Million Dollar Math: The Equation Behind Every Profitable Business

One of the biggest reasons physician entrepreneurs struggle isn't effort, heart, or clinical skill — it's that no one ever taught us the math of business. We were trained to help people, and pricing and volume became an afterthought. But business is an economic sport, and in this episode Dr. Una walks you through the million dollar math that changes how you see your entire business.

You'll learn why there are many different paths to a million dollars — but every one of them is a fixed equation you can't argue your way around. Sell something for $1 to a million people, or $10,000 to a hundred people, or a million to one — the models all work, but only if you play by the rules. Dr. Una breaks down the two models most physicians live in (low ticket/high volume and high ticket/low volume), the specific challenge that comes with each, and how to overcome it so your numbers and your goals finally line up.

In this episode:

• Why "people first, numbers second" doesn't mean you get to ignore the numbers
• The million dollar equation — and why $1 to one person will never get you there
• Low ticket and high ticket are Siamese twins with volume and price: choose one, you've chosen the other
• The money drama that shows up every time you raise your prices (and how to hold it together)
• Why your buyers aren't price shoppers — and how to articulate value instead
• "Charge what you're uncomfortable charging": the stretch-price rule that gets you unstuck
• Why marketing is non-negotiable in a low ticket, high volume model
• Your homework: audit your business and find out if you're actually playing by the rules

A few moments to listen for:

2:21 — Why physicians struggle with the math of business
5:01 — The million dollar equation, walked out zero by zero
7:36 — Choosing your model: low ticket vs. high ticket
11:26 — The money drama of high ticket (and how to lean into value)
21:51 — The real math behind "I only want to see one patient an hour"
23:29 — Why marketing is the make-or-break skill for high volume
26:24 — Your homework: run the audit

One line to remember: "Your model can work, but you must play by the rules. Anticipate the challenges, get ready for them, overcome them, and win."

Loved this episode? Take it and share it with a doctor in your world — it could change how they see their whole business. And if you're ready to build a profitable business with the community, structure, and mentorship to back you, the EntreMD Business School is where physician entrepreneurs go to make it real.

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about my 12-month program. 
• Interested in 1-on-1 coaching? Apply here.
• Grab a copy of the "The 7-Figure Physician CEO" book. 

When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:

•  The Profitable Private Practice Movement - If you want to build a thriving private practice that serves a lot of patients, while creating time and financial freedom for you, come join us here. 
• EntreMD Business School Grow - This is our year-long program with a track record of producing physician entrepreneurs who are building 6, 7 and 7+ figure businesses. They do this while building their dream lives!
• EntreMD Business School Scale - This is our high-level mastermind for physicians who have crossed the seven figure milestone and want to build their businesses to be well oiled machines that can run without them.

To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...

Transcript

Understanding Million Dollar Math

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Before we get into the episode, I am thrilled to announce that the Entre MD Business School is open for enrollment. The EntreMD Business School is the only school of its kind for physicians who want to build six, seven, and multiple seven-figure businesses. Over the last two years, we have had hundreds of doctors go through the school with unbelievable results. Some of them run brands, some of them run private practices, some of them are coaches, some have other kinds of service-based businesses or product-based businesses. And we've had people come in and cross the six-figure milestone, cross the seven-figure milestone, cross the multiple seven-figure milestones. You will be in a place where you'll get the coaching, the community, the accountability that you need to thrive as an entrepreneur, especially in the times that we're in. So maybe you've been following me for a while. Maybe you've been getting so much out of the entreamd podcast and you've been wondering how can I work with Dr. Una and the community more? Well, this is your chance. Come join us in the entreeMD Business School. It is application only. So go to entreMD.com forward slash business to turn in your application. I cannot tell you how many doctors have made statements like this. I recovered my investment in the first week. I recovered my investment in my bank account in the first 90 days. This is the best investment I've made in myself ever. I want you to have that kind of story. Not just a story of building a great business that serves a lot and earns a lot, but having a business that gives you the freedom to live life on your terms. So don't wait any longer on traymd.com forward slash business and now for the episode. Charge what you are uncomfortable charging. So maybe you decide that ultimately what I do, I want to charge $10,000 for it. But you cannot even possibly bring yourself to charge $10,000. You can comfortably charge $3,000, and $5,000 would be a stretch. Go for $5,000. Hi Dugs. Welcome to the Entre MD podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Imna. One of the reasons why businesses struggle the most is that the entrepreneurs do not quite understand the math of business. And today I'm going to be walking you through understanding million-dollar math. Okay? Now, the reason why this comes up a lot, especially for physicians, is we are helpers at heart. And we have not actually been trained to look at the numbers and make any data-driven decisions. We just make decisions based on the kind of help we want to offer people. And then the pricing and the volume and all of that is an afterthought. Now, of course, within a hospital system or an employed system and things like that, that can work because we're shielded from the money. When you own a business, you have to look at it completely differently because business is an economic sport. Okay, business is an economic sport. You want to remember this. Now, does that mean we put profits and numbers ahead of people? No, of course not. But it doesn't also mean that we get to disregard the numbers. Okay. So we put people first, we put numbers second, but numbers are right there. And once you understand how to marry those two things, entrepreneurship becomes so much easier. Not easy, easier, becomes so much easier. And you can really show up authentically, putting people first, but then building an entity that is profitable so you can continue to stay in business. Okay. And whether you are starting up, you are your first year of business, or you're a veteran, it is very critical that you understand this because I have been a student of business long enough to know that the fact that a business is bigger or more established does not mean it's more profitable. We must understand the rules of the game. And that's what we're going to be looking at. Okay. So let me start off here. Someone may say, okay, why a million? What's the thing with a million? Well, I mean, a million is a nice number when you factor in taxes, payroll, all of those kind of things. Um, it comes to a pretty decent number that you can take home. But if you don't want to do a million, you can take a zero off. If you're like Dr. Una, I'm already at the 10 million, then you put at a zero, okay? But this is just, you know, there's lots of zeros and it's easy to do the math with zeros. Now, I want to I want to play, let's let's play a game here a little bit, okay? Um, and I love gamifying entrepreneurship. People say, oh, well, if you have a $97 product, you can never build a successful business. And that is not entirely true. Okay, think about your Netflix subscription, right? It's not a gazillion dollars. Um, you somebody may say, well, if you charge really high, you're not going to get enough people to say yes to you, and you're not going to be able to run a successful business. This is not true either. Okay. So let's look at million dollar math and let's just look at it as pure math, like a pure equation. If I sold something for a hundred for one dollar and I figured out how to sell it to a million people, and you may say, Well, how can you find a million people? Well, let's say that I had a book that was a book written for the general population, not for not for um physicians, and it was a really fun book, and it was Christmas time, and I was gonna, you know, I was gonna sell it through Walmart. Walmart really wanted it. They could easily distribute a hundred uh a million copies, and I'm like, I just want a dollar per copy. That's a million dollars. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, so just just roll with me here. It let's look at it as pure math. No arguments, no stories around it. So I can sell something for a dollar to a million people and that's a million. I can sell something again, we're just moving zeros. I can sell something for ten dollars to a hundred thousand people and that's still a million. Okay. I can and you can say, where would you find a hundred thousand people? There are a million physicians. What if I touch 10% of them, right? Like just roll with the math here, okay? Okay. I can take something that is a hundred dollars and I can sell it to ten thousand people, that's a million. I can take something that is a thousand dollars and sell it to a thousand people, and that's a million. I can take something that's ten thousand dollars and sell it to a hundred people, that's a million. I can take something that is a hundred thousand dollars and sell it to only ten people, and that's a million. I can take something that's a million and sell it to one person, and that's a million, right? And the reason why I took the time to do that is because I want you to see there are many ways to get to a million dollars, but understand that it was a tight equation. I could not say, oh, you know, like I I want to sell something at one dollar and I want to sell it to one person and make a million. That is not the way this works. It is an actual equation. The same way I can't say, you know what, two plus two is 17 is 17. How did you get there? That's what I want. That is not how this works. Okay, and once you can get this, once you can start thinking this way and understand there is an equation and there are laws to the equation, then everything becomes better. So the models work. So many different models work, but you have to play according to the game. Okay. So for instance, what you will notice is the lower the dollar amount was, the higher the volume, right? The higher the dollar amount was, the lower the volume that I would need to you need to serve to get to a million dollars. Now, there are many business models, um, but I want to make it really simple, and we're going to look at two, right? Like it's just a way of thinking. And and please roll with me here. Okay. So if I decide, you know, I want to serve a certain audience, and I decide that they what I want to charge for my service is a hundred dollars, but I want to make a million this year. What I am saying is I want to charge a hundred dollars and I'm willing to do the work of selling this to 10,000 people. So it is low ticket, it is high volume. I cannot say that I only want to sell it to 100 people and it's a hundred dollars, okay, because that is going to give me $10,000 for the year. But what happens a lot of times is people pick these kind of numbers and at the end of the year or the end of a quarter, they're frustrated. And I'm like, but if you do the math, there's no way the math was going to take you to your goal. The goal and the math don't line up, they don't line up at all. Okay. Okay. If I said that, you know, I really want to, you know, take the time, invest a lot in my people, serve them at the at the highest level. It doesn't mean you can't serve at the highest level for low ticket, but you're, you know, like I want to have high touch points and all of that stuff. And I want to, you know, I want to charge $20,000 for what I do. Okay. That's that's okay. You you you can get away with it, right? I I want to charge $20, $20,000 is what you're going to have to do. Um, not the exact number, but a higher ticket, because what you're saying is I want to serve a smaller volume of people. So, in a broad sense, what this means is if I want to go low ticket, there's no problem with it. That can work, but I need to go high volume for the equation to work. It is an equation. It also means that if I decide that I want to go low volume, then I have to go high price to get to that equation. Okay. Now you may say, yeah, I set my goals for the year, it's a million or it's not a million, it's less than a million, whatever. But whatever that goal is, and whatever you've decided your model is, you want to reverse engineer it. Okay. And then say, okay, based on what I've decided my goal is and how I want to work or how I want to price, this is what is required of me. This is a requirement. This is not a suggestion. You don't get to do it if you like and not do it if you don't like. Okay, so if you say I want to serve just a few people, you're saying I want to do high price. If you say I want to do low price, you're saying I want to do high volume. End of story. Okay. All right. So now if if that's the case, then I want you to think, you know, like there are different um types of challenges that come up based on the model that you pick. Okay. So let's talk about that for a second. So if I decide that I only want to serve a few people, that means I'm also saying that I want to be high price. Now, if I want to be high price, where where do where do I anticipate the challenges would be? Well, the first challenge that I see a lot with that is the money drama around raising prices, right? And I talk to doctors a lot and I serve a lot of doctors, and I've done this for a lot of years. So a lot of times there's money drama that comes up. It's drama around your greedy doctor, how much is enough, you're manipulating people and taking their money. This is something that is simple for you to do. So why are you charging so much for it and all of that? That comes up. So if you're going that model, if you are in that model, I need you to understand this is a challenge that comes up. And a lot of times, every time you raise your prices, the challenge rears this ugly head again. And so now you're savvy, you know that's what's coming, so you prepare

Money Drama in High Ticket Sales

SPEAKER_00 13:06

for it. Okay. How do you prepare to overcome the mind drama that shows up because you're charging maybe higher than somebody else would? So, for instance, one of my clients, um, she is um a direct primary care doc. Her first year, she did over $500,000 in revenue, and she's a little higher priced than her peers. And there's a lot of, you know, guilt. She got guilted many times. People say, How can you charge that much? and all of those kind of things. Um, and and that's on one side, and there's the internal money drama. There's, you know, there's drama everywhere, right? But she she was able to own it, she was able to own what she did in an ethical, authentic way, and then she built the business that she wanted to build. Okay, so if you know that that's gonna come, what do you do? Well, I'll give you a few things you can do. Number one is really leaning into the value of what you do, okay? Because the kinds of people who will go high ticket are the kinds of people who typically place more value on the ROI than they do on what they're paying. Okay. So for instance, when I want to work with somebody, I am not necessarily thinking about the sticker price. That what I'm thinking about is this is the this is the value I want to get. This is the return on investment I want to get. And this person has either done it for themselves or done it for themselves and done it for so many so many other people. There's a clear path, and I go for it, right? Because I know that whatever I'm paying is an investment and I'm going to get a huge return on investment. So I'm willing, I'm willing to pay, right? And so there are many things that I pay really high value for, and I'm not bothered by the price. I don't mention, I don't talk about the price. I don't talk about that because the same way if I'm gonna go buy real estate, if I see the path to ROI, or I'm gonna go invest in stock, I see a path to an ROI, I'm not crying over what I'm investing, right? I'm not crying about that at all. What I'm focused on is, oh my goodness, look at this return that I'm going to get. So when you go into the high-ticket arena, those are the kind of people that you're you're typically talking to. So you need to be clear on what that ROI is, right? And so let me use myself as an example. Um, I run the entre MD Business School, one of the greatest honors of my life. Uh, we've done that for almost four years at this point, and it is not low ticket. It is not low ticket by by any chance. However, when people come into the school, they make that transition from physician to physician entrepreneur. They build a brand that is profitable. There are people who build businesses, they come in, they do their first hundred thousand, first multiple six figures, first seven figures, first multiple seven figures. They're able to do that. They're able to, they learn how to build teams. Um, they're building these teams and buying their time back. Time that they use for themselves, times they use to rest and refresh and recharge, times they used to spend with their family. They put themselves in a position, um, especially those who've been in, we call them EBS Masters, who've you've been at it for for a minute. They're the people who, you know, also have set up businesses that are entities that can run without them. So say they're, you know, there's a death in the family. They're able to go and take care of their family and do what needs to be done. Meanwhile, their business is still running because they've built the teams, they've built the systems and all of that. And so the return on investment is huge. The personal transformation is so dramatic that there are people who are like, I wonder if I should renew. And their husbands, their spouses are like, Oh my goodness, you're a completely different person. Of course you should renew, of course you should do another year. These are all the things. It's not just, oh, when you come, you learn about business. You see, I can trace it all the way to the impact on their marriages, the impact on their kids. Many of them, their kids, their kids are learning so much about entrepreneurship. They're reading the books their parents are reading, all of that stuff. It's it's so amazing. They have these successful businesses, they're building teams, they're taking, they're able to take time off. They have a community of people they can lean on where there's no competition, there's a lot of collaboration. That's all they get. Do you see how that's very different from you know what we get? Well, what happens when people work with you? They build profitable businesses. I'm able to trace it all the way. So the profitable business, so what? Right? And the more you lean into that, the more you're able to fall in love with what you do. And you can say, like, so if someone pays 30 grand to be in the entree and v business school, but in the end they turn out like that, like the the ROI is it's priceless, right? And so I don't feel bad. I don't have the drama around doing what I do. Okay. You could be somebody that your lifestyle medicine, and maybe you have a you have a concierge style practice or your life, your lifestyle medicine, but use a coaching model and you're high-ticket. It's not just about um, I help you, you know, transition to a plant-based diet, or I help you, you know, like um figure out your diet and your exercise or whatever. You want to trace it all the way. Finally, the weight that you've been trying to get off for X number of years is coming off. Um you have you feel like you're in control. You're no longer, you know, like a victim of your of your diet. Um, you feel stronger than you've ever felt. You're able to sleep better. You feel so good in your in your skin. Um, your ski, you know, like in your skin, your skin is glowing. You're able to run around with with the grandkids and the kids. You're like you trace it all the way, right? You trace it all the way. And because you've learned these things, it's affected your spouse, it's affected your children. And so not only are you in a healthier space, you're leaving a legacy of health. Do you see what I mean? Like you trace it all the way. The more you do that, you more you see, I'm not overcharging. I'm not overcharging. What I'm charging is an ethical price. So that's one of the things, you know, that you would do to fall in love with that. The other thing that you would do is I don't know that there's any amount of mindset work you do that will completely eliminate the drama. It would just help, you know, like help you hold it together. But one of the best things you can do is then start charging. And sometimes, you know, the way I look at it is this charge what you are uncomfortable charging. So maybe you decide that ultimately what I do, I want to charge $10,000 for it, right? But you cannot even possibly bring yourself to charge $10,000. You can comfortably charge $3,000. And $5,000 would be a stretch. Go for $5,000, right? Like rather than doing nothing. I've seen people do this where they're paralyzed. I know I should charge this, but I can't. I'm like, who made these rules? Like, what are you doing? Right? Like charge what you're uncomfortable charging. So you want it to be a stretch, you don't want it to be a break. So if 10,000 paralyzes you, 5,000 stretches you, and 3,000 is comfortable, go for 5,000, right? And after you serve a number of people, go for 7,500. Go serve another number of people, go to 10,000 where you are going anyway, right? But I would rather do that than not do anything at all. I cannot tell you how many people just live in an undercharging world because they cannot bring themselves to go that, you know, like to do what they think they can, but there's a whole middle ground. The idea is to be uncomfortable. If you're uncomfortable, you're growing. There's a lot of money drama that goes with that with a high ticket, okay? So fall in love with your offer, charge a stretch price, like regardless. And one other thing is you want to, when you're communicating, articulating what you do in the market and all of those things, you're not articulating based on price because your people are not price shoppers. You're articulating based on value. If you work with me, this is what happens. If you come to my concierge practice, this is what happened. If you sign up for my coaching thing, this is how your life will be different. This is the pain, this is how life will be different. Because what they pay for are not the things that are cheaper, they pay for the things that give them what they want. Okay, so if you are a high-ticket model and you're constantly talking about discounts and all of that, is they're not those kind of people. They're just not those people. Okay, that works more with the low-ticket model, not as much with a high-ticket model. They're looking for, okay. If I am looking for somebody to work with to create an let's say I wanted to, I decide this is the year that I'm working on my nutrition, and I want to treat my body like an athlete would treat their body. I want to treat my body um like it's like it's a machine, like it's a tool, and I want to I want to nourish it properly and all of those things. I am not going to go for the cheapest person who can help me do that. I'm not going to do that. I know the result I have. I know I want to be a peak performer. I know I want to be strong at 90 and all of that. So, what I'm going to do is look for the person who's the best of the best. I'm not expecting the best person to be the cheapest. So, what I'm looking for when so if I'm reading someone's copy, I'm look following somebody on social media, I'm reading their emails or whatever, what I'm looking for is does this person have the expertise? Have they helped other people do this? What are their philosophies around nutrition and all of those things? What you know, like that's what I'm looking at, not primarily the price. So you have to get really good at articulating value, value, return on investment, value. This is what can happen. Value, return on investment. Because I would care much, much less about the price. I would care a lot more of can you take me there? Can you help me nourish this body in such a way that I will be strong at 90? Can you do that? That's what I would be after. Okay. Okay. So that's where we tend to have the challenge with the high-ticket model is the money drama. Don't ignore it. Don't pretend it's not you. Don't say, Oh, I've overcome that before. Because a lot of times, every time, every time you come up there, it will show up again. Okay. Now, for the low ticket model, does it mean oh, we don't give value, we just charge low ticket? Of course not. Okay, we give value all over, but that buyer is a little different. Okay. So, first of all, if we decide we're going low price, we are going high volume. And so, um, if you think about it, say primary care, private practice, that is a low ticket model, right? You're talking $130, $150, $200. average payments per encounter. It's a low ticket model. And so this is why when people tell me I'm in an insurance model, I'm primary care, and I really want to take um, you know, my time with my and I'm not saying don't take your time, I'm going somewhere. I want to take my time with my patients and I only want to see a patient an hour. Well, you know, let's do the math. Okay, so if you have uh if you're getting $150 per patient and you decide I want to see a patient an hour and you work for eight hours, um, two hours that would be $300 times two, that's $600. That's $600. Did I get that right? $150 an hour for four hours is $600. So that's $1,200 a day. Now many private practices like I've surveyed a lot of private practices, I've looked at the data, they're looking at overhead of 50% right so before your salary and all of that, your overhead is already your overhead is already $600 before your salary. So the question is is that sustainable? And the answer to that is no the answer to that is no right and so it means that the volume has to be there. You might say okay but what of the care that is where you need to start thinking about efficiency thinking about systems thinking about processes and all those things which is a completely different conversation which I think we're gonna come back and

Marketing Strategies for Business Success

SPEAKER_00 25:09

have but it is a high volume model. Okay? It is a high volume model. Is there a way to make it work? Absolutely there is a way to make it work but it's a high volume model. So let's just talk about the equation here. Okay. Now what is the biggest challenge that I see in the high volume model? It is marketing. Now it doesn't mean that the high price model they don't have to market they do have to market um but it is even more critical for the low for the for the low ticket model like marketing marketing marketing and marketing for volume right and so that means that we're extroverting into the marketplace quite a bit it means that we're building a referral base we're doing like we don't have time to slack on the volume on the marketing for volume we just don't right and so if you run a private practice or you know like especially your you know your primary care insurance model all of that stuff and you're like I don't like marketing I want to invite you to like marketing right and I'll tell you this when I started um as when I started as an entrepreneur um when I started medical school um you know that was great but before that I did not like biology okay and I was like I don't like biology but the problem is there is no pathway to medical school without biology that I know about okay so what did I have to do? I had to like biology because I'm like oh I don't want to read about AMIBA and all these weird things like I I I just want to be a doctor good the pathway to that is biology the pathway to success in a low ticket high volume model is marketing marketing marketing marketing and more marketing okay and if you don't like it I invite you to like it and I invite you to learn about it and I like invite you to decide you know what I'm gonna master this stuff because you can you can become really good at it right and you can build a system and you can build a marketing system that runs without you but you just have to get out of resistance and embrace it and go like marketing is my thing. Marketing is my thing marketing is my thing. And so I hope this has helped you look at your business very differently. So first of all decide how much it is you want to make decide whatever it is however you want to operate you want to serve a few people or you want to offer something at a low price understand that by choosing that you've chosen something else. So if you choose low ticket you have chosen high volume one go they're twins they're Siamese twins they go together if you have chosen low volume you've chosen high ticket those two things go together they're Siamese twins. Okay so I want you to understand that I want you to understand the challenges that tend to come up with those two models and decide I am going to overcome them. I am going to be a rock star I work in both models my private practice is low ticket high volume and then is high ticket um lowish volume you know compared you know it's relatively low volume right and so both models work both businesses are doing really well but they're different models so your model can work but you must play by the rules you must anticipate the challenges get ready for them overcome them and win I'm inviting you to win I'm inviting you to win whatever model that is okay so this is your homework I want you to go I want you to run an audit like what model is your business in are you obeying the rule right so if you're low ticket are you high volume if you're high volume if you're if you're low um low volume are you high ticket right so I want you to to audit and say am I am I playing by the rules? Am I playing by the rules? And I want you to anticipate the challenges and I want you to start strategically proactively overcoming those challenges so you can thrive. Let me tell you the physician community needs people like you you listening to me to thrive and be an example of what is possible there's so much of a narrative that private practice is dead it's not and you can be the example of what is possible. There is a narrative that oh you can't even replace your physician salary as a physician coach with it which is a lie. And you know somebody's waiting for you to be the example of that. There's so many narratives around we cannot build you know like really great businesses. We cannot you know build businesses we can sell at a premium. We cannot and it's not true. We can learn to do these things okay we can learn to do all of these things and you're learning that I want to invite you to implement what you are learning so you can be a bigger and bigger example of what is possible you can be a vision board for the physician community because they need to see you thrive. So I'm inviting you to do just that I'm inviting you to do that. I'm rooting for you as you use this to create changes I want you to you know you can send me a PM DM let me know like oh my goodness Dr. Una you will not believe what just happened and I'll say uh huh I will believe it tell me all about it okay all right so as someone who loves physician entrepreneurs I want to invite you to take this episode share it with all the doctors in your life because it will absolutely change their lives and I will see you and my friend on the next episode of the On Training Podcast