By Matheus Felix • January 13, 2020 
We have finally entered the 3rd decade of the 21st century.
2020.
The Year of the Rat, as some would call it in the Chinese Zodiac culture.
An animal known to be extremely adaptable, instinctive, and always alert to its surroundings.
Characteristics that could easily describe the biggest and greatest names of the business world.
Charles Darwin said it best, way back in the 1800s:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change…”
Charles Darwin
This rule applies to absolutely everything in life, especially business.
It’s a common trait to see holistic practitioners ignore the business side of things when it comes to their… well, business.
What I’m going to be talking about are 3 of the most critical topics surrounding the business world today and how you can apply it to your holistic health practice.
Whether you take my advice with a grain of salt or ignore everything that I have to say is up to you.
For those that are ready to catapult their ideologies from 1980 to 2020, I’m going to be giving you a decent understanding of what to start focusing on so you can take your business to the next level and, consequently, help more people and make a bigger impact.
The three main topics will be:
- T-Shaped Owners
- New Age Structure
- Inviting Chaos
Let’s jump right into it:
1. T-Shaped Owners
You’re probably asking yourself:
What does T-Shaped mean?
T-Shaped is a word used to describe a trait that many holistic health business owners should seek to have.
The vertical line of the ‘T’ stands for having expertise in one single area. For most of you, this line would represent your knowledge in chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, etc.
The horizontal line of the ‘T’ stands for a broad and general knowledge of everything else that is involved in a business. These things include accounting, marketing, branding, service description, client acquisition & nurturing, etc. etc.
This trait doesn’t only apply to business owners but to employees and staff as well.
These types of people are described as being “Full-Stack”.
They try and learn something about everything and everything about something.
When you have this kind of mindset, you’re priming yourself for innovation and critical thinking.
You become the ultimate problem solver and business builder.
Seek these traits when you’re hiring a new associate, accountant, or receptionist.
Be careful with the people in your staff that say “That’s not my job”. Especially if a patient is asking about something regarding what you practice.
Steve Jobs was T-Shaped. When he started his career with Apple, he wanted to learn everything about the operating system, hardware, and software.
Michael Jackson is another one. Few people know this, but Michael was responsible for creating not only the music but the dance moves, his costumes, and even the lighting and set on stage.
Full-stack people have control over their business and their lives to build it exactly how they want it without the inconsistency of having multiple parties involved.
2. New Age Structure
We are living in a time where opportunity is abundant for everyone in the world.
The Information Age has given people access to worldwide knowledge. Technology has made everything more efficient, easy, and comfortable.
Everything has become so convenient that the slightest bit of necessary effort can throw someone off completely when it comes to them becoming a new patient.
Many of you reading this haven’t fully implemented the advantages of technology in your business yet.
I know this because if I tried to schedule an appointment right now, I would actually have to call your office to do that. This isn’t a bad thing; it’s just the world that we live in.
Technology makes your life easier, your patient’s life easier, and your business life easier.
I could go on and on about this, but let me give you three easy things you could start implementing today.
Automate Appointment Booking with Online Scheduler:
There are hundreds of these online, but the one I’ve found best was Calendly.com.
I’m not an affiliate of theirs, I just really like their product.
You can custom create your appointment reminders through text and email.
You can even create a health questionnaire to be sent to your office, so you know exactly what your patient’s troubles are before they even come in.
Having this up on your website, Facebook page, or any other platforms makes it easy for people to get in touch with you and your business.
Online Marketing:
80% of Americans use Social Media daily.
On average, people spend around 3 hours scrolling through their FB, IG, or Twitter feed.
If you’re not putting your face and business in front of these people, you are missing out on a HUGE opportunity. It’s never been cheaper to advertise your business to so many people than it is today.
Marketing isn’t exactly a hot topic when it comes to health practitioners and doctors, so they usually stick to the older way of doing things.
Sure, referrals are great, but they’re incredibly inconsistent. You can have 15 new patients coming in one week, but none coming in for the next month. Plus, it only works when you have new patients coming in already.
It’s like depending on the rain for drinking water. You can have periods of lots of rain, but there’s also periods of drought.
The internet and social media are always there, and people are always on it.
If your mission as a doctor or practitioner is to change lives and help more people, you need to be open about how you’re going to do that.
Education and Patient Nurturing:
For the patients that you already have, there are multiple ways for you to stay engaged with them.
One way is to have a weekly or monthly newsletter that provides value in the form of an email, blog post, or article.
This not only serves to educate your current patient base about new topics and research but keeps them always engaged and with you in the back of their minds.
Email marketing sequences, LinkedIn articles, Website Blog Posts, etc. etc. can all work perfectly well as platforms for you to start gathering a collection of articles to build your reputation online.
3. Inviting Chaos
Order and efficiency are good, but creativity and new ideas come from randomness and distraction.
This applies to anything in life.
Sometimes the best way to grow is to break away from the current paradigm and think of a new and better way.
It can be tough for some people, especially if you’ve had the same routine and been doing the same thing for 10, 15, 20 years.
The approach behind this is that once you’ve found that new idea, shift back into order and extract as much as you can from it before going back into chaotic mode.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that closed systems tend to maximize entropy (the measure of disorder).
To push the boundaries in your business and reach that next level, you need to be open to seeking new ideas.
Hope I could provide some value to you all. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or message us.
Let’s crush 2020!
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