Welcome my friends. I’m so happy to be writing to you today. I always am, but today I just want to pause and say “thank you” for taking time to read what I write, for caring about yourself and your practice, to want to be better, do more, live a great life by not accepting what is or settling for less than what can be.
I have a saying on my desk that I look at everyday, I’ve told you about it before it says, “STAY HUNGRY STAY FOCUSED”.
There you have it. Do these 2 things and WOW, your life and practice are going to be incredible and continue growing however you want that to be.
And that is what I want to talk about today, GROWTH.
What the heck does that even mean…in Dentistry. In business.
It sure doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone and I talk about that all the time. You must decide what ‘growth’ means to you and NO ONE ELSE matters. No one. Not some consultant, or equipment company, or educational program, or any one other than you. You get to design your own life and practice growth.
The challenge is, most Dentists as in 99% (seriously) they do not orchestrate growth they just sit back and watch it or hope that it happens.
That’s called organic growth or passive growth or my favorite ACCIDENTAL growth.
The problem with all of these is…organic can also mean decay and you hardly even recognize it. Gradual growth is not growth not in today’s world and market, if your production is going up but patients are going down or if your patients are going up but your production per patient is going down, if you are staying the same most certainly you are in big trouble – unless – you have specifically set out to achieve and accomplish this.
My three most important questions asked after getting to know my Dentists over the phone where I listen and ask smart questions to dig deeper and really understand them are…
Question 1
“What do you see your practice looking like (and your life) 2-3 years from now?”
…well we have to start working on that TODAY
Question 2
“What type of growth are you interested?”
…and then I go on to explain the types of growth that are possible, most think it’s only getting more patients or selling bigger cases or blah blah blah, the same old thing, there are so many, well 7, to be exact, ways to grow and then if you add or subtract some of them together you get many more different options.
The point is, we have to decide before we can do anything else.
Question 3
“How do you define success, for your patients, your staff, yourself, and your family?”
…in other words, what is your philosophy of operating in all areas of your life and your principles that are going to be our guide to get there.
For example, one of my most extraordinary clients has a newborn baby so he shut down his travel schedule for 12-18 months NOTHING, na da, no travel, he isn’t going to leave.
I have another who had a health scare and had to slow down, so we quickly change around his case load, the procedures he focused on, drop him to 2 days, screened his patients, referred out others, and actually get this – double his income, because we lowered overhead and make his hours 2x as valuable.
You see sometimes “limiting” the right things makes other things MORE VALUABLE.
Someone else, they said to me, I want my team to make 2x the income in 12 months, I want to share X percentage and I want that to be worth 2x what they make today.
Another, said my Daughter is coming into the practice in 16 months and I want to be ready for her.
You see, all of these things matter.
All too often you are listening to someone tell you what to do, which takes the responsibility away from you but it also does you a disservice. You need to listen to your heart, to your mind, to what you know you want to see as success first.
Then let someone else who knows better than you help you make that happen.
Besides you have no business doing “implementation” because, well, you have a job…you work…at least if you are still seeing patients, so how on earth are you going to get anything else done unless you stop doing something filling up the time now.
That is what a guide is for, to take you where YOU WANT TO GO…now where they want you to go.
I can’t emphasize these three questions enough and how you should be able to write out on a piece of paper the answers to these and really expand and elaborate on them.
If you need help getting clarity or deciding what’s best, fine, no problem, just don’t sit back and let someone else figure it out for you. It’s your life, it needs to be exactly what you want it to be.
You don’t have to paint the picture, but you at least have to tell the artist what you want to see…and then let them work their magic.
You are an artist for Patients mouths and health.
I am an artist for Dentists practices and lives. (We should talk sometime.)
Here’s your challenge for this week, a little homework assignment and it will be the most important one you ever do, answer these 3 questions, for yourself, your practice, your family.
Write them out, send them to me, I’d love to read them.
If you do, I’ll reward your effort. I promise you that. In fact I’d be willing to send you a complimentary ticket, two of them actually, to my next event, it’s very selective, very private, very powerful, on creating a lifestyle practice specifically designed with your vision. If you take the time to do this, I’d welcome someone like you to be a part of this.
Lastly, if you’ve haven’t received my most updated Lifestyle Practice Blueprint and Prosperity Package, I do help you through these items and get clarity of what you really want and what is really possible.
It’s complimentary for readers of my Profit Report you can design the Perfect Dental Practice for you, right here: Perfect Dental Practice
P.S. I’ll talk you through the 7 Practice Growth Accelerators next week…in detail.