As many of you know, I’m big on growing from practice to ‘business’. For many practitioners, though, the question of “why bother?” remains. Here are a few good reasons:
You Can Have a Life
Increasingly, surveys show people in all industries working longer hours. And although some manage to put the brakes on or set limits on how much is enough, alternative health professionals have an extra burden when trying to scale back: guilt. It becomes very difficult to say no to patients with legitimate health complaints – after all, that’s likely why you became a holistic health care professional in the first place! Growing a business allows your practice to treat more and more patients without running you into the ground, or treat the same number of patients with far less work on your part.
Security
You can work all your life in anticipation of living off your savings, or perhaps selling your practice to fund a comfortable retirement, but those things are not guaranteed. Investments rise and fall, and the worth of a practice is directly related to the supply of practitioners and the demand by patients. There are many MD’s now whose patient files are essentially worthless – a scenario not all of them anticipated!
Growing from a practice to a business is a process of building an asset that’s value is not tied to you or your time. It allows you to diversify your risk, and increase your odds of living a comfortable life even after you stop seeing patients.
More Money
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this one – we all want more money, it seems, but there are only so many hours in a day. One person can only see so many patients. Selling your time by the hour – which is really what most practitioners are doing – puts an instant cap on your income, and is a sure way to being overworked, and under-lived. A business, however, is potentially limitless.
New Challenge
An honest show of hands, now: how many of you are as jazzed about seeing patients now as you were in your first or second year of your CAM practice? Don’t be shy – you’re not alone on this one. Practitioners do get sick of patients! (And probably the reverse it true, too, but we won’t discuss such things here.)
Building your CAM business is a great new challenge. Think of it as a way to re-engage and reinvigorate, all while enjoying the great perks that success brings.
