Whether you are a sole therapist or have a larger business you will likely be starting to reflect on the past year, which has certainly had its unexpected challenges, and looking ahead to 2022 and what you would like your business to look like by this time next year.
In this article, we will give you some thoughts on how you can plan now, to achieve your business goals next year.
As therapists we know this very well, in fact we measure our patient’s performance and outcomes all the time. But how good are we at managing the metrics within our businesses?
The first thing to understand is - what are the metrics that are important to your business? Not all businesses work off the same business model and so not every metric is right for you to track.
Here are some metrics that might be relevant to track and measure for you:
Why track this? It is likely you know the revenue you need to break-even and to achieve a profit in your business, but how does that translate to how many patients you need to come through the door?
By calculating this metric, you will be able to establish your patient number targets.
Therapy software programmes such as Rehab Guru enable you to gather this information with just a few clicks which saves the creating and imputing time-consuming excel spreadsheets.
Why track this? If you understand where your referral base arises from you can target your marketing to these areas and enable you to assess if there are untapped opportunities within your local area.
Why track this? this is a simple to use metrics that gives you an indication of your client satisfaction. It also enables you to capture one of the most important, yet often overlooked, marketing metrics ‘word-of-mouth’ which is so valuable to businesses with a physical location.
It is also a very easy metric to measure; no lengthy surveys, it’s one question and it can even be sent directly to your clients via Rehab Guru’s patient forms.
So now you have established your business baseline and have a good idea of what your business looks like now, it is time to set your goals for the year ahead.
Once again, as therapists we are skilled at setting SMART goals for our clients, but how do we do it for our businesses?
Most of us have financial goals for our business but where we often fall short is understanding what steps, or goals we need to achieve that specific figure. Here are some ideas to help you to achieve your revenue targets:
For instance could you offer them:
Your 2022 goals might even include upskilling yourself in areas of business that you are unfamiliar with such as:
Sit down with our business planner tool and conduct a SWOT analysis of your business. You can use your local competitors as your point of reference when considering your strengths and weaknesses.
But always remember, you don’t have to be everything to everyone. If your business niche is focussed on one client sector and you are doing well within that sector then do consider how you can become a deeper specialist in this area, becoming an authority in your niche and attracting a wider audience and customer base within your specialisation.
So how can you claw back some time in your busy schedule to allow you to work on your business and not so much in your business? Let’s look at an example:
If marketing activities take you 5 hours a week during which time you could either be out networking and creating partnerships or earning £60 per hour treating your patients, but you could outsource this activity for £30 then it makes much more sense to outsource it.
There are many great platforms such as Upwork or Fiverr where you can find freelancers to create social media assets, or run your paid adverts or even do your book keeping.
These are our top tips for how to supercharge your practice growth in 2022. For further tips do follow us on social media and don’t forget to sign up for your FREE trial of Rehab Guru today.
Download your FREE business planner here
A former Exercise Rehabilitation Instructor (ERI) in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He went on to compete for Great Britain in Modern Pentathlon. He is now an RAF Training Officer. As the CTO he leads the engineering team at Rehab Guru.
