Tracking Financial Goals Without the Pain
To many private practitioners, financial management of their business is one of the most disliked aspects of running their practice. Setting and Tracking Financial Goals can be challenging and frustrating.
Many of us have hired bookkeepers, accountants, consultants, coaches, and financial planners to help us so we don’t have to deal with the numbers. But lately I have been seeing a growing number of clinicians who simply ignore this aspect of running their practice.
However, most of us know that in order to have a successful private practice we need to think and act like a for-profit business. We need to create a marketing plan and business plan that has clear financial projections, action steps, and timelines, so we know where we stand in real time and can stay on track with the goals that we set in our plan. By setting and tracking goals, we can adjust our marketing activities, as needed, in order to better reach all goals and timelines set in our plan (I am assuming you do have a plan).
Make the Time to Plan and Track Progress
Successful business owners devote the time to making and regularly tracking income and expense projections. This article will focus on how to track income and adjust your business and marketing plan and activities to help you reach your goals.
Here are some considerations that I recommend for private practitioners to help them succeed in their practice growth efforts:
Establish Weekly Income Targets
You do this by doing the following:
1. Track each of your Sources of Income by service type
2. Track Projected Number of Clients per week you intend on serving
3. Track the Actual Number of Clients per week you serve
4. Track the Income Per Session
5. Track the Total Income you bring in each week
6. Track the Projected Income you anticipated
7. Track your Weekly Revenue Status (deficit or surplus) based on the difference between Actual and Projected income targets
If you’d like the above “Weekly Income Projections form” (Excel spreadsheet) that calculates these numbers for you automatically, or a template .pdf form-then simply download it here: Income Projections sheet
or let me know via email and I will send you the form I created to help you with this process.
I would appreciate if you would return the favor by
buy me a cup of coffee using the link below to recognize the time I put into creating this form and this article.
Or you can book a coaching session with me for help with this exercise and I will give you the form at no extra charge.
Sorry for the shameless self-promotion, but I can’t pay my kids college bills by writing free articles-I hope you understand!
Adjust As Needed
Once you see how you are doing at reaching revenue targets for each line of service, you can adjust/prioritize your marketing activities to generate revenue in areas where you are lacking referrals. For example, if you desire more group candidate referrals you might create and mail a postcard describing the group in more detail. Or if you feel that you want more teens for an anxiety workshop- you might call some referral sources and send a flyer to some schools with whom you work to describe the program and ask for referrals.
As with any tracking model, you can also readjust targets as you feel necessary to fit with your workload, specialization, desired target population, income needs, and actual referrals.
Create a Schedule to Review Your Progress
Schedule into your calendar the days/times that you’d like to review your financials. By regularly getting into the habit of reviewing financials you will feel more in control and can make quicker adjustments which will help you reach your income goals much more quickly.
You Can’t Do Everything Yourself
You do not need to be embarrassed if you need help with this, as you cannot be an expert in all things business, and may certainly find that it is not an efficient use of your time learning to do everything business owners need to do. Therefore, it is important to be honest with yourself and make an investment in your future (and your sanity) by working with a professional who can set up systems, help hold you accountable and ensure your success.
Summary: article is on setting and tracking financial goals