Quarterly Checkup

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
~ Jim Rohn

It’s important to create a schedule to check-in with yourself around your goals and the direction your business is headed. This is a practice that I do both quarterly and yearly to keep focused and motivated.

Often people put a lot of energy and intention into their practice as they are building it, but lose momentum once they really get started. Without a structure for monitoring where you are going after your launch, it’s easy to lose steam. You have already completed your yearly goal list, now set the structure for checking-in with your business quarterly.

A checkup helps you “take the pulse” of your practice.

Below is a list of things I try to do every quarter to make sure I am on top of my business. See if any or all of these actions are helpful for you too.

1) Review all my active files.

Make sure they are up-to-date and complete. Cross check against my client management software (cliniko.com) to make sure all the information is entered correctly online. Once done, I write the date on the outside of the file, so I know at the next checkup I don’t have to check the online information unless something has changed. If I haven’t seen the client for more than six months, I archive the file.

2) Contact any clients that have dropped off the radar.

Often clients are just as busy as you are, and time can get away from them. I will touch base with clients who indicated they were going to rebook but haven’t. This email often sparks clients to re-schedule if they truly intended to. If I don’t hear back from them, I archive the file at the next checkup. Note: Use your clinical judgement here. It is doesn’t seem clinically appropriate, or if your spidey-sense is telling you it was a client’s way of backing-out without officially saying goodbye, leave it alone.

3) Review how many clients I’ve seen each month, and on average how many per week.

4) Record my gross income each month.

With number 3 and 4, I then compare them to last year’s numbers to see how they stack up, with a note about what I did differently if there is an increase or decrease. For example, did I take a vacation or did I increase marketing efforts, etc. In your first year, just record what’s happening.

5) Follow-up with any outstanding invoices to determine a course of action.

Thankfully this is rarely an issue. I usually send reminders at the end of every month if someone has forgotten.

6) Record my total business expenses.

I do my bookkeeping weekly/monthly so this is just bringing this information into one place.

7) Record my referral sources.

Luckily the software I use does this for me, so as long as I have my files up to date, I can see what/who has been sending clients my way over the last few months. I then try to make sure that I have thanked any individuals who have sent referrals (if I haven’t already).

8) Make a list of everything that has been working over the last few months, and what I would like to do more of.

Think about your systems, finances, marketing, self-care, work-life balance, etc.

9) Make a list of anything that hasn’t been working, and what needs changing.

Consider the same things as above.

10) Pick one main focus/goal for the next three months.

For example: systems, client acquisition, networking, professional development, etc. And then write out what I will do to try to achieve that goal.

This is my best-case scenario. Sometimes it is a pared down version; sometimes it gets pushed back a bit, but ideally this is what I aim to do once every three months. It helps keep me on track and know what requires energy as I move forward.

Action Item: Complete your main priorities for the next three months in the worksheet and decide what steps are needed toward achieving your goals.