October 13, 2025 • 18 mins
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How do you know it’s time to hire another physician in your private practice?
This is a conversation I’ve had with so many physicians, and I decided to dedicate this episode to it because when this decision is delayed, it leads to burnout, lost revenue, missed opportunities, and practices that stall instead of scale.
If you’re consistently overbooked, working through lunch, skipping CEO time, or feeling like your exit is a million miles away, this one’s for you. I’m walking you through the five urgent signs that it’s time to bring in another physician now. Not six months from now, not next year, but NOW.
These are the signs I’ve seen over and over again in private practices that are stretched thin and stuck, and I’m here to help you get unstuck.
So tune in, take notes, and then get to work because the sooner you hire, the sooner your practice (and your life) can thrive.
—
Key Takeaways:Â
- 00:00 IntroÂ
- 02:15 Are you consistently overbooked?
- 04:52 Do you have a patient acquisition system?Â
- 06:22 Is your practice financially stable?
- 07:44 Do you have time for CEO activities?Â
- 10:06 Are you actively working on your exit?
- 17:28 It’s time to hire another doctor
- 18:10 OutroÂ
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about my 12-month program.
- Interested in 1-on-1 coaching? Apply here.
- Grab a copy of the "The EntreMD Method" book.
When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:
- EntreMD Business School Accelerator - If you are looking to make a 180 turnaround in your business in 90 days, this is the program for you.
- EntreMD Business School Grow - This is our year-long program with a track record of producing physician entrepreneurs who are building 6, 7 and 7+ figure businesses. They do this while building their dream lives!
- EntreMD Business School Scale - This is our high-level mastermind for physicians who have crossed the seven figure milestone and want to build their businesses to be well oiled machines that can run without them.
To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
When you're overextended, chances are you're
not doing that stuff.
You're no longer visioneering.
You're not setting goals.
You're just going day to day,like surviving the day.
You're no longer hiringstrategically.
And if you're not doing thatstuff, then your cash flow is
having an issue.
Hi dogs.
Welcome to the OnTraMD podcast,where it's all about helping
amazing physicians just like youembrace entrepreneurship so you
(00:22):
can have the freedom to livelife and practice medicine on
your terms.
I'm your host, Dr.
Umna.
I have consulted with doctorswhere it is obvious in their
private practices they need tohire a new physician, ASAP.
A SAP.
Okay?
(00:42):
All right.
And I decided to come on thisepisode to show you five signs
you need to hire another doc,like immediately.
Now, when I say immediately, ofcourse you're not just gonna go,
you know, pull somebody off thestreet and bring them into your
practice because that's not theway it works, but that means
you're working this process andyou're treating it as a matter
of urgency.
Question then becomes why?
(01:03):
I could hire whenever.
I mean, I've been managing goingthrough what I'm going through
and all of that.
This is especially important forthe physician who owns the
private practice.
Okay.
When you have a physician who isat a point where their practice
needs another doctor, like as amatter of urgency, chances are
(01:24):
that that physician isoverextended as a physician.
And if that physician isoverextended as a physician,
that means that they've given upa lot of their CEO roles.
Okay.
And when you have a doc who'sgiven off a lot of their CEO
roles, what that means is thebusiness is suffering.
I can almost guarantee that thecash flow may be good because
(01:48):
they're so busy, but it's notnearly as good as it could be
because now there's so muchwaste.
I can also guarantee that thereare probably growth
opportunities that are comingthat the doctor can't take
advantage of.
The doctor herself or himself isso burnt out that if they had a
way out of their practice, theywould run away.
Their personal life is probablysuffering.
And all of these things, like isjust, hmm.
(02:09):
Okay.
All right.
So let's talk about this so wecan go ahead, you know, get
these physicians.
Okay.
All right.
So the first sign that you needto hire another doctor as soon
as possible is that you'reconsistently overbooked.
You know, I'm gonna take sometime to explain what I mean
because a lot of times asphysicians, we love to help
people.
We don't tell people no,especially when it comes to
(02:29):
their health, because of coursewe're going to help them, right?
And we would do whatever ittakes, and we don't understand
the personal cost to us.
Now, am I saying don't take careof your patients?
Because the thing I'mdescribing, I've done it.
Well, what I'm saying is the wayyou say no to doing that is you
either shut it all down or youget somebody to take care of
(02:53):
this stuff, right?
Okay, so how do you know you'reoverbooked?
Well, let's say that the way youbuilt your schedule is that you
want to see 10 patients in themorning and 10 patients in the
afternoon.
Okay, that's the schedule thatyou've built to yourself.
I'm not recommending thisschedule, I'm just saying this
is schedule built because I knowpeople see at different extremes
and all that stuff.
That's the schedule that you'vehad and you've built it out that
(03:14):
way.
You know, like new patientvisits are an hour, this is
that, all those kind of things.
But then this is happeningmultiple times a week where
they're like, well, this personcalled, and you know you can
tell them come in a week.
Well, your schedule for a weekis booked.
You can tell them come in threedays, and your schedule for
three days is booked too.
So what do you tell them?
Oh, just put them in at 11o'clock, right?
Just put them in at 11 o'clock.
(03:35):
No, just put them in at threeo'clock, right?
Or you put them in such a waythat you know you work through
lunch, right?
Lunch is maybe 12 to 1.
And you're like, yeah, just putthem at 12.
And they call you for anotherperson.
Oh, just put them at 12:15.
You know, you're staying later,or sometimes you tell them to
put them earlier.
So you're coming into the officeearlier.
You're doing all kinds of stuff.
And these are not one-offs.
These are things you're doingevery week.
(03:56):
You're doing multiple times aweek for some of you, every day.
I mean, like, first of all, likeyou're overbooked, you're
overextended, you're probablyburnt out.
The familiar symptoms of burnoutare showing up again.
You're not able to spend timewith your family.
You have a lot of guilt ifyou're a parent that you're not
spending time with your kids.
And the people in your life arebeginning to resent a little bit
(04:19):
what you do, making decisionslike I'm not going to be an
entrepreneur, I'm not going tobe a doctor because this sucks.
So that's the first sign.
If that sign is there, I want toinvite you to decide to hire.
I want to invite you to decideto hire.
And you can be as creative asyou want to be.
You can bring on someonefull-time, you can bring someone
who works two days a week.
And we have never had the amountof flux we have in the physician
(04:41):
community as we have now.
Like you will find somebody towork for you two days a week,
right?
And take that pressure off whileyou do what is required to
systemically handle thepressure.
Okay.
Okay.
So that's number one.
Number two, sign that you'reready to hire as soon as
possible.
This goes with number one.
Okay.
So your patient acquisitionsystem results are consistent
(05:02):
and controllable.
So you have a system foracquiring new patients, right?
You're like, these are thereferral sources that we're
maintaining relationships withand all of those things.
This is what we do online.
This is what we do with ourGoogle reviews, our social
media, and all of these things.
This is what we do with therecaller.
Like you have a whole system.
So you can, you can, you cancrank it up as you need to to
(05:23):
get more people in.
Like you know what to do.
You have this wait list, youknow what to do with the wait
list when, and all of thosethings.
And so there's evidence that youcan fill another person up based
on what you have, maybe it's await list and stuff like that,
and what you can do because youbuilt this system and you know
how to crank it up, right?
And so when you're consistentlyoverbooked and you know how to
(05:45):
fill your schedule, you'reyou're probably telling, you
know, like reforal sources, likeyou're hoping they don't send
you more people in a way,because you're like, where are
we going to put them?
Right?
Where your system works thatwell.
So when you have that and youknow how to crank it up, wrave
it down, crank it up, write itdown, then oh my goodness,
you're ready.
You're ready because you can getanother person on and you can
(06:06):
get them busy.
Okay.
Number three, what is the thirdsign that you're ready to hire
another physician as soon aspossible?
Is in addition to number one andnumber two, because if number
three doesn't exist, you'restill not ready, right?
Number three is that yourpractice is financially stable
and your cash flow is strong.
(06:27):
Okay.
Which means, like in another wayof putting it, is you're getting
paid for the work you do.
The reason why this is soimportant is because I have met
people who have hired doctorsbecause they're overextended,
they're overbooked, and all ofthose things.
But their billing departmentsand their internal collections
in the office are like such amess that they're not getting
(06:48):
paid for the work they do.
Right?
Their AR is just like completelyout of control, right?
Okay.
So if that's the case, if youhave cash flow problems, you
still can't pay the new doc youbring in.
You can get them all thepatients in the world, but you
can't pay them.
So if you have your practicefinancially stable and your cash
(07:09):
flow is good and you're gettingpaid for the work you do, then
you're ready because you can paythem.
You can pay the person who comeson.
And the people they see, well,you get paid for them too.
Right?
If you have it where your cashflow is a mess, your billing
department is a mess.
Guess what's gonna happen?
When the new doc comes in, yourbilling department is still
(07:30):
gonna be a mess.
All right.
So now you're not getting paidfor the work you do, they're not
getting paid for the work theydo.
So that is more financialpressure.
Third sign, your practice isfinancially stable, your cash
flow is strong, you're gettingpaid for the work you do.
Number four, sign you need tohire another doctor.
And I think this is the mostexpensive sign.
Is the most expensive sign.
(07:51):
And that's this your CEOactivities are left undone.
You're not doing them.
No, no, hang on.
This is so important because asa clinician, you see patients.
You don't get paid because yousaw patients, you get paid
because you saw patients andthen you did the business stuff.
(08:12):
So the part of you who's gonnameet with the biller, hold them
accountable, make sure yournumbers are looking right,
review your profit and lossstatement, all of that stuff.
That's the CEO.
And while you're overextended,chances are you're not doing
that stuff.
And if you're not doing thatstuff, chances are they're not
performing the way they need toperform.
And they're not performing theway that you need to perform
they need to perform, then yourcash flow is having an issue.
Guess who was all about buildingthe brand?
(08:34):
The brand that is driving thepractice?
unknown (08:36):
You.
SPEAKER_00 (08:37):
And so now you're no longer paying attention that the
Google reviews are happening andthey're favorable.
You're no longer payingattention to the strength of
your Google business profile.
You're no longer payingattention to what is happening
on social media.
Maybe you used to show up and itwas part of your engine, right?
It's part of your engine.
(08:58):
And now you're not doing thatanymore.
You're no longer visioneering.
You don't even remember thevision of your practice, you're
not setting goals, you're justgoing day to day, like surviving
the day.
You're no longer hiringstrategically.
Maybe your office needs anoffice manager, needs another,
you know, the dot, you don'thave the bandwidth to do it
because you're overextended.
Maybe there are growthopportunities as a vertical you
(09:20):
can put in your practice thatwill totally knock things out of
the park.
You don't have the time to lookat it, you don't have the time
to lead the team to pull it off.
And so your current revenuebased on the work you're doing
is suffering.
The revenue you could begenerating if you took advantage
of these growth opportunities issuffering.
And so when you look at this,you need to hire another doctor.
So you can make out CEO timebecause you need time to think,
(09:45):
you need time to strategize, youneed time to do those activities
that will move your practiceforward.
Like one of the greatest giftsyou can give your practice is
your CEO time.
So it's so expensive not to havethis time.
And if bringing on another docis what it takes to do that,
then so be it.
Right.
Like it is such a game, it'll besuch a game changer for you.
(10:06):
Reason number five.
And reason number five issomething, you know, I wish
every doctor would take veryseriously.
And it is if you're activelyworking on your exit.
Now, when I say this, people arelike, I'm not exiting.
I just started my practice threeyears ago.
I started my practice 10 yearsago, I haven't done 10 years in
me, all of those kind of things.
Okay.
I'm not trying to say you shouldwalk away from your practice.
(10:28):
I'm not trying to say you shouldwalk away from medicine.
I'm not even trying to say youshould sell your practice.
But but the best way to build isto build with the end in mind,
right?
Because we're gonna get to theend.
Must have been Warren Buffett orsomeone was asking, like, what
is the thing that makes peoplemost likely to succeed, right?
And I don't remember the contextof it, right?
(10:50):
Because that would determine theanswer.
But he said long-termperspective.
It was either him or BrianTracy, long-term perspective.
The longer your perspective, youknow, where you're looking from,
the better decisions you maketoday.
I'll give you an example.
Like if I think about, you know,I'm going to a class reunion and
I want to look good for my classreunion, I'll kind of work out.
(11:14):
I may not work out.
I may just really work out andreally eat right, or maybe even
fast the month before thereunion and I'm done.
Okay.
And this is a reunion coming upin 90 days.
Do what I need to do and I'mgood.
I could also have a differentgoal.
Like when I'm 90, I want to beable to carry my
(11:36):
great-grandbabies.
I want to be able to bend over,lift them up, throw them up in
the air, like, oh, grandma lovesyou, right?
I want to be able to do that.
That's long term.
I'm 46 years old.
Okay.
So we're talking 44 years fromnow.
Now, because I had thatlong-term perspective, if I
truly own that goal, then itmeans that I will work harder at
(11:58):
eating clean now.
It means that I will strengthtrain multiple times a week.
Well, it means that I will learnto manage my stress.
It means I will go for all myscreenings.
It means so many things.
And my body will be bettertoday, five years, 10 years, all
the way to 44 years, because ofmy long-term perspective.
(12:21):
If your perspective in yourprivate practice is a 90-day
goal, right?
We set goals in my programs, weset goals, you know, by the
quarter, by the month, all ofthose things by the year.
In fact, at the time of thisrecording, we're getting getting
ready to do our vision retreatfor the entrepreneur business
goal, where we'll be mapping out2026, right?
We start our year in October.
So yeah, we'll be mapping outthe entire 2026.
(12:44):
If you have that, it will makeyou behave a certain way.
It will make you pay attention,you know.
So you had a revenue goal, youdo what you need to do to get
the revenue goal.
Maybe you figure to hit thisrevenue goal.
I need to bring in an officemanager, you do the work to get
an office manager, your practicewill be so much better, your
practice will be thriving andall of those things.
If, on the other hand, inaddition to that, you then say,
(13:06):
after I've run this practice for20 years, I want to set the
stage for a seven-figure ormultiple seven-figure, maybe
even crack a record and have aneight-figure exit from my
practice.
And so if you have that, you'regonna come back today and you're
gonna behave very differentlyfrom the person who only has
one-year goals.
And it doesn't have to be 20years.
(13:27):
You may want to exit in fiveyears, you may want to exit in
three years.
Okay, I don't really recommendless than three years.
I'm like, come on, guys, it's aprocess.
Okay.
So three years, five years,seven years.
It doesn't have to be 20 years,but you have a longer-term
perspective.
What that does is now I build mybrand intentionally.
I build the brand that supportsthe practice intentionally
because I know that's an assetthat will affect the valuation
(13:49):
of my practice.
I build my team in a certain waybecause I know that if I'm the
main driver, it destroys thevaluation of my practice, right?
So which means I need I can't bethe only doctor, I can't be the
only manager, I can't be theonly one driving revenue, right?
You see what I mean?
Okay.
It also means where in 12 monthsI can get away with not doing
(14:10):
SOPs.
I don't need to do SOPs.
But if I'm going to exit, I amgoing to need SOPs.
So the sooner we figure this SOPbusiness out, the better.
It also means people are goingto look at my books.
I've talked to people who exitedtheir practices and they
describe it as a colonoscopy,like the financial auditing that
they do.
And so if they're going to lookat my books, I keep clean books.
I keep clean books because I'mgoing to make an exit.
(14:31):
And I know they're going to lookat at least three years' worth
of data.
That happens there as well.
I can say, hey, what issomething that I can do as an
insurance-based private practicethat's cash pay, that lends
itself to scalability toincrease the valuation of my
practice?
What could I do?
Now, would that revenue be goodwhile I own the practice?
Yes.
Would it be great for an exit?
Yes.
I want you thinking like exit,because we're all going to exit.
(14:55):
We're either going to pass it onto your kids, which most people
don't do, right?
Or you are going to sell it,okay, which many people can't do
because they didn't set it upthat way, or you're just going
to shut it down.
And so if you've worked at yourpractice for five years, 10
years, 15, like why would youshut it down when you can get a
payday, when you can let it liveon, right?
(15:16):
So anyway, if you're activelyworking on your exit and you
have any of these other thingstrue, you're overbooked, you're
drop, you're not doing your CEOstuff and all those things, or
you have a great engine, youhave a great patient acquisition
engine.
It affords you that you knowluxury of hiring hiring another
doctor, and you hire anotherdoctor.
It's very painful when you'relike, oh, you know, but you it
would take them three years topay for themselves or whatever.
(15:37):
But when you build it in such away that they can start paying
for themselves, like almostimmediately, then where's the
risk?
Right?
Where's the risk?
And so if you're activelyworking on your exits, you do
not want to exit a practicewhere you are the doctor.
That makes it tough becauseyou're the doctor and you leave.
And that's why they put in allthese very interesting clauses
of you now, you have to stay fortwo years or three years.
(15:59):
And so you go from an employerto an employee, which is no fun
because most entrepreneurs arenot employable.
Most of us are not.
We just are not.
Okay.
So you want to bring that in soyou're not the one, right?
Like there are other people whoare pulling their own weights,
who are bringing in their ownpeople, and all of those things,
which puts you in a betterplace.
(16:19):
You know, I always tell thestory of the doctor who wanted
to sell her practice.
I must have been two years intoprivate practice at the time and
went to look at it, and therewas nothing to buy.
The doctor was the only doctorthere.
The doctor still had papercharts.
There was nothing.
There are no SOP.
There was nothing.
There was nothing to buy.
And I think at the end of theday, she shut it down.
And instead of making money fromthat, she lost a lot of money
(16:41):
because you're going to pay tostore those charts.
You're going to pay.
It's like it's expensive to shutdown a practice.
You don't just close the doors.
So if you're going to do that,then yeah, you want to work on
bringing a doctor in and startmaking yourself less and less
relevant.
And by that I don't mean lessrelevant as a human, but like to
your business.
And some people are like, butI'm the person, I'm the secret
(17:02):
sauce.
Yes, you are.
And you can be a CEO levelsecret sauce.
I mean, there could be otherdoctors pulling their weight.
And so when you want to exit,you can exit.
Like if I wanted to exit mypractice today, me being the
owner is not an issue because itruns without me.
It runs without me.
I wish that for every physician.
So it's not about leavingmedicine, it's about putting
(17:22):
yourself in a position to exitbecause you will exit.
You can exit on your terms oryou can exit as life forces you
to.
So if you have these five signs,these five things in place, my
friend, you are ready to hire adoctor and you're ready to hire
a doctor right now.
And if you just want to get towork, and when I say get to
work, what I mean is make thatjob ad, put it where you need to
(17:43):
put it.
Let everybody know that you'rehiring, start interviewing.
Don't stall on the process.
Like start today.
Literally put out an ad today,right?
Okay, fine.
You may need some time to workon it.
48 hours.
That's it.
Put it out.
Start interviewing.
You might be like, I'm nervousabout yes, but figure it out as
you go.
And we have a lot of resourceson this as far as how to do, you
(18:07):
know, create job description,ideal ads, all of those things.
And again, if you are in privatepractice and you're like, I
don't know how to do this, Idon't know how to do that,
especially as it relates tofilling your schedule, getting
paid for the work you do andbuilding a profitable team.
I want to invite you to reachout to my team on traind.com
forward slash call.
We have multiple programsspecifically for private
practice owners.
(18:27):
We can support you so you canwin because that's our mandate
is to help you win.
So rooting for you, go get thisstuff done.
This is a great episode to shareon social media.
Say, oh my goodness, if you runa private practice, you need to
go watch this, you need to golisten to this.
And I will see you, my friend,on the next episode.
When you're overextended, chances are you're
not doing that stuff.
You're no longer visioneering.
You're not setting goals.
You're just going day to day,like surviving the day.
You're no longer hiringstrategically.
And if you're not doing thatstuff, then your cash flow is
having an issue.
Hi dogs.
Welcome to the OnTraMD podcast,where it's all about helping
amazing physicians just like youembrace entrepreneurship so you
(00:22):
can have the freedom to livelife and practice medicine on
your terms.
I'm your host, Dr.
Umna.
I have consulted with doctorswhere it is obvious in their
private practices they need tohire a new physician, ASAP.
A SAP.
Okay?
(00:42):
All right.
And I decided to come on thisepisode to show you five signs
you need to hire another doc,like immediately.
Now, when I say immediately, ofcourse you're not just gonna go,
you know, pull somebody off thestreet and bring them into your
practice because that's not theway it works, but that means
you're working this process andyou're treating it as a matter
of urgency.
Question then becomes why?
(01:03):
I could hire whenever.
I mean, I've been managing goingthrough what I'm going through
and all of that.
This is especially important forthe physician who owns the
private practice.
Okay.
When you have a physician who isat a point where their practice
needs another doctor, like as amatter of urgency, chances are
(01:24):
that that physician isoverextended as a physician.
And if that physician isoverextended as a physician,
that means that they've given upa lot of their CEO roles.
Okay.
And when you have a doc who'sgiven off a lot of their CEO
roles, what that means is thebusiness is suffering.
I can almost guarantee that thecash flow may be good because
(01:48):
they're so busy, but it's notnearly as good as it could be
because now there's so muchwaste.
I can also guarantee that thereare probably growth
opportunities that are comingthat the doctor can't take
advantage of.
The doctor herself or himself isso burnt out that if they had a
way out of their practice, theywould run away.
Their personal life is probablysuffering.
And all of these things, like isjust, hmm.
(02:09):
Okay.
All right.
So let's talk about this so wecan go ahead, you know, get
these physicians.
Okay.
All right.
So the first sign that you needto hire another doctor as soon
as possible is that you'reconsistently overbooked.
You know, I'm gonna take sometime to explain what I mean
because a lot of times asphysicians, we love to help
people.
We don't tell people no,especially when it comes to
(02:29):
their health, because of coursewe're going to help them, right?
And we would do whatever ittakes, and we don't understand
the personal cost to us.
Now, am I saying don't take careof your patients?
Because the thing I'mdescribing, I've done it.
Well, what I'm saying is the wayyou say no to doing that is you
either shut it all down or youget somebody to take care of
(02:53):
this stuff, right?
Okay, so how do you know you'reoverbooked?
Well, let's say that the way youbuilt your schedule is that you
want to see 10 patients in themorning and 10 patients in the
afternoon.
Okay, that's the schedule thatyou've built to yourself.
I'm not recommending thisschedule, I'm just saying this
is schedule built because I knowpeople see at different extremes
and all that stuff.
That's the schedule that you'vehad and you've built it out that
(03:14):
way.
You know, like new patientvisits are an hour, this is
that, all those kind of things.
But then this is happeningmultiple times a week where
they're like, well, this personcalled, and you know you can
tell them come in a week.
Well, your schedule for a weekis booked.
You can tell them come in threedays, and your schedule for
three days is booked too.
So what do you tell them?
Oh, just put them in at 11o'clock, right?
Just put them in at 11 o'clock.
(03:35):
No, just put them in at threeo'clock, right?
Or you put them in such a waythat you know you work through
lunch, right?
Lunch is maybe 12 to 1.
And you're like, yeah, just putthem at 12.
And they call you for anotherperson.
Oh, just put them at 12:15.
You know, you're staying later,or sometimes you tell them to
put them earlier.
So you're coming into the officeearlier.
You're doing all kinds of stuff.
And these are not one-offs.
These are things you're doingevery week.
(03:56):
You're doing multiple times aweek for some of you, every day.
I mean, like, first of all, likeyou're overbooked, you're
overextended, you're probablyburnt out.
The familiar symptoms of burnoutare showing up again.
You're not able to spend timewith your family.
You have a lot of guilt ifyou're a parent that you're not
spending time with your kids.
And the people in your life arebeginning to resent a little bit
(04:19):
what you do, making decisionslike I'm not going to be an
entrepreneur, I'm not going tobe a doctor because this sucks.
So that's the first sign.
If that sign is there, I want toinvite you to decide to hire.
I want to invite you to decideto hire.
And you can be as creative asyou want to be.
You can bring on someonefull-time, you can bring someone
who works two days a week.
And we have never had the amountof flux we have in the physician
(04:41):
community as we have now.
Like you will find somebody towork for you two days a week,
right?
And take that pressure off whileyou do what is required to
systemically handle thepressure.
Okay.
Okay.
So that's number one.
Number two, sign that you'reready to hire as soon as
possible.
This goes with number one.
Okay.
So your patient acquisitionsystem results are consistent
(05:02):
and controllable.
So you have a system foracquiring new patients, right?
You're like, these are thereferral sources that we're
maintaining relationships withand all of those things.
This is what we do online.
This is what we do with ourGoogle reviews, our social
media, and all of these things.
This is what we do with therecaller.
Like you have a whole system.
So you can, you can, you cancrank it up as you need to to
(05:23):
get more people in.
Like you know what to do.
You have this wait list, youknow what to do with the wait
list when, and all of thosethings.
And so there's evidence that youcan fill another person up based
on what you have, maybe it's await list and stuff like that,
and what you can do because youbuilt this system and you know
how to crank it up, right?
And so when you're consistentlyoverbooked and you know how to
(05:45):
fill your schedule, you'reyou're probably telling, you
know, like reforal sources, likeyou're hoping they don't send
you more people in a way,because you're like, where are
we going to put them?
Right?
Where your system works thatwell.
So when you have that and youknow how to crank it up, wrave
it down, crank it up, write itdown, then oh my goodness,
you're ready.
You're ready because you can getanother person on and you can
(06:06):
get them busy.
Okay.
Number three, what is the thirdsign that you're ready to hire
another physician as soon aspossible?
Is in addition to number one andnumber two, because if number
three doesn't exist, you'restill not ready, right?
Number three is that yourpractice is financially stable
and your cash flow is strong.
(06:27):
Okay.
Which means, like in another wayof putting it, is you're getting
paid for the work you do.
The reason why this is soimportant is because I have met
people who have hired doctorsbecause they're overextended,
they're overbooked, and all ofthose things.
But their billing departmentsand their internal collections
in the office are like such amess that they're not getting
(06:48):
paid for the work they do.
Right?
Their AR is just like completelyout of control, right?
Okay.
So if that's the case, if youhave cash flow problems, you
still can't pay the new doc youbring in.
You can get them all thepatients in the world, but you
can't pay them.
So if you have your practicefinancially stable and your cash
(07:09):
flow is good and you're gettingpaid for the work you do, then
you're ready because you can paythem.
You can pay the person who comeson.
And the people they see, well,you get paid for them too.
Right?
If you have it where your cashflow is a mess, your billing
department is a mess.
Guess what's gonna happen?
When the new doc comes in, yourbilling department is still
(07:30):
gonna be a mess.
All right.
So now you're not getting paidfor the work you do, they're not
getting paid for the work theydo.
So that is more financialpressure.
Third sign, your practice isfinancially stable, your cash
flow is strong, you're gettingpaid for the work you do.
Number four, sign you need tohire another doctor.
And I think this is the mostexpensive sign.
Is the most expensive sign.
(07:51):
And that's this your CEOactivities are left undone.
You're not doing them.
No, no, hang on.
This is so important because asa clinician, you see patients.
You don't get paid because yousaw patients, you get paid
because you saw patients andthen you did the business stuff.
(08:12):
So the part of you who's gonnameet with the biller, hold them
accountable, make sure yournumbers are looking right,
review your profit and lossstatement, all of that stuff.
That's the CEO.
And while you're overextended,chances are you're not doing
that stuff.
And if you're not doing thatstuff, chances are they're not
performing the way they need toperform.
And they're not performing theway that you need to perform
they need to perform, then yourcash flow is having an issue.
Guess who was all about buildingthe brand?
(08:34):
The brand that is driving thepractice?
unknown (08:36):
You.
SPEAKER_00 (08:37):
And so now you're no longer paying attention that the
Google reviews are happening andthey're favorable.
You're no longer payingattention to the strength of
your Google business profile.
You're no longer payingattention to what is happening
on social media.
Maybe you used to show up and itwas part of your engine, right?
It's part of your engine.
(08:58):
And now you're not doing thatanymore.
You're no longer visioneering.
You don't even remember thevision of your practice, you're
not setting goals, you're justgoing day to day, like surviving
the day.
You're no longer hiringstrategically.
Maybe your office needs anoffice manager, needs another,
you know, the dot, you don'thave the bandwidth to do it
because you're overextended.
Maybe there are growthopportunities as a vertical you
(09:20):
can put in your practice thatwill totally knock things out of
the park.
You don't have the time to lookat it, you don't have the time
to lead the team to pull it off.
And so your current revenuebased on the work you're doing
is suffering.
The revenue you could begenerating if you took advantage
of these growth opportunities issuffering.
And so when you look at this,you need to hire another doctor.
So you can make out CEO timebecause you need time to think,
(09:45):
you need time to strategize, youneed time to do those activities
that will move your practiceforward.
Like one of the greatest giftsyou can give your practice is
your CEO time.
So it's so expensive not to havethis time.
And if bringing on another docis what it takes to do that,
then so be it.
Right.
Like it is such a game, it'll besuch a game changer for you.
(10:06):
Reason number five.
And reason number five issomething, you know, I wish
every doctor would take veryseriously.
And it is if you're activelyworking on your exit.
Now, when I say this, people arelike, I'm not exiting.
I just started my practice threeyears ago.
I started my practice 10 yearsago, I haven't done 10 years in
me, all of those kind of things.
Okay.
I'm not trying to say you shouldwalk away from your practice.
(10:28):
I'm not trying to say you shouldwalk away from medicine.
I'm not even trying to say youshould sell your practice.
But but the best way to build isto build with the end in mind,
right?
Because we're gonna get to theend.
Must have been Warren Buffett orsomeone was asking, like, what
is the thing that makes peoplemost likely to succeed, right?
And I don't remember the contextof it, right?
(10:50):
Because that would determine theanswer.
But he said long-termperspective.
It was either him or BrianTracy, long-term perspective.
The longer your perspective, youknow, where you're looking from,
the better decisions you maketoday.
I'll give you an example.
Like if I think about, you know,I'm going to a class reunion and
I want to look good for my classreunion, I'll kind of work out.
(11:14):
I may not work out.
I may just really work out andreally eat right, or maybe even
fast the month before thereunion and I'm done.
Okay.
And this is a reunion coming upin 90 days.
Do what I need to do and I'mgood.
I could also have a differentgoal.
Like when I'm 90, I want to beable to carry my
(11:36):
great-grandbabies.
I want to be able to bend over,lift them up, throw them up in
the air, like, oh, grandma lovesyou, right?
I want to be able to do that.
That's long term.
I'm 46 years old.
Okay.
So we're talking 44 years fromnow.
Now, because I had thatlong-term perspective, if I
truly own that goal, then itmeans that I will work harder at
(11:58):
eating clean now.
It means that I will strengthtrain multiple times a week.
Well, it means that I will learnto manage my stress.
It means I will go for all myscreenings.
It means so many things.
And my body will be bettertoday, five years, 10 years, all
the way to 44 years, because ofmy long-term perspective.
(12:21):
If your perspective in yourprivate practice is a 90-day
goal, right?
We set goals in my programs, weset goals, you know, by the
quarter, by the month, all ofthose things by the year.
In fact, at the time of thisrecording, we're getting getting
ready to do our vision retreatfor the entrepreneur business
goal, where we'll be mapping out2026, right?
We start our year in October.
So yeah, we'll be mapping outthe entire 2026.
(12:44):
If you have that, it will makeyou behave a certain way.
It will make you pay attention,you know.
So you had a revenue goal, youdo what you need to do to get
the revenue goal.
Maybe you figure to hit thisrevenue goal.
I need to bring in an officemanager, you do the work to get
an office manager, your practicewill be so much better, your
practice will be thriving andall of those things.
If, on the other hand, inaddition to that, you then say,
(13:06):
after I've run this practice for20 years, I want to set the
stage for a seven-figure ormultiple seven-figure, maybe
even crack a record and have aneight-figure exit from my
practice.
And so if you have that, you'regonna come back today and you're
gonna behave very differentlyfrom the person who only has
one-year goals.
And it doesn't have to be 20years.
(13:27):
You may want to exit in fiveyears, you may want to exit in
three years.
Okay, I don't really recommendless than three years.
I'm like, come on, guys, it's aprocess.
Okay.
So three years, five years,seven years.
It doesn't have to be 20 years,but you have a longer-term
perspective.
What that does is now I build mybrand intentionally.
I build the brand that supportsthe practice intentionally
because I know that's an assetthat will affect the valuation
(13:49):
of my practice.
I build my team in a certain waybecause I know that if I'm the
main driver, it destroys thevaluation of my practice, right?
So which means I need I can't bethe only doctor, I can't be the
only manager, I can't be theonly one driving revenue, right?
You see what I mean?
Okay.
It also means where in 12 monthsI can get away with not doing
(14:10):
SOPs.
I don't need to do SOPs.
But if I'm going to exit, I amgoing to need SOPs.
So the sooner we figure this SOPbusiness out, the better.
It also means people are goingto look at my books.
I've talked to people who exitedtheir practices and they
describe it as a colonoscopy,like the financial auditing that
they do.
And so if they're going to lookat my books, I keep clean books.
I keep clean books because I'mgoing to make an exit.
(14:31):
And I know they're going to lookat at least three years' worth
of data.
That happens there as well.
I can say, hey, what issomething that I can do as an
insurance-based private practicethat's cash pay, that lends
itself to scalability toincrease the valuation of my
practice?
What could I do?
Now, would that revenue be goodwhile I own the practice?
Yes.
Would it be great for an exit?
Yes.
I want you thinking like exit,because we're all going to exit.
(14:55):
We're either going to pass it onto your kids, which most people
don't do, right?
Or you are going to sell it,okay, which many people can't do
because they didn't set it upthat way, or you're just going
to shut it down.
And so if you've worked at yourpractice for five years, 10
years, 15, like why would youshut it down when you can get a
payday, when you can let it liveon, right?
(15:16):
So anyway, if you're activelyworking on your exit and you
have any of these other thingstrue, you're overbooked, you're
drop, you're not doing your CEOstuff and all those things, or
you have a great engine, youhave a great patient acquisition
engine.
It affords you that you knowluxury of hiring hiring another
doctor, and you hire anotherdoctor.
It's very painful when you'relike, oh, you know, but you it
would take them three years topay for themselves or whatever.
(15:37):
But when you build it in such away that they can start paying
for themselves, like almostimmediately, then where's the
risk?
Right?
Where's the risk?
And so if you're activelyworking on your exits, you do
not want to exit a practicewhere you are the doctor.
That makes it tough becauseyou're the doctor and you leave.
And that's why they put in allthese very interesting clauses
of you now, you have to stay fortwo years or three years.
(15:59):
And so you go from an employerto an employee, which is no fun
because most entrepreneurs arenot employable.
Most of us are not.
We just are not.
Okay.
So you want to bring that in soyou're not the one, right?
Like there are other people whoare pulling their own weights,
who are bringing in their ownpeople, and all of those things,
which puts you in a betterplace.
(16:19):
You know, I always tell thestory of the doctor who wanted
to sell her practice.
I must have been two years intoprivate practice at the time and
went to look at it, and therewas nothing to buy.
The doctor was the only doctorthere.
The doctor still had papercharts.
There was nothing.
There are no SOP.
There was nothing.
There was nothing to buy.
And I think at the end of theday, she shut it down.
And instead of making money fromthat, she lost a lot of money
(16:41):
because you're going to pay tostore those charts.
You're going to pay.
It's like it's expensive to shutdown a practice.
You don't just close the doors.
So if you're going to do that,then yeah, you want to work on
bringing a doctor in and startmaking yourself less and less
relevant.
And by that I don't mean lessrelevant as a human, but like to
your business.
And some people are like, butI'm the person, I'm the secret
(17:02):
sauce.
Yes, you are.
And you can be a CEO levelsecret sauce.
I mean, there could be otherdoctors pulling their weight.
And so when you want to exit,you can exit.
Like if I wanted to exit mypractice today, me being the
owner is not an issue because itruns without me.
It runs without me.
I wish that for every physician.
So it's not about leavingmedicine, it's about putting
(17:22):
yourself in a position to exitbecause you will exit.
You can exit on your terms oryou can exit as life forces you
to.
So if you have these five signs,these five things in place, my
friend, you are ready to hire adoctor and you're ready to hire
a doctor right now.
And if you just want to get towork, and when I say get to
work, what I mean is make thatjob ad, put it where you need to
(17:43):
put it.
Let everybody know that you'rehiring, start interviewing.
Don't stall on the process.
Like start today.
Literally put out an ad today,right?
Okay, fine.
You may need some time to workon it.
48 hours.
That's it.
Put it out.
Start interviewing.
You might be like, I'm nervousabout yes, but figure it out as
you go.
And we have a lot of resourceson this as far as how to do, you
(18:07):
know, create job description,ideal ads, all of those things.
And again, if you are in privatepractice and you're like, I
don't know how to do this, Idon't know how to do that,
especially as it relates tofilling your schedule, getting
paid for the work you do andbuilding a profitable team.
I want to invite you to reachout to my team on traind.com
forward slash call.
We have multiple programsspecifically for private
practice owners.
(18:27):
We can support you so you canwin because that's our mandate
is to help you win.
So rooting for you, go get thisstuff done.
This is a great episode to shareon social media.
Say, oh my goodness, if you runa private practice, you need to
go watch this, you need to golisten to this.
And I will see you, my friend,on the next episode.
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