Five ways practice finance could grow your practice

With the right funding, your practice can reach its full potential. Doctors often find that when they invest in their practice, they are rewarded with growth. This investment can involve building practice capacity, expanding into new services, and improving the patient experience.

A doctor speaking to patients in a medical practice.

The common thread is that the injection of working capital is what sets the practice on a growth trajectory.

Here are five ways doctors can make the most of practice finance to get their practice growing.

1) Invest in medical equipment and technology

Investing in new equipment can be a game-changer. It allows practices to benefit from improved imaging and diagnostic information, or to expand into new services.

For your patients, your investment in new technology can make your practice a ‘one-stop shop’ for key services, keeping critical revenue within the practice.

The catch is that the latest medical equipment is expensive. This is where practice finance comes into its own.

Practice finance allows doctors to invest in much-needed equipment. By reducing referrals to third party service providers, doctors can retain more revenue in-house. This may assist doctors to reap the rewards of improved services or new revenue lines sooner.

While you are making an investment in practice technology, it can also be worth looking at investing in a new car for your practice. Avant Finance can offer cost-effective funding here also, to help you save on fuel and maintenance costs – and potentially reduce emissions.

2) Streamline admin

Investing in practice technology isn’t restricted to diagnostic equipment.

Updating practice IT systems can deliver valuable ‘back office’ efficiencies, streamline admin to reduce costs, free up cash for additional investments, and support Medicare compliance activities.

3) Improve patient services

Practice finance can be used to fund improved patient services. This is an area where doctors can benefit from thinking outside the square to grow their practice.

Investing in online booking systems, online paperwork, automated consultation reminders, or even simple touches such as wi-fi in the waiting room, can keep your practice cost-competitive while supporting growth.

4) Build your team

As Australia, like many nations, faces a talent crisis, attracting suitably skilled medical practitioners is an issue for all doctors.

Growing your practice typically requires hiring more clinical staff including doctors and nurses. Yet, the RACGP General Practice: Health of the Nation 2022 report [1] notes that sourcing and retaining GPs was ranked by 38% of practice owners as their most important challenge [2].

The reality is that smaller practices may not have the budget to compete with the pay and benefits offered by larger organisations. This is where practice finance can be invaluable.

Avant Finance’s line of credit (business overdraft) can help your practice manage the costs of hiring new staff until an increased patient load delivers sustained revenue benefits.

5) Own your premises

Purchasing commercial premises can feel like a daunting step. However, it has the potential to propel your practice forward while growing your wealth.

Owning rather than leasing premises gives you certainty of tenure. It can also provide an exit strategy for retirement whereby you sell the practice but retain the premises.

Many doctors choose to own their premises through a self-managed super fund (SMSF). Avant Finance can collaborate with your licensed financial planner to assess whether this is a viable strategy for you.

Irrespective of the underlying ownership structure, it is often more financially rewarding to fit-out premises you own rather than lease. You can, for example, choose to sublet space to related services, giving your practice a diversified revenue stream.

Alternatively, investing in a second building can foster practice growth through geographic diversity.

Avant Finance’s commercial property Loan is designed with doctors in mind, and can be used to purchase a practice property, or to refinance an existing practice property loan.

Avant makes practice finance easy

Doctors face considerable time pressures. Avant Finance’s lending solutions give medical professionals increased choice through external lenders plus our own practice finance products:

Better still, doctors who partner with Avant Finance are assigned one relationship director, so there is consistency of care for the lifetime of their career.

To help your practice reach its full potential, request a free consultation with a medical finance specialist, or call us today on 1300 99 22 08.