So just the other day, I was talking with this Dentist who was bellyaching about how stressed he was because he had a down month and he was having a hard time hitting his financial benchmarks.
I’m sure, if not now or recently, you have been there before.
Now, this Dentist I know and respect. He is an incredible clinician and very astute practice owner. He is a friend and client.
Of course, I had to ask a few more questions to better understand what he was going through so I ask him…
1. How much have you averaged the last 90 days of 2016?
And he gave me the answer: some number in the $160,000-$180,000 range.
That’s collections by the way. I only talk in collections because you can’t spend production; only real money.
And then I ask him the more important question…
2. Remind me what your breakeven point is until you start getting to the icing on the cake, the profit in the business.
His answer surprised me, only because I know him, but I wouldn’t have been surprised by if I were asking most Doctors.
He told me he didn’t know because he hadn’t looked at it in a while.
What I know about him is… his overhead isn’t much but he is very generous with his team. I’m guessing maximum is in the $80,000-$100,000 range and that would include his salary and on top of that you’d have some bonuses.
When you calculate it, you are looking at some $40,000-$60,000 in monthly profit that should be flowing out of the practice.
That’s more than double the average Dentist’s annual personal income and he’s making it in profit over and above everything else.
3. Then I ask him why he was stressed, knowing full well what his goals are and what he is capable of. He should be frustrated, annoyed and probably angered by his lack of performance because he should be doing $200,000 plus without breaking a sweat. Our target is $250,000 and he will do that this year.
He responded that there were some things he wanted to buy and had bought this year and that his real pressure was coming from trying to max out his retirement and other investments.
No, not that foolish little $50,000 lousy excuse for a retirement fund, I’m talking about substantial hundreds of thousands of dollars into a real investment fund that you can actually build financial independence with.
To sum all of this up… This doctor is a wealthy man, he doesn’t need to work another day in his life, and yet he is irritated that he is only banking close to $2,000,000 a year and not hitting his investment goals every month.
He is still playing to win. He is in the game and he takes it seriously. A lot of people are barely upset when they make just enough money to pay the bills every month. Very few dentists live with vigor, hunger, fire in their bellies and real ambition to maximize their potential.
This guy does. My clients do. Do you?
Ok, the point is and the punch line to all of this…
I’m talking about a solo-practitioner in a small rural middle of nowhere town with a handful of chairs working about 9-12 days a month.
I know a ton of 2-doctor practices that never hit a million each and this guys is cranking a couple million and pissed off about it.
This brings us back to the chicken and the egg. Tell me, do you make two million and then get pissed off or do you get pissed off and then make two million?
You sure don’t get rich being bashful and you don’t build a lifestyle practice being content or complacent or indifferent.
You don’t do dentistry or reach your potential on your own terms by accident. You do it because you decide to, because you desire to, because you demand to…
And then back it up with action.
Now, there are many big lessons here from this Doctor’s example, I’ll give you 3.
1st – stretch yourself, strive for more, follow my reverse engineering approach and build a more profitable practice where every year you are hitting new and bigger goals.
2nd – you have to know your overhead and you have to be paying yourself as a doctor; and then you have to know how you take money out of the practice and build your wealth.
If you don’t know your breakeven point and how much you have to bring in, in cash, every single month before you are putting profits in your bank account, then you are not a business person. You are either nothing more than an employee or you are a hobbyist.
You also must structure your profit properly. I have written about this many times, don’t be a victim to the industry whose job is to steal all of your profits and get you to be tied to the ball and chain of your practice because you spend all you make.
Don’t mistake investing in your practice by buying things that don’t make you money and that you don’t need or don’t fit into you practice. Buy and invest with strategy and purpose when there is reason and return.
3rd – stop limiting yourself, dentistry is the most amazing, most flexible, most autonomous medical and healthcare industry on the earth. You can make it whatever you want it to be.
This doctor didn’t just wake up and produce some $20,000 per day by himself. He set out on the journey to build a practice, to become valuable enough, to structure everything in his life around 3 days a week and the money he wanted (and deserved) to have to do justice by his skills and sacrifice.
You can do the same.
…and as reminder, if you would like a raise in your personal income without having to work more or see more patients or have any stress at all … then you simply have to be on my LIVE webcast training on January 31st when I give you The 5 Keys to Unlock the Hidden Opportunity, Treatment and Money in your Practice.
These 5 specific and secretive (often elusive) things are capable of single handedly adding at least an extra six figures to your bottom line, net personal income in 2017. And you don’t even have to lift a finger.
You’ve got a whole lot to lose if you skip this one because you are already missing all the hidden opportunity, treatment and money in your practice now and you will continue to do so until you have all 5 of these Keys!
I have to limit space on this one, please do it now so I can prepare accordingly.
