Running your own naturopathic practice is complicated enough but when you add medical school debt to the equation, you can feel completely helpless. You need to destroy your debt once and for all.

And you’re not alone. 

Most naturopathic doctors struggle to see the profits they deserve — they are also almost $200k deep in debt.¹

You probably thought once you started working, you would earn more than enough money to pay off your loans. But the average naturopathic income during the first year is $40,000, which would likely leave you less than $1000 per month in take-home income. That’s barely above the U.S. poverty line. 

So what can you do?

Well if you want a healthy patient, you look for the root cause first and then treat the symptoms. 

The same is true for your business.

In the previous blog, you learned how to maximize the profits from your practice.

Now it’s time to destroy your debt. All of it. 

Here are the three steps naturopathic doctors across the country are using to finally experience financial freedom.

Step 1: Learn to Enjoy Saving

When something makes you happy in the moment, you will keep doing it. This is how habits are formed. 

If you like buying shoes, you’ll keep buying them — nevermind the 20 pairs already in your closet. 

In the same way, if you believe throwing more and more money at your business will help it grow, you’ll continue to do it. Your brain is conditioned to feel joy when you “invest” more. But if you don’t prioritize profit first, you will only end up with more debt.

So how do you get in the mindset of saving more as a business owner?

You need to give yourself more joy when your profit grows — not when your revenue grows.

Step 2: Debt Freeze

Now that you have learned to enjoy saving, it’s time to draw out your plan of attack.

The idea here is to cut costs NOT compromise your practice.

Here are the three things you need to do to stop recurring payments that are hurting your bottom line: 

1. Go through your income statement for the past year, line by line, and identify all the profitable expenses.
2. Then highlight each expense that while necessary, can be replaced with a more affordable alternative.
3. Finally, figure out which expenses are unnecessarily costing your business money. 

Now that your expenses are identified. You know what elements of your business are core to its success and which ones are hurting it. Cut all unnecessary expenses. 

And if you have an expense that you feel is important but is not healthy for your business, you need to implement more profitable alternatives immediately.

Step 3: Destroy Your Debt

Chances are, we’ve all tried working out at some point. You know how it goes. 

You decide to start exercising one day, you train too hard and then the next morning you’re too sore to get out of bed. 

Then you decide you need time to recover before you can work out again and sure enough, you stop working out altogether.

The secret to solving the workout merry-go-round is the same one we are going to use to destroy your debt forever. 

It’s called the “snowball effect.” Dave Ramsey actually talks about it in his book, The Total Money Makeover.

Pay your smallest debts first. Don’t worry about the interest rate. 

This small success will encourage you to keep going. Small successes build momentum like a snowball rolling downhill. 

Once the smallest debt is paid off, tackle the next smallest one. Take the amount you were paying toward the first debt and add it to your payment for the second.

As each debt gets paid off, keep the snowball going to destroy your debt once and for all.

What to do Next

Now that you know how to maximize your profit and how to destroy your debt, the next article will show you why you are hurting your practice by NOT paying yourself FIRST — and how to fix it.

If you want to be one of the first to get more tips on how to build a healthy profit for your naturopathic practice, you can enter your email address here.

OR …

If you’re ready to fast-track your way to true financial freedom then call Every Single Bean at 602.330.4450 and we’ll work with you to develop a custom strategy that helps you live your ideal life, both at work AND at home.