Adding an associate to your acupuncture practice is a great step that can help you bring in more revenue, and also cover you patients when you are away from the clinic. But it takes planning and organization and should be thought through very carefully beforehand. Some acupuncturists want to go through this process, but don’t spend the time to do it right.
I have been an associate at someone else’s clinic for 4 years, and I have also had several associates of my own at this point in my career. Here are some examples of mistakes I have made, or have seen happen to my colleagues. Learn from these pitfalls and plan to avoid them.
- Not hiring for cultural fit. This is so important and often overlooked. You are going to be working with this person and you want them to be a nice fit with you and the rest of your staff. It’s really important that the associate is flexible, knowledgeable and wants to learn from you. If you bring someone on who thinks they know more than you or has issues with authority figures BE CAREFUL. When interviewing ask them questions about teachers or coaches they have had in the past. Ask them if they are open to critical feedback about their skill set and if they are open to growing in new ways.
- Bringing on an associate too quickly and not having enough patients for them. This is one that occurs often. You think you might be ready for an associate and then it turns out there aren’t enough patients, and then the head acupuncturist starts to panic about money and patient load and there begins a competitive energy between owner and associate. If you really are ready to work less and give some of your patient load away and you are willing to let some clients move on to someone else’s care, then you are ready to think about sharing your patients with an associate. If you have worries about cash flow, patient load, and trusting another practitioner to care for patient, then you might need to rethink bringing someone else into your practice.
- Setting up a fee schedule that isn’t fair to both practitioner and associate.  Sure, an associate can bring your revenue up, but make sure to build in incentives and bonuses and to consider capping the portion they pay you once they are established. You don’t want your associate to start thinking they are your slave and that they could make more money elsewhere. Remember that they can and will leave your practice when they feel confident to start their own. And also remember that they bring tremendous value to your livelihood and also lifestyle when they are tried, true, and trustworthy. These are things worth compensating for. Watch for an upcoming article about tips and strategies for associate financial agreements.
-  Not having systems in place when your associate starts. Don’t hire admin staff right after you find an associate, and don’t start an online calendar or EHR program early on in your associate relationship. Your associate wants to enter a well organized practice that has great systems in place for them. They don’t want to be your guinea pig as your practice grows and you struggle to put the baseline systems in place and have to teach them on the go. This will completely overwhelm most new practitioners. Start with experienced front desk staff or a good team like Acuhub that is solid. Build your online scheduling system out before your associate joins your team. Have your insurance billing systems working well before you add another practitioner to the mix. This all sounds like very simple advice, but it’s very time consuming to have this all running smoothly.
- Not knowing much about leadership or workplace communication. It’s very common to think we can just work it all out or that we can learn how to communicate effectively with our superiors and those that work under us…. but often this isn’t as easy as we think. Before you enter a working relationship with an associate, make sure you learn how to communicate with and understand them. Check out Business Chemistry or Soul Canyon for some tips and training opportunities. The four personality types mentioned in both of their links are really useful in the workplace.
Resources for digging deeper:  Missing the point by Lorne Brown has a chapter on associates. Well worth the reading. Jill Blakeway’s talk at the Pacific Symposium 2017 has wonderful advice on the associate arrangement. I’m not sure if it’s available online, but is likely in her blogs.  Kristen Hurder-Karmcher’s talk at Inetegrative Fertility Sympostim in Vancouver, BC has some great tips as well.
