at (833) 764-0178.

Reference: [https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/02/positive-customer-feedback.html]

When a patient reaches out to your clinic with a question, they expect immediate attention and prompt responses. Every patient inquiry is important in its own right. In a perfect world, every request received by support staff would be answered immediately and solved efficiently. While you can’t wave a magic wand and fix every problem right away, you can continue to provide the best service possible by treating each request with the attention and concern that it deserves. Learn the tricks. (And remember, our marketing solutions offer teams to ensure every review and external query is managed right away!)

Ray Kroc, Founder of McDonald’s, once said, “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and always put the customer first, success will be yours.” Interestingly, most companies have the policy “the customer is always right” but rarely adhere to this customer-first strategy.

It’s common to receive poor customer service and feel like a company doesn’t prioritize its clients. They are the last part of their equation. But what does putting the customer first mean? More importantly, why is it crucial for the success of any business, and how can a company put customers first? replica hublot king power watches

Put the customer first

Putting the customer first means running a company that makes customers feel special. Think of it as a business mindset that promotes a positive customer experience at every step of the customer journey. Every time you make a business decision, consider how it will affect your customers. With this mindset, customers aren’t beyond or above the company. Instead, they are the centerpiece of the puzzle.

Understand the customer journey

The idea of putting the customer first means that you have to understand what your client’s goals and needs are. In other words, put yourself in their shoes. What do they want? How do they want to shop for their products? You must experience the customer journey—from product marketing to decision making, to purchase and use, and after-sales services. Understanding the customer journey will help you pinpoint areas that need improvement.

Putting the customer first also entails knowing that customers have specific demands at every stage of their lifecycle. You must meet the varying needs at each phase of the customer lifecycle accordingly. Taking care of your customers during the purchase stage but neglecting to help them when your product fails to solve their problem will only make your brand suffer.

Define company culture around the customer

A company’s culture is its perspectives, values and goals. Every employee or member of the organization adds something to the culture. However, leaders set the standards for how people should adhere to it.

To put the customers first, define the company’s culture around the customer. This means seeing customers as people who allow the organization to exist. They are the ones keeping the company going. With this perception, a company will treat its customers with the utmost respect.

Know your customers

You need to know what your customers want and their goals. A business should strive to understand customers’ emotions and challenges. Creating personas and working hand in hand with clients is an effective strategy to put customers top of mind throughout the company.

Partnering with customers makes it easier to find practical solutions for service issues. Inviting them to design the customer experience proactively helps you understand the customer journey. Lastly, integrating customer feedback can help you better address their concerns.

Improve the customer experience

A business should devise innovative ways to enhance its customer experience. After introducing a product or service to the market, you must up your game and keep innovating.

Customers will want to settle for innovative products that meet their needs and expectations. Sure, you might have one of the best products or services in the market, but if it needs to be more innovative, people will turn to alternative products. To counter competition from your rivals, you must be creative.

Introducing innovative products and services signals to customers that you’re well aware of their demands and that you can anticipate their needs in advance. Your innovativeness is also a sign of commitment to finding new ways to improve your products and services. Do this and you’ll keep your clients coming back.

Equip your team

Putting the customer first doesn’t mean you should neglect your team. The reality is that employees are the lifeline of any business. Provide your team with the resources required to deliver exceptional services. Equip them with the necessary customer service training tools and content. A conducive environment will allow your team to focus on customer satisfaction.

Taking good care of your employees isn’t just about making them happy. Customers can easily tell when your team is happy. Happy employees exude confidence and positivity, which in turn helps foster positive customer relationships. So, taking care of your team is vital since it creates a good image for your company.

Personalized experiences

Customers love to feel special, and one way to do this is by creating personalized experiences. Such experiences give customers the impression that you care about them. It shows your team is willing to go the extra mile to ensure they are happy with your products or service.

Personalized experiences lead to customer satisfaction, which also contributes to higher retention rates. Another massive benefit of personalization is that it justifies the price of your product or service. Most customers are willing to pay more for exceptional customer experience.

What your customers want

The easiest way to deliver and meet your customer’s expectations is by asking what they want. Technology has made getting in touch with customers more effortless and most are more than willing to give insight into what they want. Take advantage of social networks and customer interactions to ask the right questions. Knowing exactly what it takes to make a customer feel special can assist your business in staying ahead of the game.

Prioritizing customers benefits the bottom line

Without customers, your business wouldn’t exist. It’s essential to put customers first. The more time you spend listening to your customers and delivering accordingly, the higher the retention rates, the happier your employees are and the higher your revenue. But remember, prioritizing your customers takes time.

Be patient while implementing these recommended strategies to take your business to the next level. Remember, the success of your business hinges on how you treat your customers. Treat them well and they will return the favor through their loyalty.

Is your practice preparing for the future? We know PT — and we can help to make sure your business flourishes for the years to come. Let our experts in physical therapy marketing services take all of the guesswork of promoting and building your business. Visit our Facebook page or give us a call at (833) 764-0178.

Reference: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/01/10/tips-on-running-a-successful-business-and-putting-the-customer-first/?sh=34c0fb831bac]

2023 is right around the corner! We know full well that every new year brings new challenges to physical therapy marketing. We need to be open to change and learn new skills to crush our goals. Here are 3 business skills entrepreneurs can develop or improve this year. Better yet — you can hire our team. Regardless, it’s important to understand why they are so important — and what they are and actually accomplish! Bring us your questions! With a little help from our experts: from consulting, to billing to marketing — we can get your practice to the next level.

Ready to level up in your business this year? You have a fresh start so aside from setting goals and determining your focus you need to take action. You can do this by developing new skills that will help your business succeed.

If you’re a digital entrepreneur, you know that the online business work is always changing. It’s crucial that you focus on continuing your education and gaining new skills to help your business evolve.

Here are 3 business skills digital entrepreneurs can develop or improve this year.

1. Managing Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads aren’t going away any time soon so you might as well learn how to master them. Sure, you can hire a Facebook ads expert or consultant, but it’s best that you know at least the basics yourself.

Investing in the ads themselves can be expensive. Add in the extra expense of paying someone to create the copy, set up the campaign, and manage them for you and you could be left with dwindling profits.

Instead, you can take a course or hire a Facebook ads coach so you can learn the basics first and perhaps even master one of these stages to save yourself some money. Once you understand Facebook ads, you can also develop a solid strategy and test things out more effectively.

2. SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hot commodity in the online space. If you run a website or blog, it’s important that you understand SEO and keep up with all of Google’s updates.

Again, you can hire someone to do SEO research and execute a strategy, but it often stands to have some SEO skills of your own to start. You can always delegate keyword research but you do need to be involved in some of the SEO strategy to get the best results.

Luckily, you can enroll in SEO workshops or trainings online hosted by trusted experts in the field. I like taking advice from Mike Pearson from Stupid Simple SEO who is a proven SEO expert and has a ton of great nuggets to offer.

3. Sales

If you’re in business for yourself, you have to know how to sell whether that’s hard selling or soft selling. You can’t just expect to be the brains behind a valuable product or service, you also need to know how to sell it.

This is especially true if you’re a solopreneur. Start by getting clear on your target market and what their needs are. Then create a sales funnel for your solutions that will help them.

You can sell online with integrity in a variety of ways via your email list, social media, webinars, and courses.

Summary

Don’t slack on your skills next year. You don’t have to go back to school or get a new business certification in most cases. You can learn things quickly and without much effort — thanks to the internet.

Focus on constantly learning to master new skill sets so you can run and market your business better.

Is your practice preparing for the future? We know PT — and we can help to make sure your business flourishes for 2023 and the years to come. Let our experts in physical therapy marketing services take all of the guesswork out of promoting and building your business.  Visit our Facebook page or give us a call at (833) 764-0178.

Reference: [https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/01/digital-skills-for-2019.html]

It is that time of year — when the bombardment of ads encourages everyone to review their Medicare coverage — and includes considering the Medicare Advantage plan. But buyers beware. The window of open enrolment can mean that clients and patients may look to healthcare practitioners for advice, opinions, or clarification. Depending on the profession and circumstances, there can be vast differences in the responses — especially with physical therapy.  

This insightful article outlines some broad reasons why the Medicare Advantage plan may not, in truth, be advantageous. 

Along with leaves changing colour and the omnipresence of pumpkin spice comes the avalanche of ads, commercials and telephone calls, entreating us to believe that Medicare Advantage is the best thing since the invention of the Internet. With open enrollment season upon us, it’s critical to examine that claim. In traditional Medicare, the government pays doctors and hospitals directly. Recipients usually pay premiums and must meet deductibles, and many choose a supplemental “Medigap” plan to help with out-of-pocket costs. Medicare Advantage was designed about 20 years ago as an alternative to traditional Medicare, meant to provide innovative ways of delivering care at a lower cost. It pays insurers — middlemen — a monthly fee per patient to manage their care. Premiums are often lower than traditional Medicare and can offer perks such as gym memberships or limited dental or vision care.

However, while traditional Medicare gives access to any participating provider, Medicare Advantage plans limit care to doctors and hospitals in their networks. They are also more likely to deny needed care by requiring prior authorizations for tests or procedures.

Earlier this year, the federal government reported that 13% of denials in Medicare Advantage would not have been refused under traditional Medicare. Medicare Advantage plans are also increasingly ending nursing home and rehabilitation care before providers consider patients ready to go home. While medical professionals make those decisions under traditional Medicare, in Medicare Advantage the insurer decides. So instead of innovating care, Medicare Advantage seems to mainly withhold it. It has also proven to be costly. Because such plans get higher government payouts for sicker patients, insurers have the incentive to exaggerate the sickness of enrollees. According to federal audits, 8 of 10 of the largest companies have submitted inflated bills, and 4 of 5 of the very largest have faced federal lawsuits accusing them of fraud. In 2020 alone, these exaggerated risk scores generated $12 billion in excess payments. Because of this and other factors, the government spends 4% more for Medicare Advantage enrollees than traditional Medicare.

Despite all this, the low premiums and perks may still be attractive to seniors who are not (yet) sick. The situation often changes when they develop an illness. They may find a specialist or hospital they wish to see is out of network. They may experience delays or denials of care due to administrative barriers. Their out-of-pocket costs will often be higher. A little-known fact about Medicare is that when patients are enrolled in Medicare Advantage for over 12 months but want to change to traditional Medicare, Medigap plans are no longer obligated to take them without underwriting, which involves passing a health screen. In other words, if you get cancer and want to go to a cancer centre not covered by your Medicare Advantage plan, you may be stuck. Surely this program should be called Medicare Disadvantage. When a middleman makes profits from “managing” your healthcare, they inevitably do so by limiting the care you get. Medicare recipients, beware! And as citizens and taxpayers, we should all demand that Congress take Medicare out of the hands of corporations, freeing billions of dollars in savings to deliver actual health care.

Navigating the challenges (and endless information!) of owning a physical therapy clinic can feel overwhelming — which is why we are here! Perform Practice Solutions can help you optimize your practice — significantly. Visit our Facebook page or call us at (833) 764-0178.

Reference: [https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article267774792.html]