Today’s post is from someone who is an expert at creating and implementing systems to streamline your business to make your life easier and much more productive.
If you feel bogged down with tasks, and you’re spinning your wheels when it comes to working with your clients, this post will be tremendously helpful for you.
Here’s Nathalie Garcia….
Being a Healthpreneur means wearing many hats, but I don’t have to tell you that.
You have two options – either charge more or get more efficient.
To grow a successful practice, you need to focus your time on creating content to engage clients and keep them coming back. The real question is; what systems do you have in place to manage these clients once you get them?
There are common areas where Health & Wellness Practitioners continuously spend too much time. Keeping yourself occupied with busy work means spending more time IN your business and not ON your business.
You have to be able to justify anything that takes you away from finding, engaging and coaching clients–that’s where you really need to be spending your time if you want make money.
I get it. I was there…I struggled.
Yippee! I got my first client! It was exciting to help someone transform their health, but, man, it was time-consuming. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I wasn’t organized enough, or good enough…
Then client #2 came and client #3 and I was already starting to feel overwhelmed with the workload. What?! How was that possible? How was I ever going to be able to scale this business and make money?
I was shocked to see how much time I was wasting on repetitive work like scheduling appointments, reminders, sending forms and documents, deciphering handwriting and digging through papers.
I realized it wasn’t my fault; I was only one person and my business wasn’t set up in a way to help me succeed.
Without a system, you’re hurting your bottom line.
If you spend one hour coaching a client and then an additional hour (or two) on creating client recommendations and communication, it won’t take long to realize that your hourly rate is slashed in half…or worse! So you have two options– either charge more or get more efficient.
Charging more is only a short-term fix as you will always be capped at the number of clients you can take on without improving your efficiency.
Technology can really help streamline your work to save you lots of time… if you find the right tool. So many of our users say that they used to piece together multiple, single-function applications that just didn’t integrate with one another.
Another common complaint I’ve heard is that coaches were paying too much money for systems that just weren’t built for them.
As a Nutritionist, I struggled with both expensive tech tools and many single-function applications before co-founding Practice Better. Practice Better is a cloud-based Client Management Platform that was created specifically to support you so you could be more efficient and profitable at any stage of your career. (You can start your own Practice Better account for FREE HERE)
Take a look around–all successful businesses have systems in place to ensure high standards of quality, consistency, and efficiency. Your business requires the same if you plan to grow.
Are you making some of these common mistakes?
There are many places that Healthpreneurs spend too much time. Booking and re-booking clients, sending and collecting forms, and digging through papers & files are just the tip of the iceberg.
#1 Wasting time booking clients?
How much time does it take really take to book a session with a potential client? Sometimes it may take up to four emails to decide on a date and time. Don’t forget the email reminders before appointments and another sequence of emails if they need to reschedule!
This is your client’s first impression of what working with you will be like. Sure, maybe you’re very kind in the emails or funny, but will EVERYTHING take this long, they may wonder?
Clients may already be on the fence about seeing someone to help them address their health concerns. Don’t give them another opportunity to back out!
These emails, quite frankly, are a waste of your valuable time. Unless you’re in a large clinic or willing to put down extra cash on an assistant, you are not using your time to maximize your profits.
Thirty minutes of emailing back and forth over the course of days or playing phone tag simply reduces your hourly rate. Now multiple this 30 minutes by 10 clients.
That’s hours that you’re not using to create content, engage your audience and build your brand and business.
Using a tool like Practice Better to streamline your booking process allows you to setup your availability and services so clients can book from their client portal or from your website.
Email reminders for upcoming sessions are sent automatically because you have other things to do.
If you don’t want to automate this process, you can still improve your email efficiency by creating templates.
This will save you the time of having to recraft an email that basically says the same thing over and over again. Take the time to plan out what these emails will
include so you can get more information in one email to reduce the back and forth.
Information you can include in your template:
- A bit about yourself and what you do.
- A choice of two services offered. Include a short write-up about the benefits of each service, their duration and price.
- Options of how sessions can be conducted. E.g. online or in person @ address.
- 2 or 3 time slots you’re available.
- If they’re not available during that time, what times and days work best for them.
Follow-up emails can include:
- Directions to location where session will take place
- Instructions to complete forms and waivers
Set up a system that makes it easy for clients to book and rebook without thinking twice. This is important for you, but let’s get real– our clients’ time is just as important.
#2 Wasting time sending and collecting forms?
Sharing documents and forms is a key part of coaching health and wellness clients. Completing forms is anything but fun for clients, but, of course, we know they’re important.
Most coaches send these forms over email to clients who then have to print, complete, scan, upload and submit.
Most coaches send these forms over email to clients who then have to print, complete, scan, upload and submit.
Completing forms in-person forces clients to fill out forms under a time constraint, in one go, and often without all the information on hand.
You, the coach, are then stuck having to print and store lengthy forms.
Form-building applications allow clients to complete their forms online.
Oh but wait… many of these applications don’t actually allow clients to sign their forms. Hmm… you’ll need an app for that too.
Practice Better lets you send forms straight to a client’s email address and client portal so that forms may be completed 100% online. And they can even sign!
You’ll be notified once forms are completed and you can access completed forms from anywhere you have internet. Streamline and save yourself some time trying to decipher what your client has written!
#3 Wasting time digging through emails & documents?
“Where did that paper go?” “When was it that we discussed…?” “Ahhh, that file is at the clinic/at home/not here!” As much as you try to keep yourself organized, it’s near impossible to be truly efficient if you’re managing files from multiple locations or using multiple methods.
Streamlining your practice using a system like Practice Better means that you’ll always know where to find what you’re looking for. Your session notes, forms and professional recommendations, you’ll never lose anything again.
All these documents are time-stamped and organized in chronological order for both you and your clients.
That’s why this is so important. Saving time is saving money. If you’re spending 15 minutes looking through your computer’s hard drive or through a stack of papers with torn edges, your hourly rate is going down, down, down.
Forget what happens to your rate if you have to physically go to another location just to access your records.
Streamline your practice and use your extra time and money building your business, spending time with your family, or however you want!
Practice Better offers a FREE account option where you can coach up to 3 clients at no charge!
Nathalie Garcia is a Holistic Nutritionist and Co-Founder of Practice Better, an online Client Management Platform designed specifically for Health & Wellness Practitioners. Nathalie loves that through Practice Better she can now support other practitioners to help transform the health of so many more!
You can start your own Practice Better account for FREE HERE
Note: This post includes affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you use the paid program level. I only recommend tools and services I believe in, but do your own research to determine if this is the right resource for you.
