100 Episodes of Success The Hightlights – Celebrating Growth, Insights, and Your Support!

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[00:00:00] Katie Bell: You started this business because you’re passionate about what you do. You care deeply about improving the health and wellness of your clients, of your patients. And some of you may have fallen into this role because some of you may have needed to get out of the NHS. We’re seeing that more and more at the moment.

[00:00:19] Katie Bell: And while some of you may have always dreamt of being in this industry, This is episode 101 and it is off the back of Clinic Growth Live. I know I’ve been talking about it for months and months and months and months. But, oh my goodness, what a day it was for our industry. We had music, we had lighting, we had dancing, we had cheering, and we had huge transformations.

[00:00:46] Katie Bell: We spent the entire day working together. out of your business so we can work on your business. And one of the sections in the day, one of the sessions that we taught was about your strategy, your master plan. So I thought I’d dedicate this episode to those of you who didn’t come to Clinic Growth Live. I would love you to be there next year because we are most certainly going to be running it again.

[00:01:12] Katie Bell: But I wanted to offer you all some insights into why your master plan is so important and why most of us have lost sight of what that is. Which is often the biggest cause for us to be feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, exhausted, spinning lots of plates, being that hamster on the hamster wheel that can’t jump off.

[00:01:32] Katie Bell: So enjoy this episode.

[00:01:34] Katie Bell: As we start our business, it evolves and grows naturally, much like, a seed in the ground, okay? Lots of business owners from before 2020, we know what happened then, whose businesses were going, like, they were great, Thanks to their great, excellent reputation. Their really good physios, their exceptional osteopaths, their great sports therapists, and word of mouth had helped their business grow organically.

[00:02:02] Katie Bell: Does that sound like you? Then here is likely what has happened. You probably jumped onto this crazy hamster wheel and started seeing more and more patients. You started opening your diary up more and more and ended up doing clinical hours over six days a week, across your lunch times, working late, coming in early, seeing around 60, 70, 80 patients a week.

[00:02:23] Katie Bell: Then you started having to invoice insurance companies, sending more emails. creating more programs and treatment plans and generally just became so much busier and that hamster wheel swept quicker and quicker and quicker and quicker and before you knew it you’ve basically got this out of control tree that is overgrown, uncontrollable and I’m gonna, I’m gonna liken this to Japanese knotweed.

[00:02:46] Katie Bell: It is a pain in the ass. We can’t get it in control and we just end up madly trying to fight fires. Who here feels like they are just trying to fight fires all day long in their business from one thing to the next thing? They get a text about sickness, they’ve got another member of staff that can’t come in, they’ve got somebody else that wants holiday, then they want unpaid leave, then somebody else hands in their notice, then a patient doesn’t turn up on time, then something else comes in and you just feel like you are on this hamster wheel.

[00:03:15] Katie Bell: Well, guess what? Now, no Alan Titchbash. But it usually takes three years to treat Japanese knotweed. The reason for this hamster wheel and this Japanese knotweed hybrid is likely because of a lack of a clear plan, a lack of strategy, and that we don’t often set goals right from the very beginning of our business.

[00:03:36] Katie Bell: So the clarity around the why was not there in the first place, nor was maybe the vision, not a vision of owning a big clinic with an MDT service, but a vision that is driven by numbers. So many people when I jump on a call with them, we talk about where do you want to be in 12 months time? And the answers I get are, I just want to be busier with clients, or I just want to be making more money.

[00:03:58] Katie Bell: Somebody said the other day, I just want to double my revenue. And I was like, why? Why would you want to do that? Surely it has to be about profit. It has to be about take home income. And it has to be about time back in your life. Another analogy I use to help clinic owners see the importance of having this plan is that I want you to imagine you are driving from Sheffield.

[00:04:19] Katie Bell: It’s a very gorgeous place if you didn’t know. To somewhere in Scotland, right? Just somewhere. Without a sat nav. Or without a map, if you’re still old school. This is exactly like running a business without a plan. It would take you ages to get there. In fact, I actually would never make it because I would just go round and round in circles.

[00:04:37] Katie Bell: I’ve got no sense of direction and it will cost a fortune in fuel and time and your destination is not clear anyway. So when you get there, you won’t even know you’ve arrived. Taking that step back to reconnect with the why is imperative to your clinic success. Otherwise you can end up creating something that is not what you wanted or what you set out to do.

[00:05:02] Katie Bell: Many of you are working more hours than you would work if you were in a job. Many of you are taking home less money than you would do if you were in a job. And I can’t imagine any of you would ever plant Japanese knotweed on purpose. So we need to take a strategic pause, and this is what we covered at Clinic Growth Live.

[00:05:21] Katie Bell: It is crucial. This is what we did. We took time away from the daily operations to focus on the bigger picture.

[00:05:28] Katie Bell: In Thrive, we have specific days that our clinic owners come to that allows them to step back and evaluate their business from an external perspective. This dedicated time for strategic thinking and planning is a game changer, and I would really recommend. That you get out of your business for a full day every quarter.

[00:05:51] Katie Bell: Now, we call it the Thrive Clarity Day. But if that feels too much right now, you could just try once a year and set your plan for the next year. And then maybe half yearly to check in and reset again. For many clinic owners, I know what you’re all going to be thinking. For me to take a day out, I’m going to lose revenue, I’m going to disappoint clients.

[00:06:11] Katie Bell: But these short term sacrifices are necessary for long term gains and growth. Thrive Clarity Day. If you can reallocate your time from that immediate mentality to that strategic planning, you can identify areas where the business is losing money. You can find opportunities for growth. I’m going to tell you a story about something that we did in my own practice.

[00:06:32] Katie Bell: We take an entire day to develop our growth plan for the year ahead, the upcoming financial year. And we analyze what’s worked well in the past. We identify areas for improvement. And I recall one year when this exercise revealed opportunities to increase our revenue. We did not have to have any more staff members.

[00:06:48] Katie Bell: Okay. That’s something I need to make clear. We needed no more team, but we could increase our revenue by 300, 000. Without expanding team or increasing overhead costs. Can you imagine? I fell off my chair. This insight is invaluable. I would’ve only had that insight when I took time to step back and evaluate the business from a strategic standpoint.

[00:07:12] Katie Bell: Now, if I’d worked the day at the clinic. Instead, I’d have made, what, 1, 500 quid gross revenue, which one do you prefer? So, creating a growth plan begins with really understanding the why behind your business. This shapes your financial projections. It shapes your strategic decisions like when you should hire and who you should hire.

[00:07:39] Katie Bell: It tells you when you could price rise and ultimately it ensures that your business serves you. It provides you with the income, the time and the fulfilment that you desire. It’s about asking, why don’t I just get a normal job? And then clarifying what really is driving you to keep running your business.

[00:08:02] Katie Bell: Now, I get it. You all love what you do, you have a massive passion for helping others, problem solving, improving people’s health and wellness. But that can only last for so long. If you are not getting the income, the time and the fulfillment. Alongside it, it will wear thin when you are the lowest paid person in your business, when you are the person that seemingly has to work all the hours and everybody else is desperate for this work life balance that I’m hearing all the time.

[00:08:35] Katie Bell: So there is no time like now. I want you to, whether you’re driving in your car, whether you are at the clinic ready to start your first patient in the morning, or whether you’re listening to me and you’re running around the kitchen emptying the dishwasher and getting the kids sorted, I want you to just ask yourself.

[00:08:50] Katie Bell: Why don’t you get a normal job? Why are you running your own business? What drives you to get up every day and just keep going? And what is really important to you? Is it freedom? Is it flexibility? Is it financial security? Is it time with your family? Because that’s, we, we have to create a business that serves us and not starves us.

[00:09:16] Katie Bell: I want you to wake up every day, every week, every month and know what you are aiming for. What you are working for, what your targets are and all of that. And yes, it can be, we wanna foster, foster a healthier Sheffield, but that cannot be to the detriment of my health, my income, my time. And yes, there are always times in your business that you’re gonna have to dig deep and work and feel like you’re spinning those plates and you are on.

[00:09:41] Katie Bell: That comes to wheel. I’m not here to profess that. I’ve got it all worked out. Sometimes leading up to clinic growth, live, we were all in.

[00:09:49] Katie Bell: But you’ve gotta know what you’re aiming for. And this might feel a little bit intense to some of you, but without it you’re going to lose focus, you’re going to lose direction and you’ll say yes to things that don’t serve you in moving towards your goal and then you end up being this busy fool who here says yes and then regrets it.

[00:10:11] Katie Bell: As a high achiever and a recovering people pleaser, I have to catch myself getting back onto that hamster wheel. Sometimes I catch myself early enough. Sometimes I don’t. But it’s about improving and getting better at this every day and every week and then saying no to things that don’t bring me joy.

[00:10:33] Katie Bell: Saying no to things that don’t align with my goals. And I’m not in my zone of genius. Leading up to Clinic Growth Life, I’m going to stop talking about this one day. It was so good! But leading up to Clinic Growth Life, I had to really protect my energy. I had a massive week of lots of big things that were going to be happening, but I really needed to make sure that my energy was not given.

[00:10:58] Katie Bell: elsewhere because I needed to turn up in the, as the best version of myself. So if I had sent yes to some of these call requests that I’d been, I’d got coming in, to these meeting requests to whatever it was that was going on that week, then I would not have been able to show up in the way that I did at Clinic Growth Live.

[00:11:18] Katie Bell: But this can only happen when you stop, when you get out of your business and you spend some time mapping out what the next 12 months look like for you. Now, some of you are going to be able to go to three years, five years, ten years. I admire your brain. I am all about the here and the now. I find it really difficult to go that far ahead.

[00:11:37] Katie Bell: But the one thing which is really important to add is that if you’re thinking about selling your business, if you’re listening to this and you are thinking that you are creating a legacy, you are creating something that you might want to sell in the future, somewhere down the line, you have to plan when.

[00:11:53] Katie Bell: Because if it’s within five years The entire plan should be about ensuring the business is built to sell, meaning that you will have to get out of the day to day operations. So you can see when we think about our, like, where we’re going, that changes what we do here and now. It might be that you just want to go from making 2k a month to 3k a month.

[00:12:16] Katie Bell: What we strategically need to work out, how we’re going to make that happen. And those become the goals, that becomes the focus, and then we have all the tactics that sit underneath that to make it happen. When you’ve got clear on your why, when you’ve got clear on, on the vision for your business we then add the planning and we add the numbers to it because your business must be profitable.

[00:12:40] Katie Bell: Period. With profits, you can impact your community. With profits, you can impact your family. With profits, you can impact your friends on a much bigger scale. You can hire great team members. You can add services. You can live what I call that level 10 life of freedom, of flexibility, of being able to say yes to whatever you want to say yes to.

[00:13:05] Katie Bell: Many clinic owners tell me that they are not in it for the money, Katie. I’m not in it for the money and I call BS on that. I have never heard that from a clinic owner who was actually making loads of it either.

[00:13:17] Katie Bell: Be okay with the fact you’re in it for the money. Money makes the world go round. Money is a byproduct of you running an efficient, systemised, streamlined, impactful business. So if you’re not in it for the money, I really hope you have, you’re already loaded and you’re just doing this out of the goodness of your own heart in your free time.

[00:13:38] Katie Bell: To create a business that truly serves you, it’s really essential to align every aspect of your operation with your vision. I always say what are we aiming for here? What’s the goal? If it’s not going to make you money, save you money, or get you more time back, we’re not going to do it. This means being intentional about how you spend your time, making strategic decisions that drive the growth plan, and ensuring that profit is a priority and it’s baked into every transaction.

[00:14:06] Katie Bell: So I want you to really start by revisiting your businesses like foundational elements. Is the original why still relevant or has it evolved over time? Does your current business model support your lifestyle and your priorities? Your business should facilitate your life, not the other way around. And remember, going into a business, is like embarking on a journey to Scotland from Sheffield without a map.

[00:14:31] Katie Bell: And that, my friends, is why you all needed to be at Clinic Growth Live last week. Hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. I hope it has sparked some thoughts about why you are doing what you’re doing, and is your business currently serving you in the way that it needs to? Remember, knowledge without action is useless.

[00:14:50] Katie Bell: So, by listening to this episode, I’d really encourage you to not just consume, but to actually move forward. And if that is the first step, is taking that Thrive Clarity Day, great. If the second step is that you need to get on a call with somebody because you don’t know how to figure this out for yourself, then call.

[00:15:10] Katie Bell: Book your discovery call in with our team, and we can start talking to you about Your growth plan, about your goals, about where you want to be, and how you are going to get there. Have a fabulous rest of your day, and I look forward to being back here next week with episode 102!