If you’re ready to go from being a small group practice to a mega group practice this is exactly what you have to do.
Know your candidate’s strongest areas when hiring
You need to identify their superpowers. That means that you have to know which person is good with couples, with divorces, with little kids or good with women in transition. You want to be able to have each person be the specialist in their identified area. It doesn’t mean they can’t have other areas but it’s easier to grow a group practice when you know each person’s superpowers before you start hiring.
Look at phone calls and lifetime value of clients
Where are these phone calls coming from? Who are the referrals that love you and where are there opportunities? If you spoke to a naturopath a year ago and haven’t got a single referral from her, follow up find out why. Find out if they went in a different direction. There might be things that you could hire for that would specifically meet their need as to why they haven’t been referring to you. Follow up with attorneys, find out what it’s been like in regards to their clinical work, in referring people for custody evaluations or for after a divorce. And then focus on hiring people based on those referrals.
If you understand the lifetime value of your clients, it’s helpful too. If you know the average person comes to a session that costs $100 X 10, and they do that over the period of the first year. Maybe they have a lifetime value of $1000, but if 2 out of 3 people refer someone to your practice, that means that each of them is worth an additional $500 in referrals. Understanding that helps you with your marketing, your SEO and getting the best return on investment for your time and your money.
Do you have the proper systems in place?
If you had ten people that came on and they each had 20 clients right away, do you have the electronic health records set up? Do you have insurance and NPI-2? Are you keeping track of your money coming in? Or do you have a solid QuickBooks system? Are you working with a bookkeeper and an accountant? You’ve got to have all those things set up so that when the new clinicians join you, you can just run full tilt.
Hire from a variety of sources
Look for personal referrals, talk to your local graduate college, post it on LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook has a job section that’s great and it keeps it all organized. Go on Indeed and realize that the first person isn’t necessarily the best person. Take your time when you interview these people. There’s a saying that says ‘hire slow and fire fast’. Especially when you’re looking at building an amazing team, you want to try your best to get those A-list people and then create a culture so it’s easier to attract more of them.
Don’t waste time in the hiring process
Even though I said hire slow, we do want to hire fast. Don’t dilly-dally, don’t be paralyzed by perfection and if someone’s not making the cut then let them go. This is an area where you want to try to move faster than you probably expect even though I just said should hire slow. Maybe hire in-depth is a better way of thinking about. To save yourself time, hire 3 people at a time, bring them all on and let them all sign their paperwork, get them all set up at the same time and then do that again so you can hire more people and not waste your time.
We have tons of resources over at practice of here. If you’re looking for some extra help around selling a practice, scaling it or going after big ideas like podcasting or a course, I’d love for you to apply for some consulting here, we’ll jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit with me or with my team.
Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC
Joe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant. Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years, he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI. To link to Joe’s Google+
