Financially Adjusted

#40: DOES YOUR CHIROPRACTIC BUSINESS NEED A FINANCIAL ADJUSTMENT?

• Leslie Roth • Episode 40

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Just like your patients need regular chiropractic adjustments to stay in alignment, your business finances need regular check-ins too! In this episode, I’ll walk you through the signs that your business finances might be out of alignment and the proactive steps you can take to regain control. From tracking cash flow to setting profit goals, we’re covering it all. I’ll also challenge you to set a financial check-in routine to ensure your money is working for you—not against you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✔️ The signs that your business finances are out of alignment
✔️ Why you need to set up a money allocation plan 
✔️ Why reviewing financial statements monthly is a must
✔️ How to create a financial check-in routine 
✔️ Why long-term planning (even 10+ years out) is key for a thriving practice

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Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only. Please consult with an accounting professional for direct advice based on your specific business situation.

Hey there friend! Welcome back to another episode of the Financially Adjusted podcast. I'm your host Leslie Roth. If you're new to the podcast, I put out a new episode every Thursday and bring you simple actionable advice when it comes to managing your chiropractic business. So, thank you for showing up today for yourself and for your business. And for being in that growth mindset.

I've been helping chiropractors for almost four years now and one thing I know for sure is that you are a group of people that are incredibly proactive with your approach in life when it comes to maintaining health and mental well-being. Your entire practice of chiropractic is itself a proactive measure to keep the body functioning like it should. And in order to maintain that certain baseline level of health, you yourself get regular chiropractic adjustments I'm sure of it. And you encourage your clients to get regular chiropractic adjustments too. When patients fall out of their routine with their adjustments, their baseline of health slips, and they're not in alignment anymore.

Being proactive and showing up regularly for adjustments is the key to seeing those healthy results. When it comes to your finances, I encourage you to adopt that same proactive approach and perspective. You would not encourage…

your patients to just show up…whenever they were feeling really bad, and they couldn't move. No, you encourage them to have a proactive approach to their health and show up for regular adjustments. So you typically create a plan for them you know maybe if every couple weeks maybe it's every week for a while until they get on track with their, adjustments and they can hold their adjustment, and they feel…Like they hit a sweet spot My sweet spot is every two weeks. But in order to align your finances with your goals and dreams you must incorporate regular financial adjustments into your routine. This is the same concept that you teach your patients. So being proactive is really the key to getting to the point where you are financially aligned in your business. You might be wondering what I mean by a financial adjustment.

Just like when your spine is misaligned, causing pain and dysfunction you also feel pain and dysfunction with your finances when you're out of alignment. It's just a different type of pain and dysfunction.

So, I'm going to kind of guide you as far as how you can tell if you are not in financial alignment, or you need to have that financial adjustment or put those financial adjustments on autopilot.

So, many times I see business owners not really being aware of the fact that they're not in alignment. They just kind of move along like not really paying attention and they don't feel that pain or dysfunction until something goes really wrong like their cash flow gets really messed up. Or maybe they want a loan and they ask for financials and you realize oh I don't have financials. Or someone asks you how profitable you were and you have no clue of the health of your business. So, it really can be compared with when your patients, they don't keep those regular appointments with you.

You'll likely see them six months down the road and they're going to be in a lot of pain and a lot of dysfunction and they're going to be all out of whack So…really it's no different So when it comes to your finances…you're going to feel that…when you let your finances go and you're not paying attention and you're not intentional, you'll get to a point where you will feel the pain of that in one way or another. Now if you're really successful in business, you have a huge cushion there You may be not really as aware you can probably go a little bit longer before you feel that pain and dysfunction. But it will come at some point where you realize you're not in alignment with your finances. And with your business…

So how do you tell if you are out of alignment. Ask yourself the following questions. I'm going to run through a whole list of questions and just really think about your own business. And where you stand with these. Are you struggling with cash flow Meaning, timing of your revenue and bills is off and you just you find yourself not having the cash when you need it or the month ends and you had more bills than you had income, and you have to find a place to pull the money from cover those bills and things just aren't flowing because you don't have enough cash flow in your business… Do you know what your profit was last month and where your profit went?

Are you inconsistent with what you pay yourself from the business On a monthly basis?

Do you know how heavily you’re spending in different categories in your business?

How certain are you that all your expenses are necessary and you're paying only for subscriptions that you use?

Do you feel weighed down by debt and you're unsure how or when you're going to pay it off?

Are you unsure of what your saving goals are and how much you should be saving every month towards them. Do you know how you're going to fund the next piece of equipment you need in your chiropractic business. If you felt like one or more of these questions pertain to you, then you're due for a financial adjustment my friend.

When you're in financial alignment you have a clear picture of your financial health, you feel in control of your money, and you're intentional about where you're allocating your money…

In the last episode I talked a lot about having a clear financial…picture. So definitely go back and listen to episode thirty-nine get financial financially clear in your chiropractic business with these five steps. So, I run through five steps that…If you follow these and you're consistent with them you will Absolutely. Know what's going on in your business and have your finger on the pulse of your this. Having a clear financial picture is an absolute must in your business.

This includes analyzing your financial statement each month If you're not doing this there's no way you can have a clear financial…picture. You need to be looking at your balance sheet and your profit and loss statement every single month at a minimum. Cash flow statement is great to look at too because you see what the net cash increase or decrease is in that period of time. Also knowing exactly what debts you have is huge. You need to have a picture of how much you owe and have a clear plan for paying that off.

You also need to know what your profit margin is. And how heavily you're spending in each expense category…

To have your finger on the pulse, of your monthly bills is also a game changer when it comes to knowing what your financial health is…

And you need to be aware of whether or not you're meeting revenue and profit margin goals So if you've never set a profit goal…

Now's the time. It is so fun when you get into it It might sound kind of tedious And like if you're not really someone who considers yourself good with finances or you don't enjoy plugging into them This is something that can actually gamify the experience and make it really fun for you So If you haven't done that before, first off make sure you're checking your financial statements every month and you're analyzing them and…

When you come up with a goal a profit goal a profit margin goal, It becomes really fun to look at your statement each month and really see like did I meet that Like how well did I do? And You just kind of gamify it and…and when you set those goals, You will be a lot more likely to tune in to your financial reports.

Now when it comes to feeling in control of your money, It is impossible to feel in control if you're not truly in control. If you're not truly proactively…managing it and directing your money to where you want it to go. Being in control means you have a clear monthly…money allocation plan or business map as I like to call it money allocation plan it's the same as a budget You can call it whatever you want I just know that a lot of people have a really negative…

Feeling whenever it comes to the word budget and people cringe a lot when you say that word because it automatically sends people into like this limiting…mindset So if you need to call it something else please do I love…The term money allocation plan because it just spells exactly what it is, and it's not…it doesn't have like that limiting vibe to it It's just factual like you your money exists and you're allocating it with a plan. And it also like, it really…shows that that's an intentional thing like you are creating that plan for your money and you're directing your money where you want it to go but Call it whatever you want and whatever works for you. But having this money allocation plan done three to six months in advance at a minimum, it should be your target and your goal. This is what's going to allow you to look into the future and…really decide…what does the picture look like for me Like what do I project…that I want to do with the left over money like how much margin do I even have So it'll clue you in to just so much of what's going on in your business and really bring to light. Any financial adjustments you need to make to get to your goals and to change your circumstances.

To what you want them to be. You also need to create a long-term savings goal for your personal life and your personal or and your business. So, for personal and business you should have goals when it comes to savings, emergency savings. Um

equipment savings you know, personal…travel or home repairs like anything that you would possibly need savings for. You have to think about that in advance and then bake that into your money allocation plan.

Another great thing that you can do to be in control of your money…Is to look…down the road, see what equipment you might need Like if you're thinking of adding a equipment because you want another revenue stream or if maybe you have a equipment that you know is going to need replaced, project forward with that. Don't be one of those people who waits until…you're having things break down, or you just think "oh one I'll just take a loan out if I need something No don't think that way get out of that debt mindset and really think about how can I fund this with my profits? Because then you're doing it in a peaceful way, you're doing it where you're not robbing your future self and…You're not allowing…interest payments to eat away at your profit. You're in control when you plan and you save and you can fund what you want to do in your business So project out like one year five years However, long you feel like you want to project out look at the equipment you have think realistically about what you need to replace what you want to add and create a savings plan for that and bake that into your money allocation plan as well…

Thinking about your business in the long term and starting to plan…with your budget and direct your profit towards directing your profit towards these goals, that will completely change things for you. Even if you feel like well I'm doing pretty well in my business so I don't need to do that. That's not true. It doesn't matter if you are Having small profits, large profits doesn't matter like if you make a hundred thousand dollars a year or a million dollars a year. This is something that puts you in control It puts you in the driver's seat of your business…

By being intentional and proactive you are determining the future outcome of your business and your life You're not just letting it happen and just letting those dollars that you may go wherever and then looking in the rearview mirror to see where they went No You're saying this is what I want my money to be going towards for the short term goals I have the long term goals I have and you're making that happen. You would never expect amazing physical results and progress from a patient who just came in once or twice a year for their chiropractic adjustment. So why would you expect that you'll meet goals and have a healthy business if you're not making regular financial adjustments and plans…

And another thing to address when it comes to all of this when it comes to being aligned with your finances…is…the frequency of adjustments. The frequency of checking in with your finances. When it comes to creating that money allocation plan or that budget, Creating it three to six months in advance. Is what is going to be the key…Timing wise, of having plans project out and be effective for you So one month is better than none But I suggest three to six months because that's going to allow you to…put those long-term plans into…

into the rotation a little bit more and really like project out and see how far along you're going to be with goals in six months How far can you project out for your goals? I mean I, I like to do six months to twelve months just because I mean I am a numbers nerd but it's fun It's really fun to look and see Okay Like what do I project is going to be the case in months twelve months Like what can I do How can I grow my revenue How can I plan for that revenue growth? And what can I make happen in that year? Like what do I want my emergency savings to be at do I want to go to different conferences and trips, for those conferences like how much can I fit into my budget and then it gives you something to look forward to and something to strive toward so it can really be fun…

And what I suggest as far as the frequency on like more of a weekly monthly basis is with your budget…Before…a new month starts that week before, Check-in with your budget fine tune your budget and add or remove any expenses that are going to be specific to that month. What I suggest doing with projecting out three to six months with your budget just have a baseline budget that incorporates averages for revenue and occurring known expenses So you might be able to look back in your business because you likely have a history of years in business So you can look back and you can project Okay How well did I do this month Like what can I expect to make in a certain month maybe it's not a busy month for you Um maybe you know like this summer is going to be a little slower but it's really going to be busy like in in the fall. So, you can kind of look at your history and project in your budget what you think you'll make in revenue. And then you likely have a lot of recurring expenses like the same expenses happen every month So you can put those into your budget. And then if you have variable expenses like you might have the same expenses each month but they're variable. Maybe it's like payment processing fees are a little bit different every month Just put in what the average would be.

And then the idea is to show up a week before that month starts and fine tune that budget for you for what you know is coming down the road for that month. You can specifically adjust it to be more realistic…

So, create a weekly financial check-in. Put this on your calendar This is going to be…So helpful and it's going to be an accountability. Check-in balance So you're checking in with your budget weekly your tweaking it accordingly, and…

Another thing you can do during this weekly check-in is um you can pay bills, and you can make sure that your cash flow is right Take a look at what revenue you have coming in and what bills you're paying. I see a lot of business owners out there. And they maybe aren't paying the bills themselves, so they don't have their finger on the pulse with this. But they'll have like an office manager or they'll write checks but they'll write these checks for rent or, um supplies or whatever it is without ever checking if they have the cash to cover it. And so, when you do that when you when you Just pay for bills and you're not really paying attention to your cash flow like what's coming in when you wrote that check.

You're going to be causing a lot of stress and a lot of scrambling…and you're going to potentially have checks bounce and your account's going to be overdrawn So be a responsible business owner and be proactive and sit down weekly and figure out Do I have enough cash flow coming in with my income to pay the bills that I'm paying. If you struggle with the timing of cash flow…Like you don't have enough to cover your bills or payroll and you're always kind of scrambling that's something to really take a look at. You can put all of your bills into a spreadsheet you know put what week they're coming through and then look at when your revenue flows through. You know there's some ways that you can remedy this If your cash flow is always off Your timing is always off You need to assess…That timing and start writing out when your bills are coming through really look at the timing of everything throughout the month. Can you change your fee collection process? Can you alter the timing of when money is flowing into your business? Can you alter the timing of when you're paying bills? If you need to maybe have more bills, come out towards the end of the month because more of your revenue has come in at that point then you could do that. Can you put bills on a credit card throughout the month and then pay that off in-full at the end of the month after you've collected all of your revenue?

So those are some things to think about. How you can remedy cash flow issues. If you are someone who DIYs your bookkeeping, you can use the weekly check-in that you put on your calendar…You can use that to categorize, transactions check-in with your bookkeeping…

One of the most important financial adjustments and check ins that you can perform in your business…is analyzing your financial reports on a monthly basis. So if you are a DIY bookkeeper, stay on top of those weekly check ins where you categorize and keep everything up to date because then you're more likely to be able to generate those reports monthly. And check-in with them and analyze them on a monthly basis. If you outsource your bookkeeping, is your bookkeeper providing you with reports on a monthly basis? If the answer is yes to that then immediately make time, make a time to analyze your reports when they send them. And if you're having trouble interpreting your financial reports, ask your bookkeeper for help. Or your tax professional. Whoever's helping you with this, or is the financial support person in your life, ask them for help.

I also have a couple episodes that break down what's in those reports and what's to look at um episodes eleven and twelve I'll link those in the show notes. But if your bookkeeper is…often late on reports and they're not staying up to date with your bookkeeping, you need to prompt them to do that. Find out why they're not staying up to date and if that's not something they're going to be able to do for you, you need to find another bookkeeper because that is very important.

So, your business map or your money allocation plan... When you project what your margin will be in your budget every month this is when you intentionally allocate your funds to your goals both short and long term. I touched on the different buckets to…put your money in put your profit in the last episode just so definitely check that out and I'll link that up. But tax savings is always a non-negotiable top priority of twenty five to thirty percent of all profit debt payoff savings, owner's draws. Those are what all those buckets that you need to think about. I'm not going to go into detail about percentages because I did that in the last episode but this episode's more about helping you understand what it takes to stay in financial alignment and how to recognize when you need an adjustment financially.

When it comes to chiropractic care, I am not one to miss an adjustment I go every two weeks to maintain my alignment but sometimes I get thrown off by you know workout or I sleep weird I throw my hips out of whack while I'm sleeping. My hubby and I always joke that we're in this stage of life where we sleep too hard and we mess ourselves out because sadly it happens too often.

When that happens, I realize that I need an additional adjustment So…In between those you know biweekly adjustments I will schedule a weekly adjustment until I get back into alignment, and I fixed the issue. But that's how in tune I want you to be with your finances just like you understand your physical health and you're in tune to your body and when you need a spinal adjustment, I want you to get to the point with your finances that you are hyper aware of when you're at a whack.

Like you know your finances so well that when things aren't flowing you immediately pick up on it and you immediately know something's not right I need to go take a look have a financial check-in and figure out what's going on tweak my budget, look at my financials and figure out what's up. Life can just happen sometimes and things aren't going to flow smoothly. That’s just a fact of life. Maybe you have a piece of equipment that breaks down or revenue is down for one reason or another, or there's a COVID shutdown…

I'm sorry. You probably just heard my doggy barking so there must be somebody outside.

But you don't know what's going to happen I mean look at how crazy the last you know three years have been in the world whatever randomness life throws at you it will mean that you need to financially adjust for that regular financial adjustments to your budget and your money allocation plan are absolutely necessary to just keep you on track keep you in financial alignment. The more aware you are of your financial state and the more adjusted you are the better you can handle whatever comes your way and ensure that you will reach your goals, and your money will be managed well…

So, ask yourself is creating a money allocation plan something you've ever thought of doing? I challenge you to start today. It's never as difficult or awful as you think it will be and like I said before it can actually be fun, believe it or not. I have a podcast episode and a tutorial on that, so I'll link those in the show notes as well if you need some guidance on creating that.

Ask yourself also when was the last time you knew what your profit margin was off the top of your head? I challenge you to make this your new goal this month to know your profit margin, know what your profit was and to also set up a profit margin goal for the next month. You can grab my sample chiropractic P and L to help you with that and to see what healthy numbers look like and see what a profit margin could look like. I'll link that in the show notes as well.

And…another thing I want you to ask yourself…Is selling your practice or succession planning something you've ever thought of before?

There is a chiropractor and a coach out there who can help you level up your life and your business when it comes to creating the practice you want and creating a practice you can sell that works for you in the long term. It's not just about goals in your business in this year that we're in or five years from now. It's about setting goals from like ten years from now Twenty years from now. Dr. Jennifer Bonde is someone who I came across a couple of years ago and she is amazing. She is someone who can absolutely help guide you when it comes to this when it comes to long term planning in your chiropractic practice. Trust me on this, she is amazing. You want to start tuning in to what she has going on. I will link her information in the show notes as well.

And stay tuned because in the future... in the near future, I'm going to start doing interviews on my podcast probably once a month and she will be joining me at some point to chat about all of that. So, definitely keep in mind what goals you have in your business what are you planning on doing with your practice down the road and what do you want it to do for you?

That's all I have for you today. Be sure to stay tuned and hit follow or subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss a thing.

And until next week, remember that action brings clarity, and imperfect action is better than none at all. Have a great day.

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Leslie Roth

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