There is a lot of noise in the digital marketing space. It’s going to take 7 touches from your physical therapy practice for people to remember your brand. While many practice owners we talk to know the importance of marketing and know the concept of marketing is important, they lack the management of marketing to really be successful. Meaning, the lack of accountability and management over this area is going to hold your practice back and hold YOU back from the living the life you dreamed of when you opened your practice.

So what can YOU do about this? How can you differentiate your practice? We’re talking with MEG Marketing Director, Heidi Schmidt and MEG Regional Marketing Manager Scott McCutcheon about some marketing strategies that will help your practice get found and win in the digital marketing space that will benefit both your internal and external marketing efforts.

Have you ever felt like you were walking on eggshells around your staff? Or, maybe you felt like you needed to think twice about what you wanted to say to a staff member for fear of upsetting them, or worse that they might quit? These are all symptoms of a bigger problem. They show a lack of leadership and lack of confront. There are only two ways you can be and only one of them can exist at any one time. You can either be in control and be at cause over what is going on and what is being done by you. Or, you can be the effect of others and what is going on to you.   

Fact: it doesn’t take more money to build a better physical therapy practice. All it takes is better people. When I say better people, I mean you and me as owners and leaders of our groups. When asked, just about everyone will say that he or she can be better than what they are today. If this is true, then they would immediately understand that they have deficiencies and lack of capabilities.  

More significantly, I want to bring your attention to the fact that real success in any business is dependent on one’s abilities to bring about understanding amongst your team. The keyword here is “ability.” The only way your skills are going to grow in the field of private practice management is if you realize that you have deficiencies. If you acknowledge that you don’t know all there is to know about this field of practice. Let’s face it; physical therapy school did not sufficiently train us for the challenges that we face every day in the world of private practice. So, before we go criticizing the shortcomings of our staff and feel like we are adult babysitting, maybe it’s because we have not been sufficiently trained ourselves on how to be the best: recruiting director, personnel manager, billing director, clinical director, office administrator, marketing director, therapist and CEO for our business to begin with. 

This week, we’re talking about how a lack of proper personnel management has placed owners in tough situations when all they factor in is money and justifying salaries.  

My daughter is about to graduate college. She’s moving on into the field of acting out in California and I have every confidence that she’ll be a big success. However, as we learn about this industry – there’s so much criticism and counter intentions out there causing headwind to her success. As a result, I can understand now why aspiring actors and actresses need an agent before anything else when they are coming out of school. The agent is there to help protect them against making bad decisions and going astray down a path of unlikely success. Yet, an agent is still not enough. She will still need an acting coach to further enhance her skills and push her to learn new things and operate outside of her comfort zone.

Looking back on when I was a new practice owner, I realize that that was exactly what I wanted and I would have paid anything to get. To have someone who had the knowledge and experience to help me stay away from making foolish mistakes and coach me on all that I needed to know but never got while I was in physical therapy school. This would have made all the difference in the world for me as a new business owner. Instead, I worked with three different companies – mostly consultants. And every time I talked to them, it felt like I was being sold. In today’s world, people simply do not want to be sold, they want to be helped.

This week, I’m answering the most pressing questions from owners just like you from around the country who are in private practice ownership covering the topics of environment, structure, personnel, and systems of operations.

I’ve been working with both new and existing owners now for almost two decades. When I think back to what I went through when I opened my first office in 1999, it’s a world of difference. I actually recall putting my head in my hands saying to myself: “I would pay anyone anything they wanted if they would just sit down with me and show me what it is that I needed to do first, second and third in order to build a successful practice.” Unfortunately, at the time, all that was available were business consultants who either didn’t know physical therapy or were more interested in selling me stuff rather than actually helping me. I knew then that someday I would create a company that physical therapy owners could trust would have their best interest in mind and provide them with the knowledge and support necessary to their success.  

A private practice’s success begins with the owner knowing what they need to do and when they need to do it. There is no time in business where your actions as an owner are more critical than when you open your first office or expanding into your next location. MEG Academy was built with 14 comprehensive programs to enable owners to operate in every area of private practice with complete certainty. This begins with our “startup accelerator program” and the “expansion program” specifically designed to ensure one’s success with growth. In this week’s podcast, I cover the four most important factors to consider when successfully expanding into your next location. Maintaining viability while experiencing steady growth is what makes for a successful practice and less stressed owner.