Tag Archive for: finance

When we say control the controllables – it is important to stay Expanded!   Think of trying to unfurl a sail when are knots in the rope. It cannot be done! 

Use every area of your life to make sure you are defending your Castle in every way you can think of. Stay strong using the three H’s – Heart, Humility and Hustle. 

Financial:  Look for ways to protect yourself, your family and your business. Trim the fat. Use the Crisis Survival Kit. 

Family: Protect them and keep them safe. Help them manage THEIR fears. Communicate to them.  Ask them questions and most of all love them. 

Spiritual:  Create or enhance your rituals, praying, meditating, and pay attention to you — breathe. Look for positives in your life daily (there is always a silver lining). Have unrelenting faith! 

Social:  Stay connected through social media, share jokes, use facetime, what’s app, send videos, listen to music, sing your heart out and dance like no one is watching. (Because they aren’t). 

Physical: Get outside, work out, practice self-love, eat right, limit your sugar, smile and if all else fails — as Dr. Frank used to say – do naked jumping jacks. 

Intellectual:  Program your brain. Write three things you are grateful for every morning. Stop whining and blaming. Read something to reinforce a growth mindset.  Speak with like-minded people. OWN why what I do matters. Be mindful of your words! Adjust them accordingly (I want to vs. I have to). 

Career: Stay connected, study, increase your commitment level, train every day Stay creative together. Share ideas! CALL THE HOTLINE! 

Pray like it all depends on GOD! 

Work like it all depends on YOU! 

Your Sidecar Team. 

Open or closed.  

That’s the decision for chiropractors and most small business owners across the country as we prepare for – and worry about – the coronavirus. 

The virus, the disruption, the political wrangling and social media blathering – seem complicated, and they be. 

But this decision is black and white – open or closed. 

That’s the issue I hear the most right now from chiropractorsWe are all struggling with the same question. The truth is, there is no wrong answer. Each of us deals with unique circumstances.  

We live in different states, even different countries where governments take varying levels of actions depending on the conditions on the ground. Some places have mandatory closing of all businesses, including affiliated health care clinics such as ours.  

In those cases, the choice is made for you. 

The rest of us struggle with the decision, balancing service to patients with obligations to public health and our staff and our families.   

Do we turn away an elderly patient who wants and needs an adjustment? 

Do we limit contact between patients, spacing tables and waiting areas? 

Do we require phone screening before a visit to identify potentially risky patients? 

None of these are unrealistic ideas.  

My message is to take prudent steps. Get the best information you can from reputable and trusted sources. Pay attention to updates from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. 

Listen to your local and state officials for guidance. 

Don’t go it alone.  

Talk to your staff, your family, your colleagues. What is best for them? 

Don’t be afraid to address the fear and anxiety we are all feeling, because it’s there. It manifests in all kinds of ways, through anger and outbursts, an underlying sense of discomfort or dread, or even gallows humor.  

Dr. Shahana Alibhai was a guest on a webinar we broadcast recently. (You can watch it here.) Dr. Shahana is an M.D. in British Columbia and expert on dealing with anxiety. She’s also married to a chiropractor 

She told a wonderful story of a discussion they had about what to do.  

Dr. Shahana told her husband to ask himself “why” seven times.  

What are you feeling? 

Stress about whether to close. 

Why? 

Because I don’t want to let down my patients. 

Why? 

Because it’s bad for them, and bad for me and bad for business. 

Why is that important right now? 

Because then I can’t provide for my family. 

And there’s the heart of the decision for Dr. Shahana’s husband. He feels the weight of responsibility to take care of his wife and young children. That’s a perfectly normal experience and one many of us share. 

As Dr. Shahana points out, the decision of whether to close is not a measure of our worth as parents, spouses and community leaders. Quite the contrary.  

That may be the best decision for our children, spouse and community.   

There’s no blanket stance that will fit all of us. I’ve heard calls on either end of the spectrum, from nobody can tell me to close my clinic, to everybody should shut down for the good of society. That’s unfortunate because it ignores that what’s right for you may not be right for me.  

And more broadly, is undercuts the reality that we are all in this together as a profession. Our individual threads form a common cloth of chiropractic — not based on technique or history — but as small business owners.  

That’s what we do as SIDECAR. We’re here to collaborate with you, to bring chiropractors together to share ideas and find solutions for our businesses.  

One of the principles we follow is relevant to the times. It’s called $even and it’s a personal and business financial management system created by one of our founders, Dr. Douglas Sea. This is the perfect time to bring discipline to your budgets and $even gives you practical tools to start today.  

We do this because we believe in our profession. We believe there is a place for chiropractors to contribute to the overall good of our communities, even in this time of crisis.  

SIDECAR truly is a resource to put you on a path to affluence. We want to help.  

Open or closed is a simple question but a difficult decision.  

My advice is, make it for the right reasons. Get to the heart of what’s best for you, your family and your business.  

Understand the why behind your decision – even if you have to ask it seven times.  

There’s an old saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know. 

It’s more than a clever turn of a phrase. There are real world applications when it comes to the billing system in your chiropractic business.  

That’s one of the things we’ll be talking about during the next SIDECAR Fuel Tank at noon central time on Thursday, March 19. 

The session is called the “Slay the Dragons of Billing to Rescue Your Bottom Line.” Register now to save your spot in this informative – and potentially money saving – webinar.  

Going back to what we don’t know. That’s the rub isn’t it?  

The world of reimbursements grows more complex each year. Do you feel like you are keeping up? Or have you turned your financial future over to one staff member, charged with tracking all the rules and regulations? 

As well-meaning as that financial staffer may be, they may not be able to decipher insurance regulations and obligations either.  

Or, and isn’t this possible, your trusted employee also doesn’t know what they don’t know. 

In preparation for our discussion on March 19, we’ve prepared a one-pager: “Six questions to find Out if your billing system is leaking money.” Download it here. 

We hope that it helps you at least get an idea of what you don’t know and put you on a firmer footing when it comes to billing and, ultimately, your business.  

Then we’ll dive deeper in the Fuel Tank on March 19.  

Remember, even if you have a conflict and can’t make the live version, sign up anyway. That way you’ll get links to watch the replay when you’ve got more time. 

Have you ever felt like there just wasn’t enough time in the day to accomplish everything you set out to do?

Everyone has the same amount of time. Barring any event that reduces or ends the amount of life someone experiences, time is constant.

Let’s do the math:

  • 24 hours per day
  • 168 hours per week
  • 8,760 hours per year

As long as you and I are both alive, we’ve got the same amount of time.

The Truth

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person spends three hours per day watching T.V. Three hours per day equates to 21 hours per week. This ultimately adds up to 1,095 hours per year!

12.5% of an entire year spent watching T.V.

You may be thinking, “That’s not me, I don’t watch that much T.V.!”

What about time spent on your cell phone? Social Media, Messaging, Internet usage… Most reports done show that the average person spends around four hours per day on their phone!

The point that I’m trying to make here is this: You have plenty of time to accomplish what you truly want to accomplish.

Television

The average person spends 12.5% of each year watching television.

Subtraction

If you are feeling pressed for time and constantly find yourself “running out”; re-examine exactly where you are allocating your time. The key to improving your efficiency and ultimately growing is through subtraction. Success is never about adding; it’s always about subtracting! Subtract anything that is not aligning you closer to your vision. Eliminate the wasteful screen time spent on TV or your cell phone.

You might be thinking, “I don’t waste time!” My response? Business does not equal productivity.

If you feel you are being efficient with your time but still don’t have enough, examine the tasks you are performing.  

A great principle that we teach at SIDECAR is the one-minute principle. This principle helps to identify exactly how much time you may be wasting in your day. Taking inventory of your time will help to expose growth areas.

Here’s some perspective: every great idea, product, event, or thing that has ever occurred on this Earth stemmed from a person who had the same amount of time that you do!

You have plenty of time. Start making the most of it.

Let’s Ride!

Dr. Nathan UnruhDr. Nathan Unruh, CXO SIDECAR

To find out more about the one-minute principle and how to apply it to your business give us a call at 1-877-727-2705.

In your business, you can choose to be a spectator or a player. Which one are you?

I talk with a lot of doctors and business people who have elaborate plans for their future. They tell me about their great ideas and the things that they want to do. Most of the time, these plans remain just that, plans! At SIDECAR we refer to this stage as “getting ready to get ready”.

The common theme when I talk with these types of people is that they always have something to say about those in their field that are out doing things. They remind me of spectators watching an event take place. These people are riddled with opinions including things like: “Why didn’t he do this?” or “Why didn’t she see that?” They tend to think that they understand the game quite well from there vantage point.

Spectators Everywhere

I tend to find that there are a lot more spectators than there are players on the field these days. The reality of the situation is this: the players, people partaking in the event, are the ones making the difference. These people are training to win and are willing to take a position in front of the spectators, put on their best performance, take any criticism they receive, and build on it.

There are always going to be spectators. Not all spectators are bad, they are a necessity for the game to take place. However, if you find yourself thinking like a player but acting like a spectator, that’s when problems arise.

Spectators vs Players

There’s always going to be more spectators.

Which one are you?

Are you a player or are you a spectator? Are you willing to put your best foot forward and take action even though you may not have all the details worked out? Players are constantly training and improving so when it comes time to hit the field they are ready. Players understand that regardless of how well trained they are, during the performance unforeseeable things can take place and require adaptation. The more the player trains the better he or she will be at handling the unforeseeable circumstances.

The spectator has a pretty cushy job. He gets to sit in a spot way up high where he can see it all, snack on some popcorn, and proclaim his opinion to all those around him.

If you desire to be a player, lose the mindset and work ethic of a spectator.

A coach once told me, “Players make plays, players win games.”

Dr. Nathan UnruhDr. Nathan Unruh, CXO SIDECAR

 

You never know which action you take is going to result in your breakthrough. Intentional effort in everything you do will result in reaching higher levels of success.

If you’ve ever been to a swimming pool you may have seen a lifeguard or pool employee checking the chemical balance of the water. The process used to analyze the water is a method known as titration.

The basics of the titration process are as follows. The person checking the pool uses drops of different test chemicals to assess the chemical levels of the water. By adding the test chemicals one drop at a time, the employee can determine the exact chemical level of the water based on the number of drops it takes to change the color of the water. Once the water changes color, the person stops adding drops and is able to calculate the answer.

What Can Titration Teach Us?

What may surprise you about titration is the lesson it can teach us regarding our business and life in general. With titration, the person performing the test does not know exactly which drop is going to trigger the result. It may be the first, 10th, or 50th drop before the answer is revealed.

Now, if you were to have a group of school children watch someone perform this experiment and ask them which drop caused the change in the water color, the majority would say the last drop! By thinking critically about this scenario, we understand that without any of the drops before it, the result would not be achieved. Therefore, each drop is just as important as the next!

Titration effect

Every single drop matters

Drip by Drip

You never know which action you take is going to lead to the results you are pursuing. What we do know is that little by little, over time, the actions you take will amount to a result. If you stop taking action because you’re not seeing results or you think you’re never going to reach your goals; you could be one action away from your breakthrough.

This example can apply to the health of our patients as well. Who knows if the patient’s health crisis was triggered by the first cigarette or the hundredth? The first greasy meal or the last one?

To see results and achieve success you’ve got to take constant, intentional action. Every drip matters. Consistency is key and the more drips you can make the sooner you can start to see results.

Drip by drip, action by action.

Let’s Ride!

Dr. Douglas Sea, SIDECAR

Becoming a better leader isn’t an overnight process. Following the Hierarchy of Leadership has helped me to enhance my leadership capabilities.

Leadership is a hot topic in the world of entrepreneurship and personal development. Many people have the desire to become a better leader, but do not have a plan in place to turn their thoughts and dreams into reality.

The Hierarchy of Leadership can be utilized as a ladder to becoming a better overall leader. The hierarchy of leadership is as follows: lead yourself, lead your family, lead your team, and lead your community. This model is a progression, you will struggle to lead others if you first cannot lead yourself.

Lead Yourself

If you desire to improve yourself as a leader, first examine your ability to lead yourself. Can you walk the walk? Are you able to execute on your own personal desires? Do you find yourself making excuses and justifying them with your actions?

This is the foundation and most important component of leadership. Effective leaders are extremely self-disciplined, intentional with their actions, and self-aware of who they truly are.

If what you want to achieve requires getting out of bed at 5 AM; you have to get yourself out of bed at 5 AM.

Lead your Family

After you’ve harnessed the ability to lead yourself, focus on leading your family. Those that surround you day in and day out! Whether this be your spouse, children, or other loved ones – develop the ability to lead them.

Your family will expose more about you and your leadership abilities than any other demographic. Your ability to communicate properly, make tough decisions, and lead day-in and day-out will be manifested in a family setting.

Lead your Team

Your team is similar to your family; in fact, you probably spend more time with them than you do your true relatives! The people you interact with everyday when you step foot in the office comprises your team.

Leading your team requires developing and implementing a vision, mission, values, code of honor, and “We Believe” statements. Your ability to lead will be directly determined by your ability to get your team to buy-in and commit to honoring these values.

Your ability to lead your team will determine your capability to serve those around you.

Lead your Community

The last step in the Hierarchy of Leadership is the ability to lead your community. By the time you’ve reached this point you should be confident and comfortable with your ability to lead. Leading in your community is simply an opportunity to extend your leadership skills elsewhere and serve.

To an extent, if you’ve reached this level of leadership ability it is your duty to go out and lead the community you live in. Possessing this level of leadership is rare and doesn’t come by chance. Reaching out at this level will allow you to leave an impact greater than you may have imagined.

Final Thoughts

Leadership isn’t easy and it isn’t for everyone. If you truly desire to become a better leader, examine where your leadership ability falls along the Leadership Hierarchy model.

The best advice I can give? Start by learning to lead yourself.

Let’s Ride!

Dr. SeaDr. Douglas Sea, CTO SIDECAR

To learn more about Dr. Douglas Sea click here.