For business owners, it’s the Mayo Clinic model to the rescue!

By Kevin Korhorn

In 2016, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Mayo Clinic the #1 hospital in the nation. It’s an impressive achievement, but considering how unique their approach is compared to other hospitals, I’m not at all surprised by their success. What does the Mayo Clinic do that’s so different? What is their “secret sauce”?

First, every doctor is paid on a set salary. That means their doctors don’t increase their earnings by ordering a certain test, prescribing a popular medication, or performing a specific procedure. Second, every patient receives fully integrated treatment. Regardless of their individual specialties, the clinic’s team of doctors works together to be sure every aspect of each patient’s health is viewed—and treated—holistically. It’s so logical. After all, the human body is one organism with thousands of moving parts that interact in millions of ways.

And yet, in the traditional approach to patient care, each doctor views each patient from a single, narrow lens based on their medical specialty. The Mayo Clinic’s integrated approach changes all of that. The hospital’s mission is to “contribute to health and well-being by providing the best care to every patient through integrated clinical practice.” The results speak for themselves.

In this regard, the parallels are amazing between how medicine is practiced and how financial services should be practiced. If that sounds like an unusual comparison, here’s exactly what I mean:

Back in March, I got a call from “James.” The owner of a local small business, he had been offered a fantastic business opportunity, but it required an immediate investment in a piece of real estate. That put him face to face with a challenge every small business owner knows well: his assets were completely deployed for other priorities in his business, so coming up with the needed cash was going to be a challenge.

He had heard that it is possible to buy real estate using funds from his Individual Retirement Account (IRA), but he didn’t know how to go about it. He’d asked his current investment advisor for guidance, but because his advisor only focuses on traditional investments, he didn’t have the expertise to help.

Fortunately, James had heard our Wise Money Show on the radio, so he knew about our integrated approach to solving our clients’ financial problems. When a friend suggested he reach out to me personally to see if we could offer a solution, he called right away. I’m so glad he did. As soon as James explained his problem, I knew we could help. I also knew James had much more than a cash flow problem. He had a total systems problem.

He was working with an investment advisor who was helping him partially address only one of the 6 key areas of his financial life. Plus, the investment advisor wasn’t talking to his tax preparer, so I knew it was quite possible James was missing tax planning opportunities that are available to business owners. He wasn’t sure if he had the right insurance—or the right amount of coverage for the policies he did have. And because he was so busy running his business, he’d never even thought about a real retirement plan.

The longer we talked, the more clear it became that although James was working very hard at trying to manage all the moving parts of his finances, the process simply wasn’t working. He was frustrated at how much time and money he was spending, and he still wasn’t getting the answers he needed to succeed. The advice James was getting was completely disconnected. That meant it was up to him—a busy, hardworking business owner—to not only figure out the solutions to his problems on his own, but also to find the right people who could help deliver what he needed. All this while his customers and employees needed him to be 100% focused on something else entirely: running the customer-facing side of his business. Just like a medical patient running from doctor to doctor (or worse, to WebMD) to try to solve a health problem, James was exhausted because of one thing: he had a systems problem—his system for making financial decisions was broken.

The Mayo Clinic model to the rescue

Once I realized James’s real problem, a lack of integration, I got really excited. I knew exactly how to help. James was (and is) a smart businessman, so I knew he would never give up responsibility for his business or his finances. I also knew he understood the value of delegation, integration, and elevation. By the end of our first meeting, James saw the parallel. Just like the doctors at the Mayo Clinic would never treat a patient without taking the time to understand his or her complete medical profile, James needed an integrated team that would take the time to understand his complete financial picture, and then help him manage all six areas of his financial life. These six areas include his:

1. Current financial position (to understand what he owns and owes, and his current challenges and opportunities)
2. Insurance coverage (to be sure his family and business and personal assets are protected)
3. Tax plan (to minimize his business and personal taxes, before and after retirement)
4. Investments (to make investment decisions that support his business and personal goals)
5. Retirement plan (to help ensure he doesn’t outlive his money)
6. Estate plan (to be sure his business and personal assets will be easily and properly transferred to the people he loves)

Once James understood how this integrated approach to his financial life could help, he was as excited as I was. He knew he would no longer have to waste his valuable time trying to self-diagnose his problems. Instead, he now has a team working continuously to help identify his challenges, prescribe solutions, and help ensure every aspect of his financial life is in top health. Best of all, working with a team that uses an integrated model has given James financial peace of mind. He knows we are working in concert to keep his financial health on track so he can concentrate on his most important priority: running a thriving business.