In your eagerness to apply your professional skills have you overlooked the importance of designing your business model? In chiropractic college and the universities it’s not uncommon for academics and undergraduate lecturers to view the business side of our profession with disdain and sometimes contempt. As a result many chiropractors do not think about their professional activities as a business and as a result are doomed to working a job that centers on their favorite hobby – chiropractic.
The idea that all you need is the knowledge of your science and your clinical skills and you will be a successful chiropractor is a long way from the truth.
A chiropractic business as distinct from practice is where you make your resources (capital and labor) work for you. This requires that you design a leveraged system. This is a system that employs the ‘labor’ of paraprofessionals and associates to optimize the ‘capital’ that the owner provides. This combination, if worked right has a far greater impact for all parties than that which just the owner by him/herself can produce.
There are four typical models of associate practice as described below.
1. The first model is a practice that is driven by the principal.
This top/down model is based totally on the principal’s ideas, desires and commands. This is often in the spoken form and therefore can tend to change frequently depending on the current circumstances. This often is to the frustration of the team.
2. The second model is driven by the rules.
This version of the top/down model is an improvement on the above-mentioned theme in that there is much more predictability. This practice style is governed by hard and fast ‘rules’ that are handed down from ‘above’. The principal who is the acknowledged ‘boss’ decrees these dictates. These ideas, desires and commands are written very specifically in the office policy manual. This extensive document is often likened to a tablet of stone that have the ‘commandments’ chiseled in it, never to be questioned or to change.
This model is useful for those practice owners who want everything done in a certain way and want people to do what they are told. The upsides of this model are that the principal makes things happen exactly the way that he/she wants and for the associate it can be useful because it gives a very clear pathway for their activities.
This model has the team obeying the rules that have been set down, whether they understand them, agree with them or are congruent with them. The downside is that the practice is limited by the creativity, experience and insight of the principal. This may be out of touch with the current trends and activities of society. This model also is a disincentive to the creativity and motivation of the associate usually resulting in their resentment and frustration.
This model can get ‘old’ for many associates. They rebel and move on.
3. The third model is a business that is driven by the team.
This lateral management approach enrolls the entire team in the operational base. This model brings them in to an organic, vitalistic and self-sustaining business of which they are an integral part.
This business model requires that the owner of the business allocate resources of time, talent and finances to investing in the associates. This model changes the top/down hierarchy of the previous model and is represented as a lateral ‘playing field’ where the owner is repositioned to working FOR the associate rather than having them work FOR him/her as in the previously described model. The end goal is to empower the associate to develop his or her own sense of ownership and increase their business acumen. This style gives associates an opportunity to develop themselves as they learn to run their own business within the principal’s business and at the same time gives the principal opportunities to spend more time working on the business and create even more leverage.
4. The fourth model is driven by the facilities.
This is a model where the owner/s work for their associates by providing superb facilities for the associates ranging from the fully equipped premises and well trained team through to training and mentoring.
In this style of business the associates will conduct their own business alongside the other associates. The environment of this model of business is focused on support and challenge – a model we refer to as comperation or coopertition.
This model can support a range of associates from the newly graduated to those in the later stages of their career. It fosters satisfying associate relationship which can last a practice lifetime and can include to plans to purchase down the track, to equity sell-offs as associates leave, to partnerships and to takeover options to name a few.
Regardless of where you are in your chiropractic business development it is critical to be clear on your business model both as an associate and as a principal. None of the above options are better or worse than the other. The question has to be, what is the model that will be the most useful for you at this time and going forward?
Which associate practice model suits you?
