The lessons you learned in part 1 of this series introduced you to many of my medical practice eroding mistakes, not so different from hundreds of other physicians starting their practice, yet going well beyond good judgment that you might relate to in some way. For physicians who are never taught, never learned, never considered the importance of knowing how to effectively manage the business of their medical practice, which is basically all physicians who graduate from medical school, even today, it’s a matter of learning it all the hard way and having to suffer along the way more than you need to.
We normally consider ourselves as being quite intelligent, as being above average in common sense and judgment, and as being intellectually selective in understanding the academic steps necessary for a medical career to succeed. If we are in that elite group of academically enlightened individuals, then, why is it that you are easily convinced that the illustrious practice of medicine can easily be successful without a knowledge of managing a small business effectively and without implementing the proven elements applicable to all successful businesses?
Now, to dig much deeper into the reasons why all of us are caught in the web of medical tradition, miss out on the true business foundations, and near the end of our practice years are forced to realize we could have done much more with our medical practice. We could have been more business oriented, been a better manager, earned a lot more money, spent more time with our family, and used our intensive medical education to accomplish a much higher degree of personal accomplishment over those years. These regrets are ever present in the older docs, but too late to make amends. Not going to happen to you………right?
Medical practice business mistakes and solutions:
1. Believing that your position in medicine will miraculously launch you over any financial barriers you face (tradition):
Talk to any successful entrepreneur in business today and they will tell you that one of the best ways to rise to the top is using a leap frog financial strategy. When you open your first office, spend as little as possible, either by renting space in a reasonable location, or sharing office space with another physician until you have discretionary income enough to move, renovate, and go solo.
A common way to cut costs and save money is to join an existing medical practice with a formal cost sharing agreement on paper. Those physicians who start out as an HMO employee and later decide to go into private practice rarely save enough money to carry them into and through the first 6 months in a new practice. Face it! We have felt money deprivation for so many years by then that the first natural urge when you finally are earning some money is to spend it for “soul” satisfaction.