Is Your Budget Costing You More Than It Saves? | Mindset Monday #79

Mindset Shifts from a Million Dollar Chiropractic Assistant #79

Your budget might be costing you MORE than it's saving you.

So how do you know if something is worth investing in your chiropractic practice?

You stop asking only "Can I afford this?" and start asking "What could this come back as?"

A budget tells you what you can spend. It can't tell you what a dollar could GROW into. That second question is where investing in your chiropractic practice actually starts.

Stay with me, Doc. This one is for the D.C. with a growth spend sitting on the desk right now... who keeps staring at the number.

What does "it's not in the budget right now" really mean?

Think about the last time you said it.

Maybe it was a seminar. Maybe it was a new table. Maybe it was the training your C.A. keeps bringing up in the huddle. (Every few weeks. Like clockwork.)

I totally get it. A budget feels responsible. Safe, even. And it IS responsible... a budget is a great tool.

AND ALSO... a budget only sorts money into two piles. What you can afford. What you can't.

It never asks the question that actually matters for growth.

Pause here for a second... what's on your "not in the budget" list right now? Name ONE thing.

Why does money feel gone the second it leaves?

Side note... actually no, it's not a side note. It's the whole point.

Behavioral economists have a name for this. It's called mental accounting. Nobel winning economist Richard Thaler showed how we sort money into mental buckets, and the bucket changes how spending FEELS. The Federal Reserve's education team has a simple reading on how mental accounting shapes our money choices, including what researchers call the "pain of paying."

So when a growth spend lands in the "expense" bucket, it feels like a loss. Gone. Even when it might be the most important thing you buy all year.

Same dollar. Different bucket. Totally different decision.

(Your C.A. feels this exact thing at the front desk when a patient pays. I wrote about that side of it in money isn't leaving you, it's looking for you.)

And in chiropractic, this conversation isn't new. A D.C. writing for the Illinois Chiropractic Society makes the case that team training belongs in the investment column, not the expense column.

Would you want a patient choosing care this way?

Let's get uncomfortable to get comfortable.

You'd never want a patient deciding their health based on what's left at the end of the month, right?

You'd want them to see their care as an investment in themselves. Not a leftover.

So why would we treat our own growth any differently?

Okay, quick story...

During an in-person training at one of my client offices, I sat with a patient I'll call Jane. Jane had suffered with vertigo for 18 YEARS. She always had to be the one driving, because riding as a passenger was unbearable.

And she'd put off caring for herself until her son graduated.

On paper, money was the objection. But money wasn't really what was stopping her. Jane had been putting herself last for a very long time.

I didn't even work at that office. I went deeper anyway: "You've been suffering with this so long... I'm invested in you."

Jane let out this big sigh and said, "You're right. I deserve this."

We found the way (her FSA funds), and she started care.

Do you see what I'm doing there? Jane's question changed from "Can I afford this?" to "Do I deserve this?" And once it changed, we found a way.

Doc, your practice is asking you the same question. So is your team. Is your growth getting what's left at the end of the month... or is it getting invested in?

What I do every time money leaves my account

Every time money leaves my account, I picture it coming back to me threefold. Every single time.

A little woo? Totally. I still do it. (I'll take the woo AND the receipts.)

Because it changes how I SEE the money. It's not disappearing. It's going to work.

And the woo has a very practical side. Picturing it come back threefold makes me ask a real question before I spend: HOW would this come back?

If I can't picture an answer... that tells me something too.

How do you tell an investment from an expense?

This is a mindset shift. It releases the old idea that money leaving you is always money lost.

Before: a budget asks, "What can I afford?"
After: an investment asks, "What could this come back as?"

Let's not sugarcoat it... not every spend is an investment. Spending without a plan is still spending. So before you say yes (or no), run it through these:

• What could this come back as? More patients starting care. More prepays. Fewer drop offs. Time back in your week. Get specific.
• How will we know? Pick the ONE number you'll watch. Collections, retention, new patient starts, or reactivations.
• Who carries it? A seminar nobody brings home is an expense. A skill your C.A. uses on every new patient call for years? That's an investment.
• What is waiting costing us? Every month it sits on the "someday" list, the old way keeps running.

(Quick note, Doc: I'm not a financial advisor, so the dollars and the timing are yours and your accountant's call. What I CAN coach is the question you ask before you decide.)

And if your numbers are already strong, that's not a reason to stop asking. I wrote about why it doesn't have to be broken to get better.

If you're a D.C. reading this...

Truth over comfort... one of the most expensive sentences in your office might be "It's just not in the budget right now."

Not because budgets are bad. Because that sentence can quietly decide your growth by whatever is left over.

So here's the first move we'd make together. Pull up your "not in the budget" list. Pick ONE item. Then ask your team, "If we did this, what could it come back as?"

Let your C.A. answer first. They sit in the money conversations with your patients all day, so they often see the return before anyone else does.

So which practice are you building... one that spends what's left, or one that invests in what's next?

For my C.A.s reading this...

You're the one sitting across from the patient who says, "Let me see if it's in the budget."

And you already know the money conversation is rarely about the money. (Jane taught me that one.)

So when you bring an idea to your D.C., bring it the way you'd want a patient to see their care. Not "Can we afford this?" but "Here's what I think this could come back as."

Wendy, a C.A. I've coached, shared that our coaching "empowered me to look differently at money." In her words, "our patient prepays and retention have about doubled."

That's a C.A. who stopped seeing money as something that leaves... and started seeing it go to work.

You don't need a title on the door to bring that question to the huddle. You just gotta claim it.

The shift to walk out with

This week, pick ONE thing you've been calling "not in the budget." Ask yourself, "Can I picture this coming back to me threefold?" Then ask HOW.

If you can picture it, put a plan behind it. If you can't, let it go for now... with zero guilt.

Spent money is gone. Invested money comes back. 🎯

Growing a C.A. who leads the money conversation (and brings you ideas that come back to your practice) is the heart of my C3 Certification Program for chiropractic assistants. Connect → Commit → Consistently Collect. Ninety days of coaching for the person who sits in the money conversations with your patients every single day.

So run C3 through the same question. What could ninety days of coaching for your C.A. come back as in YOUR office?

👉🏼 See what's inside C3 and grab your C.A.'s seat in the next round

Not sure yet if C3 fits your office? Book a no-charge consult with me and we'll look at your "not in the budget" list together. You'll walk away with real coaching either way.

Then copy this blog's link and text it to your C.A. with one line: "What's ONE thing we've called 'not in the budget' that could come back to us threefold?"

With love,
Miranda 🌱

Frequently asked questions about investing in your chiropractic practice

How do I know if something is worth investing in my chiropractic practice?

Ask three questions before you decide. What could this come back as? How will we know (which ONE number will we watch)? Who on the team will carry it every day? If you can answer all three, it's likely an investment. If you can't picture how it comes back, it's an expense, and that's okay to pass on for now.

Is chiropractic assistant training an expense or an investment?

It depends on whether it gets used. Training that sits in a binder is an expense. Training your C.A. uses on every new patient call, every financial conversation, and every reschedule keeps paying back, because your C.A. is in those conversations all day. Pick the number you expect it to move before you start, then watch it.

What is mental accounting, and why does it matter for a D.C.?

Mental accounting is the habit, described by economist Richard Thaler, of sorting money into mental buckets that change how spending feels. A growth spend labeled "expense" feels like a loss, even when it could pay back. Relabeling the question from "Can I afford this?" to "What could this come back as?" helps a D.C. decide on purpose.

Should I wait until it's in the budget to train my C.A.?

Waiting is a decision too. Every month without the training, your team keeps having the same patient conversations the same way. That doesn't mean say yes to everything. It means weigh the cost of waiting right next to the cost of the spend, then choose with your eyes open.