Reviewing your Business Plan
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RMTs are unable to treat patients due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The date you can return to treatment and what that will look like are currently unknown. This has left RMTs with time on their hands, as well as a lot of uncertainty about their finances, their families and their future. Many RMTs are looking for productive things they can do during this unprecedented time. RMTs will be able to return to work eventually, so this can be a great opportunity to review your business plan to make sure that when you go back to work your business will be even stronger than ever.
Business Idea or Mission
A business plan begins with your central business idea. To review this, take the time to reiterate the purpose of your business and what makes it unique in the marketplace. Review the specific patient need you hope to satisfy – it could be a need unique to a particular group or area, or needs of particular types of conditions. It’s important to pinpoint how your practice will offer something different to your patients than your competitors.
Will this pandemic change your central business focus? Only you can answer that, and you may chose to keep the same area of focus, but it’s a great time to re-evaluate what you’ve been focusing on and determine where you’d like to focus when you return to work given the changing landscape.
The Business Model
The business model defines how you will make money, how your business will be sustainable and how you will grow. It’s how you would calculate the short-term and long-term profitability of your business.Many of the factors you would use to calculate this might be different after a return to work, so it’s important to review them.
This includes the number of patients you expect to see per week, as well as the cost of marketing. It may be more difficult to attract new patients as people will still be somewhat wary of close contact, and any new requirements of returning to practice will have to be explained to existing patients. The business model also asks you to consider how many patients you have the capacity to see per week (which is different than the number of patients you expect), and this may be different when you return to work, depending on new requirements. This all influences your projected revenue.
Capacity Building
You may want to consider different ways you can increase your capacity, whether you want to continue with things that you maybe have introduced in the thick of the pandemic, like telepractice with some patients, and whether you’re interested in other sources of revenue such as teaching continuing education or taking on subcontractors. Increasing your capacity is one of the ways to increase your revenue.
Other elements that can increase your capacity is taking additional training focusing on different modalities or patient populations, adding new tools or equipment, or changing how you target your marketing activities.
Marketing
There is significant strategy and creative thinking that should go into your marketing strategy to attract new patients and retain old ones. In light of this pandemic, you may want to review your past efforts and think of creative new ideas to see how you may want to change your approach to marketing.
Consider who your target market is. Has their situation changed and have their needs for massage therapy changed? Are there other potential patients you might be reaching that you didn’t focus on before? Only you can answer these questions, but once you are able to return to work, one thing all RMTs should add to their marketing efforts is information about the precautions they will be taking to keep their patients safe, as many people will be hesitant or nervous about any kind of physical touch.
Some marketing does have a cost associated with it, and RMTs are facing increasing financial difficulties, but there are also ways to implement changes into your current marketing efforts. You could change the focus of your regular emails to changes you have made, or increase your focus on social media platforms, which can be no cost and can have a positive impact by helping you to reach new patients.
Financial Planning Scenarios
All other strategic aspects of business planning will help to ensure your financial plans will be prudent, practical, and help your business to be successful. This is also the area of your business plan that is most likely to need a review.
You may have to readjust your budget depending on how long you will be required to be off work, as your cash flows will be greatly impacted. When creating your business plan originally, you likely estimated what you need to do to reach financial sustainability and profitability. Now would be a good time to try to figure out what you would need to do to recapture the level of sustainability that you enjoyed before the pandemic. If you are expecting a lower revenue, which may be likely in the short term, think about what expenses you may be able to reduce as well as the capacity to generate income you actually have.
Time for Review
This was a general review of the areas of your business plan, and how they can be reviewed before and just after returning to work in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. You should always review your business plan regularly, and use it to guide you, like a roadmap to your business. When an event such as this disrupts the course of your business in significant ways, it can be a great opportunity to review to ensure you are in the best possible condition to resume your business when you can reopen.