You must put in the effort to become profitable before vacations enter the practice equation.
All practice and money flow systems must be in place.
A chiropractor who has yet to be making a full payment on their student loans has no business taking any vacations. They haven’t earned it yet.
Other doctors who are doing really well probably don’t take enough time off.
Once a chiropractor becomes successful (no student loans and you are auto-saving your age) then vacations can be planned.
A recent study of millionaires concludes that the typical millionaire works over 50 hours a week. There is a lesson here.
Billionaire Mark Cuban of the famous television show Shark Tank says to be successful in business you must be “obsessed” with your business.
People obsessed with their business rarely think about vacations.
But, it’s not a bad idea to have some breaks from time to time to recharge and let your mind get clear.
I personally only need 2 or 3 days. Anything longer and I feel like all momentum may come to a screeching halt.
My satisfaction comes from being productive at work . Very few things are more satisfying than that. At least professionally.
Family members and friends who do not own a business rarely understand this. They always want time off from work. This is the exact opposite of the business owner.
How much does a vacation cost? For an employee it costs nothing. Many times they get a paid vacation.
As a self employed clinic owner, if you normally collect $20,000 a week, when you take off a week you lose $20,000 in production. Plus, you have the cost of the trip itself.
So what does a vacation actually cost you?
The natural times of the year to take a little break are: Memorial day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
These are all paid Holidays for staff. We can also pick up an extra day or two and relax.
Beyond this, once a chiropractor is profitable and has all the WINNERSEDGE systems and money flow systems in place, you can take one week off a year.
We never take off a normal week like typical people do. You never want a week with a zero on your stat sheet.
So we recommend that you leave on a Tuesday evening or a Wednesday and you come back the following Tuesday or Wednesday. This way you can have a couple huge days before you leave and a couple big days when you return.
This is how you can be gone for a week but at the end of the month your stats sheet looks like you weren’t gone at all. It’s quite genius.
As a chiropractor continues to become more successful with no unsecured debt, a significant amount saved, and a lot of practice momentum, you can take two full weeks off a year using our system.
We even have doctors taking off around two months every year and still collecting over $1 million a year.
How to do this is an advanced topic that we handle with doctors at that level.
What we must guard against is you thinking that you need more time off when your practice is not that successful yet.
It is not fun to be on “vacation” but be stressed about practice and business.
You want to be able to enjoy it!
We want you to enjoy every day off that you have because your practice is streamlined, fun, and profitable.
Summary: Plan for fun on all 5 of the major Holidays. Add another week or two of vacation time as the practice allows. Sprinkle in a long weekend here and there for fun!
If you have kids and are doing well, consider taking a nanny with you on vacation.
Work hard so you deserve time off and do fun things now while you can most enjoy it!
