Business Coaching for Doctors and Clinicians in Private Practice

Have you started out on your Private Practice journey but are struggling to get enough of the right kind of patients into your clinics?

Are you finding you can’t get a dedicated operating list time slot, because you can’t prove you can reliably fill it? Or, worse still, has your private hospital taken it from you, and given it to someone else who can fill it?

Maybe you started out enthusiastically, but are now feeling stuck, and your practice’s growth has stalled.

Do you own a Private Practice, leading a team of other physios or osteos, and are struggling to get them busy or promoting themselves?

Or, perhaps you’re working a substantial part of your week in the NHS, squeezing in Private Practice on the side, and wondering how to build a profitable business, that enables you to drop NHS hours, without burning out?

If you’re feeling frustrated at your Private Practice’s progress, let me ask you:

Over a decade ago, I found myself in a situation no clinician wants to face. I was working full-time in Private Practice for a leading private sports medicine company, when a series of incidents occurred that were so profoundly against my ethics and core values, that it became impossible for me to stay. I quit.

What followed was a whirlwind: In true corporate style, I was bullied out of the door with just one week’s notice (instead of being able to work out my contracted three months), and overnight, my income—once a reliable £200,000 a year—vanished. To make matters worse, my contract had a restrictive covenant that prevented me from reconnecting with any of my previous referrers or patients. I was the breadwinner in my family.

I was left with a gaping financial hole and no immediate way of filling it. It was terrifying.

But in three months, I not only rebuilt my practice from the ground up but was fully booked and was earning more than I had done in my previous role.

How did I do it? Through grit, determination, hard work, and mastering the art of marketing. I learned what worked and—crucially—what didn’t.

Since then, I’ve spent over a decade helping hundreds of doctors, physios, osteopaths, and podiatrists do the same – building thriving private practices without burning out.

What is it costing you to stand still?

If you’re tired of feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of how to grow and market your practice (without losing your health and sanity), the Private Practice Performance Program is here to help.

As a clinician, your strength lies in treating patients.

However, medical school DID NOT equip you with the business acumen needed to grow a Private Practice. I’m very aware of all the challenges clinicians face when starting a practice, because they don’t have business, marketing and sales skills.

If you’ve started your Private Practice on your own- well done!

….but…. here’s what’s likely to happen:

Just as with many of my clients, who started out with all the great intentions, it’s not long until you face obstacles, problems and frustrations.

The vast majority of Clinicians start their Private Practice as a side-hustle.

If they’re a Consultant, they’re usually working full time in the NHS and ‘eke out’ a little time for Private Practice around the edges. For many, that means working long into the evening, ‘borrowing’ a little time from an NHS PA slot in their week, or working on Saturdays. Often this coincides with raising a young family, and they are spread thin.

There can seem a like a big number of expenses mounting up – room hire, admin, billing, indemnity, etc. etc., and so many Clinicians try to bootstrap and limit all business spending, inevitably leading to ‘DIY’, inefficient processes (and no time for marketing!)

They may get some patients in through the door, but they’re not fully booked by a long-shot, and without effective marketing strategies, growth is slow.

Whilst enthusiasm is enough to carry them along at the beginning, after a year or two of this, many Clinicians are weary from working all the hours, and feel their Private Practice isn’t what they’d dreamed of.  They may decide to dabble in some advertising or hire a very expensive external marketing agency, and if they’re lucky, they’ll break even or make a small return on their investment.

Some ambitious Physios and Osteos expand their practices by bringing other Clinicians on board to work for them, only to face the new challenge of having to push even harder to get their associates or employees fully-booked.

With all the additional overheads, their take-home income may seem paltry when they consider the amount of increased time and energy they’ve had to expend on managing and training their staff. The patients only want to book in with the owner, and the Clinicians shy away from (or flatly refuse to have anything to do with) marketing the clinic.

Some Consultants eventually find themselves in the situation of wanting to reduce their NHS hours, or leave the NHS completely because they feel overworked, under-resourced, and unappreciated. They feel worried that if they make the leap, they won’t have enough reliable income from their Private Practice to make up for lost earnings and pension contributions. They stay stuck in limbo, burning out, or even resenting their Private Practice.

Many struggle on for years in this way, unable to make the leap to a way of working that would bring them more income, autonomy, and freedom.

I understand that when you’re keen to increase your bottom line, there’s a natural instinct to minimise all expenditure. Your Private Practice is a business, and investing in it (and yourself) is the best way to ensure growth.  Every day that your clinic isn’t fully booked is costing you lost revenue (not to mention room rental).

Let’s use a very basic example. Let’s imagine you’re a hip surgeon, and through our coaching work, you gain just one additional patient. You see that patient for an initial consultation, a follow-up appointment (post-investigation), you carry out a hip replacement and see the patient for a couple of post-op follow-ups. That single patient means you’ve more than recouped double your monthly investment of working with me. If you’re a physio or osteo, and you gain just a single patient for a course of treatment, you’ve got the expense covered.