Do You Own a Business, or Do You Own a Job?

The following is adapted from The Remarkable Practice by Dr. Stephen Franson.

When I’m speaking from the stage and say, “You are in the business of saving lives, and when business is good everybody wins” most DCs close their eyes, smile, and nod their heads in agreement. But, I am usually only two or three probing questions away from revealing the truth — and that is that most chiropractors don’t own a business at all. They own a job — or more accurately, they have created a job that owns them.

So for most doctors, the idea of growing the practice means more time, more energy, more work, more stress, and more imbalance. And here lies the contradiction. You want to build your practice and become more “successful,” but you don’t really want to grow because you think that it would have serious negative consequences to the quality of your life.

Now, imagine doubling your practice. Pause on that thought for a second. How does that feel, honestly? If your practice volume was to double next week, what would break? Would you actually want to double your practice? How about if I asked your staff — your Team? Would they want to double?

Here’s the thing, doubling your practice doesn’t have to mean taking what you’re currently doing and doubling it.

I’ll suggest that there’s a better way. A different way — an approach to practice that creates a dynamic where growth becomes the natural expression of your practice. What’s more: even at double the volume, it will feel easier than it does now.

Instead of growing your practice the painful way you’ve always assumed you’d have to — by a pound of your flesh and hour after hour of your own time — you’re going to learn a new way, a better way, that allows you to do more, give more, love more, serve more, accomplish more, and make more.

At the very core of this system is the fundamental premise of this book:

You can build a Remarkable Practice as Part of a Remarkable Life, not instead of one.

You do this by making the fundamental shift from owning a job to owning a business.

“But I already do own a business!” you argue. Technically, that may be true. In a literal sense, yes, you may own your practice. But ask yourself this question: do you really own it or does it own you?

Let’s say you didn’t show up on Monday, would anybody notice? If your answer is “holy crap, yes, the place would screech to a halt” then that’s called owning a job. And it’s especially true if you’re a single operator, the only doctor in your practice, which most chiropractors are. If you fall into that category, guess what? When you’re not there, no doctoring is happening, no services are being rendered, and no money is being made.

Do you own a business, or do you own a job?

Don’t get me wrong, I know that you love your work, and you love the job. You may even be “successful” at running your practice, but the reality is most likely that the practice is running you. And if you’re not careful, it will run you into the ground. The consequences are real and serious: burnout, injury, illness, divorce, and worse.

So how can you do it? How can you serve your Purpose, realize your Vision, build your “successful practice” — AND avoid this pain? How do you build a Remarkable Practice as Part of a Remarkable LIFE? How do you go from owning a job to owning a business? That’s the gap we are going to fill with this book.

This is the key — the difference between a job and a business is this:

Businesses are Scalable, Durable, and Transferable.

You cannot build a Remarkable Practice as Part of a Remarkable Life if your practice does not have those three essential qualities.

First, your practice must be: scalable, which means that you can do more, serve more, love more, and make more, but it does not all have to be done by you. Real businesses do not run on “brute force” — they do not require a pound of your flesh and an hour of your time. Businesses run and build through leverage. By leveraging other people, systems, and technology, you can make a bigger impact and a better income, without it all having to be done by you.

Second, your practice has to be durable, which means that you can do more, serve more, love more, and make more even in your absence. This is what gives you the freedom to be able to build your Remarkable Life. Imagine being able to be home for dinnertime, bath time or at least bedtime. How about taking a few vacation weeks away from your practice without the place grinding to a halt? Like I said, the ultimate question is if you were to not show up on Monday morning would anyone notice? Now it’s not that you don’t want to show up — it’s that you don’t have to. We all know the difference.

Finally, your practice must be transferable, which means “saleable.” Have you built your practice to sell it? I know that you may be thinking that you are far from worrying about selling your practice. You may even be thinking that you will never sell it — they will drag your carcass out of there in the end. But trust me — one day you will want to sell. You should be able to get paid handsomely for your practice — if it is a business. If someone could look at your practice and see that it was built like a real business, buyers would compete to buy your practice. You need an Exit Strategy. Your goal is to make a graceful and profitable exit. If you have been running a “job,” you will find the eventual sale of your practice to be a painful experience.

It is a shame to see a practice retire with the doctor. Wouldn’t it be better if you had a great DC come in as a successor and continue to care for your beloved patients? To continue your work and your legacy. And to have created a real business where your Team can continue to serve the Mission.

And the truth is, you will never regret building a practice to sell it. This “culture” creates a fantastic environment to work in and to own. Building a practice as a business from the start is the best approach, but even if you are years into the game, it’s not too late to make this change.

To learn more about running a successful practice you can find The Remarkable Practice on Amazon.

DR. STEPHEN FRANSON is a champion of the chiropractic wellness lifestyle who packs deep experience from over twenty years of clinical practice. Known as “The Systems Guy,” Stephen is the founder of The Remarkable Practice, a coaching and consulting company that helps DCs create a remarkable practice as part of a remarkable life. Stephen is also co-founder of Chiro Match Makers, a specialized placement service that matches the right chiropractor with the right opportunity.

A sought-after international speaker, Stephen was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Chiropractors in 2017. He graduated from Life Chiropractic College in 1996 and opened Franson Family Chiropractic in 1997, which became one of the largest wellness clinics in the world. Stephen lives a Remarkable Life in New Hampshire with his wife Camilla (DC) and their two children, Sam and Emma Grace.