Top 5 Things To Learn Before Starting A Private Practice

You're listening to Podiatry Marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing. With me today is the one and only, the world famous, I must say, because people are talking about him all the time. It is Big Jim Mac from Canada. How are doing, Jim?

I'm doing fantastic, Tyson. How about yourself?

I'm good. People people do ask me, how do you know Big Jim? They just refer to you as Big Jim now. And I said, we've never actually met, but we will be meeting in

This October.

This October, we're doing a podiatry marketing live one day workshop, marketing workshop, which will be fun. Details are on podiatrygrowth.com/pml.

That's correct. That's where they can find all the details about what's gonna go on there in Chicago.

So it should be fun. Limited seats, I wouldn't sit on the fence too long, or you will get a splinter in your butt, and you will regret it. So, Jim, what are we talking about today?

So, Dave, we're gonna be talking about top five things to learn before starting a private practice. So whether you're kinda just, you know, finishing up residency, maybe you're in residency, maybe you're a associate in somebody's practice, and you're just trying to figure out, you know, you're kind of thinking about maybe this is an opportunity for you to kind of hang your own shingle and kind of kind of build your own ideal practice. You know, what are five areas that could be really helpful to kind of get going to make sure you, you know, have some experience and do some learning before you just kind of you you can't jump in the, you know, the deep end right away, but these are definitely five areas that people should have some proficiency at. And, you you're always kinda learning these different things.

And I'm glad there's only five things you need to know to have you in practice.

Well, these are more topics than than very specific things. So, yeah, it's a a quick little top five list.

Okay. So what's number one?

So number one is business and financial planning. So, you know, understanding kind of the financial aspects of running a private practice is is really crucial. And I think it's something that, you know, we talk a little bit about in podiatry school. Maybe you have a practice management course. And I I know there's some people that go through residency and spend time in private practices, but you're kind of, like, you know, writing Copilot or you're maybe there for a month or two and you're kind of learning a little bit, but you're not kind of having to deal with the responsibility of the budgeting, you know, things like the startup costs, you know, getting a maybe a loan or something to kinda get your practice started to buy equipment and have a location.

You know, how do you project, you know, income and understand expenses? So really, it's a it's a really important kinda section to kinda just dive into and, know, consult with, you know, financial advisers, you know, kinda getting accountants. And just really ensuring that your financial plan is both realistic and feasible is really, really an important component before you just start your own practice. So so, Tyson, when when you started practice, I'm curious to hear, like, did you just dive in right away, or how did you kinda learn some of these business and financial aspects off the bat?

No. It's wing I just winged it. I'm only joking. I didn't. When I had my first clinic on the Gold Coast, I had to go to a bank and ask for a loan.

So this is back in the eighties when they would just they just give you money. Just turn turn it with a piece of paper and a plan, they give you money. It's not that day not that way anymore, but I still had to put a plan together. What was lucky with me is when I was in my final year of at uni, we actually had one business subject, and we had to put together a business plan. So I sat down for six months to put this business plan together.

And I was the first person at the university, including the business students, that put a business plan together that got a % for the exam. The guy actually said to me, I think you're going down the wrong path. Sure you wanna be a podiatrist? You want to get involved in business? I went, no.

Not really. I said, I enjoy business, but I wanna be a podiatrist. So I I had put together a very extensive business plan on everything I was gonna do, the financials, marketing. But what was really funny, I got a % for this thing. I look back, and I still have the project.

I still have a copy of it. I look back on it, and I go, god, it's rubbish. But looking at it from someone who's actually owned a business, looking back on the plane, I'm going, it was okay, but just wasn't really good. But but I was being marked by people at the university who I don't think had ever had a business. So in theory, it looked fantastic.

And there's a big difference between theory and practically putting something together. But it all starts with the plan. If I hadn't had the plan to start with, I wouldn't have had something at least to just kick start what it was I was doing.

Yeah. I think it's important. We know like you said, like, was the Mike Tyson quote is, you know, everybody feels like they're the champ. They get punched. You know, that would

Everyone has a plan until they get punched to get face.

Punched in the face. Yeah. That's it. But at least you have that plan to kinda like have a general idea what you're getting into. Right?

I think sometimes, whether it be, you know, in podiatry school or in residency and you're not really having to be responsible for, you know, that side of the the business of of medicine. But by kind of going through the exercise of making a plan and understanding the different components of what's what's involved, you'll at least have a general idea and you can kind of adapt and adjust to kind of like that that punch in the face once reality hits you. But I think that's a it's a really important thing that just kind of go through that exercise at some point to really feel like you know what you're getting yourself into in a way.

Well, I think it's a it's a starting point. I think the banks gave me the money or loaned me the money in the first place to open up my business. They wouldn't have given that to me if I hadn't put the plan together. Now, I put the plan together when was at uni, had no idea what I was doing, but I put the plan together, but the bank could see that if you're prepared to put that much time and effort into that, then you're probably prepared to do the do the bloody work to actually make your business a success. So I think that's that's one aspect of having a business and financial plan is that, you know, if you put that much time into that, then you're probably prepared to put the time to actually have a successful business.

You know, that's that's that's really that's really key there. I think also it's important to realize that, you know, I think sometimes you're starting practice too. You wanna kinda, like, save as much money as possible. Oh, yeah. I think there's and there's there's ways to well, I think that is important.

I think, you know, surrounding yourselves with, like, intelligent and kind of experienced accountants and other people that can help shepherd you through this process, making sure you know who those experts in your local area are and that they work with other health care providers. They're gonna be people that are, you know, maybe gonna give you a little bit of an upfront break sometimes because they know that you're just getting into practice, but this could be a long term, you know, like, you wanna build positive long term relationship with your patients. You also can build long term positive relationships with accountants to make sure you're doing your taxes properly and accounting's all in order. Maybe it's, you know, lawyer for incorporation. You know, surrounding yourself with other professionals that know these areas better than you do, I think is a really important component too to getting started.

And like I said, you don't have to go after the most expensive person in town, but, you know, maybe it's someone that is kind of in that medical niche that knows kind of that is kind of gone through with other people in the past can be a really helpful way to get, you know, maybe just information in the beginning, but also services to make sure that you're you're focused on kind of your your core area of strengths.

Well, a good way that you can also use this in your marketing is you have a look at, you know, the one or two most successful, say, dietitians in your town, the one or two most successful physiotherapists, the two, say, biggest medical centers or doctor's clinics, the two biggest chiropractors. Go and have a meeting with them. And when you have the meeting with them, just say, look, it's fun to meet with you. I just wanna find out if you could have any advice on who's your accountant, who's your financial planner, because I noticed that your business is going really well, so you must have a good accountant. I'd really love your advice on what I should do.

Anyone that's done well in business loves helping other people in business who are just starting out, especially if they're not a competitor in any way. The amount of podiatrists I used to have here just rock up to my clinic, who'd ring and say, oh, I'm in town. Can I come and visit your clinic? Go, yeah. I don't have a problem.

And I'd openly share everything with them.

No. That that's a great it's great point. It's a great way to kind of open up a conversation with people. You know, like, some people say, oh, I don't like networking. Oh, I don't like marketing.

Suck it up.

You say it like but, like, this is a great this is the great, like, opener. This is a great line. If you're feeling uncomfortable about it, just say, hey. Like, you're gonna learn some good information for yourself and you're I'm sure like you said, they're gonna love telling you about who they use, you know, what you know, you know, who they use for their accounting or some of their legal stuff. It can be a great way to network with other people in your local area.

So so that that that's a great way to kinda wrap up that kinda financial aspects of things.

I know, right, like my account is also my brother in law's account. It's also my brother's account. And it's just through word-of-mouth because they'd say to me, they've asked me, they knew that I was doing well in business, who's your accountant, Tyson? And I'd tell them. And then once they started using it, they went and had a meeting with them, and now they use them.

It will work exactly the same way with other health professionals you know. Talk to them about who they use because they must be getting some good advice somewhere. And feed feed off of that same advice, and if you've already got some experience in health care, then they're gonna be able to help you with your taxes as well.

For

sure. Okay. What is number two?

Yes. So number two is I talked about it a little bit already, but legal and regulatory requirements for where you wanna practice. And I think, you know, as you're as you're kinda getting into private practice, maybe you're gonna wanna stay in the area where we were an associate or maybe wanna move back to your hometown. It's really important that you kinda familiar yourself with the laws and regulations governing your podiatry practice in that region. For example, in The US, there's gonna be different scopes of practice depending on what state you're in.

So maybe you went to some fancy residency where you did big boy or big girl, you know, ankle reconstructive stuff, you're throwing frames on people or, you know, and you wanna do that in in your professional life, you gotta look and see to make sure that's legal and whatever, you know, wherever you're gonna practice out of it. If wanna practice in Idaho, you have to know what the scope of practice is in Idaho. Or if you're gonna practice in Arizona, you need to know that. So it's really important to kind of obtain the necessary licenses, permits, and certifications as well. Because if you don't know the kind of rules regarding that or you don't know how medical billing, coding, HIPAA compliance, and malpractice insurance work, you're gonna kinda run into issues.

And so it's really important to as much as it's not exciting and it's probably gonna be kinda tedious to work through some of these different things, there can be really bad ramifications for, like I said, setting a practice in the wrong state or not understanding what what kind of information you can share and not share, you know, waiver HIPAA compliance waivers in The US, and making sure you're adequately, you know, covered with malpractice insurance. So, you know, those kind of boxes to check are super important when starting a private practice.

Jeez. I'm glad we don't have to worry about that over here. In Australia, it's all the same rules. We're all covered by the same rules. Move from state to state doesn't really make too much difference.

There's probably a few rules that might be just state rules. We got nothing to do with podiatry in general. They're just rules in general.

But Right.

As far as working as a podiatrist goes from one state to another state, I'd say it's not much really changes, which is good.

Yeah. I think things are starting to kind of get more more unified as far as what the scope of practice is in different US states.

But can you go from like, in The States, if you were qualified in New York, can you just go to Arizona and just start working, or do you have to register in each state?

You would probably have to pass up a, like, a board licensing exam. So you like, there'd probably be an exam you have to take or, you know, you're there like I said, there's also, like, the scope of practice. Right? Like, maybe they vary on what you can and can't do. So there's different types of, yeah, definitely loopholes.

You know? And and sometimes different states would have maybe, like, joint similar states might have a similar licensing procedure, but, yeah, usually, you have to get a license in each of the different states you wanna practice in.

Yeah. Well, we don't have to worry about that But but you get you registered in Australia, you move it from from one state to another. Yep. Don't have to sneak over the border or do anything.

The joys of living in The United States, I guess.

It wasn't always that way. When I first graduated, I worked on the Gold Coast, which where I was south put, it's like an hour away from the border. And so I used to do some work for a friend just over the border. So I had to be registered in both states to be able to work in the other state. But then it just became a national registration, so you didn't have to worry about it, which just makes life so much easier.

I can imagine.

Okay. So what's what's number three?

So number three is practice management. Obviously, being a student or resident, you're kind of the you're the one taking the orders. You're the one taking the call. You're the ones doing what people tell you to do. But when you're running your own practice, you know, you're gonna have you have to manage staff.

You're gonna have to hire staff. You're gonna have kinda deal with, like, you know, initially help getting set up your patient scheduling. You know, how to how does billing work? Just knowing these things and then obviously hiring people to do some of these things is really, really important. So you wanna consider investing in, you know, obviously, management software, learning about different types of practice management software so you can improve kind of your efficiency and how you're seeing people.

And you also need to really like I said, you're gonna have to hire folks. So, like, you know, that's not that's a skills get you know, maybe you have a mentor that you can kind of lean on or someone maybe one of your attendings from your residency days can kinda help you give you some advice or, you know, you can talk to someone like a podiatry business coach like, I don't know, Tyson Franklin, for example, to give you some ideas about how to go along hiring an, know, associate or some staff, which stuff to outsource, you know, whether it be billing or your marketing to other professionals. So there's a lot to kinda decide when taking all the practice management aspects of your clinic.

Yeah. And this simple thing is that someone sent me an email not too long ago. It was just asking, how do you know when it's time to employ another podiatrist? And I said, it's a really good question. I said and he and I explained to him, this is the formula I would use if I was looking at employing another podiatrist.

And these are all things I'd take into account leading up to that before I sort of worked through that formula. So that's the whole thing about managing your practice the right way is if you don't know what to do is you need to get help. Because if you just if you just try and work through it yourself, it just takes longer, and it ends up costing you more money to make mistakes and then have to fix them up.

Yeah. For sure. You just have to that's well put because, yeah, if you're not doing that, you're gonna run into to big time issues.

So and number four. Oh, anything else on practice management that you wanted to touch on? No. It's a big area. Practice management's a huge a huge, huge area.

Yeah. I'm sure we're gonna have multiple podcasts about that in the future. So, no, we'll skip over to number four, and that's networking and referral relationships.

So Oh, I love networking.

Yeah. And then I love it

as well.

Never used to, though. So it's yeah. But you really need to, like, develop these relationships with both, you know, health care professionals and non health care professionals in your local community. You know, whether this be local running shoe store, the primary care physician, other specialists, hospital administrators, someone at your local, you know, YMCA or your community center, your your gym. Building these relationships over time is gonna lead to kind of a valuable you know, these are gonna be valuable referral sources.

Maybe it's not directly sending patients. Maybe it's, you know, doing collaborations where you're helping educate the local community, but it's gonna really kind of become a support, you know, as you're building up your private practice. And you wanna have this network of folks you can kinda rely on and kind of grow with. And and, you know, obviously, it's it's a you know, kinda create win win situations with people. And having these, you know, these networking opportunities and these relationships you're building, both, like I said, in the health care and non health care sector in your local community, really, really can benefit your practice long term.

And it's also creating an amazing referral network within the profession itself. I've often spoken about telling people, don't dig the well when you're thirsty. Dig the well before you need the water. And a lot of times, podiatrists may get themselves in trouble or they desperately need a podiatrist or they need someone to help them out, yet they've they have no networking they have no network of other podiatrists that are friends. They've just been 100% solo, had blinkers on, done their own thing, and all of sudden, they get themselves in trouble, and then they're reaching out to people saying, oh, can somebody please help me?

You're like, well, no. We don't even know you. Whereas if you dig the wall, create these relationships, you get yourself in strife. There'll be a lot of people to put their hand up and just say, do you need a hand? Yeah.

I'll help you. Especially if you're in a bigger town where there's a lot of podiatrists around you, if you get in strife, they if they'll pitch in and help you as as best they can.

I think that's a great point. I think there there is this kind of, you of a healthy competition between podiatrists and community, but also a real community mindedness of those podiatrists as far as finding each other and kind of helping each other out. I think there was an example of this in, I think it in New Jersey, New York, a guy by the name of Doctor. Rob Condanello. Like he developed cancer and a lot of other podiatrists in the local area pitched in to help him maintain his practice, see his patients while he was undergoing chemo and treatment for his cancer.

And it's one of those things where like, yeah, it's business, and sometimes it can feel a little competitive at times. But we're all kind of trying to help people live their best lives. And by having kind of we talked about this in the past, but maybe you like to do sports medicine. And, like, I like to do diabetic foot wounds. Right?

So there's ways of finding kind of common ground and helping each other out even within the same profession, even the local same local area.

But it's even if you know people that yeah. I I know if you're in a smaller town, it's really hard if you've only got, say, three or four podiatrists in that town, and you're not overly friendly with each other for whatever reason, then it's hard to draw draw upon that. But still, you need to go to events. You need to be at different things create networks with people outside your local area. Because I know right now, there's a lot of podiatrists that own some really good businesses, say, within Queensland.

I know a lot of the people that are the business owners don't really work that much as a podiatrist anymore themselves. So there's a lot of podiatrists that are sitting there with idle hours who could quite easily if you were desperate for three days a week, say, two or three weeks, then you could probably phone them up and say, is there any chance I could fly you to my area for two or three days a week for three weeks to help me out? And I'm sure if you were really friendly with them, they would put their hand up and say yes. So that's that's the that's digging the well before you need the water. Don't wait until you're desperate and say, hey, Tyson, can you come and work in my clinic for three days?

I don't even know who you are.

Yeah.

So there you go. All the people who know who I am now, who I'm friends with, they go, well, actually, we're thinking of going to Bali for a week. Okay. So what is the fifth and final of your top five things to learn before starting a private practice?

Well, number five is marketing and patient acquisition. So, you know, we talk a lot about this on the podcast probably, you know, every single week we're talking about some form of this. But, you know, attracting and retaining patients, you know, is essential for success of a private practice. There's no kidding around that. I think especially as, you know, evergreen marketing tactics and also the different strategies and online marketing gets bigger and bigger, trying to, you know, create visibility for who you are and the care you wanna provide is is immensely important to make sure that you're building the type of practice that you wanna have.

So developing a marketing plan that targets your ideal patient population and emphasizes the unique benefits of your practice, you know, that's huge. And, you know, this can include, like I said, kind of evergreen marketing strategies, online advertising, social media, community outreach, you know, kind of hitting the pavement, you know, talking to other practices. You know, creating a strong online presence, you know, obviously, is kind of in vogue, and that's what I do, you know, with with my work. But, you know, it's through that website and and through patient reviews and through, you know, marketing your practices, how you're gonna, you know, gain and retain those patients. So just when you're a private practice, you need to kind of be different than somebody else.

And marketing and and being visible for that expertise or the differentiation is hugely important. So I think that's you know, we talk about this all the time, but, you know, obviously, you wanna kinda be a marketing leader in your local area.

Well, I think if everyone's got up to this particular episode, episode 83, I would assume they're already doing some marketing already. They wouldn't have got this far in the podcast if if they weren't. So I think if they went back and took one idea away from every single episode leading up to this one, then their marketing and patient acquisition should be going along pretty well. But there would be people who are listening to this who don't have a practice yet, who are thinking about it, which is why this particular topic is important.

Yeah. Everyone's gonna start somewhere. And I think even people that have their own private practice, right, I think these five topics are things to kind of revisit every every so often. Right? Because they're they're not static things.

Like you talked about with your experience kind of jumping from state to state in Australia, and then all of a sudden, you know, if you're out of the loop, like, or you're you know, you're not kind of keeping up to date with what's going on in different aspects of your practice, you're gonna fall behind. So I think it is really important that, yes, this is kind of for those people just getting started or thinking about it or an associate somewhere, but, you know, these five topics and these five areas are hugely important for people in practice to keep refining and improving on as well.

So what because what you're saying is, okay, there's gonna be people who already in practice now. And if they haven't sat down and really like, even their business, done a business plan. If they've just been going month by month and they're thinking, well, I haven't really sat down and planned out where I wanna see the business in twelve months, two years, three years, yeah, five years. And I must admit, I find it difficult to see five years ahead. I was always just a twelve month planner.

I can see twelve months. See beyond twelve months, I don't know. The world is just too crazy. Not not crazy in a bad way, but the the world just moves so fast that I think you you can have a vision for three to five years. But when it comes to planning, I used to always like twelve months.

Yeah. I think it's different for everybody. I think as long as you're that twelve months and you have a general kinda, like, you know, what what's the path towards your ideal practice. Right? Are you walking down that path and that you're if you have a twelve month plan to kind of continue to improve and do more of the work that you love, fantastic.

But I think it is it is some self reflection, and this is kind of improving these diff these five different areas that will help people kind of move down that that path.

Yeah. When I had my podiatry business, I would have a I had a five year sort of plan, but I used more of a timeline because I knew if I just when I was renting somewhere, if I just signed a lease, that it was a five year lease. So if it was 2023 now, could write 2023 here, and then I would write 2028. So I knew that's when the lease ended. And then I would break it into five sections, and then those five sections, I I would put other milestones in there that I knew were going to be happening in anniversaries of businesses.

But then I would focus on my each twelve months as I went along that actual timeline. It's surprising how fast five years goes to.

Yeah. Time flies, doesn't it?

Yeah. Don't ever tell you a story. I know I'm about to wrap up. I've always got heaps of stories. Had a story where I had a lease, and we we had a five year lease on this building, and then we signed up for another five years.

And I went, yeah. We need to buy our own building. I said, that's it. Yeah. With what we're paying in rent, I'm sure we could we could buy somewhere and the repayments would be cheaper, which it was.

Anyway, so I said to the landlord because we didn't get over the landlord very well at the time. We're leaving. And I told him why, and we said, yep. Not a problem. He said, okay.

Fine. You're out of here. Yeah. We're leaving. I couldn't find anywhere.

Could not no matter where we looked, I couldn't find anywhere. So I had to go back and go, yeah. You didn't really take that. You didn't take this seriously, do you? Some of those things I said.

You know, was just kidding. I need an extra twelve months. So he gave us his twelve months, but he said, if you do not sign another lease of five years before this twelve months finishes, that's it. You're not coming back. So luckily, we found somewhere, and I and I get on with him now too, so which is fine.

But that was that was the whole thing about what I was doing. I was doing that whole Viking thing where, you know, with the Vikings, when they went to battle, they go

and burn the bridges,

burn the bridge, so there was no turning back.

Well, that's

that's what I did. I burnt the bridge with my landlord, I thought that's it. Now I have to find somewhere. I couldn't find anywhere. So live and learn.

Mistakes we make. So anything else? You got any stories you wanna you wanna finish up on, Jim?

I've got no, like, fire burning bridges stories to share tonight, but no. No. I think that's that's a good kind of recap of what what we talked about. But no. I think just looking forward to October when you and I get together.

You know, everyone's everyone listen to podcast. Definitely, it's not something you wanna miss out on. We're how we're kind of hoping for around 30 people or so, thirty thirty seats available. So, you know, we would be happy to have you in Chicago with us for this marketing workshop and really looking forward to it, Tyson.

Oh, and if anyone's not in America, but they're looking for an excuse to travel to America in October, then the here's your excuse. Here's your reason that you can fly all the way to America, go to Zeventa in October, and then go and have a holiday and do whatever you want, and then fly back again. And you can write off part of your airfares and part of your accommodation and everything. To me and October is a fantastic time to be in The States. I go every year.

Have been for well over a decade. I go the same time every year because in certain parts, it's cool but not freezing, and in other parts, it's still really nice. So, yeah, if you're thinking about traveling over to America, you're looking for an excuse, come and spend a day with Jim and I. And then we're actually gonna be doing something a little bit special on the Sunday for the people that actually do register, but we'll tell them once they register, then we'll tell them what's happened on Sunday.

That's a good plan, Tyson.

Oh, it's not a barbecue. Well, it might be a barbecue, but but no. Okay, Jim. I'll talk to you next week.

Alright. Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. Bye. Thanks

for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.