Two Ways to Tell Your Business Still Runs on You

Marc Stewart took a three-week international vacation. That month was the busiest of the year.

Marc owns Johns Creek Physical Therapy in Georgia. His profit margin went from 7% to 14% in one year, and he worked fewer hours. Those two facts are connected.

Most owners I talk to sit in one of two spots. Sometimes both.

Sign one: you are still the hub

Every decision runs through you. Staff wait for your answer. A vacation means your phone stays on. If you leave for a week, work piles up and problems wait for you.

That is not a leadership flaw. It is how most owners got to where they are. You built the place, so everything came to you. The business now has a ceiling, and the ceiling is your calendar.

After working with Sturdy for a year, Dimple left the country for four weeks. Her practice grew by 100 visits while she was away.

Sign two: the cash is not what you know it should be

You work hard, the schedule is full, and payroll on Friday still feels tight. Owners tell me this and assume the fix is more patients or more marketing. It is usually neither.

The money is almost always already in the business. It sits in billing, patient attendance, therapist communication, and lack of consistent processes to get the results you want.

Garrett Akahoshi, who owns Peak Physical Therapy in Cupertino, found that Aetna was paying $78.26 per visit against a cost of $87.73 to deliver it. He dropped Aetna and negotiated a 10% raise from Blue Shield. His profit margin grew to 18%.

Why the two signs are one problem

Profit pays for the hire. The hire frees your hours. Your freed hours build the systems. The systems raise the profit. It’s a virtuous circle. Each turn of that loop buys you more time.

That is why I start with profit. Profit is the domino that knocks down all other dominoes. Nobody hires a manager they cannot afford, opens a new clinic when cash flow is tight, and nobody builds systems while treating patients all day.

What you can do this week

• Write down the last three decisions that waited on you. Ask why each one could not be made without you.
• Get your revenue per visit by provider for the past 3 months. Find the lowest performing provider(s). Look at what they are billing and how it could better reflect what they are actually doing.
• Take the answers to your business coach, and create a plan to change what you found.

I just shared More Profit, More Time, and How to Work ON Your Business with over 100 practice owners in Mississippi and Tennessee.

I’ll be in Connecticut in October and Massachusetts in November. Join us there, or set up a time with me to go over your numbers.

We will find $100k in profit for your business in 20 minutes, without any additional marketing or advertising.

Schedule your call here.

Know an owner who is still the hub, or whose cash is not what it should be? Send this post to them.

Photo by Oliver Roos on Unsplash