A doctor once told me this great piece of wisdom: “Don’t set any office hours you don’t want to keep forever.”

It’s tempting when you start up to open weekends, nights, early mornings – anything that will get new patients in the door. Although offering this flexibility to your clients seems like a good idea, it presents a few challenges:

It’s hard on you
Working all those hours is a lot of…well, work. It means you’re seeing patients all the time (if your practice is booked solid), or you’re at the office all the time, but not generating revenue. If you’ve got friends or a family – hell, even if you’ve got a parakeet – it becomes draining. You have no life. And if, like most CAM practitioners, you promote life balance as a means of creating health, then you’re not practicing what you preach.

Your patients will expect it forever
Once Jack gets used to coming Wednesday evenings, it’s going to be harder to talk him out of that when you decide you’ve had enough of working nights.

You attract different types of patients
Offering outrageous office hours may attract patients you don’t want in the long run. Patients who absolutely will not compromise their schedule to see you tend to be less inclined to make the changes required to improve their health. Just as with pro-bono work (more on that another day), they have less invested in the process, and just don’t have the same level of success with their health.

It’s not professional
As always, I promote professionalism first and foremost in your business. It helps to raise the profile and integrity of the CAM industry. Seeing a client “anytime they want” is not standard professional behavior. Remember, you’re not running a 7-11, you’re running a health care business. (It’s not the convenience stores aren’t professional, it’s that each industry has a different set of standards by which customers and colleagues judge professionalism.)

So what hours should you set? If you’ve got lots of competition, then you may need to set a wider range. And examine your practice vision. If part of your vision is to provide after hours health care for people who can’t take time off work, then you’ll have to set your hours based on that niche offering.

Generally, for startups I recommend one early morning, and one evening to allow reasonable flexibility for you and your clients. Add a Saturday if you like, but only if you don’t mind Saturdays.

Remember – you’re a professional, and it’s your business. Be generous, but smart, with your time, and remain confident that if you’re offering something of value, people will want your service regardless of when you offer it…