Do you feel that your practice has hit an income ceiling yet you feel it could be producing more? Frustrated with not achieving your true potential? Feel like you’ve been at the same level and stagnating for a while, and it’s time to change?
Some practice owners think, “I’m working so hard, but I just can’t get past this certain level.” Or maybe your income is yo-yo-ing up and down and not growing sustainably in the direction you want.
There are many reasons for the income ceiling you may be experiencing (and probably many unique ones as well), but here are 3 obvious ones:
3 Reasons You Are Hitting an Income Ceiling
- For some people, you have worked very hard and achieved a certain level of success and gotten stuck in a comfort zone: “Why rock the boat, it’s floating the way it is” syndrome; or “I can settle for this”; or “I’m just happy I got this far.” It is a complacency that can sneak in, and outside matters can start to pull your attention in other directions while things in the practice just stay the way they are. This can be caused by a number of factors:
(a) You’ve gotten burnt out on handling certain situations over and over again and are tired of trying to change things.
(b) You have done all that you know how to do and have resigned yourself to “I guess, this is all there is and the best I can expect.”
(c) You feel you are already working hard enough.
- Perhaps you are not achieving the actual goals you had for your practice and feel that you are off on a tangent and don’t know how to get the practice back on the right path.
- You already feel overwhelmed with the amount of management required of you while being the provider as well, and you definitely don’t see how you can take on more.
Overcoming These Barriers
There is no doubt that to break through the “ceiling” you will have to change some things. By the way, before you start thinking that the easy way to increase your income is just to jack your fees, that is not usually the answer at all (unless you happen to be charging below your provincial fee guide).
Factually, building, growing and scaling your practice will require some mindset alterations, some new management tools, and ideally some mentorship or private consulting from an expert. The first step is to decide to change. YOU must want to change. If you are fighting to stay the same and not willing to try new things, you are going to be defeating yourself from the get-go. Breaking through an income plateau means breaking through your comfort zone and will require some work on your part.
Solution
Ask yourself honestly:
- Do you already know all the best ways to market your practice and you are doing them and getting a huge flow of new patients?
- Do you have full training on how to be the best executive and leader when it comes to hiring, training and guiding your team into outstanding production and service levels?
- Do you ever have patients or clients who do not choose to go ahead with the ideal care you presented to them (so frustrating)?
- Are there inefficiencies in your practice that you can’t seem to banish?
- Do you have a clear vision of exactly what your ideal practice would be like?
- Do you have a 5-year plan and take management time each week to work on keeping your practice achieving those goals?
- Do you love your practice and still have your original passion for it?
If the answers to any of those questions was “no”, perhaps you should consider the solution almost all successful practices have taken advantage of: Find yourself an expert mentor or private coach who has already helped hundreds of practices achieve higher goals and knows the myriad of unique ways to improve any aspect of a practice. Learning from experts is the fast track to success instead of constantly reinventing the wheel. You will also make a lot more income sooner.
Most practice owners are capable of much more than they give themselves credit for!
