Could Your Lack of Contingency Planning Stunt Your Group Practice Growth? With Mary Beth Simon | GP 175

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Could Your Lack of Contingency Planning Stunt Your Group Practice Growth? With Mary Beth Simon | GP 175

Do you have a contingency plan for your practice? How far into the future have you prepared your private practice to function with you? How can you prep a second-in-command for taking over the reins in case you need them to?

In this podcast episode, LaToya Smith speaks about how your lack of contingency planning can stunt your group practice growth with Mary Beth Simon.

Podcast Sponsor: Pillars of Practice

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Ready to take your practice to the next level? In our Pillars of Practice E-Courses, you will find FREE resources designed to help you take your private practice to the next level:

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Meet Mary Beth Simon

A photo of Mary Beth is captured. She is a business coach and speaker. Mary Beth is featured on Grow A Group Practice, a therapist podcast.

Mary Beth guides business owners to create contingency plans
that prepare them and their teams for extended vacations or
the unexpected, so the business can continue to run
successfully in their absence. She founded Niche Partnership
Consulting after seeing the turmoil that a lack of contingency
planning caused when a dear friend developed terminal
cancer.
Mary Beth is a national conference speaker, and a continuous
learner, and loves helping business owners find peace of mind
since retiring from a 30+ year career at Vanguard.

Visit Niche Partnership Consulting and connect on LinkedIn.

FREEBIE: Check out the Owner’s Freedom Framework

In This Podcast

  • What is a contingency plan?
  • Be proactive in getting your affairs in order
  • Ensure your practice’s longevity

What is a contingency plan?

A contingency plan is putting together a process of how you run your [professional] life, [for example] financially, where all your documents are stored, and then reviewing that information with someone whom I term as your second-in-command.

Mary Beth Simon

There are three types of contingency plans that Mary Beth encourages people to consider and create:

  • Personal contingency plan
  • A business contingency plan
  • A business continuance playbook that includes the standard operating procedures for business owners.

You don’t necessarily have to have the business contingency plan ready before the doors open, because you mostly gather data from what works, how it works, and what needs to be changed as the business runs from day to day.

This is a document that is built from day one into the future that you tweak and edit as you learn about what makes your business run smoothly and successfully.

Be proactive in getting your affairs in order

Planning includes planning for tough situations as well.

It’s necessary for you, as the business owner and perhaps the owner of the household finances and admin as well, to put a document together with all of the important information, passwords, and documents ready in case something happens to you.

When it comes to group practice owners and therapists, there’s another element that is an important part of your estate plan and that’s a professional will.

Mary Beth Simon

A professional will authorizes another therapist to be able to access your client’s information to relocate them if you were no longer able to see them.

Ensure your practice’s longevity

This type of planning will allow your practice to continue serving the community if anything happens to you and you are no longer able to be at the helm.

Steps for this process:

  • Identify someone in your practice that you trust to make and train into your second-in-command
  • Have these conversations with them before an emergency may come up
  • Let the team know or have access to a guidelines document that would explain the transition, if something were to happen

The key in any scenario is really having these conversations when they’re not needed, [and] putting the plan in place so that everybody knows what the projected options are if something happens.

Mary Beth Simon

Of course, there are ways to keep your security and privacy of the practice intact until you need someone to step in. Security measures like LastPass offer services that can be accessed only at a specific time by a specific person, for example.

Useful links mentioned in this episode:

Check out these additional resources:

Meet LaToya Smith

An image of LaToya Smith is captured. She is a consultant with Practice of the Practice and the owner of LCS Counseling. LaToya is featured on the Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.

LaToya is a consultant with Practice of the Practice and the owner of LCS Counseling and Consulting Agency in Fortworth Texas. She firmly believes that people don’t have to remain stuck in their pain or the place they became wounded. In addition to this, LaToya encourages her clients to be active in their treatment and work towards their desired

outcomes.

She has also launched Strong Witness which is a platform designed to connect, transform, and heal communities through the power of storytelling.

Visit LaToya’s website. Connect with her on FacebookInstagramStrong Witness Instagram, and Twitter.

Apply to work with LaToya.

Email her at [email protected]