In a world where all businesses claim to be different by having a unique approach in the way they deliver their products and services, I decided to write this post after repeating, both to practitioners and members of the public, how different we are from the other clinics in Cambridge.
So what are the differences between us and other clinics in Cambridge?
Professional management
Most clinics are founded by therapists who need a room to work; they acquire a property with a few extra rooms and sublet the extra available space/time to practitioners who need a room to practice from.
Salus Wellness was founded by professional managers and business consultants who saw an opportunity in the market and setup a business to meet such opportunity. Our aim was to put together a great team of practitioners passionate about their practice and create a clinic which would allow them to offer their services in a pleasant and professional environment. Being run like a proper business, the clinic has precise procedures which allow as many as 50 practitioners to share a common space and work together in harmony and collaboration.
Client funnelling and referrals
In many clinics the founder(s) somehow determines the main therapy offered by the clinic and all practitioners offering the same treatment are somehow getting the requests which cannot be satisfied by the busy founder(s).
At Salus Wellness all enquiries are assessed against specialisation and availability of each practitioner and, when all conditions are equal we keep a tight round robin to ensure equal opportunities of business for all practitioners.
Eight therapy rooms
Other clinics have on average 4 or 5 rooms allocated in various ways so the availability of extra time for emergencies or unexpected bookings might be tricky.
Salus Wellness has 8 therapy rooms which are all used according to three slots of 4.5 hours long. That means that each day we could potentially have 24 different people working at the clinic. The reality is that we have a few practitioners spending one or two days per week with us, many who use just one slot and others who are at the clinic just a few hours per month. Having eight therapy rooms we are available, over 95% of the time, to allocate a room to a practitioner who needs it at just a few hours’ notice.
Rent vs. commission fees
Many clinics charge, for their room and some of the services they offer, a percentage of the practitioner’s fee; typically 40%. Getting charged a percentage of income often suits people with no clients but, when they get busy, they realise how much money they are actually paying for the usage of a room.
At Salus Wellness we charge a very competitive rent that, depending on the practitioner’s fee structure, represents between 8 and 30% of their fees. Each client pays their practitioner directly and practitioners pay their rent to us on a monthly basis.
Help with marketing and business development
Most clinics are run purely as a place to rent by people who might be very busy but do not necessarily have a professional background in marketing and business development to offer any help. There is no proactive marketing work done by the practitioner with perhaps a website and some advertising in the local press.
At Salus Wellness we offer:
- an optimised website with thousands of visitors per month. The website is continuously supplied with fresh content in term of news, articles and announcements
- a proactive social media strategy with blogging, Twitter, Facebook and Google+
- a free profile page for each practitioner that puts them on the first page of Google for their name and practice
- an initial discussion about individual practitioners’ current marketing and business development situation when they join and help for them to draw up a marketing plan for their practice
- free advice about how to best choose the most suitable marketing tools and social media for their practice: e.g. you cannot market massages in the same way you market clinical psychology
- organise networking events for practitioners to create an independent support group
- run a free monthly workshop about marketing and business development
So, if you are a practitioner in complementary health or working in the NHS and are interested in private practice and working from a clinic, which is likely to maximise your chances of success for your practice, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to explain how you can join our already busy team.