Scenario 3 – Small practice with more than 1 psychologist

Having more referrals than you can service yourself is a better business problem to have. However, recruiting other psychologists and providing the admin and practice support they require as part of their service fee, is not easy and often more costly than anticipated. Our members with small practices choose to use our service to cost effectively overcome these common issues and related challenges:

  • Employing a full-time admin staff member (instead of using a service):
    • In order to adhere to Award wage scales, comply with Workcover and Fair work requirements, cover recruitment and contract creation costs, provide sick leave and holiday cover a full time admin staff member costs a practice close to $60k per annum excluding the time you spend training and supporting them in their role.
    • Based on retaining a service fee of 40% from psychologists, practices need to be generating approximately $300k per annum in total client fees to start achieving cost benefits of having your own admin and turning a profit. This is because 40% of $300k equates to $120k – so when you deduct the $60k of employee related costs, only $60k remains to cover rent/loan repayments, utilities, and other expenses – leaving around $5k a year, $100 a week profit. Not enough to bother.
    • Finding, training and retaining hard working and diligent staff is a challenge and something you as the business owner have to invest time doing and getting good at over time.
    • You also need to have contingency plans to cover staff on sick days and when they take personal leave, and even fill the role yourself during these periods
  • To employee a part-time or casual admin staff member:
    • Despite only paying part-time and casual employees a portion of a full wage, costs are still significant. And it’s unlikely you’d be able to spend less that $25k per year on a staff member, as having them for less than 20 hours per week isn’t generally too helpful
    • Based on retaining a 40% service fee, practices need to be generating approximately $200k per annum in total client fees, to start achieving cost benefits and turning a profit. This is because 40% of $200k equates to $60k – so when you deduct $25k of employee related costs, only $35k remains to cover rent/loan repayments, utilities, and other expenses
    • Having a part-time or casual admin staff member means that only some of your calls get answered, admin and billing might have to wait until the following day, finding and retaining quality staff that can consistently work these hours can be particularly challenging
  • No admin staff member and psychologists to do their own admin:
    • Psychologists who are interested in this options may be interested in more of a partnership or more equitable financial relationship than a 40% service fee – more likely around 20%
    • Adherence to admin systems, procedures and protocols you establish may be challenging and will be something you have to manage in order to promote consistency in your practice
    • As new clients are the main advantage for psychologists working in this practice model, it can be hard to retain psychologists beyond a year or two, when they feel they are generating their own flow of new referrals

Paperlessadmin helps small practices like yours overcome these challenges and common business problems with cost effectively by reducing your admin staff costs significantly and outsourcing all the time and risks associated with having your own staff.

Have one of our consultant psychologists call you back for a no obligation free phone consultation to discover how we can make your life easier

© 2019 Paperless Admin ABN:47 159 299 091ABN: 47 159 299 091 - Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy