S5 EP07 Mastering Your Business Numbers with Janice Cook

Season 5: Clinic Systems, Processes, and Operations

Most clinic owners are flying blind when it comes to their numbers, and that’s a costly mistake. Janice Cook, known as the spreadsheet and numbers guru, reveals the straightforward, strategic approach to turning raw data into powerfully clear business decisions. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by reports or unsure where to start, this episode will change the game.

You’ll discover the simple framework for regular financial reviews, annual, quarterly, monthly, and how to set targets that keep your growth in check. Janice shares her proven method for breaking down high-level goals into specific, actionable levers such as revenue targets and cost controls, so you can measure progress without getting lost in endless reports. 

Plus, learn the secret to identifying just five key numbers that tell you everything you need to know, no more wasted time on irrelevant data.We break down how to set up your practice management software for maximum insight, ensuring every service, category, and process is tracked accurately. 

Janice explains how operational SOPs, yes, those boring procedures, are essential for high-quality, dependable data, giving you clarity on the real profitability of each service and team member. No more guessing, no more winging it, your numbers tell a story, and you’re the author.Failing to understand your numbers risks stagnation, missed growth opportunities, and business decisions made from panic rather than strategy. 

With her step-by-step approach, you’ll learn how to plan with precision, spot trends early, and confidently adjust tactics to stay on track. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or managing multiple clinics, this episode arms you with the tools to act like a true CEO, making data-driven decisions that drive profit, growth, and peace of mind.Perfect for clinic owners feeling overwhelmed, under-informed, or stuck in reactive mode. 

If you want clarity, control, and the ability to make small tweaks that lead to big gains, this episode is your must-listen. Tune in and start turning your numbers into your greatest asset.

Guest Credibility: Janice Cook is a business strategist specializing in financial clarity for clinics and studios, with a background in corporate IT consulting and charity financial management. She’s passionate about helping owners understand what their data really means, and how to use it.

Key Takeaways

• Understanding your numbers is crucial for business success.
• Regular reviews help in making informed decisions.
• Set clear goals and measure against them.
• Data should drive your business decisions, not emotions.
• Utilise software effectively to track performance.
• Quality data is essential for accurate insights.
• Standard operating procedures streamline operations.
• Start with small changes to see significant impacts.
• Schedule dedicated time for financial reviews.
• Outsource financial management if necessary.

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by Klatch:
Results-driven marketing built for healthcare companies. Unlock sustainable growth and maximise ROI with data-driven digital marketing tailored to your business, backed by patient tracking software from search to revenue.

Find out more at https://www.klatch.co.uk

Resources & Links:

Subscribe to our Channel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thrivebizcoach?sub_confirmation=1

Website: https://Thrive-businesscoaching.com  

Free Resources: https://treatyourbusiness.com 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: Janice, welcome to the podcast. 

[00:00:03] Janice: Hello, Katie. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

[00:00:06] Katie Bell: You are welcome. You are back again. 

[00:00:09] Janice: I am back for a second time. How exciting. Yeah. 

[00:00:11] Katie Bell: I love this. This means we ... This is ... This means we love you, and listeners love you, Janice. And some of them will have met you actually in person for the very first time at Clinic Growth Live.

[00:00:21] You were there as one of our exhibitors.

[00:00:23] Janice: That's right, yeah ... and- And it was great to see everyone. 

[00:00:26] Katie Bell: Yeah, I know. It was so nice, wasn't it? And Janice we just say you're the numbers girl. [00:00:30] Like- ... that, that's ... the spreadsheet woman. If you need s- if you need spreadsheets, if you need clarity on numbers, just get J- we just say, "Just get, just ring Janice.

[00:00:38] Just speak to Janice."

[00:00:38] Janice: Excellent. I'll take that. I'll take that as a badge of honor- ... by the way. 

[00:00:41] Katie Bell: So for those who don't know you, Janice just briefly introduce yourself and tell people why I call you the numbers girl and the spreadsheet 

[00:00:50] Janice: girl. So I spent many formative years in corporate- Sure

[00:00:56] IT consulting doing all sorts of systems [00:01:00] implementations, and big teams, and big companies and all the rest of it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. And then time took me overseas for quite a while with my young family. And while I was there I was I wasn't allowed to work. My spouse was working.

[00:01:14] And I thought what am I gonna do now then?" Got kids and stuff, but, what else? So I started to help various charities with their numbers. I was treasurer, I was event planner, things like that, and it was all about the numbers and what they meant and what they were doing and how we were tracking and things [00:01:30] like that.

[00:01:30] So then we came back to England and got the kids back in school. And I thought, "What should I do now?" I thought, "Well- ... do a bit more of that then," and it gradually just started helping small businesses with what numbers have you got? What do they mean? How are you tracking them?

[00:01:44] How's it helping you see what's happening in the business? You might wanna grow. You might not wanna grow. You might wanna go to exit. You might ... " There's all sorts of things you might wanna know your numbers for. One phrase I've heard recently is, "I wanna be Dragons' Den ready." 

[00:01:57] Katie Bell: Oh, wonderful

[00:01:59] Janice: yeah. Yeah. I [00:02:00] just thought, so I started helping small businesses. I started to get involved with some clinics and then more clinics, and then met folks like your good self. And yeah, so here I am. My niche is, ask me about Jane, Cliniko, TM3, the reporting, the numbers, what they all mean, how do you bring that together with Xero, and how do you get it to tell you what's going on?

[00:02:24] Katie Bell: Yeah. And that's the biggest ... There's a lot of pain points that our clinic owners [00:02:30] have and our studio owners. And a lot of it boils down to- For many of us, we bury our head in the sand when it comes to knowing our numbers, or we get lost in the reporting world and we click on a button and then the next two hours go by and you're down a rabbit hole.

[00:02:45] You've got all these wonderful reports, but they mean nothing. And you don't know how to read them You then struggle to make decisions and review and adjust and pivot what you need to do based on what your numbers are telling you. [00:03:00] So we f- we know that when we speak to a lot of the clinic owners, they're just going with a bit of a winging it kind of attitude.

[00:03:07] God love them all. I was there, in that position as well where rather than the data t- driving your decisions, it was very much I've seen people do this," or, "This kind of feels good," or, "This feels nice. I'm gonna go out and be distracted by this." And it wasn't ever hugely strategic or with a plan.

[00:03:23] And so Janice, you are the person that puts the strategy in all the... [00:03:30] gives the clinic owners and the studio owners the visibility on the numbers, an explanation of what they need, why they need it, and how often they need to be reviewing it, and then how that drives better decisions in their businesses.

[00:03:43] Is that right? 

[00:03:44] Janice: That's right. It's all about, yes there's all this data- Yeah ... out there. And it's all about how do you focus it in the right direction so that it's telling your story? Because every clinic's unique. Yeah. Yes, there, there's the [00:04:00] common ground, but every clinic's unique about what is your strategy, what do you sell, how do you deliver it to your patients?

[00:04:08] And all that can come down to how you measure what's going on, how you review it- Yeah ... when you review it, and then most importantly, what you do about it. 

[00:04:21] Katie Bell: Yes. Yeah. 

[00:04:23] Janice: You don't just go, "Oh, that was a good month. Should we go and have a cup of tea?" It's like- Yeah ... it was a good month. What do you mean it was a good [00:04:30] month?

[00:04:30] Good month against what benchmark? 

[00:04:32] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:04:33] Janice: Why was it a good month? What did you sell? What did you not sell? What did you spend on? What did you not spend on? And it's getting down to those nitty-gritty details so that you have scheduled time to review something, and you take an action to say, "Okay. Because this happened, I want to do more of that."

[00:04:55] Yes. "And I want to do less of that." 

[00:04:56] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:04:57] Janice: Because we know nothing changes if [00:05:00] nothing changes. So even if it is, "Oh good, let's go and have a cup of tea," you need to understand why it was good- 

[00:05:07] Katie Bell: Yeah ... 

[00:05:08] Janice: why you need to carry on doing what you're doing, and how do you do that? Because it might be that one person who's doing a fantastic job is about to leave.

[00:05:16] They're going on sabbatical. They're going on maternity leave. They're g- they're going on to somewhere else, and you bring somebody else in, and they'll behave a bit differently. 

[00:05:25] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:05:26] Janice: So- 

[00:05:26] Katie Bell: Yeah ... 

[00:05:26] Janice: you need to make sure you've got training, [00:05:30] handover, standard operating procedures. That's an action you need to take to make sure that those methods that you know are producing the right answer are going to continue 

[00:05:43] Katie Bell: And 

[00:05:44] Janice: it's not just relying on luck 

[00:05:47] Katie Bell: And I guess with all of that, Janice, it's then the bigger thing there is knowing actually what you're trying to achieve in the first place.

[00:05:54] So the numbers have to be measured against something, don't they? 'Cause all of that sounds great, but [00:06:00] you need to get up on the 1st of June and know what you need to be- working towards. What's your revenue target? What's your profit target? So that, again, your decisions are driven by something rather than just let's just see how the month finishes."

[00:06:16] Janice: Absolutely. Absolutely. So I m- model an approach where you measure what's going on, and we could talk about that till the cows come home. We can go into that. But then you need to review, and you need to have a schedule [00:06:30] for when you're gonna review- Yeah ... the data and adjust. So if we look at that review piece, I recommend that there are three/four phases of review.

[00:06:40] And number one is the annual review. 

[00:06:43] Katie Bell: Okay. 

[00:06:44] Janice: Then there'd be monthly and weekly, as you call one, but so the fourth is quarterly, and I'll explain what I mean by that. So the annual review, for me, is where you look back at the year gone by, so it's normally coming up to year-end, and you look at the year gone by, [00:07:00] and you look at what your measurements told you.

[00:07:03] So you've got your very top level. What was your turnover? What were your costs? What were your profits? And just for the sake of simplicity, I'll talk about operating costs, so we're not getting into dividends and loans and- Yeah ... blah, blah, blah. We'll talk about just operating costs. And that's your top level.

[00:07:20] It's your turnover, your costs, and your profit. And you'll, you will see what happened. And let's say for argument's sake, I don't know, your turnover was 200K, [00:07:30] and you're looking at the year ahead and you go, "I wanna make 250." And you go, "Okay." So then the target for the year, the goal for the year is 250K.

[00:07:42] Yeah. And I wanna make a 20% profit margin on that. So that's your profit margin, which gives you your spend limit. Okay? So you've got a goal of a turnover, a goal of a profit, and a goal of how much you want to spend. 

[00:07:56] Katie Bell: Sure. 

[00:07:57] Janice: And then you've got, okay last year [00:08:00] I made 200K, this year I wanna make 250. So what is my strategy?

[00:08:05] What is going to make the difference of that 50K in turnover? So you've got your goal of 250. What's the strategy? So you're gonna have more staff, you're gonna have a different service, you're gonna have a different price. What is the strategy to achieve that difference? And then the same for the costs, because if your profit margin from the year before is the same, then you've gotta make sure that your [00:08:30] costs don't go up more than what your turnover is gonna go up, because your profit won't change.

[00:08:36] And that triangle, you have to keep the same in order to get your goals all aligned. So with costs then, what I suggest you do, and with the turnover Is that set from your goal? The, what I would call the top brain limits. 

[00:08:53] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:08:54] Janice: And then I'll go, okay, now start at the bottom. Go for each staff based on how [00:09:00] many days of the week they work, how hours of the week they work, what they spend...

[00:09:03] sorry, what they charge for the services they do. And you go, "Okay if they have this target for each month to sell this many at this price, their revenue's gonna be this." And you do that for each one and for each location, and you roll it all up and you go, "Has that made my goal?" 

[00:09:20] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:09:21] Janice: Does that come up to my 250?

[00:09:23] So that's where your goal and then your plan applying your strategy, do they match? Yeah. Or [00:09:30] do they... If there's a gap, then you need more strategy of how are you going to make up for that. Yeah. And then the same thing goes with the costs, is you've gotta start at the bottom. How much rent do I pay?

[00:09:41] How much service charge do I pay? How much payroll have I gotta pay? How much commissions have I gotta pay? How much uniform? Da, which you've got the history of from the year before. Is that going to change? Is it going to come up? Yeah. Apply that to your budget. Roll it all up. Is that still below my spend limit?

[00:09:59] Am I [00:10:00] still gonna get the profit I want? And then what you've got there is where you've got them hopefully not going over, coming under. You've got your goals, you've got your strategy of how you're gonna achieve it, and you've got your plan of how you're gonna do it. 

[00:10:13] Katie Bell: Yeah. And- Because 

[00:10:14] Janice: you've got your low level detail.

[00:10:16] Katie Bell: I guess that's the annual review is the one thing that most clinic owners don't do and do in enough detail, and in ahead of time. So rather than go, "Okay I'm gonna wait for the year end. I'm gonna [00:10:30] wait for my P&L back from my accountant, which tells me whether I've made money or not made money.

[00:10:34] And then I'm gonna go, oh what should we do this year?" We want to be talking about your year end we are often doing ours usually six to eight weeks out of year end, 'cause we- ... we can project what six to eight weeks are gonna look like 'cause we have enough visibility on our data and I know- Yeah

[00:10:49] enough to know that we'll probably end about this position. 

[00:10:52] Janice: Yeah. So- And that's where the quarterly one comes in because let's say you do your year end, it, if you're, [00:11:00] you'd have your main numbers by then, by, let's say you do January to December. Yeah. So I'd get it in November. Yeah.

[00:11:07] End of October, November. Get it all lined up so that has given you from January onwards- Yeah ... how much revenue do you wanna make in a month- Yes ... by person? What do you wanna spend in a month by specific thing? Yeah. You've got it down to that low level of detail. And then each month you monitor how you're doing against that.

[00:11:26] Katie Bell: Yes. 

[00:11:27] Janice: And see if you need to change in it. And then what I'd [00:11:30] say is you, each week you need to check that month's projecting how you wanted it to. But then when you get to the quarter is you go, "Okay, now let's just take a step back. Is this strategy working?" 

[00:11:42] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:11:44] Janice: Has that quarter achieved what I want to?

[00:11:46] Or do I need to do a sort of mini annual review and look at the next three quarters ahead? Do I need to change strategy? Do I need to employ another? Do I need to add another service? What other thing do I need to do- [00:12:00] To get me back onto this track that I want to be on.

[00:12:02] Katie Bell: And I guess with that sort of visibility and that sort of projection, it allows our business owners to hire slower and think and plan for the hire.

[00:12:11] You know- Yeah ... when we bring somebody in KB, we know that it takes definitely up to six months really to get somebody, because by the time you've gone through the recruitment process, they often need to give 8 to 12 weeks notice. So you've got another three months before they're gonna start with you.

[00:12:25] And then when they start with us, we project in what their [00:12:30] occupancy capacity, whatever you wanna call it, is gonna be- Yeah ... on a build. So we know that we're not setting ourselves up for failure saying they're gonna start and I need to get them at 85% occupancy on." Yeah. It's not gonna happen. If it does, fabulous, but let's project that into the numbers so that we can onboard them in the right way, not apply too much pressure from the beginning, get all the foundations in place.

[00:12:52] So there's... I guess there's so many... We know, Janice, there's so many reasons why projecting and [00:13:00] planning is so critical, and many clinic owners still feel like it's just a bit of a waste of time, or they feel like it's a, a job that they don't wanna do, or they've never done it before, so why would they start doing it now?

[00:13:12] But you can't scale and you can't grow by just getting y- you can't make more money just by growing and just getting bigger. Be- get- getting bigger doesn't fix the problems, does it? 

[00:13:25] Janice: No. And that's the thing is that you've got to have that separate [00:13:30] thought time, like say- Yeah ... at the end of the year where you do all that thinking, you put all your seasonality onto your goals, you know- Yeah

[00:13:38] and you plan it all out and you go perhaps I know I've gotta have a week of December, so I'm gonna plan for more in January." So you plan all that out, and then they... those are the targets, that's your target pair, that's what you're looking to compare all your measurements against going forward.

[00:13:55] And then each month when it comes to that review, you're talking [00:14:00] half an hour or an hour not sitting to think about what am I... What was it am I trying to achieve again?" And you end up doing all that energy- 

[00:14:07] Katie Bell: Yeah ... 

[00:14:08] Janice: month on month. W- e- no, that is a weight, that's a big heavy weight each month for you to be thinking what was good?

[00:14:15] What was I aiming? What was that?" Yeah. What was my strategy this month? Was I... What was I introducing again? What were my thoughts?" You do that once in one big energy session where that's what your focus is. And then when you come to executing it, your energy [00:14:30] then is achieving those goals- Yeah

[00:14:31] doing what you do best is driving the clinic. 

[00:14:34] Katie Bell: And does this help, Janice, with, oh, many of our listeners are overwhelmed, right? They feel extremely busy day to day. They feel like they're spinning a lot of plates and just firefighting. When data drives decisions, this allows you to cut through all the c- excuse my French, Janice, I'm gonna swear, the crap- Yeah

[00:14:54] and bullshit and go, "Hang on a minute what are we actually needing to do here month on mon- week, month on [00:15:00] month, week on week, quarter on quarter?" Week on week. Yeah. Have I just got distracted and got busy doing a, whole load of other stuff that actually isn't driving us towards the key goals of revenue, profit, and that's it, and take-home.

[00:15:13] Janice: Yeah. Absolutely. Because that, at the end of the day, is what is important that you are focusing the drive towards that. Yeah. Not looking at wh- which road am I going on? 

[00:15:23] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:15:23] Janice: You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like you're on a journey, you've got on the motorway, get your foot down and let's just go. Yeah. Not that, "Oh, am I getting off here?

[00:15:29] [00:15:30] Am I getting off here?" Yeah. You're doing that, taking energy away from the focus of where you are going. Yeah. So that's why it's two separate exercises. Where the review part- Yes ... is so important to schedule in your routine. And let's face it, clinic owners, it's probably not their bag. It's probably not their favorite thing that they wanna do.

[00:15:50] No. So you block out a half day or a day with someone at your- Yeah ... year-end to map all this out with you, and then [00:16:00] you block out at least one hour a month, if not, to review your month end against that target. And somewhere in your team, perhaps not you, but somewhere in your team, week on week is looking at, "Okay, I know I need to get to 20K this month.

[00:16:19] What have I done this week? What have I done this... How- Yeah ... how is it looking?" How's it looking? "What's brought it in?" Because if you get to the end of the month and you've only made 15 or- 

[00:16:29] Katie Bell: That's it ... there's no point 

[00:16:29] Janice: crying over, there's no [00:16:30] point crying over spilled milk, yeah. You needed to do something today on the 8th- Yeah

[00:16:34] not on the 28th,

[00:16:36] Katie Bell: absolutely. 

[00:16:36] Janice: So you need that granularity, and you need that routine. It's just in the diary. It's a routine. It's a checkbox. Yeah. Yeah. It's that what you do, and you take that heavy energy away from it- Yeah ... by planning in those review schedules. 

[00:16:53] Katie Bell: And I think what's a really nice thing when this happens, Janice, and it can feel uncomfortable to start with, but whether you're [00:17:00] a sole trader or whether you've got a multiple, team, multiple location, whatever it is, you can cut so much stuff out You can go, "Okay, what are the numbers telling me?

[00:17:13] What's worked well? What hasn't worked well? What's felt heavy? What's not felt aligned? What do I not wanna repeat of?" And therefore, you can, as you've just said, you can then adjust your course- 

[00:17:24] ... 

[00:17:24] Katie Bell: Early enough to g- to stop those things from happening or to just stop doing it and [00:17:30] just, stop diluting yourself and really focus in on what is profitable.

[00:17:35] What, we... Many clinic owners Janice, when they first start working with us, are alarmed at what services are actually not making any margin. And they're often the services that feel heaviest, that feel hardest to market, that don't really align- ... with their, their niche or their specialty, and they're just a dilution, but they, they care about the person that's on this bloody 60% commission and whatever.

[00:17:58] Janice: Yeah. 

[00:17:59] Katie Bell: And actually, the [00:18:00] numbers start telling us if you just got rid of that, you'd be no worse off." 

[00:18:03] Janice: Yeah. Yeah. And this is where the measure element comes into play. Okay. And making sure you've got this set up correctly. So most of the clinic, they'll have some form of practice management software.

[00:18:15] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:18:15] Janice: I'm gonna quote sort of Jane and Cliniko- Yeah ... 'cause they're the most popular ones. And the key thing is when you get those in your clinic, is set them up how you run your clinic, because these are just generic software packages. They're built to [00:18:30] support any clinic going. So unless you do the settings to what's right for you, is you won't have that granularity.

[00:18:37] So like you said, is make sure each of your services is badged correctly in whatever way you can badge it. So in Jane, you can set it to disciplines, so then you can report revenue by discipline. One of the ones nearly all of them do is income category. That's really important to set up. So have things like [00:19:00] each treatment type that you set up, have it set to an income category, be it, private physio, insurance physio.

[00:19:08] That's really important. I'll come back to that. Yeah. Massage rehab insurance add-ons. Every clinic has its own unique spin- Yeah ... of what. But set up those income categories in, while you're thinking about setting them up and when you've got your admin staff or whatever setting them up, you go these are my five categories."

[00:19:29] And I would [00:19:30] say never have more than five. Because if you do, it's too diluted. 

[00:19:34] Katie Bell: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:19:35] Janice: And you don't have enough data to make it a reasonable measure. But then you can go into Jane and you can say, "Jane, sales, income category, this." And you can see, and then you can see by e- each month, you can say, "Report last month," and it will show you by income category which one has made the most money.

[00:19:57] Katie Bell: So what I'm hearing from you here, Janice, is that [00:20:00] most of us have got software to support us, but we're not utilizing the software in, or we're not setting it up from the get-go, or adapting it as our clinic grows and our business expands. We need to adjust. We need to review the data and make sure the data that we're actually collecting is relevant, is useful- Yeah

[00:20:19] and we're not just collecting it for the sake of it. 

[00:20:22] Janice: Exactly. And it's gotta be, like, say relevant, as you say. And so as things change, go- Yeah ... "Actually I'm gonna change that to that [00:20:30] discipline." If you've got a strategy, if I've got a, some new service coming in as my strategy to make my extra 50K this year, give that its own income type, and you can see month on month, run your- Yeah

[00:20:43] particular report in Jane or Cliniq it says. It's this new strategy has made me this month. Yeah. And it's all about just setting those settings. And all the help pages are great in these things. Just go in and look for it. The problem is it's not gonna jump out and tell you. You have to drive. So make [00:21:00] sure it's the dog wagging the tail, not the tail wagging the dog.

[00:21:03] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:21:04] Janice: And there, there's a, another side to this, which is the quality of the data as well, is just to make sure that your... Everybody who's inputting data- 

[00:21:14] Katie Bell: Yeah ... 

[00:21:15] Janice: understands the process you want them to follow to get these measurements out of your software. Because everybody could do it all a bit differently because that's what it seems to look like on the screen, and you'll just end up with a mishmash of data- [00:21:30] Sure

[00:21:30] that doesn't mean anything. Sure. Consistent processes of how you want someone to book an appointment in, what appointment type you want them to use, whether they arrive or complete the appointment at the end is really important because you get things like a Cliniq report will only tell you things from arrived appointments or attended appointments, whichever its phrase is.

[00:21:52] I think Jane's arrived, Cliniq's attended. So again, that comes down to the process- 

[00:21:58] Katie Bell: Yeah ... 

[00:21:59] Janice: that all [00:22:00] your team are all following the same process, which comes down to your standard operating procedures, your onboarding procedures. It's all this operational stuff that if you just get it all ticking over, each cog just joins to the other, and it produces good quality, detailed data that tell you is your strategy working.

[00:22:23] Katie Bell: So Janice, I love everything that you've just said. Are clinic owners c- talking colors? I'm a yellow. I [00:22:30] know 100%, Janice, you are a green. 

[00:22:33] Janice: Yes. 

[00:22:34] Katie Bell: I don't even k- I didn't know that before, but I'm guessing that you are a, you definitely are a green, right? Most of our clinic owners are gonna be listening to this, and they are yellows.

[00:22:45] They are visionaries. They are low detail but they like the information, but they don't necessarily be the, want to be the ones that have to produce it. So I know how easy and quickly you can get into this overwhelmed and [00:23:00] frozen state as a clinic owner. So you mentioned the word standard operating procedures.

[00:23:04] Literally wanna run and hide, can't bear them. I banned Nicola from talking to me about them 'cause they bore me so much. But I have a Nic and I have a you, which means that I just know that c- that stuff is happening, so that's great. But for many of our listeners, they don't have a you and they don't have a COO or, in their business.

[00:23:22] And so they ... W- what I'm really passionate about, Janice, is when people come on this podcast and listen to us and give us their time, and you give [00:23:30] your time, is that they don't just get frozen now in this kind of state of, oh my God, this all sounds great and I'm doing some of it, but I'm not doing some of it and I don't know where to start 'cause now Janice has said I need SOPs for all these different types of processes, and I know my reception team are not inputting things correctly and I'm having to check that.

[00:23:49] And they now listen and they go, "Oh, that sounds great. I must go and do something about that," and then we freeze and we don't necessarily then actually take any action. So apart [00:24:00]from, Janice, just getting on the phone to you And outsourcing this, which is what I would do 

[00:24:06] Where do they s- what's the first thing that they start with?

[00:24:09] Is it- So- ... booking that review time in? 

[00:24:12] Janice: I think yes, because you will have something recorded. Yeah. So it's having your review time that you are at least taking a look at it, and that does two things. For you, it's giving you a window where, okay, this might not be my favorite thing to do, but I'm going to focus on that.

[00:24:29] Yeah. But for the [00:24:30] rest of the team, it shows you're looking.

[00:24:34] Katie Bell: Yeah. That 

[00:24:34] Janice: it's important. 

[00:24:35] Katie Bell: Yes. 

[00:24:36] Janice: And that is as important as you absorbing it, because suddenly if they go, "Oh no, I can't be bothered doing that," they go hang on a minute, this is important." 

[00:24:48] Katie Bell: Yeah. "

[00:24:48] Janice: And if it's worth an hour of my time every week or every month or whichever-" Yeah

[00:24:52] "one, I'm going to do it." So if you've got like a s- a practice manager, strong practice manager, they can do a lot of those settings [00:25:00] for you because they'll probably have greens, they'll be happy to set it up, and there's probably reasonable stuff in there. But for you as the business owner is literally go into Jane or Cliniko, look at the revenue.

[00:25:15] Just look at the revenue and just, it will give you some breakdown and then you go, "Do I believe this?" And if you don't believe it, start clicking on the why is that? Why is that? Because it will show [00:25:30] you day to day. 

[00:25:31] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:25:32] Janice: And I'm not saying you wanna go through all that, and that would be really tedious, but that's the point where you would just go to your receptionist, "Have you got half an hour this afternoon?

[00:25:41] That says we've got this revenue today, but I think it's this. Can you go and check it and tell me what the answer is?" 

[00:25:47] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:25:47] Janice: So you've got a start point- Yeah ... to start believing in what it's telling you. And I would say you start with the revenue. 

[00:25:57] Katie Bell: And I guess it just builds that picture up [00:26:00] for those that maybe aren't looking or just are winging it.

[00:26:03] If we then come into lots of our members are taking this great action, 'cause this is what we teach them in the foundations and in Elevate, that they've gotta know the numbers. It's one of our key things that they have to pull their head out the sand and get really clear on. I guess for them, I think what often is missing is the review element of it.

[00:26:22] Is it's the, okay, I've got them now, but I'm now either gone down a rabbit hole and I'm looking at too much. And so on a recent live [00:26:30] day, Janice, I made everybody dress in Hawaiian theme with, Nice ... what are those things? Flower garden, garland things. Oh, yes. 

[00:26:36] Janice: Yeah. 

[00:26:37] Katie Bell: Because I said if you were on a desert island and a man on a rowing boat rowed to you every day with a pina colada or your drink of choice and seven numbers, and those seven numbers were what you could only see those seven, what seven would they be, and what are they...

[00:26:54] They have to tell you whether or not your business is good. So what are the seven key numbers? Not [00:27:00] 10, not 20, just seven. And then we had to whittle it down to five. And it was a really interesting task, but it, what it got people seeing was, A, I'm looking at way too many numbers that are slightly irrelevant, or I'm looking at them, they're not irrelevant, but I'm not taking any inspired action because I'm not looking at them.

[00:27:19] Or I'm not, I'm nowhere near seven numbers. I'm not even looking at one number. 

[00:27:25] And where- whatever stage it, that you're at, it's okay, 'cause we're not [00:27:30] taught this stuff in business school, 'cause none of us- ... went to business school. But that's where we want them to take some action off the back of listening to this.

[00:27:39] It's like just feeling control of number, feeling in control of your numbers is very helpful at helping you sleep at night when you're running a business- ... and not feel so panicky and not make decisions from a place of panic. 

[00:27:52] Janice: Yes. 

[00:27:53] Katie Bell: Yes. And it's so important, isn't 

[00:27:54] Janice: it? It is. It is. And I would say the key thing to take away the panic el- element is the pairs, the target.[00:28:00]

[00:28:00] So just know your target for each month, turnover, cost, profit. In fact, the profit comes from the turnover and the cost. 

[00:28:07] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:28:07] Janice: So you've gotta know that for each month, because from that you'll know what you've gotta save for tax- Yeah ... which is the other thing with panic. Yeah. So the two on is the turnover and the cost.

[00:28:18] From that you get your profit and an estimate just to guess, you know- Yeah ... conservative guess what you've gotta save for tax. And once you've got that for every month and then you just measure the turnover [00:28:30] and costs against that's where you get to know, am I on it? Am I not? Is my strategy working or not?

[00:28:36] Yeah. In terms of action, that's where it gets more detailed because- If you think of the I think of it as like tipping scales to affect turnover. There's so many factors- So many levers ... yeah. 

[00:28:49] Katie Bell: So many levers you 

[00:28:49] Janice: can pull. Same with the COGS. Yeah. So you can only take action at the bottom level levers. Yes, I've got all my detailed little tools that'll tell you all the levers in between, [00:29:00] but at the end of the day, you've gotta think okay what levers can I start to change?"

[00:29:06] But what I would plead that you put some structure on is change one thing at a time. Yes. And you might not have time to do that, so it's I'm gonna add this service, then I'm gonna up the price for that, and I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna change this cost." Because what you might find is they just balance each other out, and you go- Yeah

[00:29:23] "I've made all these changes, and there's no difference." 

[00:29:26] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:29:26] Janice: But it's- It's been really busy. Yeah. And then 

[00:29:27] Katie Bell: it's good. Yeah. 

[00:29:29] Janice: Yeah. [00:29:30] So I would say is pick the one or two things on maybe either side of the equation, and just make sure you have a measure of that to track. Yeah. So that one lever. So be it the appointment price for a massage or the commission rate for this group of therapists, that is a lever, one that you can see what's the effect at the top level.

[00:29:56] Yeah. 

[00:29:56] Katie Bell: And Janice, what I know from working with clinicians for [00:30:00] a long time now is that There's often some small tweaks that can be made in current state. It's not about adding new stuff, it's about tweaking what currently is going on, and that small percentage change can be where your profit sits.

[00:30:15] So I, I guess to summarize, it's don't go away feeling overwhelmed at this, that you need to change a lot of stuff. We just... This is about very small tweaks, but the numbers will tell us what you need to do. The numbers will tell you how you spend your time, what you can stop doing, [00:30:30]what you can focus on when you focus on it.

[00:30:32] That's the power of numbers, isn't 

[00:30:34] Janice: it? It is. It is, exactly. And it is the, yes, make changes, but make measured changes one thing at a time, and you can see the result and the ripple effect of the result. And just pick that in Jane or Cliniko, whatever, that's showing you that number, and that you can see how it is getting on week.

[00:30:51] Yeah. And that's just all about... i'm always a fan of saying how long should something take?" If I've gotta do something that I don't like, is that right? What's the maximum [00:31:00] purgatory I'm gonna put myself through to do it? Yeah, sure. That's an hour. So I'm gonna block that in my diary.

[00:31:06] Right, 9:00 Tuesday morning I've gotta do that, and at 10:00 it means I can have the best cup of coffee in the world. Yeah. And it's just putting that time in to look at it and go, "Has the change I've made making the difference I want it to make?"

[00:31:20] Katie Bell: Amazing. Janice- It's a start ... because I'm really encouraging our listeners to act like a CEO, act like a business owner, not a clinician or an operator, and [00:31:30] what I would do in this scenario is I would outsource this because- I am not the right person for this task. How do they contact you, Janice? How do they explore a com- like, how you can help them as a fractional kind of COO in their business, or CFO really, in their business? Who... How do they reach out to you? 

[00:31:48] Janice: So best way is just go to my website. It's just janicecook.co.uk.

[00:31:52] Nice and easy. I am on Facebook and Instagram for those in the social world, and on LinkedIn. But yeah, just go to my website. There's a contact [00:32:00] page. You can just ping me a message there. You could email me very simply. It's janice@janicecook.co.uk. And I'm just very open to having a chat with anybody, and yeah, shut me up if you can, yeah. Yeah ... and we'll get to the root, we'll get to the root of your problem and just see what it is the best avenue for you in your circumstances to track what you need to track. 

[00:32:21] Katie Bell: Amazing. Consider it done. Consider it. Janice you've been amazing. Thank you. You've given so much value and so many [00:32:30] nuggets for people to really go away and act upon.

[00:32:33] I'm not gonna say think about. I'm bored of people saying, "Oh, a lot to digest there, Katie. A lot to think about." No. Stop thinking, start doing is what we want- Yes ... clinic owners to do. Janice, will you come back again? 

[00:32:44] Janice: I will. I'm always happy to come and chat. 

[00:32:46] Katie Bell: You were fabulous. Thank you ever so much.

[00:32:49] Janice: You're very welcome.