Benefits of Office Help
Although the country is still in the midst of a major economic crunch, it's important not to overlook/undervalue the importance of quality office help. Yes, having that extra employee can be a financial strain on an audiology practice's bottom line, but I thought I'd share two articles from our recently released November/December 2009 issue of ADVANCE that both happened to make what I think are two pretty good points:
- Having office help can result in quality of life benefits; and
- Administrative support can free audiologists up to give more time to their patients.
In our cover story, "Settling In," Lisa Klop, AuD, owner of Yarmouth Audiology, Yarmouth, ME, acknowledged the benefits of having good office help. For a year, Dr. Klop says she ran her practice as a one-woman show, juggling financial reports, payroll, taxes, and business regulations. Eventually, she recognized "one person can't do it all."
"I realized I could not wear all hats. I didn't want to give up time with my patients, which was going to end up being the ultimate cost," Dr, Klop told ADVANCE. "Your practice is going to be successful when you have people you can trust at your side. Office managers, accountants, bookkeepers, attorneys, and payroll services are invaluable resources. I guess you could say it takes a village."
Later in the issue, we featured a story I wrote on virtual assistants (VAs), contracted entrepreneurs who offer administrative services from a home office without the financial complications that come with traditional assistants. Full details about VAs can be found in the article, but the basic allure is that since you can contract on hourly or retainer rates, you pay for 100 percent productive time, which can be especially helpful for small practices that can't afford to pay full-time wages for minimal need.
"Even in these tough economic times, one of the smartest things people can do is get the administrative support they really need, so it frees them up to work with more clients and make more money" said Stacey Brice, founder of the VA profession and CEO of Assist U, a virtual organization committed to training, coaching, supporting, and certifying VAs.
Ms. Brice also made some quality of life comments that didn't make it into the article. In the interest of highlighting this theme, I thought I might share her remarks here:
"Business owners can do anything, they just can't do everything. What happens when money gets tight is people try to do everything, and then everything suffers. I have this quotation that hangs on my wall--it was in a magazine--and it just says ‘If you work 20 hours a day your product will be crap,' and that's the bottom line. You cannot have a balanced life, you cannot run a successful business, you cannot pay attention to all the things that need to be paid attention to, keep all the balls juggling in the air and not drop stuff, if you're doing it all yourself.
"One of the things that people have to think about when they run their own business is ‘If I work with people doing what I do, I bill at this rate,' whatever that rate is. If I take time away from doing that to do my administrative work, I'm actually paying myself that same amount of money to do administrative work I probably don't do very well. So it's probably in my best interest to get someone who is an expert at administrative work, who can make all of this stuff hum and sing and make me look brilliant, and probably be less expensive than paying myself to do it, and it frees me to work with more clients and make more money or go spend time with my kids. So it's very cost effective, and it's very cost efficient."