Note: Kevin Doherty is one of the first people I stumbled across a few years back when we started this blog. He built a successful acupuncture practice, then went on to become an author and business coach.

He’s a smart guy, which I like, but he’s also walked the talk, building a six-figure income while maintaining a life.

It’s about time we had him sharing his brain here, so I asked him a few questions about finding success in practice…enjoy!  – Dan

1. You’ve worked closely with acupuncturists, but also with a variety of other health care professionals.   How similar are the practice challenges between acupuncture and other CAM professions?

I would say there are many similar challenges that include getting enough exposure and new patients, retaining them effectively, and creating a scalable business model that enables you to have a life outside of your practice.  Every business owner is faced with these challenges.

The difference I see for acupuncturists is that most of them would really prefer to just treat patients and not have to worry at all about marketing.  Chiropractors are much more motivated when it comes to marketing.  They understand the importance of investing in their practice growth through consulting, advertising, and internet marketing.  Acupuncturists are much more resistant to investing in their marketing education.  Because of this, they struggle more than chiropractors and generally make less money.  Acupuncturists often struggle with the whole notion of marketing in general, as it can feel inauthentic to them.  Because of this, they rely heavily on word of mouth and law of attraction principles.

For some, this works.  But for most, they never see the amount of patients they want because they have an aversion to self-promotion.  This is one of the greatest challenges that individual practitioners face, not to mention the profession as a whole.

2. What’s the biggest missed opportunity for most practitioners?

Fully leveraging the power of online technology to grow their practices.  In many markets, consumers are searching for alternative medicine services in the thousands every month with relatively little competition.  It is just crucial to get your practice positioned effectively on the internet.

3. If practitioners were to focus on one single strategy for the next three months, what would you recommend that would have the biggest impact on their practice?

Make sure you have a professional website or blog that has some current web 2.0 features like an opt in form, video, and integration with social media.  Take the necessary steps through search engine optimization, article marketing, and possibly pay per click to get a lot of qualified visitors coming to your website.

4. Many practitioners are in solo practice. Is it possible to make a good living as a solo practitioner and still lead a balanced life, or is adding associates and other staff a step that  practitioners have to make at some point?

This depends on the practitioner.  I, for one, never had a receptionist. Neither did the mentor I trained under.  We were able to see 50-70 patients per week in 3-3.5 days doing this.  This can only be done if you basically eliminate the need for a receptionist.  You have most patients pre-pay and pre-book appointments and you have an effective script in place that lets them know that they should only call your office to reschedule if it is absolutely necessary, as you run a very busy practice.  Basically, you need to be highly organized and efficient in the way you manage your time.  Otherwise, it can get pretty chaotic and exhausting.

Not all practitioners are able or want to see 3-4 patients per hour.  By far the most successful and lucrative practices are the ones that do see at least this many an hour.

I think it is possible to make a solid 6 figure income as a solo practitioner and have a life outside of the practice, but the truth is that this is unfortunately pretty rare.  You have to be pretty developed both personally and professionally to handle a high patient volume and set healthy boundaries so you don’t take it home with you or just end up pretty much living at your office.  Your marketing needs to be mostly automated through effective word of mouth and internet promotion.  Your practice management systems have to be tight and consistent.  These are things most of us don’t learn in school, which is why I decided to step up as a practice building coach.

Note: I think Kevin’s the real deal – he’s a sincere guy, helping a lot of practitioners reach more people and build a practice that supports their life.

If you need coaching, inspiration or help with any area of your practice (or you find all this internet talk confusing as hell ) you’ll find it well worth your time to check out his stuff. – Dan

We generally take at least a week or so off each quarter in addition to this two-week block, plus the occasional sabbatical, but this particular vacation is a real rejuvenator.  If you’re feeling the need for less speed, here are 7 tips for getting some real R&R.

1. Believe It’s Important

Guess what? You need the break. Taking care of people is tough work, and it just keeps getting tougher if you don’t take care of yourself. Even if you’re practice isn’t booked solid, don’t kid yourself. You need to take some time.

Besides, working less is good for business, too. Just about every major breakthrough we’ve had with the clinic has happened outside of the office, and usually on longer breaks.

2. Stretch Yourself

If you’ve never taken longer than a week off, or <gasp> a long weekend here and there, now’s the time to develop brand new skill: taking real time off. A week is great, but it’s a different experience from two weeks or longer. If you’ve never taken a long break, try pushing the limit by doubling your longest vacation of the previous year. You won’t regret it.

3. Plan in Advance

If you think you’re going to squeeze in a week or two off at the last minute, think again. There will always be someone in the schedule and unless you block off the time well in advance, it’s just not going to happen. Most practitioners we know aren’t willing to just cancel a week of appointments on a whim. Best practice? Book all your holidays for the year at one time. Then your job is just to show up and enjoy them.

So – right now, plan your holidays for the next 12 months…

…no really, I’m serious. Do it.

4. Partner

Admittedly, it’s tough to abandon clients who need you. The reason it’s tough is the same reason you’re good at this stuff: you actually care about these people.

But rather than forgoing a long vacation, why not partner with someone who can cover for you? We’ve had local and non-local practitioners cover our bases during vacations for years. And when they take time off, we cover for them. It’s a great win-win. Every gets a break, and patients get the care they need.

5. Keep the Office Phones Alive

Just because you’re away doesn’t mean you need to shut down the lines of communication. Make sure you get that phone answered. At the bare minimum, have someone check your voice messages and email for you. It makes vacation that much more relaxing if you know that someone’s filling your schedule for you while you’re away.

But remember: people don’t always leave messages.

6. Don’t Work While You’re Gone

I’m a big fan of working vacations – there are a some types of “big picture” work things that are best done away from your daily routine. But sometimes you need to really, truly, stop.

If you’ve never done it, force yourself to stay off email and other work. If you’re opting for a “staycation” – taking time off without leaving home – be wary, and be prepared to hit the road if you find yourself slipping back into work mode.

7. Trust

Still feel you really can’t take the time off? Then it’s time to do some mental rewiring. It can really be hard to believe that your practice won’t crumble into dust in your absence (we’ve been there) but just trust me: it won’t. If anything, taking some time is going to keep you and your practice from falling apart.

Have a great month, everyone!

-Dan & Tara

Here’s are 6 reasons why cutting your hours might just take your practice to the next level:

1. You’ll Be More Efficient

Parkinson’ s law states that “work expands to fit the time available.” You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can get through things if you don’t have unlimited time to do them. You’ll also be surprised at how punctual your appointments can be if there’s someone else waiting.

If your scheduled hours aren’t consistently 70+% booked right now, then you need to carve back your available patient hours until they are.

If you’ve just started up, or have very few patients, you might find yourself carving back too much – use a minimum of 12-15 hours a week, spread over 3 days. That will give your patients more options then just one 8-hour day. You can adjust for your own market and comfort level, but remember:

Being available to see patients all the time isn’t growing your practice.

Really – it isn’t. Providing incredible service is (for one), but you don’t have to make all your kick-ass incredible-ness available 50 hours a week. Putting in all that non-patient face time at the office isn’t helping. So stop.

2. You Can Solve The Staff Dilemma

The natural medicine professions are plagued with staff problems. More accurately, the problem is that small offices and solo practitioners don’t have staff. I know that this works for some modalities, and certain types of practices, but we see far too many practitioners who don’t have any help, and it’s driving them into the ground – personally and professionally.

This is not a case of “easier said than done.” Staffing really can be scalable. One of the scariest things about staff is having them kicking around a too-quiet office. However, if you’ve got an effectively booked schedule, you can cover just those hours that are booked, without falling into the trap of hiring full-time staff to cover a part-time gig.

3. You’ll Create Scarcity

If you’ve ever traveled, you may have discovered that the best food is often the stuff made out on the street. The good traveler’s rule of thumb, though, is always eat at the cart with the lineup. Why? It’s probably safer and better than the vacant street-meat-mobile.

This applies to your office, too. Things that are in demand send a message: there’s something here – you should check it out. We’ve touched on this in scheduling discussions: being perceived as “busy” or “in demand” can be good marketing, and booking patients effectively helps create that.

4. Your Practice Will Become More Profitable

Why pay for a host of expenses during hours that you don’t really need? If you can see more patients in less time, you can reduce your overhead, or even share your space (and costs) with additional practitioners.

That in turn leaves a little extra money each month that you can use during your new-found time off.

5. You Can Find Balance

If you’re on the road to burnout, then less is most certainly more – particularly when we’re talking about working less and earning more. If you’ve got slack in your schedule, then scale back your hours a bit and enjoy it while you can. You can always work more when demand justifies it.

If your schedule is jam-packed, though, you can still cut your hours, find balance, and…

…6. You Can Continue the Shift from Practice to Business

Working less creates an interesting challenge in your practice:

If you’re going to work less, how will you continue to earn the same income, or more?

The answer is in the shift from practice to true business - in finding ways for your practice to generate revenue in other ways besides selling only your time. That generally means involving more people – other practitioners and professionals who can add to your revenue without strapping you tighter to the grindstone.

Working less is a simple way to force this transition, and that’s a good thing.

Objections

You’re going to hear the complete opposite of this advice at times, and that’s fine. Here are a few common objections we hear to working less:

“My clients need me to be open all those hours.”

No they don’t. What they really want is for you to be open 24-7 so they can come in anytime they feel like it. Are you willing to cater to that?

Patients want the most convenient appointment they can get, but they’re flexible – we all are. You can’t meet everyone’s timeline or you’ll be running a 24-7 CAM drive-thru. Pick some manageable, sensible hours, book them effectively, and focus on being remarkable in other ways besides your ability to work super-human hours.

“What about staff? No one wants a part-time job.”

Sure they do. That’s a myth, and with our current demographics, there are all kinds of people who want part-time work. Just look for them.

“I can’t take the pay cut.”

This isn’t about pay cuts. It’s about the same money (or more) in less time. But if you’re booked solid, and worried about cutting your hours, then it’s time to start making the transition from practice to business by bringing in someone else to work some of those hours.

If you’re not booked solid, then just cut back your hours until you are. You can always add them as needed.

Another plea for work-life balance from the good folks at AlternativeHealthPractice.com.

Summer’s in full swing in our part of the world, and we’re heading out for our annual 2-week hiatus. We’ll be off the grid in solar-powered relaxation mode (right here, to be specific).

A few tidbits before we head out:

Escape 101 is now available in Audio

We’re excited about this one. Escape 101 is a how-to guide for sabbaticals that we wrote during our last escape where we did volunteer health care and community development work in rural Paraguay, SA.

Here’s an excerpt from the Escape 101 post on the new audibook version:

The greatest challenge with a book about recapturing your time is that in order to read it you need to make…well, time. The result of this vicious little circle is that the people who need Escape 101 the most are often the ones who have the most trouble making the time to read it.

The solution? Enter Escape 101, the audiobook. We’ve been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the audio version for a few months. Now you can drive, jog, cycle, walk or otherwise listen your way to planning your sabbatical or career break. For the crazy busy, the audio lovers, or for those who just aren’t big readers, this is a great way to experience the book.

The audiobook is published by Gildan Media, who brought such greats as The Attractor Factor, Blue Ocean Strategy and The Go-Giver to audio, and it’s read by the wonderfully talented Erik Synnestvedt, the voice behind such classics as Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, and Timothy Butler’s Getting Unstuck. We’re thrilled to be in such good company.

You can download the audiobook directly via Audible or iTunes. Enjoy!

TCM Directory Summer Sale

Elie at the TCM Directory let me know they’re having a summer sale on practitioner listings. Using the coupon code “TCM2008″, you can get 85% off. That’s $11 instead of $74!

The TCM Directory is a resource for all things TCM-related. You can learn more at the website.

Have a great August, everyone. We’ll have a case study up for you in our absence next week, then we’ll be back with some great new practice growth content for September and onward!

-Dan & Tara

The real bonus benefit was that our practice was profitable while we were away, and ran like clockwork. The outlook since we’ve returned has been even rosier: the practice is making more than it would have had we never left, we’re working less, and patients are getting better results. In short, taking time away = more health and more wealth. Counterintuitive? Perhaps, but true nonetheless.

It wasn’t our first sabbatical, nor will it be our last, but this was the final step in a long path toward our new book Escape 101: The Four Secrets to Taking a Sabbatical or Career Break Without Losing Your Money or Your Mind.

If you’ve wanted to take extended time away from your practice for any reason, this book will be a huge help. It’s a primer for successfully escaping the rat race without giving up the hard-earned progress in your job or business.

I think the world would be a better place if more of us were able to take the break we need. If you know someone who’s been dreaming of getting away, this might be just the nudge they need. The book has a clear road map for dealing with careers, businesses, kids and finances, and it focuses specifically on making it simple to build up the courage and commitment to live your life deliberately.

You can buy the book via Amazon, or visit the Escape 101 website for more info.

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks, so if we don’t get to your practice questions right away, hang in there.

In the meantime, here are a few vacation-themed posts from the archives:

How To Guarantee You Take a Decent Vacation

How to Take Time off From Your Practice

Time off From Your Practice, Part 2: The Emotional Side

How Much Should I Pay My Locum?

Here’s the thing: vacation time is a like money. You need to manage it, or it’ll manage you. So regardless of why you may not be getting away (fear, cash flow, overbooking etc.), here’s a trick that’ll work every time: book the whole year now.

I know – it sound ridiculously simple, but it works. Booking your vacation time a year in advance is much like the “pay yourself first” mantra of financial planning – if you don’t take the initiative to do it, it’s not likely to happen. Your practice will expand to fit the time available in your life if you allow it too. So don’t.

Here are a few strategies to make this work for you:

Do it Now
Really – do it now. Talk it over with any spouses, partners, etc., and do it now. If you’re at the office, schedule the time off for the whole year now. If you’re not at the office, phone and leave the holiday dates for your staff to enter in the schedule. If you don’t have staff, write the dates down and enter them in your schedule the next time you’re in the office. Better yet, drive over there right now and do it. Isn’t a good vacation worth one extra drive to the office?

A Full Year in Advance, Minimum
Do the whole year. Even if you don’t know exactly when you want to do certain things, schedule the time anyway. Chances are, you can make your plans fit the schedule, or vice-versa. Either way, you’ve got to block it off well in advance before other obligations fill it up. You can’t wait until the last minute every time and expect to have a great vacation.

Stretch Yourself
If your vacation time is like most practitioner’s, you’re not taking enough and you should likely double last year’s down time. Don’t worry – just do it. (Think of it as setting a good health care example for your burnt-out, overworked patients.)

Trust
Forget the excuses. Just book the time and trust that the patients, cash and staff are all going to work out just fine. Part of the secret to this is that the commitment forces you to figure out the details – and they generally don’t turn out to be that hard to deal with.

In a future post, I’ll look at what exactly you should be doing with that office while you’re not there. In the meantime, enjoy the anticipation of some great vacation time this year!

Related Posts:
Choosing Office Hours for Your CAM Practice
5 Things to Do in Your Practice from Day One

“How much should I pay the person who looks after my practice?”

Great question. There are several ways you can consider compensating the person who fills your shoes while you’re on sabbatical, vacation, maternity leave, or any other type of time off. For consistency, I’ll use the term “practitioner” to describe the health care professional who owns the practice, and “locum” to describe the person filling in, even thought they’re both likely practitioners.

Fee Split
You’ll find this is the most common type of arrangement, mainly because it keeps the risk down for the practitioner. A percentage fee split is arranged in advance. All the billings generated by the locum during the practitioner’s time away are split according to the agreed ratio.

You’ll find all manner of different ratios, but somewhere in the 40/60 to 60/40 range is relatively commonplace. Fifty-fifty is also common – it’s an easy, fair-sounding number to gravitate toward. However, based on some of the factors mentioned below, more extreme fee splits are quite possible.

Salary/Flat Rate
Got a busy, consistently booked practice? Does it generate excellent revenue? You might consider hiring someone on a straight weekly or monthly salary. The predictability for both parties is nice, but it requires you to have a reasonably busy shop. The downside is that your locum isn’t motivated to drive patient visits and revenue.

Sliding Scale
A sliding scale changes the amount your locum earns based on the number of patients they see and/or the amount of revenue they generate. You might offer a certain fee split up to x visits, for example, then a little more for everything above that. This provides some good incentive for your replacement to try to keep the numbers up.

Exchange
Taking turns covering each other’s practice is a cheap and easy solution for short vacations or emergencies. Each practitioner gets x weeks, and you agree to see each other’s patients for free during that time.

You can do this even with your competition, particularly if you find someone with a practice of similar volume. Because it’s an exchange, both parties are motivated to be respectful of each other’s patients.

Combination
You can combine any of these into a plan of your own design. The only limitations are really the rules of your regulatory body, if you have one. Make sure you check with yours.

In the end, though, you’ll still have to come up with the actual numbers of the offer. So how do you choose the actual amount or the fee split? Here are a few factors to consider when deciding your magic numbers:

1. Ask around. Locums are common in many CAM professions – chiropractic, for example – and there may be established ranges.

2. Practice volume. If your locum will be run off their feet the whole time, you can likely get them to take a smaller percentage. A smart locum will require a larger piece of the pie if the practice is not busy – it’s the only way for them to make it worthwhile. If they know they’ll be booked solid the whole time, they can accept a smaller slice.

3. Other income. Does your practice have other income? A dispensary? Related product sales? Will you be sharing that income with the locum? If so, how much is it likely to be? Remember, you don’t have to share that income – it’s up to you.

4. Risk and responsibility. Does your locum have to manage other professionals? Are they signing off on the work of other CAM pros? For example, a naturopath might have a nurse administer various treatments in her office. The locum would need to sign off on the nurse’s work in her absence, thus adding additional license risk to their job.

5. Skill and experience. Does your locum have special qualifications and years of experience, or are they fresh out of school? Can they manage other staff while you’re away, or do they need to be managed themselves? Are they an acupuncturist who can manage multiple patients concurrently, or are they a one-at-at-time practitioner? Both the fee and the fit will both depend on these details.

6. Bonuses and Incentives. Will you be providing incentives for the person covering your practice to reach certain revenue volumes or patient visits? This can greatly sway a base fee split ratio or flat rate compensation.

Overall, make sure you estimate a realistic revenue flow in your absence, and try to target “profit” as your goal, as opposed to “lose as little as possible”. It never hurts to aim high!

Related Posts
How to Take Time off From Your Practice Part 1
How to Take Time off From Your Practice Part 2

Stay Big Picture
From 40,000 feet, the big picture of leaving your practice (assuming you don’t shut your doors) looks like this: patients show up, consume products and services, and happily pay. It’s a system for exchanging services for money. In the past, you may have been the main engine of that service, but now it’s time to pass the torch.

Certainly leaving your practice for any length of time – even a short vacation – can result in the world’s longest to-do list. Resist the temptation, though, to get caught up in the details. Yes, they’ll all have to be taken care of, but not at one time. Start a list right away, and just jot down all the little things as you go so you don’t have to think about them until it’s time.

While you’re away, continue to focus on the larger picture. One slow day at the office doesn’t mean your practice is going down the tubes – each day’s going to be a little different. Remember that you have slower days when you’re there, too – one bad day doesn’t make a trend. Micro-management isn’t going to work when you’re gone.

Practice Before You Go
The best way to iron out the kinks of the no-you practice is to…well, leave. Do a test run before you go. Get your locum started a few days before you leave, turn off your cell phone, and see how things go. You’ll be surprised at how many kinks you’ll work out in one day.

While there’s clearly a practical side to this, there’s also a huge emotional benefit to a trial run, particularly if you’re leaving the country. Traveling or relocating can be stressful enough without wondering how things are working at home. A trial run is the best stress-reliever there is. Most of the kinks are little things that are easy to fix while you’re in the office, but far more emotionally draining when you’re halfway around the world. In our case, the trial run made a huge difference during the week or two it took to get email access and a phone.

Accept the Worst-Case Scenario
Calculate the worst possible financial outcome for your practice in your absence. What will you have to pay out if not one single patient shows up the entire time you’re gone? This is likely the sum of all your fixed costs for your practice, give or take.

It’s also extremely unlikely to happen, and the objective is not to focus on it. The purpose of this is to be able to say, “the worst thing that can happen is I’ll lose $X, and I can live with that,” and then get on with your planning. In reality, your clients will show up. The worst-case scenario is just that, and it lies in the very fringes of probability – it just ain’t gonna happen.

Ask yourself, “is it worth $X to be home with my new baby/travel/do volunteer work/etc.?” If the answer is yes, then move on.

Focus on What’s Real
Once you’ve accepted the worst possible outcome, focus on what’s real. Don’t speculate on problems that aren’t there (and likely won’t be). Feel free to do a little disaster planning – data backups, staff changes, illness, fire, etc. – but don’t obsess on issues that don’t exist.

Obsessing over the possibility of declining patient visits is not productive. If that happens, start generating positive solutions to the situation, but not until then. Learn to understand the difference between brainstorming solutions to possible outcomes, and obsessing over problems.

Give Up Your Ego
Small businesses tend to operate in an “owner is everything” environment. You may be used to doing everything yourself. Over time, that can evolve into believing you have to do everything yourself. That in turn, evolves into believing you’re the only one who can do the job at all.

Let it go. The truth is that we’re all dispensable. What’s led you to believing that no one else can do your job is the subconscious feeling that no one else cares about your practice as much as you. Instead of focusing on how no one else can do it, focus on finding ways to motivate your staff to care as much as you do.

Maybe it’s not Supposed to Be Easy
Leaving your practice is hard. It’s a whole new skill set. For most practitioners, what’s really going on is a transition from owning a job to truly running a business, and that’s a tough change. Don’t expect it to be simple, but at the same time, don’t expect it to be impossible or painful. Just expect it to be a challenge that you’re well equipped for.

If you’re thinking of taking some time away, feel free to email any questions you may have: dan@practitionersjourney.com

Related Posts
How To Take Time Off From Your Practice Part 1
Is Your CAM Practice a Business?

Find a Locum
You’ll need someone with your qualifications and skill set to fill at least part of your shoes. Start early, and don’t take the first thing that comes along – the right person can take time to find.

Try to discover what makes you popular with your patients. You may not be able to find a clone, but you can do your best to get someone with similar values and personality.

I’ll write a longer piece on locums later, but make sure you have a contract, and it includes a non-competition clause.

Diversify
If you haven’t done so already, start thinking about other ways of generating income in your practice that aren’t specifically tied to you.

Are there other types of practitioners you can add to your practice? Additional products and services? Someone to rent a portion of your office space? More importantly, is there a “sub-doctor” (to use an Emyth Physician term) who could do some of what you already do? Some type of assistant, nurse, or technician?

The reason for diversification is twofold. First of all, adding new products and services to the mix reduces your risk. If all your revenue is generated by selling your time by the hour, then you rely entirely on you for your income. Let’s say, for example, you find a locum, but in your absence, the locum turns out to be a little less than ideal. When patient visits drop off as a result, your practice starts to slide. If you have other revenue generating plans in place, the “bad” locum will hurt a lot less.

Secondly, diversifying is critical to staying profitable. Locum agreements are often based on a revenue sharing plan. If your locum takes 50% of every patient visit, you may find that your practice has a tough time making money even if it’s booked solid in your absence – after all, you now have half as much money to pay the bills. It’s the equivalent of cutting your fees in half.

When you diversify, however, the other revenue generating parts of your practice don’t have to be included in your locum agreement. The revenue from associates, products, technicians, etc., can be 100% yours to keep.

Review Your Costs
It’s something many holistic practitioners avoid, but there’s no better time than before a sabbatical to cut your costs. Go through every expense in your practice, line by line, and ask yourself these questions:

• What would happen if I stopped this?
• Can I get this cheaper from the same source?
• Can I get this cheaper from another source?

Continue Your Marketing
Just because you’re not at your practice, doesn’t mean you should stop marketing. When you go through the cost-cutting process above, it’s tempting to cut all your marketing expenditures, but consider carefully before you do.

If you continue what marketing you can during your time away – yellow pages and other advertising, for example –awareness of your practice will remain higher. If your practice is going to be less profitable while you’re away (meaning you get to keep fewer cents of every dollar) then you’re going to want to do as much business as possible during that time in order to pay the bills. Keeping a presence in your community will be a part of that.

Stay in Touch With Your Patients
I’ve separated this out from marketing (even though it falls squarely in that category) because it’s important on many levels. In the case of alternative medicine, the relationship between doctor and patient is often more intimate than what you might normally find in an MD’s office. As a result, not only will your patients want the comfort of hearing from you in your absence, but they’ll actually be genuinely interested in how you’re doing. If you’re volunteering in another country, or having a baby, your patients will love hearing about it.

If you haven’t got a system for email marketing, try Intellicontact. There’s no easier way to stay in touch with your patients while you’re away. You can grab a free 15 day trial here, or read my post on it here. It’s the most inexpensive and easiest to use of all the email newsletter and marketing packages that I’ve tried. We’re using it right now to keep in touch with existing patients, and as an automated way for new patients to sign up for newsletters online.

Build Systems
When you boil it down, what you and your staff do on a day-to-day basis is usually a series of repeatable steps – a process. While some things are difficult to capture in a process – bedside manner, for example – much of daily operations can be distilled and written down.

Capturing this stuff on paper will make your life a great deal easier, both when you leave and when you get back.

You’ll also find that staff who are best suited for process-driven work – repetitive administrative tasks, for example – will appreciate a clear system for doing their job.

Keep an Open Mind
The biggest thing we’ve learned so far is to abandon your pre-conceived notions of what it means to leave your practice. Thinking in terms of “losing as little money as possible while I’m away”, or “maybe breaking even” are sure ways to do exactly that.

It may seem impossible but you can make money while on sabbatical. In fact, you can make more money on sabbatical than you do at work.

Leaving your practice running without you there forces you to find other ways to generate revenue without simply selling your time. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish – and how much you can earn – when you have to.

In planning for your time off, ask yourself questions like, “How could I make more money without being at my office than I could while I’m there?” If you allow yourself to freely brainstorm without judging, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll come up with.

One thing that most of the concepts above have in common is starting early. If you can’t, fine, but if you’re planning some time away, plan as far in advance as possible. It’s hard to think in the big picture when you’re buried in the last minute details of leaving your office, but that big picture is exactly where you need to be. Start planning as soon as possible. I’ve found that committing to doing one sabbatical related task per day is an easy and effective habit that gets the job done.

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