Speak Out April 2019

in practice

Coaching program to help grow your business SPEECHPATHOLOGYAUSTRALIAHASCOLLABORATEDWITHREALISEBUSINESS, ANOT-FOR-PROFIT,GOVERNMENT FUNDED ORGANISATION, TO SUPPORT, COACH AND ADVISE THOSE SPA MEMBERS WISHING TO GROW THEIR BUSINESS.

2:30pm AEST. Members who register can either join the live session or watch the recorded version at www.cpdlive.com/ speechpath/seminars4/8751/preview.html In addition to the webinar, Jacqui Attard, CEO of Realise Business and facilitator of More Money, More Time, Less Stress is attending the Private Practice Lunch at the Joint Conference where she will provide more detail and answer questions about the business program. Jacqui has also written the following article that outlines the importance of identifying and working on potential inefficiencies in a small business.

This eight-month virtual learning and coaching program will be delivered via seven live webinars. Participants will receive their own dedicated business coach as well as access to an online portal of recorded webinars, resources and a “closed” Facebook group. Members will analyse their business to identify current strengths and opportunities. The program includes the following modules; Finance, Marketing, Client experience, Pricing for profitability, Managing a referral network, Scheduling for profitability and Driving a high performing team. Regardless of your location, this virtual learning program is accessible to all SPA members around Australia. The program commences with a free webinar for SPA members called, ‘More Money, More Time, Less Stress’. It is suitable for those who currently run their own practice as well as those in the early stages of starting their business. Realise Business will conduct this webinar on Monday 13 May 1:30-

Speech Pathology Australia will be providing more details to members about the date and costs associated with this course very soon. In the interim, you are very welcome to contact Nichola Harris, Manager Professional Practice with any questions. What is your optimum business capacity?

of between 40-58% capacity. Whether your clinic is at 30% or 60% efficiency, you have the potential to attain a higher running rate without dramatically altering the services you offer. To increase the clinic’s running rate, it is important to consider potential inefficiencies in the business. There are a number of potential inefficiencies found in speech pathology clinics including: • Scheduling/time management • Tracking of information • Processes • Communication • Meetings • Recall and reactivation • Lack of delegation • Workflow • Employee motivation • Skills training • Budgeting • Poor leadership Inefficiencies for a clinic with a large volume of clients will be different to the inefficiencies of a clinic with fewer client and gaps in its schedule. Owners of high- volume clinics often feel pressure to see more clients in the minimum amount of time. To take client time away and work on strategic planning is perceived to be

inefficient. However, regardless of your client numbers, the clinics that are the most efficient are those which schedule time for meetings and conduct planning sessions. Turnover does not equal efficiency. The common fallacy is that an increased turnover along with economies of scale will yield greater efficiency. Clinics which focus on increasing turnover alone will end up creating more stress in their business as there is an inability to sustain continuous growth with this approach. Clinics which are heavily weighted towards growth in turnover only, without considering cultural issues, will rarely attain best practice. Implementing change that addresses the clinic’s inefficiencies, improves the running rate, maximises the capacity of the business and creates strong sustainable growth. Jacqui Attard CEO, Realise Business

Do your days mostly feel like you are busy being productive or are you just busy being busy? If a regular day in your clinic is mostly like the latter, I can assure you that this is an issue for many therapists. To take a busy clinic and make it more productive requires an annual plan that focuses on strong sustainable growth. To create a plan for your business, you need to understand your clinic’s potential- capacity planning. In short, your clinic has the capacity to achieve a maximum revenue given its current resources. The resources that you consider when measuring capacity include number of staff, number of treatment rooms, services offered, scheduling, pricing, and equipment etc. When Capacity Planning it is important to look at the following factors: • Running rate – the percentage of efficiency your clinic is currently achieving compared to your potential capacity; and, current turnover – the total revenue for the current financial year. Clinics rarely achieve 100% optimum capacity simply because of uncontrollable factors such as illness, client cancellations, extreme weather, equipment breakdowns and so on. The best managed clinics achieve approximately 80-90% of their optimum capacity or running rate. However, most clinics have a running rate •

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April 2019 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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