Many practitioners, engaged in group practices or contractors/ licensees, contplate establishing their own practice at some time in their careers. However, setting up a practice involves a wide variety of steps that may be quite daunting.It also requires significant, ongoing time to consistently oversee progress, while making key decisions on its with which most practitioners have limited experience or familiarity.Finally, meticulously planned, overarching project managent throughout the implentation period of 3–6 months is absolutely paramount.Personal supervision, if undertaken by a practitioner, will require the [future] practice owner to be involved in the daily undertakings of each service provider to ensure set-up activities are on track and properly implented.{{quote-A:R-W:450-Q: The new venture, properly orchestrated from start-up to ongoing managent, can be very rewarding, provided plans are put in place. }}Matters requiring personal experience or familiarity range from business planning, legals, prises location/selection, design, construction, finance, technology/communications, office/medical equipment and more, e.g. signage, security, waste managent, website (marketing) and ultimate recruitment of personnel (staff and other medical).The new venture, properly orchestrated from start-up to ongoing managent, can be very rewarding, provided plans are put in place to ensure high quality patient services. Meanwhile, administrative and clinical functions of the ‘practice business’ must operate efficiently, cost effectively and in synergy with the personal objectives of new owners.Of course, once set-up preliminaries have been completed to the practitioner’s satisfaction, several other start-up aspects of practice managent and managing the business will come into play. Several of those, mentioned below, will be the subject of future articles.Preliminaries (initial decision to set-up and laying the ground)Before deciding to start a practice, certain prerequisites are recommended:
- Business plan & feasibility study: A ‘road map’ of the owner/s’ plans for the venture, including financial analysis of necessary elents (staff, patient volumes, revenue, expenses) to determine breakeven points and profitability (reward for owners’ endeavours). It will also support applications for finance and ultimately provide a detailed budget for first year operations and beyond;
- Business structure: A structure such as a Company or Trust is essential for securing prises, borrowing finance and operating the new practice. Some clients fail to secure prises due to absence of an appropriate business structure as the selected ‘entity’ is likely to purchase/lease prises and apply for finance;
- Area/prises selection: While the business plan details pertinent aspects of practice goals, target patient segments etc., identification of the best physical prises/location requires dographic research of local statistics – age, ethnic makeup, income levels, dand, competition – to determine whether planned services fit the target area. Exploring options and site assessment is the next step. Legal aspects and negotiating skills play an important role in securing best deals;
- Finance approval: The feasibility study and business plan is required by financiers;
- Securing prises: The decision to rent or purchase prises is one to be considered in light of current personal resources and long-term plans.
Completing these steps will give aspiring new owners greater confidence in viability and likelihood of success, ensure funding is in place and that the new venture is afforded every opportunity to succeed.Start-up actionsOf course, this major milestone will be the starting point in planning and execution of several further actions required to ensure ongoing practice/business managent and patient healthcare. Some examples, to be detailed in upcoming articles, are:
- Project planning;
- Design;
- Fit out and construction;
- Business insurance;
- Other (start-up):
- Logo design & business documents
- Website and marketing
- Technology: Hardware and software
- Practice furniture
- Medical equipment/furniture/supplies
- Security
- Signage
- Telephone syst
- Maintenance and other contracts
- Waste disposal
- MBS/PBS/DVA registrations
- Miscellaneous: Safe, toys &andTV;
- Mid-term reviews with all suppliers;
- Recruitment: Administrative, clinical, allied, contracts;
- Other (practice and business managent) plans: Budget and monitoring, risk managent, supplier managent, staff induction and assessments, records managent, Policy & Procedure Manual, communication/effective meetings and (optional) board/owners’ managent.
Part two of the series deals with preliminary tasks that must be completed and can be read here.
