The more I speak to practitioners, the more I’ve come to believe visit/treatment length tends to be a legacy issue. It’s not something we’re giving a lot of conscious thought to. You open your doors and do what you did in school, or copy another practice, and it pretty much stays that way. Most consultative practices have 2-3 different menu options, based on time. And they never change.

My sense is that sometimes those visits are too long – or that a shorter option should be put on the table. Here’s why.

1. Maybe Your Clients Don’t WANT Longer
Many of us are working from a simple premise that more time is better. Says who?

Perhaps it’s true to some extent, but who’s to say a client really wants a two hour initial appointment? Or a 90-minute massage? Either of those is enough to scare me off. Is it possible your clients don’t want what you think they do? Do your clients really need more time, or is it just better time they’re after?

“…for many clients, a 90 minute massage is not as appealing as it once was.”
-Irene Diamond, RT writing at Massage Today

2. Every Client is Different
Just because one talkative client can never get out of your office in under 60 minutes doesn’t mean everyone should have to stay that long. Why treat everyone the same? Are you building your visits around the slowest common denominator?

3. You Can Earn More
When we started offering a 15-minute acute care visit, we didn’t price it at half the price of a 30-minute visit–nor should you. It’s priced about 55-60% of the price of a half hour. That means that an hour made up of four 15-minute visits is worth more than a single hour treatment. Over time, the difference stacks up.

4. You Can Help More
Shorter visits simply mean you can see more clients in the same time period. It’s that simple.

5. More Flexible Scheduling
It can be a challenge to master the tetris-like game of fitting together appointments to make the best use of your time.

There’s nothing more frustrating that a week full of small gaps that add up to a lot of time in total, but that can’t be properly used because individually they aren’t long enough to fit someone into. Shorter visits give you more flexibility for filling those inevitable gaps.

6. You’re Better Than You Were
Let’s face it: when you started practice you were just beginning to master your craft. You simply didn’t have the…well, the practice. It makes sense that for many types of care, you can simply do more in less time once you’ve got some experience under your belt. You teach, explain, diagnose, set up, clean up, treat and process faster than you once could. Why not take advantage of that expertise?

Are your visits too long? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly, more time can be a selling feature, and some modalities simply require some minimum amount of time. But it might be worth asking yourself the following questions:

• Why are my appointments the length they are?
• What would be gained and/or lost if I shortened them?
• What would happen if I added a new, shorter option?

In the end, clients and patients are like Goldilocks. They need a visit length that’s just right. How close are you?

Related posts:

1. A Simple Way to Offer Incredible Client Service This Year

Reader J. writes:

“…how do I revive my practice after leaving it for a 6-month maternity leave? I took on a locum and I went from seeing 30+patients a week to her seeing a mere 10 patients per week at best.

I know many of my patients wanted to wait until I got back, but I also know that many will have dropped off the planet unless I am proactive about generating new business and reviving my relationship with past clients.”

Whether it’s a maternity leave, a sabbatical, some down time, a return to school, or any other reason, a long absence has the potential to wreak havoc on your practice. We’ve been there. Here’s what we did, starting with the year leading up to our sabbatical.

I: Before You Go

Absences are a bit like prevention – you get the best results from starting early. You might not always have the luxury of planning in advance, but if you can, it’ll pay off.

a) Reframe Success:
A big turning point for us in the sabbatical planning process was to reframe what we were expecting from the practice. We started out this way:

How do we lose as little money as possible while we’re gone?

And one day we reframed the question this way:

How can the practice make a profit while we’re gone?

That may seem like just semantics, but it changed the way we looked at things. And that, it turn, changed what we did before we left. That simple shift led to adding new people and services that enable the practice to be profitable during a 5-month hiatus.

b) Diversify
Those new services were really about diversifying – about ensuring that less of the practice revenue was coming from one person’s efforts. If you have some lead time before your absence, now’s the time to start planning. What can you add to your practice? New people? New products? New services? Focus on things that can deliver revenue beyond what a locum can generate by working with your clients.

c) Get More Help
If you’ve been running a one-person show, it may seem counter-intuitive to hire office support when know you’re leaving. But it’s worth considering. If you feel like you don’t have time to expand your practice before you leave, perhaps you need more admin help – paying a receptionist part-time, for example, might free up the time and head space you need to diversify, or spend more time marketing your practice. Plus when it comes time to leave, you’ll have someone ready to fill your shoes on the administrative side.

II: While You’re Gone

a) Stay in Touch
It’s just not that hard to stay in touch with your client base any more. If you haven’t already, now is the time to get that free MailChimp account and get your email newsletter started.

If you’re already using email, a blog, social media, or print to keep in touch, keep it going while you’re away. You’d be surprised at how interested your clients may be in what you’re doing. You don’t need to do a lot – just share, encourage, and educate people like always.

b) Don’t Completely Bail Out
You may well be in a place where you want to completely abdicate all responsibility for the practice. That’s fine – sometimes that’s what you need. But understand completely disengaging will come at a cost without some amazing people and processes to fill your shoes. If you do decide to fully leave, just give yourself permission to change your mind. It’s hard to predict how a long absence feels until it’s happening.

III: When You Get Back

When you return, energized and ready to tackle practice again, here are some things to consider.

a) Go One-to-One
Now’s the time to pull patient files, and pay attention when clients pop into your mind. People love being personally contacted for legitimate reasons – our experience is that they particularly like email. Keep up the email newsletter and other mass marketing, sure, but it’s time to start reconnecting personally.

It may help to break it down into small actions. Everyone has time to email one client every morning. If that’s easy, step it up to three or more. Just start building the habit. Do it every single day.

b) Leverage Your Experience
Is there something about your time off that you can bring back to your practice? Your newfound experience with infants? Your expanded education in a new modality? Can you share your experience in another country in the form of a public presentation, or other speaking gigs? It may not apply to every absence, but almost every change in life brings new wisdom – why not share?It’s a great way to create marketing opportunities without really feeling like you’re marketing.

c) Reconnect with referrers
Despite your best efforts to stay in touch, your biggest fans still may not even know you’re back! Get in touch with them – one-by-one, in whatever way seems best. Again – turn it into something small you can do every day.

One Day, This Will Be a Small Deal

Leaving your “baby” seems like a big deal – and it is. But one day you’ll look back at it as less of a big scary deal, and more of an amazing experience that you’ll remember forever. And perhaps one that changes your practice for the better.

While it may be easier said than done, try not panic. Figure out the worst-case financial scenario for your absence. Decide if you can accept it, then get on with building your practice, and enjoying some amazing time away.

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Let Go in Practice
2. 7 Strategies for Taking A REAL Vacation from Practice

Back in 2006 (wow) we listed five things we wished we would have done in practice right from day one. Since the New Year is almost upon us, it seems like the right time to pass on a few more. Even if you started your practice long ago, you can still pretend like the new year is a fresh start, right?

1. Think Illness Not Wellness…

…at least when it comes to marketing. We all want to feel like we’re in the wellness business – and we are. But for many practices, people who are already well don’t make great clients. Time and time again, we find that people seeking “wellness” don’t really need that much help. They pop in for a visit and the reassurance that they’re on the right track, then they vanish.

People with problems you can solve – sick people – make great clients. And they refer others. And the people who you help out of illness are far more likely to buy into wellness programs – they know first hand what being sick is like. Advertising “wellness” isn’t nearly as effective as marketing a solution to a health problem.

Get people in the door because of illness. Then keep them by getting them well.

2. Restrict Your Hours

Work less, earn the same. Have a life. Why? Here’s why.

3. Book Effectively

When the schedule looks like a wide open slate, it’s easy to think that booking efficiently isn’t critical. It is. I wish we’d spent more time early on focused on how effectively the hours were booked, and less time on how many of them there actually were. Get a waiting list going. Book wisely. Enjoy the results.

4. Use Social Media – Especially Facebook

This one’s a  bit of a cheat, because Facebook wasn’t around when we started. But if it were day one for us right now, I’d be all over it.

Facebook is quickly becoming the largest source of traffic to our website other than Google searches, and there are vast amounts of people in the right demographic. More than half of users are women, and the older age groups – those with both health concerns and the money to spend on them – are the fastest growing by far.

If you’re already doing this, great. If not, start with the easy part: get a Facebook account and just start exploring. Don’t be scared – you can lurk and learn at first. When you’re ready, here’s a good resource for starting your practice page.

5. Create Marketing Partnerships

Sometimes you can’t reach everyone you’d like to. It takes time, money and energy to market directly to people who might user your services. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could reach some of them on your behalf?

I wish we’d spent more time creating partnerships early on. Not just Please-Can-You-Send-Me-Some-Clients referral relationships, but partnerships based on cross-promotion and offering value to each other’s clients. Added bonus: sometimes health care is a lonely job. A few more colleagues is a nice thing to have.

It’s never to late to start any of these. And if you’re inclined toward Fresh-Starts-In-The-New-Year, maybe there’s something here that’s a fit. -Dan

Related posts:

1. The Gift: A Free Practice Success Book

“Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’, boy.”
-Clint Eastwood, The Outlaw Jose Wales

“Serenity now!”
-Frank Castanza, Seinfeld

Okay – so maybe Clint Eastwood  and George Castanza’s dad might be the furthest possible icons from you as a practitioner, but you have to admit to the relevant kernel of truth: slowly wasting away to the pressures of running a practice is no way to live.

The practitioners we’ve seen who are best at juggling the demands of patients, practice and personal life have one thing in common: they can let go. They’re able, almost on demand, to simply turn off their attachment to outcomes. They still want a certain result, but they’re able to detach from it in a way that leaves them able to move forward without crippling stress. Here are a few tips for following in their footsteps.

1. Accept the worst-case scenario

This is a a key insight in Escape 101 and a big part of our sabbatical planning, but it applies just as readily to practice management.

If you can identify the worst case scenario for a particularly troubling challenge, you’ll often discover that the worst-case isn’t as bad as you thought. And once you know what you’re up against, accepting it is often a yes or no proposition.

For our last sabbatical, we were anxious about what would happen if we took a half-year away from the practice. To help deal with it, we asked ourselves, “What’s the worst-case scenario?”

After some discussion, we came up with a simple dollar figure that represented the most we could reasonably expect to lose financially. All that remained then was to ask, “Can we accept that?” In that case, the answer was yes, and much of the anxiety vanished. (And, like almost all worst-case scenarios, that one didn’t come to pass. The practice was profitable while we were away.)

2. Remember Kaizen

Often the level of intensity we feel in practice is directly related to our desire to do everything now-to fix clients, build a busy practice, pay off debt. Nice idea, but it’s a recipe for burnout.

Behind the scenes of most successful and serene practitioners, things look a little different. The ones we’ve worked with all have a longer view of their practices. They tend toward a continuous improvement, or “kaizen” approach, always moving forward, always getting better in small steps. For them, even the biggest leaps are usually broken down into small steps, and the small steps are then gradually tweaked to work better over time.

Success rarely happens quickly. But if you make things a little better every day, every week, every month, you’re going to wake up one day with a roster of healthy clients, a busy practice, and no debt. And a bunch of people wondering how you did it “overnight”.

3. Take Time

Regardless of your efforts to the contrary, though, a practice can still become a pressure-cooker at times. Make sure you make and take the breaks you need. That can mean reducing your schedule (and improving your practice as a result), planning a vacation, or getting some serious distance in the form of a career break or sabbatical. Regardless of which you choose, sometimes you have to leave to let go.

-Dan

Related posts:

1. How to Manage a Long Absence from Practice
2. 5 Steps to Dealing With Practice Panic
3. 3 Ways to Simplify Your Practice Marketing

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

Related posts:

1. The Practitioner’s Journey: The Path to Practice Success

We’re leaving shortly for our annual two-week summer getaway – it’s our 7th year for this escape. We spend 14 days living off the grid at a solar-powered cottage. During that time we have no contact with the practice whatsoever, and it’s become a critical part of staying balanced.

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

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Let Go in Practice
2. When Was the Last Time?
3. Help for Your Practice in 2012

We’re firm believers that there comes a time when finding success means you need to work less at some things, not more. It’s counterintuitive, I know, but sometimes the most important things are.

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.

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Let Go in Practice
2. How To Use a Waiting List in Your Practice – No Matter How Busy You Are
3. 7 Strategies for Taking A REAL Vacation from Practice

Hi Everyone,

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

Related posts:

1. The Practitioner’s Journey: The Path to Practice Success
2. 7 Strategies for Taking A REAL Vacation from Practice
3. A Great (and Free!) Practice Growth Book

Many of you know that Tara and I spend last winter doing volunteer health care and economic development work in Paraguay, SA. It really was an incredible experience – the positive impact on our health and family was remarkable.

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.

Related posts:

1. 7 Strategies for Taking A REAL Vacation from Practice
2. The Practitioner’s Journey: The Path to Practice Success

We’re off for a two week break. It’s an annual summer getaway for us – no phones, TV, or internet. In fact, there’s no power. The place is off the grid, and runs on solar juice.

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?

Related posts:

1. 7 Strategies for Taking A REAL Vacation from Practice