Does your Orthodontic Practice have a plan?

We all know how crazy life can get. We often hear the term ‘work/life balance’ and it can sometimes feel as though there is no balance at all. We run along a never ending treadmill of busy days at work, followed by equally hectic mornings, evenings and weekends at home. So what’s it all for? No wonder the medical community warn us about excessive stress and the detrimental effects it can have on our health and life. We are told to catch our breath, to stop and smell the roses. Relax and enjoy life more. Do you have a plan? Our purpose in life is what makes everything worthwhile.

Have you mapped out your future? Benjamin Franklin famously said: If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

Are you happy working and earning enough to give you the lifestyle you want? Are you happy enough to maintain that for the long-term? Are you looking to grow and structure your business sufficiently so that one day it’ll have a value, even without you in it? These are the kind of questions every practice owner should be asking themselves.? What’s my long term aim? Why do I want to achieve that aim? What will it mean to me? What are my timescales? Once you’ve begun to understand your long term objectives you can further break these down into shorter, achievable time-bound, goals. The next step is to identify the actions that are necessary to attain your goals. For example: Aim – Grow practice to £xx profit p.a. by 2021. Purpose / Why – Enable me to sell the practice so that I can retire early. I want to spend more time with my family and I also want to have more time to pursue my hobby of cycling. Goals:

1. Increase profit each year by x %
2. Create structure and processes within the practice that do not require my constant intervention by 2019
3. Have the right team in place, with the right skills and attitude to run the practice by the end of 2018

Steps – Goal 1

• Increase private patient income in 2016 & 2017 by £xx

–          Improve marketing with a visible ROI –          Develop and implement marketing strategies –          Recruit a Treatment Coordinator to help improve conversions –          Develop an enquiry process –          Develop a referral process –          Review pricing structure

• Improve efficiencies/reduce costs within the practice

–          Review current procedures –          Review diary management – can improvements be made? –          Review current purchasing process – can savings be made on current purchases?   So as you can see from for the example above, the overall aim for your practice will filter down into specific goals, then each goal will have a number of manageable steps and actions (which should all be assigned with personal responsibility/ownership and a sensible timescale. It is really important that any such plans are reviewed on a regular basis, not staying just as thoughts or ideas that the practice owner keeps to themselves. Concrete, workable goals will have a much greater impact on the overall success of the practice when they are shared within the practice and filtered into both team and individual objectives. You may not necessarily want to share the reasons behind the overall aim, but you can talk about wanting to increase profit by XX%. A definition of TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More A group working towards a common goal becomes a powerful team and creates momentum, but if you do not share goals with your team (effectively preventing them from fulfilling their personal and professional potential), it becomes increasingly difficult to create your desired results. Planning makes things happen. So it’s critical to your practice that you have a plan and a roadmap of how you’ll achieve that plan. If you’d like to talk to us about how we can help you to create and follow an inspiring and exciting Plan for your practice, then please call us now on 01296 748692.