3 Hard Lessons That Improved My Practice Instantly
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We all want a thriving vet rehab practice and the majority of us throw our heart and souls into our work. I used to think that working really hard and long hours was a prerequisite for a successful practice.
“If it was easy, everyone would be doing it,” I told myself as I pushed through the hard times.
Running a practice is no easy feat. We are faced with daily challenges and struggles. And in my early days as a new practice owner I accepted these struggles as part of the path I had chosen, and an inevitable prerequisite for success.?Looking back, I feel sorry for my younger self – for all the hard times I put myself through, pushing myself relentlessly. If only I had learnt these three lessons earlier, I might have saved myself a lot of?stress and anxiety!
There are a couple of fundamentals that I should have focused on from the beginning. Had I done so, I could have fast tracked my practice to where I wanted it to be.
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A Rocky Start
In the beginning I spent far?too much time doing things that were not important to the success and growth of my practice, in the greater scheme of things.
I knew nothing about?prioritizing my time, and spent hours doing things that had no impact on the growth of my practice. This was completely unintentional. Due to inexperience, I said yes to every opportunity, hoping that this would be the one thing that would put me and my practice on the map.
I knew I needed to get more clients, but in practice that is not easy. I put ads in newspapers and magazines. Nothing. I joined animal business network meetings which ended up being free advice from me to everyone else. I wrote articles for magazines with my details at the end. Nothing.
I started to doubt whether there was a need for the service I was offering. Some days I would look at my appointments book and there’d be just one consult booked for the whole day. I felt that uneasy, queasy feeling in my stomach. Last week had been a lot busier. Was this a decline in my practice? All the feelings were irrational.
I can now look back and see where I went wrong and where I made good choices. These are the things I would share with my younger self if I could do so. I hope they help you.