2021-03-01
Organization and Management for the Busy PT Private Practice Owner

Organization and Management for the Busy PT Private Practice Owner

Organization and Management for the Busy PT Private Practice Owner

Oh no! There is just so much to do and so little time to do it... 

Owning a PT clinic might have caused you to reach the breaking point at least once. There are just so many things to manage and keep up with. And the bad news is, that the skills that a PT private practice owner needs to have to make it out alive aren’t usually drawn special attention to. For this reason, many PT owners out there constantly feel like they are walking on pins and needles. Some of them have even said farewell to a healthy work-life balance. If you fit into this description and are searching for a solution to make your work life less stressful, we got something to tell you. There is still hope to make improvements! What should you do?  The busier you get the more you start realizing that time is slipping from your hands. This makes you wonder, when will the time come when you’ll finally have a stress-free night out? The secret all lies in organization and management. Even the busiest physical therapists out there keep their PT clinic organized to secure their business’ longevity. 

I know you are wondering whether or not these two essential engines might slow down your business, but this is actually where the good news comes to the surface. As surprising as it might seem, using these effective strategies will NOT slow your business down at all, it might even increase your PT business’s productivity. 

We will talk about some essential tips and tricks for all of you that are willing to boost your productivity as a physical therapist. Let’s take a look at how you can organize your business, manage your staff and keep your patients satisfied.  OrganizationPT private practice owners who are capable to stay organized and stick to a routine that works for them have resulted in being more successful and satisfied with their career choice. Think of it like this, any patient that enters a PT clinic and finds everything disoriented tends to feel less comfortable during the treatment. This will likely lead your business to slow down. To prevent such a situation from happening, you must find new ways to bring back new clients.  

Stick to a schedule. ALWAYS!

What I mean when I say to stick to a schedule, is to create a different theme for every day of the week (or at least the days you are working in the clinic). It is great to keep a journal or a to-do list app on your phone to help you create a new schedule every week. This will not only help you be more organized, but it will make you see what you have accomplished throughout the week and what tasks you have left untouched. The  example down below is a great idea of how your schedule should be arranged:

  • Monday – Work on your business’s marketing strategy, update your website, work on your email campaigns, ads, discover new linksto add on your content, promotion, and anything that have to do to get your PT clinic out there and attract more clients
  • Tuesday – This day can be all about meetings and giving feedback. Since you are the owner of a PT clinic, you should dedicate a day to updating your staff members with the latest news and events regarding the clinic and also set weekly or monthly goals 
  • Wednesday – Come up with new ideas and find out what works best for the clinic. Use this day to engage with your staff and consider their ideas also. 
  • Thursday – On Thursdays, you can focus more on session notes, organizing paperwork, and charting. 
  • Friday – For those much-desired Fridays, you can wrap things up. Close anything necessary including financials, office administrations, check your schedule to see the progress you made for the week and check whether or not you forgot to complete any tasks.

Work on the hard tasks first

If you own a PT business, then you know the struggles you have to go through to manage every single thing inside your clinic. When it comes to doing your daily tasks, things can get confusing regarding which task you should complete first. To better manage your PT business, you must make it a habit to work on the most challenging tasks as well as install computer software that will accomplish some of the tasks for you. 

Choosing the right software can help you keep track of your bills, invaluable outcomes and remind you of medical tracks. On the other hand, completing difficult tasks first, always helps in terms of saving time and preventing you from stressing out. If you have never tried this, the science behind it is that the moment you start work, your productivity is higher and you also tend to have more patience. Finishing a big task and getting it out of your head even doesn’t let you stress out about it during the rest of the day. Trying both of these methods to better manage your physical therapy clinic will likely boost up your profit margins, help you in providing better care for your patients and even build a strong team with your staff members.

Re-check your website

Whether it is the marketing strategy you are using, bills, or just another problem your PT clinic is going through, you must recheck the overall website your physical therapy business is running on. If you are having a hard time running your clinic or even if patients have stopped making appointments out of nowhere, it is vital to learn what the problem is through the integral website. 

By re-organizing your website and fixing any problems it has, thus making it simpler to use, it will make it easier to compete with other physical therapy clinics in your area. The simpler you build your website, the more patients you will attract.  

Fixes like this shouldn’t be handled whenever you feel like it. It is best to reevaluate your website through a day that you use to brainstorm with your staff. Based on the schedule example we gave above, Wednesday may be a good day to do this.Management

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.” – Helen Keller 

It doesn’t matter if you are just at the early stages of opening your PT clinic or have been running your business for quite some time now, knowing how to manage your PT business is the key to avoiding failure. The tips I have added in the following are considered as some of the best imperative management tips for a PT private practice owner.

Being dedicated to your craft  

It has become obvious that for physical therapists to survive, they have to overcome a workload the size of mount Everest, hours of dull patient treatments, and the nerves to complete challenging tasks each day. But you are probably still wondering if there is a chance for private practicing owners to make their clinic profit at full capacity. 

There are only two things that separate the best from the average, and that is the delegation of authority and prioritization of tasks. You need to constantly find a way to complete tasks in a limited amount of time while keeping your staff motivated to do the same. So, how is this possible? Well, to get a better understanding of how you can make this possible, let's look at the 80-20 rule: 

The 80-20 rule of managing your PT business 

A famous economist named Vilfredo Pareto, applied this rule during the late 1800s in hopes of somewhat fixing the exaggerated wealth gap between people. 100 years later, and this rule is what keeps the majority of private practice businesses alive! 

The rule is simple, 20% of the effort you put into managing your PT clinic should be responsible for 80% of your profits. And the other way around for your staff. By this point, you are wondering what is this 20% that you should prioritize? The thing is that every clinic has it different. Everything depends on the kind of tasks that are more impactful to your business. Prioritizing the most important tasks that have helped your business flourish will be the number one factor in increasing your earnings. 

Set high goals that you do not think you will reach 

This kind of method is used by the most successful business owners in the world. Usually, you might have seen the pattern of setting a few goals for the week, and the majority of them not getting achieved by you or your staff. The reason why this happens is that you do not push the limit. Setting higher goals will put everyone under pressure, and even though you might not reach them, you will achieve much more compared to when you were setting average goals.

Conclusion No matter how you see it, organization and management for the busy PT private practice owner is hard. And this is the time where PT clinic owners are experiencing it more than ever. Whether you are currently deciding on growing your business, growing your PT website, or even learning something new that can help you increase your earnings, there are a lot of ways to achieve what you want. It only takes determination and consistency.

All of this might seem like a lot to do. Before getting overwhelmed, why not focus on providing your patients with the best quality service? Take a look at some of our physical therapy marketing & website services to learn how our team can help you implement a better organization and management system for your digital assets.

Do you want to supercharge your physical therapy marketing? Download our Free Evergreen Marketing Blueprint for Physical Therapists and start creating long-term assets that generate new patient bookings for years to come.