Mistakes happen. They are part of life. Some mistakes are very expensive; others, not. Some mistakes affect only one person; others, many.

If you make a mistake, the important thing is to learn from it. Even better — avoid mistakes by learning from errors other people have made.

Chiropractic Economicsasked its readers to fess up and tell us about their blunders. We think their confessions can help keep you on the “straight and narrow” in managing your practice.

Here is what they told us.

STAFFING ERRORS

A number of practitioners confessed they made serious staffing errors.

• Looking outside. Clifton Mays, DC,of Oak Hollow Chiropractic in High Point, N.C., says his mistake was overlooking his own patients as a viable recruitment source. “We went through the ‘normal’ interview processes, but no one knew anything about chiropractic.”

His advice: Always look “inside-out” for help. It works for chiropractic healing, and it works for hiring staff. Your patients know what they want in the office and they know people who can fill the job.

• Not firing sooner. Keeping someone on staff too long is a familiar lament of many practitioners, including Stacy Rosenberg, DC,of Gibsons Health and Wellness Centre in Gibsons, B.C. She says, “I hired the wrong person for the job and didn’t trust my instincts to fire her when things weren’t working out. I really liked her as a person, and she was a former patient who referred a lot of patients.”

Rosenberg adds she knew within six weeks the person wasn’t going to work out, but she kept giving her another chance. “I didn’t want her to hate me or stop referring her friends.”

The lesson she learned: “The practice is too important to have the wrong person in the position. That causes stress and inhibits practice growth, especially if the person is not good with people.”

Her advice: Evaluate the employee within 90 days, and confront a bad situation in a timely manner with tact and diplomacy.

• Not appreciating the team. Jonathan Taylor, DC, of Morristown, N.J., discovered the hard way that his employees were an investment, not an expense.

He describes his mistake as “not encouraging my staff or complimenting them, and assuming I ‘own’ them because I am paying them.” That attitude caused him high turnover.

“I went 10 days without any staff,” he says. “Suddenly I realized how much they do. It’s worth dropping an e-mail, buying a small gift, or just saying ‘you’re great.’”

His advice: Never hire your spouse. Get “real” staff and train them properly.

• Hiring in desperation. Desperation hiring does not work, says Catherine Greene, DC, of Ripley Greene Chiropractic in Walpole, Mass.

“I employ massage therapists. When one left, I was desperate to fill the spot. I hired someone against my better judgment. One of the practice rules — which every new employee is told — was not to sell anything to patients. I discovered a patient stopped coming in to see me because the therapist sold her a used mattress and the sale turned out badly.”

Her advice: Never go against your intuition — your truth — no matter how many people are scheduled or how much money you may lose.

• Staffing up too soon. It’s OK to be optimistic and plan for your practice to grow, but you should remain realistic, reflects Eric Peay, DC, of COREhealth in Dallas.

As a new practitioner, he reviewed his practice statistics with his office manager and the two of them decided the practice could support a chiropractic assistant. He says, “We quickly found the position cost the company more money than it was worth. I should not have hired someone full time so soon.”

He also learned he needed to hire someone with a passion for chiropractic. “The person I hired was a great person, but his personality was like trying to give CPR to a stuffed animal.”

His advice: Don’t think you know it all. Develop a good interviewing process and get advice from others, such as your CPA and mentors.

PURCHASING MISTAKES

Although staffing mistakes can cost you time and money, blunders or oversights made when buying a practice can be more expensive, as some practitioners found out.

• Rushing to buy. Rushing into buying his first practice cost Ronn Radcliff, DC,of Radcliff Family Chiropractic in Gaffney, S.C., not just money, but “it also made me question my profession and my abilities,” he says.

He describes what happened: “I was so eager to buy my first practice that I didn’t take the time to do any research on the office or the doctor. My second day in practice, the FBI and state workers’ comp investigators walked into my office asking to review [the previous DC’s] records. For the next two days, they were making copies and going through my dream office.

“They came to find out he [the former owner] was billing for not only services he never performed, but also for patients he never treated. He never paid bills, which made it impossible to purchase supplies or even advertise. After almost a year of getting collection calls and dealing with additional investigations, I decided I had just cause to get out of my purchase contract and cut my losses.

“After I closed the office, I put all of the files and equipment into a storage facility of his choice. Three weeks later it burned down. He has since been to jail twice, and I have moved on.”

His advice:Business is a lot like school. Don’t expect to do well if you don’t do your homework. Take the time to look at everything. Have your accountants look at the books so you know what the real bottom line is. Have an attorney do a background check and review any contracts.

• Making assumptions. Kari Keller, DC, of Keller Family Chiropractic in Mascoutah, Ill., found you cannot make assumptions when you buy a practice.

She says, “I didn’t properly research the practice, although I thought I did. The seller said he had 30 patients a week coming in with the office opened two days a week. The appointment book accounted for the number he claimed.

“But, when I opened I had about three patients a week! The seller had done nothing to let his patients know I would be taking over. And, I recently found out, he was seeing some of his previous patients out of his home.”

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