How to grow your practice by doing less with Dr. Brian Dixon
My interview this week is with my friend and first recurring guest, Dr. Brian Dixon.
I spoke to Dr. Brian last year about how to build an app. This week, we’re talking about how to grow your business by doing less.
In addition to co-founding an app and running his own private practice in Fort Worth, Texas, Dr. Brian is also the co-founder of Simply Psych, a practice management and business consulting company for mental health professionals. They’re a proud sponsor of the newsletter.
I spoke to Dr. Brian about how to know when it’s time to outsource and who to hire so you can stay in your zone of genius. Enjoy!
Dr. Brian Dixon
Why did you start Simply Psych?
Simply Psych is a manifestation of everything I’m bad at. My guess is there are other clinicians who are bad at certain things. Let other people do those things for you.
Luckily, everyone at Simply Psych is good at the things I’m bad at.
How do you identify what you’re bad at?
You do some soul searching and you ask other people. I’m really bad at money and taxes. So I have a CPA. I don’t do any of the bookkeeping. That’s where companies like Heard come in. It feels like everyone is bad at taxes, so that one’s pretty easy.
Dealing with forms, collecting money, answering emails. If you hate that stuff and you feel it in your gut, outsource it.
How do you know when to outsource?
The time to outsource is when you have the thought, “I want more time.” The minute you have that thought is the minute you need to outsource.
Pay now or pay later, but you will pay.
What about hiring?
Managing people and treating people are two very different skill sets. In treating people, you are putting their goals first and working backwards from that. In managing people, you are putting the business goals first.
You do care for your employees, whether they’re contractors or not, but as a business owner you have a fiduciary responsibility to the business first.
I keep seeing therapists in Facebook Groups and on social media asking about hiring a virtual assistant. But what they don’t realize is they have to train them and there’s no back up if they’re out sick.
Our virtual assistants at Simply Psych know the mental health world so you don’t have to keep training and re-training people. And we always have coverage.
What kind of things should therapists outsource?
At Simply Psych, we think about it in five different buckets.
1. General office administration: forms and letters, emails, refill requests if you’re a psychiatrist.
2. We do intake management.
3. We do marketing, which is a separate package.
4. Billing and accounts receivable. We don’t do billing for practices that take insurance because that’s just not what we do.
5. Finally, we offer one-time practice consults for folks who need it.
As a therapist, what are some things to look for when you’re evaluating vendors or contractors?
Experience in the field is the most important vetting tool I use. For example, I’m willing to spend money with you because you work in mental health marketing.
I want to have a vendor that knows mental health. But there’s not many of ya’ll out there.
Any final words of advice for therapists thinking about outsourcing?
Figure out which ball you want to drop and let us pick it up.