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11/6/2017 |
Insights |
Taking Charge Of Practice Management |
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Taking Charge Of Practice Management by Gary Kadi If you can operate your smartphone, you can optimize your practice. Considering that most graduating dentists who are current practitioners received about 30 minutes of instruction on how to run a business (and not from a business expert), they have been set up for failure. Disruption seems to be impacting every major industry: Whole Foods is changing the way people relate to healthy food; Uber is squashing taxi values; Airbnb is crushing hotels; Netflix has eliminated Blockbuster; and incredibly, Amazon is causing Walmart to close stores. Although many industries are in rapid revolution, dentistry’s bureaucracy allows only for a slow evolution. Most dentists default into living a “someday when” life. Some hope that retirement will be better. Others reduce their goals because they’ve generated less money and time than they expected due to their low level of business acumen—hoping for the best and trying not to lose what they have. In general, 95% of small business owners fail within the first year, and almost all fail within 5 years. Comparatively speaking, although dentistry fairs rather well in terms of overall business survival, few dentists are thriving. Sustainable Change To make more than just a minimal living requires being adept in practice management. Learning what to do and how to sustainably implement it, although challenging, can be accomplished easily and is worth pursuing for your family and legacy as well as your health and time. Most dentists are basically in one of three places along the continuum of success. The first group includes dentists who have recently opened their new practices and are armed and dangerous with the possibility of “having it all.” As a friend of mine recently said, “It’s like you’ve been playing badminton and now you are jumping in the cage with an Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter.” The second group is cruising along successfully, but discontent. These dentists are doing well, but know they can do better. The last group comprises what I call the “fourth-quarter” dentists. They’ve been playing for three quarters, and now they’re coming to the fourth quarter with uncertainty. In 2008, their 401(k)s shrank to 201(k)s, and they have concerns about retirement.Regardless of which group you fall into, allow yourself to be where you are right now, and consider the process of sustainable change, which consists of awareness, acceptance, and action: Read full article on Inside Dentistry.
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