Wouldn't you love to know how to take an already successful chiropractic practice and consistently grow it to higher levels? Regardless of the size of your practice, what kinds of systems and procedures do you think you might need to consistently and steadily grow your practice?

The answer to this question lies not in learning how to do more with your time, but in actually learning how to do less.

Every highly successful, busy chiropractor knows that the way to consistently and steadily grow is to free your time up so that you use your talents to the best of your abilities and do what you love all the time. And, if you choose to do only what you love to do, what would that entail?

Think about how bogged down you might be with doing things that get in the way of your being able to express your natural talents. Could the administrative paper work, filing, insurance forms, business calls or balancing of your checkbook be interfering with the expression of your talents? All of these activities that drive you crazy (and you're probably not very good at anyway) can and will get in the way of you being the chiropractor you know you can be -- unless you take measures to minimize their impact every day.

Start by making a list of all the little "detail" duties that are eating up your time and "sabotaging" your effectiveness, and then begin delegating them to a responsible staff member today! When you concentrate on eliminating from your life those things that detract from your being able to meet and reach your potential and concentrate on what you really love to do, then your practice will meet and reach its potential through steady and consistent growth.

Eliminate or minimize those activities that honor your talents the least and begin to focus on or maximize those activities that produce the greatest results for your practice.

The first step in growing to the next level by doing less is to focus your energy during prime time. Then you should only be doing what you love and what you are "innately" good at.

It could very well be that for you, this is adjusting patients, giving lectures or spending more time with your team. However you choose to spend your time, make sure to measure that activity against a barometer of what will generate the most extraordinary results for you and the growth of your practice. As you focus time and energy this way, your productivity will sky rocket.

And when results go up, you're going to need good, quality people, who you can rely on to handle the other areas of your office demands.

Hiring them is the key to having the freedom to continue doing what you love.

You must be able to count on your staff and trust them implicitly to do a really good job in those areas where you have decided to minimize your involvement. If you've spent the right amount of time training your support staff and enrolling them in your vision, then the dependability and trust of your team should be there through every stage of your practice's growth and development.

With the pieces finally in place, you will find that consistent, steady practice growth will become a delicate and focused balancing act of utilizing your time and talents effectively and those of your team equally to contribute to the forward movement of your vision.

Practices ranging in size from brand-new, fast-growing offices to high-volume, million-dollar practices can benefit from this formula. No matter which level of practice you have, if you implement these family practice office and time management strategies you will be able to enjoy your practice more than ever and have proven, stress-free systems for growing your practice to the next level in the New Year.

(Dr. Eric Plasker is the founder of THE FAMILY PRACTICE where chiropractors are uniting to lead family health care. For seminar, coaching, training, or product information to help you build your confidence and family practice, call 770/509-9938, ext. 105 or visit online www.thefamilypractice.net)