In this episode, we have with us a licensed medical professional who holds a doctorate in chiropractic. He’s owned his own business for over 13 years and is experienced in sales and management. He’s also coached and mentored other business development and operations businesses. He’s continually furthering his knowledge base in real estate, health, and business through seminars, private coaches, and classes to make certain he’s up to date in all areas. Together with his wife Helen, their portfolio includes over 500 units in growing and thriving markets throughout the US.
Let’s learn more about Dr. Alex Tam!
What came first for Dr. Tam, being a medical professional or being an entrepreneur? It was definitely being a doctor that came first. He shared with us that as a doctor, you have to go through your studies, but right afterward, within a few months, if you want to open your own practice you have to become an entrepreneur.
The most challenging day-to-day issue that Dr. Tam feels occurs with running his businesses is getting all of the employees on the same page. This means making sure that you’re all aligned with the same mission statement, culture, and values so that everyone is on the same page.
When you have multiple businesses as Dr. Tam does, is there a through line between all those? Or is there one thing that’s the same or are they all different because they’re different businesses?
Every business that he’s ever started was due to a need that was picked up either by himself or someone that he knew. For example, the reason he became a doctor and started a medical practice, began when his mother was sick and he became inspired to help people.
His virtual assistant business started when his colleagues wondered how he got so much done. He was using 10 virtual assistants at the time to help him out full-time and so he eventually started the virtual assistant agency.
His real estate investments began when he needed somewhere to park the money he makes with his businesses. As he said, “You’ve got to park your money somewhere and let it grow. Your money’s got to make babies!”
In addition to that, when the other doctors started asking him how to market themselves, that’s when he started a marketing agency. They kind of go hand in hand with each other.
Having people and systems together makes the day-to-day running of a small business easier to run and more efficient. In his medical practice Dr. Tam has doctors, nurse practitioners, staff, and an office manager. They’re all integrated and working after the same goal. It goes back to the alignment and making sure everyone understands why they’re there and that everyone is working for the same purpose. It’s got to be purposeful for everybody.
When asked what the best way to get employees engaged and on board with the company’s mission statement, Dr. Tam says whats worked for him is having one of his key employees onboard the other employees. It’s one thing getting direction from the owner while they learn the business and company culture, but when they start seeing how the other employees do things, it helps to build your team. It creates buy-in from the new employees, but your existing employees feel empowered because they are sharing this culture that they’re living in every day, and that inspires themes to want to integrate those new folks into it.
What does Dr. Tam suggest we use as a gauge to know when it is the think is the right time to hire more employees? His advice is that by the time you’ve thought of hiring an employee, you probably needed one a few months ago. When you start noticing that you don’t have time for this, or you don’t have time for that, you needed one a few months ago. He suggests using the 80/20 rule. If you’re almost 80% tapped out on your time, chances are is to hire somebody else to fill in for you so you can delegate some of these tasks.
This episode also covers:
- tips for hiring new employees
- what applications and software to use to manage multiple businesses
- the best times to meet with your teams and what to focus on in the meetings
- how to handle fear and procrastination from holding you back in your business
Helpful Links:
Show Notes
