When all is said and done, more is said than done.

When it comes to growing your private practice,  I regularly speak to people who want to have a better practice and seem keen and motivated. They are obviously intelligent because they are doctors but if you ask the simple question

‘What have you done to grow your private practice’?

There is usually nothing tangible there.

I spent the last 10 years building my own clinic and it has been forced upon me to look at my private practice as a business and to spend time trying to grow that business.  I enjoy that aspect more than the clinical work which is why I set up STAIANO Consulting.

I’ve had business mentoring myself and I know that it works.

None of us are really motivated to do things unless we really have to.

I had the ‘benefit’ of being cut off by the private hospitals when I started my practice and so I had an urgency to start earning money because I needed to pay the bills and cover the overheads.

Most doctors in private practice don’t have that urgency.

They usually have an NHS practice and while they would love to have more money, it is not an urgent need in terms of making payroll at the end of the month or ensuring the rates and the rent of the building are paid.

This means that growing their practice falls into the important but not urgent category

…and it doesn’t get done.

The thing is that it doesn’t take much.

If I asked you, what have you done to engage with the patients you saw in clinic last week, last month or last year, over and above sending out a clinic letter, and possibly a quote?

The answer almost always comes back as nothing.

This is what ‘The Escape Plan’ is all about.

Building processes to engage with patients and to deliver value to let them know:

• what you can do for them,
• what it involves,
• and whether it is right for them.

Marketing your practice is not about hard selling, it is about informing patients and at the end of the day that is good medical practice.

It doesn’t take much, but it does take something and it is frustrating to me when I talk to doctors and they sound keen and excited.

Then I go and check on their websites, a week, a month, maybe even a year later

…and it looks exactly the same.

• There are no lead magnets.
• There are no calls to action.
• The blog hasn’t been updated.
• The social media hasn’t been updated.
• They haven’t done anything.

I don’t think that they are lazy because we are all busy, but they are not doing the important, but not urgent tasks and they are prioritising the urgent but not important tasks.

It’s understandable but it’s quite frankly wrong.

It doesn’t really matter if you do something and it doesn’t work.

But it does matter if you don’t do anything.

And at the end of the day, when all is said and done. More is said than done.

If you want to grow your private practice, do something.

• Send a message to the patient who you saw recently asking you how they are feeling and if there is anything more that you can do for them.
• Drop a text to the patient to see if their symptoms are continuing and to let them know that they are welcome back at the clinic.
• Write a blog post about what sort of transformation patients can expect to achieve if they have the treatments that you offer.
• Do a video talking about who you are, what your background is and what the ethos and values of your practice are.

None of these things are particularly difficult, but none of us do do them

…and at the end of the day, no one cares whether you do it or not.

The only thing that it will affect is your bottom line

…and so you need to care about that.

If you don’t care about enough about it, it is going to stay where it is.

So, start by doing something and if you want guidance, they you can register for ‘The Escape Plan’ here.