Recession Proof Your Practice
Gerda Muller
PRIVATE PRACTICE SUCCESS Founder & Consultant: Helping you build a Self-Running Practice, giving your more time, money and meaning.
I’m writing this as I’m aware that right now there is a lot of doom and gloom talk all around us, whether that be in the media, on Social Media Platforms and even in our weekend discussions with friends and family. The focus of these discussions seems to be mostly around Australia being on the brink of a financial recession and the consequences of this on individuals and business.
The fact is that Australia has now had 31 years since the last financial recession, which happened in 1991. As you probably know, at the end of each financial quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) measures and reports the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A recession occurs when the ABS reports two consecutive periods of GDP decreases (also referred to as two periods of negative economic growth).
To be clear, Australia is not in a recession right now. However, all indications are pointing towards a probable recession in 2023, with some sources predicting more specifically August 2023. This means that you – as a practice owner – has less than 12 months to prepare your business and therefor also your family for this eventuality.
Let’s just take a collective breath right here because we have time. Still, that time will only be of value IF you use it and use it in the right way.
Now look, I don’t want you to panic. As a practice owner, I’m not panicking, because I know we can weather this storm.
Personally, I’ve not weathered a financial recession. But I did open my first practice in 2007 – just 12 months before the world was struck by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) that hit us in 2008. The impact of the GFC lasted around 3 years! Still, during that time my business had unprecedented growth, so much so that I opened my 2nd practice in 2011. In retrospect, the practice grew way too fast, but the learning here is that your business can survive anything….. still, not all businesses will.
The recent Covid-19 impact on private practices has been extreme. I have worked with practice owners in my Private Practice Success Academy and Founders Club who – on the one end of the spectrum – have had record revenue and profit months, despite lockdowns, telehealth transitions, industry high cancellations and other pandemic impacts. On the other end of the spectrum, I have heard many reports of group practices that had closed down completely during this time as they just weren’t setup to weather this particular storm and they did not seek out the business support early enough to get through it, let alone thrive. Getting your practice through Covid is most certainly a great achievement, but now we absolutely need to use the next 12 months to fully prepare for a financial recession.
This process starts by taking a couple of steps back FROM your business. By stepping into OBSERVER mode. By stepping into the role of OBJECTIVE ASSESSOR of where you are at right now, in order to get clarity around what needs attention so you can be 100% sure what YOU need to focus on in YOUR practice. Most practice owners tend to just work on whatever is already on their to do list instead of getting clarity around what is actually needed and required.
As such, I am opening up an opportunity for you to join me in a 90 minute Live Zoom session giving you the opportunity to get out of the weeds of operations, so you can step into OBSERVER and ASSESSOR mode as we assess the state of your private.
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This process is usually only reserved for my Private Practice Success Academy members, but I want to ensure that the general PPS Community at the very least will now have the opportunity to get clarity on what needs focus within each of your own practices over the next few months, so you also have the opportunity to start recession proofing your practice. I am totally under-charging for this, but I want to make this is a no-brainer decision for you. I absolutely hate hearing about practices that has closed down because practice owners just didn’t know what they didn’t know. When it comes to the point of closing down, it is too late. So join me and let’s get you ready.
Book your spot here: https://bit.ly/PPSAssessment
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After starting her PhD on the topic of "Psychologists as Practice Owners: Current Challenges, Coping & Success Predictors", Gerda was appalled at the lack of support for Allied Health Professionals going into Private Practice and decided to do something about it. This was the start of Private Practice Success Australia.