By William N. Willis, D.C.
When it comes right down to it, your office—the space that houses your
practice—is the ultimate expression of you as a chiropractor. Over the
years I’ve seen many great offices that are functional and served both
the doctor and his or her patients extremely well. These are places where healing
begins and miracles can take place.
A great office can be either large or small. It can be practical or an opulent
palace that feeds the ego as much as it meets the needs of the patient.
Clearly, choosing the right office is one of the most important decisions you’ll
ever make. For the beginning doctor it’s important to understand a few
simple guidelines—some of which may surprise you.
The first guiding principle is that when it comes to offices, size does matter,
but bigger is not always better. In fact, the optimum size for the solo practitioner
is just 1,200 square feet. Even smaller spaces can work quite well with the
right layout.
The size of your clinic will be determined by the spaces available in your area
and the cost per square foot. These figures will vary significantly from one
part of the country to another and from urban to suburban. If your market is
“hot” then you may be paying more than practitioners just a few miles
away. There’s also the question of whether to lease or buy.
Purchasing An Office
If you’re buying, then financing comes into play. I often recommend in
my own consulting that doctors planning to buy first make sure they have all
debts less than $10,000 paid off. In addition, I make the recommendation that
business owners who are purchasing a clinic location should consider having
a third of the clinic purchase price in cash.
Obtaining long-term financing is highly desirable, but thinking that you’re
going the full term is not. You should plan to pay more than the monthly note,
with an eye to eliminating the total debt in seven to eight years.
And here let me inject a word of caution. With good credit and cash flow, you
will probably find that you can qualify for a much bigger loan than you imagined—but
don’t buy the most expensive property just because you are approved for
the loan. In order for your property to work for you, debt service must be kept
within manageable limits—ideally no more than 7 percent of your monthly
gross revenues.
It will be tempting to buy as much building as possible thinking that you will
grow into it. The fact is that having too much space can place a downward limit
on production and create more blockages than having too little.
Building An Office
Early in my own practice, I decided to build a new office that reflected my
vision of what an office should look like. The construction went well, but I
quickly found myself in an arrangement where all profits were vanishing into
the quicksand of monthly payments. For five full years I didn’t see the
benefits of having a new home for my practice. The expanded capacity and increased
practice load were simply providing revenue to finance my expansion—hardly
the situation I wanted.
Building a new office may require you move several miles from your old location.
If that happens you can expect to spend two years replacing the patients who
fall away because they don’t want to make the drive.
Clearly, moving to a new space can create as many problems as it solves. In
fact, you shouldn’t view it as a means of solving your practice blockage
problems. In fact, a new clinic is always the last resort after you’ve
tried every thing else to redesign your space and increase your patient flow.
Once you’ve settled on your space, the construction work is done, and the
walls are freshly painted and decorated you can enjoy what you’ve created—for
a while. Even new spaces become old and dated and in the fast pace of an office,
it’s easy for time to slip by and the new to become old. Make sure that
periodically you freshen up the office with new paint and decorations.
Office Design
When it comes to day to day activities, the design becomes critical and here
a few principles can guide you into creating a workable arrangement that will
suit your practice style.
The first consideration is patient flow and a layout that avoids blockages.
Moving from patient to patient, many doctors find themselves bogged down in
conversation. Let us face it—chiropractors are warm and friendly and people
like to talk to us. Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye, but it’s imperative
that you consider your closure technique after an adjustment. This situation
will not only create a blockage to patient flow, but it can also invalidate
our standing as healers. It can also create bottlenecks when you’re busy.
Compounding this problem is the need in today’s litigious environment to
make sure nothing happens behind closed doors. It’s wise to keep your adjusting
room doors open when you’re with a patient unless you have a CA present.
That arrangement, however, will tend to encourage patients passing by to engage
you in conversation that can create its own distractions.
One tactic is to first adjust the patients and then leave it to your CA to take
them down the hall into the resting room or possibly therapy area—if that
is part of your practice.
Creating a more open area will also allow you to keep in touch with events taking
place up front. If you’re not listening to the conversations between employees
and patients across the front desk, it may surprise or even shock you. Knowing
the truth about everything that transpires in your practice will ensure that
you’re in control and running things.
Once you’ve created the appropriate space for your practice then you’re
ready to create giant results. Just as the specific adjustment removes interference
to the proper functioning of the nervous system, removing blockages to your
practice will allow you to reach your maximum practice potential.
About the Author: Dr. William N. Willis is a veteran writer, practice management
consultant, teacher and practitioner. A 1977 graduate of Life University, he
founded and operates a highly successful practice in Kennesaw, Ga. Drawing on
his personal experiences and study of hundreds of successful doctors, he has
distilled the essence of high-level practice and personal success. Over the
past two decades, he has taught these secrets to thousands of chiropractors
and chiropractic students through lectures, seminars and as a member of the
faculty of Life University and Life Chiropractic College West. He is the author
of the forthcoming book The Essential Secrets of Practice Success due out this
fall. You can address inquiries to Dr. Willis via e-mail at drbillwillis@aol.com.
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