How to fall in love with your practice again

It’s Valentine’s Day today and I thought I would share a few tips for those of you who may have fallen out of love with your practice, or those of you who are falling out of love with your practice at a rate of knots.

I know the feeling all too well, fortunately about 10 years ago I was able to turn things around to get my practice and my life thriving again.

Here goes …..

Look after your practice as well as you look after your clients’ businesses.

• are you making enough money for your efforts?
• are you setting monthly income targets?
• are you keeping an eye on your expenses?
• are you reviewing your numbers each month?

Once you start doing these things you will have a better idea of your numbers, be able to take corrective action sooner and be able to make better business decisions.

Opt out of things that don’t serve you and your practice

• get rid of those “love” jobs
• get rid of jobs that are not making you money or at least start charging full freight
• get rid of clients that are not making you money or that are causing you and your team grief
• get rid of those time wasting emails that clog your inbox – unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe!

This takes a bit of bravery but it will give you the capacity to take on more of the work you love doing and the clients you love working with, both of which will make you more money, cause you less stress and improve the overall quality of your practice.

Value your time

Following on from “opting out”, start analysing your time and start using it more wisely.

• assess where you are spending your time each day/week
• assess where you might be wasting your time or giving your time away for free
• assess what tasks/jobs/responsibilities could be delegated or deleted from your life
• assess how you can fit things that are really important to you, into your day/week and diarise them. These become non-negotiable appointments!

Time is life’s most valuable asset. You can make money, lose it and make it back again. But your time is something that once you use it, you will never be able to get it back. There should also be a happy balance between the time you are spending in your practice, with your family and on your own well-being and happiness.

Empower your team and your clients

Work/life balance is about creating and maintaining supportive and healthy work environments and you can do this by empowering your team and your clients.

• share with your team and your clients the vision you have for your practice – one that encourages a work/life balance, and importantly, make no apology for that
• share your knowledge and expertise openly with your team and your clients
• share responsibility for tasks with your team and your clients
• share new and improved ways of doing things with your team and your clients – be adaptive and responsive and don’t fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because it has always been done that way.

Today might just be the day then you decide to put some spark back into your practice and I do hope that my tips will help “bring back that lovin’ feelin’” ♫♫ into your practice.