After years of training to be a doctor – through undergrad, medical school, residency, and landing the first job – are you fed-up with working for someone else? Opening a medical franchise is a great option if you’re interested in owning your own clinic.
A medical franchise provides numerous benefits that make it easier for you to be in control of your clinic. But before you put down your first payment, these are three things you should know.
- Fewer Doctors Own Their Own Clinics
The small doctor-owned clinics you may have frequented as a child are on the decline. According to the AMA, 2016 is the first year when less than 50 percent of physicians own their own practices. This is a far cry from 1983, where a similar survey found that more than 75 percent of physicians owned their own practices.
It’s not to say it’s impossible to own your own practice – just increasingly unusual.
- Owners Need Skills You Didn’t Learn in Medical School
Your medical training helped prepare you for a career in caring for patients and solving medical problems – not doing billing. Owning a medical franchise requires more than just medical know-how, you need to be informed about owning and managing a business. As owner, you’ll need to take on tasks such as marketing, hiring, bookkeeping, and more.
That’s where becoming a medical franchisee gives you an advantage over just striking out on your own. The franchise umbrella provides support and training to get you prepared to manage employees and customers alike. Owners learn important business skills that empowers them to combine the skills with their experience as a doctor to build a strong business.
Working as a franchisee also helps eliminate some red tape, giving owners better access to insurance companies or medical suppliers, proprietary software to manage patients, ongoing professional development, and more.
All of these things help physicians own a clinic, while still allowing them to spend a lot of time caring for patients, not filling out paperwork.
- Owning a Clinic is Rewarding
Surveys have found that entrepreneurs are some of the happiest people on earth. Owning your own business and providing the type of medical service you want to provide is extremely rewarding. Owning a medical franchise allows you to have control over your own future, and build a practice that you’re proud of.
Starting your own clinic could be just what you need to find the success and happiness you’re looking for. A franchise might be just right for you!