How to Run a Dietitian Business Online: Time Management and Efficiency
Opening your own online private practice provides an incredible opportunity to make a meaningful impact and build your dream career. It’s one of the most fulfilling things you can do as a Registered Dietitian! But as rewarding as starting an online nutrition business can be, being an entrepreneur comes with its fair share of challenges.
What’s the biggest challenge for businesses going online? Time management and efficiency. When you’re running your own practice, it can feel like you’re always busy, teetering on the edge of burnout, yet you’re still not seeing any real progress with your business. Every day, balls get dropped, work hours stretch longer, and your business goals drift further out of reach.
If this is you, don’t worry. I’ve been there and I’ve helped hundreds of RDs just like you to be more productive and achieve better work-life balance! In this post, I’ll share some of my best tips and tools to help you get the most out of every day. Instead of drowning as a nutrition entrepreneur, it’s time to start THRIVING as a nutrition entrepreneur!
Here’s how to more efficiently run your online private practice:
How to Run a Dietitian Business Online: Time Management and Efficiency
Conduct a time audit to assess how you currently spend your time.
Before you overhaul your whole time management system, it's important to first understand how you’re currently allocating your time. Conducting a time audit allows you to pinpoint where your time goes, identify inefficiencies, and uncover opportunities for improvement.
You could do this using a simple pen and paper log of what you do every minute of your work day, but a better tool to use is Toggl! It allows you to easily track your daily activities (literally anything from interacting with potential clients and standard admin tasks to curating meal plans and reading new research) and mark where you spend your time. Once you’ve done it for a few days, you can analyze the data and identify inefficiencies.
Set clear boundaries with your business hours.
When you’re trying to build a successful business, establishing business hours is HARD. In pursuit of as much revenue as possible, it’s really easy to just work and work and work. However, the key to building a profitable private practice isn’t working as many hours as possible. For your business to truly serve you, it not only needs to make money, but it needs to give you the freedom you desire. Work-life balance is one of the main reasons to quit the 9-5 and go at it on your own!
Setting business hours is essential for effective time management (and for avoiding burnout as an RD!) The structure allows you to plan efficiently, establish realistic expectations, prevent overworking, and boost productivity with a sense of urgency. So, before you start trying to figure out what you can fit into your day and how to refine your time management strategy, set your business hours!
Automate administrative tasks where you can.
Every business has a lot of administrative tasks and these can be HUGE time sinks—that’s why it’s called busywork. Of course, these duties are essential to keep your practice running, but it doesn’t make a client impact. So, here’s where you really want to be extra efficient!
I recommend automating administrative tasks using software. Duties like record management, appointment scheduling, billing, reporting, and more can all be completely automated via the right program. It may cost a little bit to get the appropriate tools to take care of your busywork, but it’s well worth it and will likely make you money in the long run, because you can spend your time on more meaningful parts of your business!
For recommended tools, check out my list of the best resources for private Registered Dietitians.
Create templates to reduce repetitive work time.
This goes along with the last point! You can’t totally automate everything. Things like meal planning, session note taking, client progress records, and regular email correspondence are going to be customized to each client. However, you can create standardized forms that make the process an easy fill-in-the-blank process that improves organization and boosts efficiency!
Determine how you can delegate more tasks.
I know some of you are currently solo on your entrepreneurial journey, but no matter where you are in your process, be planning how you’ll build your dream team! These employees, partners, and consultants can take on appropriate tasks that are swallowing your time and attention.
A digital assistant, customer support representative, or social media manager could help with lots of tedious busywork and basic client support tasks. You could also bring professionals onto your team like accountants, legal consultants, and graphic designers to take on specialty task and execute them more effectively and efficiently than you could on your own. There’s no reason to go down this entrepreneurial path alone!
Decide how you want to balance client work and personal life.
You deserve to have the life you’ve always wanted. That means you don’t want to be working all the time, even if you are grinding to build your dream practice. So, take a moment to really get a vision for what you want your work-life balance to look like.
Think about when you want to work (weekends? 4 days a week? Mornings only?), how often you want to travel, how much time you want each night to dedicate to yourself, when you want to turn the social channels off, etc. Whatever you decide, either commit to it right now or set goals to get yourself there soon. The nutrition business not only needs to serve your dreamy clients—it needs to serve you too!
How to Organize Your Workday to be More Productive
Create a morning routine full of non-negotiables.
Your mindset should always be a priority, and establishing a morning routine sets the tone for your day. Having a few non-negotiables ensures that you start your day off energized, focused, and ready to strive for success. Here are a few that I try to abide by:
A nourishing breakfast: A good meal at the start of your day is key to fueling both body and mind. (I don’t need to tell you about the benefits of nutrition!)
Movement: Whether it be a short walk, light stretching, or even a relaxing yoga session, moving helps get the blood flowing.
Journaling or planning: I recommend journaling daily as an RD. It’s great for reflecting on past accomplishments and victories!
A structured morning routine is essential for gaining the mental clarity needed to successfully conquer the rest of your day!
Understand how many clients you can see back to back before you burn out.
Seeing too many clients back-to-back can lead to exhaustion. Not only does this impact how you feel, it can impact the amount of energy you’re able to give to your clients. As an RD, we know firsthand how important it is to provide the same high level of care to every client and every session.
Most RDs find that 2-3 clients in a row is that sweet spot for success. Paying attention to your needs and valuing your limit allows you to provide better care for your clients, while simultaneously caring for your own well-being. Plus, you can use that time in between clients for plenty of other business management tasks.
Schedule breaks for yourself.
If you were working a traditional RD job, your boss would offer breaks throughout your day—so make sure you afford yourself breaks, too! Not every minute of your work hours needs to be spent in high-focus tasks. That’s exhausting! Instead, schedule breaks in your day that fall at strategic times, allowing you to rest, recharge, and refocus!
Keep calls versus creative tasks on different days.
Switching back and forth between client calls and creative tasks can disrupt focus and hinder your productivity. The best way to combat this is to allocate certain days to certain types of tasks. This is more efficient than doing a little at a time over multiple days.
For example, you could have certain days you take calls and consultations, but leave the rest for focused client sessions or marketing tasks. This strategy minimizes context switching which will show through your work and productivity. Be strategic about what you do each day of the week.
Schedule in time for notes/admin.
Yes, your client sessions may only be an hour long, but that doesn’t mean that meeting just takes one hour. There’s prep beforehand, like reviewing client notes, client homework, progress data, etc. Then, there’s reporting afterward like taking notes, sending resources, updating logs, billing the client, and more.
If you don’t schedule for this “extra” time, you’ll always feel like you’re behind and scrambling. You’ll probably start to feel underprepared for meetings too, which your clients may pick up on. So, when scheduling your day, make sure to add time before and after sessions to give you the necessary time to fully complete a task.
Minimize distractions throughout the day.
This world is FULL of distractions. And, since your private practice is virtual, temptation like browsing social media, online shopping, household chores, and even procrastination can steal a lot of your time. You may not even realize it at first, but after a while distractions can take a lot of your time. You’ll consistently be behind with your tasks, which will leave you feeling stressed and unproductive.
Here are some tips to avoid distractions while working from home:
Have a dedicated workspace (the couch doesn’t count!)
Set locks on your phone and browser to limit access to distracting apps or sites
Keep a to do list to prioritize tasks and put others of strategically for later
Minimize noise and consider listening to music during admin tasks
Disable notifications on your phone and computer during certain times of the day
Prioritize your own nutrition and hydration.
Proper nutrition and hydration is key for concentration, energy, and a good mood. As an expert in nutrition, this is no surprise to you! However, in our pursuit of bettering the lives of our clients and building our practice, we can lose sight of our own needs.
Remember, your overall well-being is your greatest productivity tool. To have a constructive work day comes down to having a clear mind, optimistic outlook, and focused motivation. Nutrition, hydration, and self-care can help you get there!
What Are The Best Online Business Tools For Registered Dietitians?
Calendly
Using Calendly makes scheduling infinitely easier. It allows you to share a personalized link where clients can select available appointment times. They don’t have to contact you or a customer support representative! No more emailing back and forth to find the perfect session time.
Practice Better
Practice Better streamlines most of a RD’s administrative tasks. It’s a platform for wellness professionals that improves client engagement and management. It has features that handle things like scheduling, progress tracking, billing and payments, meal planning, secure messaging, and more.
Canva
Curating marketing visuals, educational material, blog post images, and online courses takes time. Our business is nutrition counseling NOT graphic design! However, Canva can make it much easier. It’s a user-friendly tool that allows you to load in your custom brand kit and make materials using thousands of premade templates.
Google Workspace
The whole Google suite serves as a great (and free) way to manage document creation, organization, and sharing. Plus, since it’s all online, it can all be accessed from anywhere!
Trello
As a Registered Dietician, you’re likely juggling several tasks throughout the week—analyzing your client data, posting social media content, creating individualized meal plans, and so much more. Trello allows you to keep track of all of your tasks and organize them based on several factors like task type, priority, due date, etc.
Mailchimp
Managing an email list in a standard email program is tedious. Simple software like Mailchimp can make sending newsletters, educational materials, and other mass correspondence fast, easy, and totally automated.
QuickBooks Online
I recommend all RDs have an accountant or CPA. However, QuickBooks online can be extremely helpful for tracking invoices, organizing business expenses, and preparing for taxes.
Typeform
Remember when I said creating standardized forms would help you increase productivity? Well, Typeform can help you do that! It’s a user-friendly interface that allows you to curate interactive forms and templates. You can even set up the documents in customized flows that deliver forms based on your client’s actions and responses. Automation is one of the best ways to save time!
Time management and efficiency are key to a successful nutrition business!
Staying productive and hitting your business goals can be challenging—every part of entrepreneurship is a challenge! However, I hope these tips help you better understand where you can practice better time management skills.
For more help increasing efficiency, consider hiring me as a dietitian business coach! I can help with all aspects of running your own online private practice to help you feel fulfilled through your nutrition business in every way! To find out if business coaching is right for you, take this quiz. Together, we can maximize your time and make the most out of every day without the stress and burnout.