August 2004

Are you mom and pop ‑‑ or Disney and Microsoft?

by Dr. Ben Lerner

To stop being small you've got to manage BIG.

We live in a day that immortalizes and deifies people based on their ability to handle a ball or a puck and look to them as well as Hollywood celebrities as authorities.

Like all companies, chiropractors spend considerable time and effort learning how to best deliver their product and communicate their message in an effort to serve or reach as many people as possible.

Yet, what separates successful BIG companies from the average small chiropractic clinic is that in an effort to reach their goal, they don't just gain a mastery of their product. BIG, successful businesses and corporations also master procedure, accounting, finance, marketing, PR, organization, time management, training, leadership, etc.

At the beginning of my career, I had a system that many chiropractors use their entire careers. This is something I call the "Mom and Pop Quad Chiropractic System" (MPQCS) It consists of four basic procedures: Unlock the front door, schedule an appointment, get people adjusted, and ask them to pay.

Additional MPQCS components include:

***  Wait until there are not too many new patients and then come up with a couple of ways to get some.

***  If visits are down blame the staff for not calling those that are missing.

***  If collections are down, find new stuff to bill for (and blame staff again).

***  Never write anything down, never change anything, rarely improve yourself, and absolutely never have a plan‑always wing it.

If any major company ever ran their organization using the MPQCS system, first of all, they'd never have become a major company and if they did, bankruptcy would be imminent. If chiropractic offices are going to take their rightful place at the top of the wellness food chain, then they're going to have to stop being small mom and pop and start being BIG Disney and Microsoft.

I had the opportunity to sit through the Sam's/Wal‑Mart weekly meeting at their corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas when I was there to speak to them about our "Body by God" book. Like meetings I've witnessed at other large companies such as Disney and information I've obtained through other business study, I've discovered several policies BIG companies have that small companies don't. BIG COMPANIES:

‑‑ Have a weekly and monthly goals.

‑‑ Meet every week to train and in these meetings have department heads report on whether or not goals are met and what is being done, altered, or eliminated to meet them.

‑‑ Have marketing and PR calendars that are done several months to entire years in advance.

‑‑ Are well scripted and following manuals and protocols to the letter so that they may achieve predictable results.

‑‑ Are always changing so as to create the next level of growth and results.

‑‑ Attend regular seminars and hire coaches and consultants to learn from those who are already successful in areas they wish to improve and to stay motivated and on track.

‑‑ Work on their business and not just in their business. They do not just delegate jobs, they delegate responsibilities

It's time for a new era of chiropractors. Chiropractic certainly plays a more important role in the lives of families than retail stores, software companies and amusement parks. To move your office and our profession to the next level, it's time to give up the mom and pop and go BIG.

(Dr. Ben Lerner, Dr. Greg Loman and Dr. Rob Schiffman manage Teach The World About Chiropractic, a coaching, seminar, and product company and Body by God International. They have three of the highest‑volume clinics in the history of chiropractic. Dr. Lerner, author of the New York Times best‑selling book, "Body by God: The Owner's Manual For Maximized Living," was the chiropractor for the Olympics of 1996 and 2000.)

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