Clinic burnout is a VERY common occurrence, whether you have a  busy clinic or a struggling clinic.

If you have a busy successful clinic, burnout can come from constantly having to go out to promote your office or almost being like a robot and repeating the same chiropractic message/script to your consults, ROFs and existing patients or from having to quickly bounce from room to room adjusting patients.

If you're just opening up a new clinic or you have a struggling clinic and you're burning the candle at both ends trying to make a go of your clinic and just trying to pay the bills.

Regardless of how you get to clinic burnout, the experience is the same...

• Dread knowing that Monday is tomorrow and you have to go to the clinic.
• Just don't want to get out of bed to face another day at the office.
• Don't want to spend another weekend doing another promotion.
• Don't have the energy and the focus to give what your patients need.
• Always tired during the work week, but have lots of energy on your days off.

We've all been there!

The great thing is... there are easy ways to re-energize and get back that excitement about practicing like you had on the last day of classes at your chiro college. And I'm going to tell you about it right now!

Here at the TOP 6 ways to get out of a slump...

1. The Pareto Principle: A.K.A. the 80-20 Rule - roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  That is to say,  get rid of the patients that just whine and complain and bring down the energy in your office.  Do the promotions that bring in the best patients.  Don't waste your time on all those other promotions that only bring in a few, but  you have to spend HOURS getting those few. Of all the task that you have to do, only 20% of them matter.  So ONLY work on that 20% as those are the ones that will drive 80% of your business/clinic.
   
   
2. Write It Out: Often people become overwhelmed because they feel that they have so much to do and they just don't know where to start.  So they start tasks haphazardly and just spin their wheels and get no where because they are jumping back and forth from task to task trying to get everything done.   AND at the same time, busying themselves doing less important tasks and NOT the important ones that will truly benefit them and their clinic. But, if you write out your task in a list format, you will realize that you actually have less to do to achieve your goals and you'll know which tasks are the important ones.
   
   Here's what I do... on my wall (in my home office), using cue card, I have 3 columns.  The first column is the "To Do" column.  2nd column it's the "Doing" column.  3rd column - "Done" column. So I then write down each task on 1 card and put them in the "To Do" column and as I start a task, I move the card into the "Doing" column.  When I finish that task... I move the card into the "Done" column.
   
   You will be AMAZED how it removes your stress levels!  Because now you see what you actually have to do (and as  you move the cards to the "DONE" column you get a lot of satisfaction as you see your tasks getting completed) AND you realize that it's a lot less than you think you actually had to do.
   
   
3. Go On A Spontaneous Vacation: Right now, think of a place you want to go to (the Caribbean is really cheap this time of year), book it for 3-7 days from now (so that you give your patients the heads up), and then just take off!  Ya, you heard me... just jet!  I did this.  During a super stressful time in my life (and I had an insanely busy office), I took off for 3 weeks.  You might be thinking, "What are my patients going to think?!"  Well, when I got back after 3 weeks, NONE of my patients said anything and the clinic started back up as if I never left!  My advice... JUST DO IT!
   
   While I was on vacation, I not only came back super charged and ready to go back, but I also came back with amazing marketing and promotional ideas that built up my clinic that much more! And more importantly, my patients were feeling much better from my adjustments because I was able to focus more!
   
4. Change Up Your Clinic:  Paint the wall, get new chiropractic posters, new flowers, new furniture etc.  Don't have the money for that? That's fine.. then just rearrange your furniture, change the patient flow patterns in your office, change the music in your office to more pop or energetic music.  If you are already playing pop music, switch it up to jazz or ambient music.
   
   Instead of wearing jeans and a T-shirt or golf shirt in the office, wear dress pants and a dress shirt or vice versa.
   
   Or have some fun contest in your office.  Do some Give-Away to the patient that brings in the most referrals within the month, organize a food drive. do a Chiro Quiz Contest (i.e. make up a sheet of 10 questions about chiropractic that your patients have to answer and hand in on their next visit.  Then at the end of the month have a draw - person who's name is drawn must have answered the Qs correctly.  Winner get a gift certificate to a nice restaurant).
5. Go to a Chiropractic Seminar:  Although you may think that you're the only one suffering, believe me, YOU'RE NOT ALONE!  A great place to get motivated, learn new ideas, get the moral support you need, is from Chiro Seminars.  Not only is it a great escape from your office, but it sets your mind straight so that you can get back into the game.
   
   
   And My ALL Time FAVORITE... with LASTING Results...
   

   
   
6. Network With Other Chiros (WITH A TWIST!):  First of all get a Magic Jack (i.e. internet phone where you can call anywhere in North America (and some other countries) for free.
   
   Second: Find successful chiropractors in different states or provinces.  I did this by Googling different chiropractic websites. I had 2 main criteria that I used to gauged a successful practice...
1. Quality of their website - Was the site just slapped together with no thought just so that they had a website, or did they have a high quality site because they took pride in their clinic.
2. How did the office look - Did the office look professional, clean and modern or did it look like just a plain office with typical M.D. office chairs, plain walls, and just really no thought involved.

If the office met my criteria, I would call them up to talk to the doctor and tell him/her that I was forming a private group of just a few select docs where we can share marketing and promotional ideas, how to make our practice more fun, etc.

At first, I was met with hesitation because the chiros didn't know if I was their competition down the road.  So I told them that I am calling docs from completely different states so that there is no conflict of interest and we can openly share our insider secrets without having the office down the road using them. 

Over the last few days, I have seen a Facebook post going around of a clinic's ad that says, something to the effect of, "Unlimited Chiropractic Care for ONLY $49.00!" (similar to the ad above).

And a ton of chiropractors jumped on the thread... some bashing the marketing campaign and some supporting it.

Those that were knocking it stated that it was devaluing chiropractic, that it was an insult to the chiropractic profession and that it was sending out the wrong message about chiropractic.   Whereas those that were in support of these clinics/ads were saying that by providing such an offer, it makes chiropractic more affordable and therefore assessable to more people.

Now, I should state that I have never used this type of marketing and I don't think that I would have ever used it if I still practiced.

Promodocs is very excited to announce that they are presently developing groundbreaking chiropractic website designs that are truly revolutionary!