I haven’t yet run an acupuncture clinic myself. Still, I get asked a lot about how to set up the business procedures/processes for running a clinic.

The best book I’ve seen on running a business is The E-Myth Revisited. Bad title, great book. It’s actually easy to read, makes a lot of sense, and will get you thinking about how to make things easier on yourself.It’s almost certainly in your local library.

In it, Michael Gerber talks about how many people who start a business end up creating a job for themselves that’s much worse than the job they left. It’s no wonder that more than 4 out of 5 businesses fail - and I’m told it’s worse for acupuncture clinics.

Among other businesses, Gerber uses the example of McDonald’s franchise system. McDonald’s rarely ever has a failing restaurant. They put together a system that’s almost idiot-proof. In other words, as long as the restaurant/franchise owner can follow directions, they’ll succeed.

Successfully running a business means you have to handle everything in addition to actually doing the work - marketing, finance, inventory, bookkeeping, advertising, payroll, taxes, etc. I don’t know about you, but even if I understand all these things, I have no interest in doing them. I’d rather focus on the actual work, wouldn’t you?

Setting up appropriate business systems means you don’t have to figure out what to do next. You just follow your system. This means you only have to be smart when you set up the system. After that, you don’t need to be on top of your game.

For example, bookkeeping can be a real pain. But you can set up a simple system to collect all bills, receipts, and payments. If you know where everything is, and what to do with it, it’s easy. It’s when you’re not sure what to do - when you don’t have a system - that it becomes a problem.

Like I said last week, making things automatic and easy means:

1. You only have to be organized once in a while.
2. You only have to be smart once in awhile.
3. You only have to make an effort to follow through once in awhile.

I’m betting you have no interest in having to be smart and organized about marketing, finance, inventory, bookkeeping, advertising, payroll, taxes, and whatnot. You’d rather just treat patients. If you set up the appropriate systems, everything becomes much easier.