13 Dec What is the Plan for your Dental Business in 2017
Most of the latter part of November and all of December, I have been with clients helping them make final plans for 2017. It’s probably intuitive for you to plan ahead with your patients but often we observe dentists drifting from one month to the next with their businesses, not knowing where to start. It’s worth thinking about what stops you from planning ahead with your business.
There will no doubt be a flurry of ‘new year and a new start’ messages coming your way at the end of this month, but why wait? What if you make a decision now to hit the ground running in 2017 with a plan for your business. Think about how that knowledge and the habit of consistently measuring the performance of your business to that plan, will put you in more control.
Where do you start?
Here are a few extracts from The Coffee Break Series of Business Thinking Exercises that will you get started. You can access far more information that will help and encourage you to think about your year ahead by following the link at the bottom of this post:
1. Know The Numbers
It’s an obvious place to start and there are probably no shortage of KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) metrics and reports available from either your accountant or practice software system. But, for now the question is simply how well you rate your ability to gather, analyse and interpret relevant, accurate and timely information about the performance of your dental business and how well do you use that information to make decisions about your business direction and strategy?
2. Inspire With a Shared Vision
If you were to ask any member of your team what your dental business is really about (think beyond ‘it’s a dental practice’) what do you think they would say and what do you hope they would say? If your honest answers to these two questions are aligned, then you are leading with and communicating your business vision and purpose. How well do you do this?
3. Attract The Right Talent
Talent is often the difference between a good and an average member of your team. Great leaders recruit for talent, knowing that skills can be trained. Think about your success (or otherwise) at recruiting people with the talents that you require to faithfully interpret and apply your vision. How good are you at this?
4. Retain The Right Talent
Your best team members find it hard to leave and although remuneration is important, loyal team members cannot be bought. How well you engage your team is a critical part of leading a successful dental business. How do you rate yourself in this area?
5. Put Your Patients First
Of course you do! But, can you genuinely say that your patient’s best interests are never compromised by internal factors that you should be otherwise able to control? How effective are are you at putting your patient’s perspective at the heart of everything that you do?
6. Lead and Let Others Manage
However bizarre this statement sounds, it is true. There is no potential for success in your market, premises, or even your patients. The potential for business success only comes from you as a business leader and what you do in your market, premises and with your patients.
By absorbing your time with tasks that can be outsourced or delegated, you are limiting your potential. This is not just a truism from a financial point of view but also in terms of your ability to achieve business success. How well do you lead and then let others manage?
7. Take Care of Yourself
There are unhappy people that appear to have everything, whilst there are people who seem to have nothing and yet live in a state of bliss. We believe that the most successful business leaders have always been capable of ‘work-life balance’ well before the term was invented. If business success is only achieved at the expense of your own well-being then it is not success. How good are you at looking after you?
Have a great 2017.
You can access the rest of The Coffee Break Series here. No cost, no email sign up, no spam!
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