Archive for Money tips for Business
Job Title: Dental Hygienist and Ambassador
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As a Dental CEO, how well have you combined the talents of individuals into a team? Research shows that people who work on teams are happier in their jobs, produce higher quality work and increase customer satisfaction. People need other people around them to achieve the goal of growing the dental practice.
Make all employees an Ambassador to your dental office.
Successful dental practices make selling everyone’s job. Selling is about being a positive Ambassador for the practice, both in and out of the office. Every member of the team is selling themselves and the practice to their customer—the patient. It is through marketing the benefits found in your dental practice that the business grows while generating the profits to compensate the doctor and team.
Action step: List and review every type of service you provide, ie: Cosmetic Whitening or Invisi-lign. Once you have the list, answer these two questions:
- What will your team do to let your patient base know what you have to offer?
- How will you measure your efforts as a team?
How to Make Good Behavior Come Naturally
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What behavior comes naturally to you?
stand·ard [stan-derd]. noun. something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model.
In a dental practice, this simply means the behavior that you naturally want for yourself. This is probably vastly different from what you were taught. Standards are not “shoulds” or “coulds”. Standards are about doing what’s right for you, your team, and patients — without having to force yourself or even think about it.
When you identify personal and dental practice standards, you establish rules and a basis for measuring quantity or quality. Your dental practice standards specify areas for behavior, knowledge, or expertise. Thus, your standards are used to improve your dental practice. They provide opportunities to learn and improve performance levels.
A useful start for how to set standards is to explore all areas of the practice and develop a set of behaviors or performance expectations for each. Remember, the clinical area of your practice needs different performance standards than the administrative part, so keep them separate. Take time to fully develop those standards and be sure to put them in writing. Put yourself in imaginary situations and determine how they should be handled. This is important, so do it with care.
Now, take the standards and share them with team members and operate your dental practice with everyone knowing how they are expected to perform.
As THE DENTAL COACH© my job is to help my clients reduce their stress and increase their practice income. By creating standards in your practice and expressing them to your staff — you do just that!
What Happened to All Of That Money?
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I’ve seen a lot of dentists have financial issues and get stuck in a real bind. But the real issue is not how much money you are making, but what you are doing with it when you get it. What are your living expenses? Where are you spending your money? What are the most important priorities for you and your family? Is it private-school education for your children or fancy cars for you and your spouse?
My observation, through years of experience as THE DENTAL COACH©, is simple: many dentists spend more than they make. According to the ADA, less than 10% of we dentists can retire at the age of 65 and maintain our current standard of living. This is shocking to me! What do we have to show for all of that hard work in dental school and beyond?
Do you know where your practice stands right now, today? What is your largest expense?
The number one largest business expense for a dentist is staff. The average staff cost is between 24-30% (including wages, taxes, benefits, etc.) It’s not uncommon to find dentists with staff costs in the 35%+ range. Unbeknownst to them, their staff expenses are totally out of control! (Check out my book, Killing the Practice Before It Kills You: How Throwing Out My Business Model Saved My Life) to see how I managed staff costs.
The key to finding out where your money really is:
- Pay attention to your largest expense – staff. What can you do to manage this cost?
- Take time to sit down with your CPA and analyze your overhead expenses on a monthly basis. What can you do to make sure that your money is being spent in the right areas?
- Review your Income Statement. How can you ensure that you are living the life you want now, while also saving for the life you want in the future?
If you have an expense management tip that you would like to pass on, please share it in the comments below.
