Owning your own practice is a dream for many medical practitioners for the freedom it affords, whether it’s being your own boss, managing employees or just building and running a successful business. Not everyone, however, is fully prepared for the complications and the challenges of doing so.
It may take years of training to become a Doctor, but choosing the career path of starting your own practice takes even more time to learn and grow successfully. To help you start on the right foot, here is our quick 5-step guide to setting up a medical practice.
Starting a medical practice in 5 steps
Make sure it is the right time – there’s no point even starting to set up your own medical practice if it isn’t the right time for you. Make sure you can fully commit and that you are prepared to develop new skills. Think about your motivations for wanting to take on this challenge and ask yourself if they are enough to get you through the hard times to make this venture a success.
Select your location carefully – just choosing a location because it looks nice or you like the area isn’t going to be enough to make your practice a success; you need to do thorough research to find a suitable space that will work longterm. As well as accessibility and local demand, look at local competitors and the potential for future growth.
Draw up a business plan – you will need to create a business plan to make projections about the success of your practice and to outline the steps you need to take to get there. Think about how you intend to set up and run your practice, how much it will cost and how you will finance it, how you plan to adapt to changes in business tax law, how you will recruit and train staff, and what your insurance plan, risk strategy, cash flow projections, and marketing strategy will look like.
Complete your compliance and paperwork – sooner rather than later, have your compliance and paperwork in order. You won’t be able to set up a medical practice without informing the AHPRA and obtaining a Medicare Provider Number, ATO Registrations, and a General Practice Accreditation.
Consult expert advice – don’t be too proud (or stubborn) to ask for help along the way. You have the medical expertise and you’ll need to learn a lot of new skills to build, run and grow your own practice, but you can’t do everything yourself. Seeking advice from experts in areas such as accounting, law, and HR etc, can be the difference between you failing and you exceeding your goals, so always prioritise building your own trusted team of advisors to help guide you in the right direction.
Make your practice a success
You may not be prepared for the challenges that come your way when paving your own career path, but if you follow this guide to setting up a medical practice, you can be sure that you’re giving yourself the best possible start. Just remember to channel your energy into the most valuable tasks (such as finding the right location and building your business plan) and let your team of trusted advisors help you with the rest!
Whether you need help or advice from business planning to creating a cash flow and profit strategy, we can give you our insights to ensure that whatever decision you make is a success. Just contact me via mitchell@affluenceca.com.au and I’d be keen to help.