Killing The Practice Before It Kills You
…is finally in print. The first edition is available for order if you go to: http://www.killingthepractice.com/.
Take the short assessment on the home page to see if you have any of the signs that your business may be killing you.
Vacation Tension
I was recently talking with my newest client and he asked me this question: How do you know if your practice is killing you? I offered up a list of several indicators for his consideration. One of them was the following: “On a weeklong vacation, it takes three to four days to unwind. You feel like a new person for one or two days, then the tension builds again, welling up uncontrollably, tightening every muscle. Sunday nights are the worst.” His reply…..I just returned from a vacation week and that is EXACTLY what happened to me. I’m all tense and worried about what to expect, even after I came in early on Sunday to catch up on all the mail.
If you want to see several of the other indicators visit: http://www.killingthepractice.com/
Here is my question: What do you do to eliminate this kind of tension when you are on vacation or have taken time away from the office? If you never “tighten up” before coming back into the office from a vacation, please share your wisdom as to how you do it.
When is Ok, Ok?
Things are moving along OK.
The income to the practice is OK.
When asked about your hygienists ability to recommend needed treatment, you say OK.
Your new patient flow is OK.
The team members have no concept about what it costs to run the business and that too is OK.
When you get asked, “how ya doin”, you reply, OK.
I was OK with these same issues. BAM! I had a heart attack when I was 41. Not OK after all.
Are you OK?
Defining Your Success in your work?
Have you ever viewed he success of your practice as defining who you are, your personal self-worth, as well as your external view of yourself?
I did and it nearly killed me.
Visit http://www.killingthepractice.com and download Chapter 4 from my book and see if it resonates with you.
Killing The Practice Before It Kills You
….”Oh, what a negative title for your book” I heard from one dentist who went on to tell me how hard he has worked for over 30 years to create a positive image for our profession.
Interesting I said to him….the same man who has had over 30% turnover for most of his 30 years in practice: “hell, it’s tough to find GOOD help these days” he tells me.
…the same doctor who decided to do most of his prophy’s himself and save the cost of paying for a hygienist.
…the same doctor who says all these patients only want “cheap dentistry” and they aren’t willing to pay for it.
…the same dentist who told me: “my front desk GIRL (Office Manager) has been with me nearly all 30 of my years in practice and I can’t get he to do anything right.”
Whoa, I’m not certain I would want to Kill the Practice but rather………..well, rather than state the obvious, what do you think?
One Essential Tip to Re-focus Your Dental Practice or Business
I was asked this question recently:
What is one tip you would give to a seasoned business owner who is looking to re-invent and re-focus on their business?
Start with the end in mind…. a Steven Covey mindset. Dream and envision what you want! What will make the biggest difference, and yet one of the toughest things to implement, is to identify who you are via your own Core Values. Armed with your Core Values, the strategic plan magically begins to unfold and any time you get stuck…refer to the values.
–You can download a *f*r*e*e chapter of Dr. Ron’s popular book at:www.killingthepractice.com
Dental Fees and Practice Management
I was recently asked this question: In your book, you tell the readers how to raise their fees – and still keep their patients, clients and customers. What are some tips you can give us on how to do that?
After years of listening to the “crowd” tell me that my fees had to be “competitive” or the lowest in town (a real disaster waiting to happen), I finally made the decision that I was going to be paid what I was worth and I expected to connect my compensation with the value, the love, care, and extra attention I brought to my patients’ dental health and life. No more of this conversation about if the insurance will or will not cover it. Or, that’s over “Usual, Customary, and Reasonable.” That old thinking had to go. My practice was not usual and customary; we were extraordinary. Here are my new fees, and those fees were to be effective immediately.
- T. Scott Gross in his Positively Outrageous Service book tells us that discounting is a short-term cover up of long-term problems.
- If you must discount your fees to survive, your prices are too high, your service is lousy, or your quality stinks.
- Be determined to put “extraordinary” back into your service quotient and get compensated for being so different from the others. Be really different and not just “lip service”.
- If you insist on discounting it won’t be long before people discover what your product or service are really worth…about the same value YOU put on it?
- I chose to put a high value on what I, along with my team, were delivering.
- We were not simply filling holes in teeth; rather we were creating smiles and developing trusting relationships.
- Raising my fees was easy…and the results were wonderfully positive with banner profits.
Dental Practice Management is Not New!
In the past 3 months I have received calls from doctors who want to hire me as their dental business coach. When I ask them what their #1 challenge is they tell me STAFF. After discussion we both agree that a person(s) are getting in their way of forward movement. When we discuss leadership and setting expectations and consequences they say: “I do all that.” When I ask them to “belly up to the bar and deliver the consequences they say: “I can’t do that.”
These people never are invited to become my clients.
Consequences are the natural step after expectations. Most of us don’t have the b_lls to show up.
What do you think?
We’re So Different We’re the Same
Recently had the fun opportunity to meet face-to-face a dentist from Australia that I have befriended over the past several years. Our email communications and Face Book posts never came close to allowing me to appreciate his energy, entrepreneurship, and sense of humor. While our language and accents are different; the way dentistry operates in either country is different; there were amazing similarities between Dr. David Moffet and me…and our profession.
- The same desire to grow, be better, serve more.
- The excitement shared about our profession and how we treat our patients and clients.
- The yearning to take care of our family.
- Looking for ways to stand out and be distinctive…to set ourselves apart from the pack.
Dr. David reminded me that bringing like-minded people together is an incubator of new thoughts and ideas that enable us to be distinctive. Thank you Dr. David!
How Do You Define Success?
I mistakenly thought that my success, both business and personal, was tied to an unfounded belief—that my worth was solely based on how successful my dental practice was.
I was either too arrogant and thought I knew it all, or I was just too damn stupid to step back and think about this gerbil lifestyle and what it was costing me.
The success of my practice defined who I was, my personal self-worth, as well as my external view of myself.
How have you handled it if you have ever had similar feelings?