powerful practice-building tips

helping struggling natural therapists achieve remarkable business results

The Ezine of www.Abundant-Private-Practices.com

How To Be More Productive

To create a thriving natural therapy business you must stay in action and put time, energy and attention on the things that will generate the results you desire (ie: more clients!).  Seems fairly obvious, right?  Well then why is it so hard to DO?!?
           
Virtually all small business owners struggle with time management.  I hear, “There just aren't enough hours in the day.” OR “There is never enough time.”
           
And for most natural therapists, scheduling and managing our work time is all the more difficult because we have to work around our clients. 
           
In my work with hundreds of therapists, I have found that a clear and proactive weekly schedule can help you stay in action and focused on the key areas necessary to build a thriving practice.
           
This month I share an overview of the 4 Step Time Management System that is making a huge difference for me.  I encourage you to take these suggestions and create a customised weekly schedule that works perfectly for you. 
           
STEP 1: Identify Your “Big Rocks"
           
This concept is derived from Stephen Covey’s training in time management.  He uses rocks and sand as a metaphor for the things we need and want to put in our schedule.  He demonstrates that by first filling a bucket with "big rocks," you still have room to add sand and fill in the crevices. 
           
The "big rocks" represent your most important activities (even if they are not urgent).  The sand represents less important activities, some of which may be time critical.  The concept is that if the sand is dumped into the bucket first, the more important "big rocks" will not fit.  (And he displays this very effectively in his seminars.)  When the big rocks are placed in the bucket first, you still have room for the sand, but NOT the other way around.  
           
To create an effective schedule that will support you in growing your business you need to identify and focus on your “big rocks,” and not spend too much time on smaller, administrative-type items that do not generate results and revenue.
           
I have found that for most therapists, the following areas comprise some, if not all, of their “big rocks.”
           
Treatment Time - The actual time you spend treating clients, preparing for clients, post-care follow-up, etc.
           
Networking - Going to networking events for the purpose of securing 2-4-1 Sessions.
           
Executing Marketing Strategies – Such as speaking, sending out a grassroots marketing letter, making follow up calls, forming a strategic alliance, etc.
           
2-4-1 Sessions - Performing 2-4-1 Sessions to secure new clients.
           
Continuing Education – Taking additional training, reading, going to seminars, etc.
           
Administration - Answering/sending email, billing, filing, paperwork, etc.
             
Writing/Creating – Such as newsletters, articles, working on programs, etc.
           
Business Planning/Strategy - Setting goals, creating plans, brainstorming ideas, etc.

Using the above list as a guideline, what are your “big rocks”?  What are the areas you know you need to focus on in order to build the natural therapy business you desire?
                     
STEP 2: Create Your Time Allotment
           
Next, determine how many hours you have each week to dedicate to your business and assign appropriate blocks of time to each category.
           
Note: This is highly contingent upon where you are as a therapist and the size/scope of your practice.  
           
As a GENERAL rule, however, I suggest that if you don’t yet have a full practice, MOST of your time should be dedicated to MARKETING ACTIVITIES (including executing your strategies, networking, 2-4-1 sessions, etc.).  In fact I can hear people fall off the chair as I tell you 80% of your week needs to be dedicated to marketing when you are starting out.  As you gain more clients and your client time increases, your marketing time may decrease proportionally.

Again, this is a general rule.  Please note however, that your time in marketing will never be zero, and will rarely fall below 20% of your total time if you want a sustainable practice.
           
EXAMPLE:
           
Time allocation for a part-time therapist who has 8 clients and wants 20.

This is a general example but please do not feel compelled to match these targets exactly. The key is to become more productive and effective with your time by focusing on and doing the important things!

I hear you saying if it’s that easy then why isn’t it working for me.  I’ll share what my week used to look like before I understood I actually needed to spend A LOT of time in front of my target audience.

• Talking to other therapists who aren’t full and telling each other how hard it is 8hrs
  
  
• Telling myself I wasn’t good enough 8hrs
  
  
• Finding a compelling reason to NOT go out to a networking event 4hrs (at least)
  
  
• Doing laundry, washing floors, washing dishes, alphabeticalising my spice rack – in fact anything to keep me from doing marketing activities! 8hrs
  
  
• Meeting friends for coffee and having them feel sorry for me OR going on my own and feeling sorry for myself if I couldn’t drum up an audience. 8hrs
  
  
• Spending hours on forums agreeing with people who say it is hard, instead of writing an article that would take half the key strokes I’d just spent typing on forums. 8hrs
  
  
• Avoiding doing any cold calling at any risk. 50 hrs
  
  
• Wanting to write an article or ebook but never starting because who would read it anyway. 8 hrs
  
  
• Going to courses so I could feel I had enough qualifications to feel good enough. 50 hrs
  
  
• Actual marketing – are you kidding – I’m too busy cleaning my curtain rails with a tooth brush to do any marketing activities

OK - I’m being silly now.  I never DID get around to cleaning the curtain rods but these are many of the reasons why natural therapists don’t have full practices.  They avoid any marketing activity that gets them in front of potential clients.  Once I learned to schedule my time and learnt the marketing activities that worked for me – things started to become easier.

STEP 3: Schedule Your Time
           
Next, you want to block out times in your calendar (ie: your diary, Palm Pilot, etc.) for each area.  I recommend you do this weekly.

This will then become your "ideal" schedule. Your goal.  Your target. 
           
Not every week will perfectly match the schedule you create, in fact most will not!  That’s okay!  But if you have a plan and do your best to stick with it you will be a lot better off than if had not created a schedule to begin with.          
          
STEP 4: Implement/Measure/Modify
           
Once you create your blueprint, it is important to commit to your schedule and strive to implement it the best you can.  During the week take note of what is working and what is not. Make the appropriate adjustments and you will begin to feel great about your schedule.
           
As an example, you might do your 2-4-1 Sessions on Fridays, so block out 4 hours on that day.  If you HATE admin, (like I do) dedicate the first hour of every day to that, so you get it over and done have with have something you like to do after that as a reward for finishing. 

On Friday afternoons, you might like to ease into the weekend, so maybe do some writing or do business planning.  What is important is for you to realise when you are most productive times and schedule the rocks into that time.  For instance I work best in the afternoons so I make sure all my rocks get done is the afternoon.

Mornings are the best time for me to do admin because it doesn’t take a lot of my creative energy to do that.
           
Success in Time Management requires dedication and commitment.

The first step is to commit and at least get things scheduled and then dedicate yourself to getting a little better each week.

My commitment this year is FOCUS – ACTION – FINISH! 

This is working really well for me as my practice gets busier.  I have new demands such as article writing for Empowering Women, organising content for the M.O.S.H. Pit, writing for my blog.  Without a plan this would all be exhausting.  But by using the Rocks and Sand principle and taking the necessary action until I’ve finished the task the moving to the next one, then I’m finding my day is more productive.  My Mum always used to say when we were baking “clean up one mess before you make another” and like many of Ruthies little gems this one is filled with wisdom and practical advice.

Good luck and don’t forget = FOCUS – ACTION - FINISH!