Never, ever base your practice business plan on there being 12 months in a year.
There aren’t!
The question should be how many WORKING months there are in the year.
It is extremely rare for any private consultant to find he or she is inundated with patients during December. There will be some. Nonetheless, there won’t be many.
Many patients have got other things on their mind during that particular time of the year.
That doesn’t mean the whole of December will be lost but around half of it will.
The same came be said of August. Patients prefer to go on holiday.
Come to think of it, many consultants like to go on holiday in August too. Just as they like to have Christmas off as well as the patients.
So if your business plan is to make say £120,000 a year (or any other target for that matter), don’t assume your monthly target should be £10,000 each month.
Instead, you should set a monthly target of £10,909 a month ie £120,000 divided by 11.
The issue gets even more complicated though for many MHM clients when study leave, NHS commitments or whatever else they get up to.
Factoring in an additional allowance for commitments unconnected to the practice or an allowance for patient preference is important.
pete@medicalhealthcaremanagement.co.uk
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