And today I really want to tell you about how to find the core need of your business using something called the Fix This Next assessment.
So here’s the deal: as private practice owners, at any stage, we all struggle with some amount of stress and overwhelm. We have so many inspired and exciting ideas to pursue that we can get buried by our own to-do lists. The struggle is real and I’m sure you can relate to some degree.
‘Fix This Next’ is Mike Michalowicz’ most recent book, and it lays out an incredibly useful framework that any business owner can use.
What he did is he basically took Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and he adapted it to business. The framework can help you figure out the core need of your business right now and go to work on the related tasks. And it’s quick and it’s free, which is nice.
The Fix This Next approach addresses problems in the order of their impact on the business, with the consistent focus on moving the business in one direction in the straightest possible path, so it really helps you to do the right things at the right time in the right order.
I’m going to take just a few minutes to break down the levels and explain them to you.
I’m a visual person – you might be also – so if you go to Google and just type in ‘Fix This Next Assessment’ and then click on the Images tab, you’ll get a visual that looks like…well, it’s a triangle, looks a lot like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and it lays out basically five different levels.
And most private practice owners, myself included, are likely in one of the first three levels. But the top two levels are also important.
The first one at the bottom is basically Sales, which is the creation of cash – think referrals, new clients consistently coming in.
Level Two is Profit, which is the creation of stability, because it doesn’t matter how many referrals you have or how many clients you have if you’re not making enough money at the end of the day.
Number Three is Order, which is the creation of efficiency. And this is actually where my group practice is at right now. We have lots of referrals, we have a good profitable business and we’re just trying to make things more streamlined and more efficient.
Then Level Four on top of that is Impact, which is the creation of transformation.
And Level five is Legacy, the creation of permanence.
Hopefully for myself and for you, we can get there to those top levels at some point.
It’s important to point out that the order here is not linear and the core need of your business can actually change over time with world events, pandemics, personal crises, any number of things, really.
So if you want to take the assessment, it’s free and it’s quick – it’s only about twenty five questions. And if you want to dig in more, you can of course read the book.
And then if you want to work with a coach that will also speed up the process.
Last year I became a certified Fix This Next advisor. It was really a wonderful experience. If you feel like you need some support, I’d be happy to walk you through this framework and help you get the most out of it.
Right now, I actually have two openings left in a three month coaching package and you can check that out at ProductiveTherapist.Teachable.com.
For the Fix This Next assessment, you can also go to ProductiveTherapist.FixThisNext.com.
Thanks so much for listening. Have a great day!
