Last week, my goal was to shift your mind out of ‘more of the same’ and challenge you to think creatively by reshaping your perspective to see what can’t be seen, to imagine what you desire, to generate the outcomes you want through being expansionary in your strategy, your execution, your vision, in your daily future focus!
The bold and dramatic difference of expansionary thinking versus ordinary thinking is the only real difference you need. It’s the essential missing element to getting more out of what you’ve already got.
In fact, today (and every day in the DST Universe), I prove this to you with common sense and simple math that relies on reversing engineered back to deliberate actions making your results achievable, predictable, and expedited.
This is how you realize asset optimization, opportunity maximization, and deliver more optimal health to patients.
Every single week I received feedback from doctors who finally experience a revelation. All the sudden, they get it and become empowered because they stop seeing why something can’t and start creatively envisioning how anything can. All as a result of this expansionary creation based mindset and perspective.
Let’s dive into some tangible examples that will bring us back to the basics, the origin of all things, the fundamentals where small simple shifts in will drive dramatically improved outcomes.
I already know this because this is why I do this, this is why I exist in your life, and why I show up here with more truth-telling information and resources for the independent dentists…because everyone is tired of being misled and jaded by an industry of cookie cutter dentistry that relies on volume-based tactics without any concern for profitability of the practice, lifestyle of the doctor and team, or above all else healthy outcomes for patients.
That’s why over the next several weeks, I will shed more light and refocus on the clarity of our purpose through expanding the 4 fundamental growth pillars of your practice that will ensure you are living a LIFESTYLE PRACTICE that you truly deserve and desire.
And when you do, like all the others, you too will express your revelation and gratitude for my opening your minds to other ways to grow and achieve your goals without feeling the burden of increasing the number of patients, team, hours, procedures or anything else.
Now, we are moving to expansionary ways to grow your practice that counter act the limiting beliefs and actual capacity limitations that exist if we remove all things ‘more volume’ from the equation and put enhanced lifestyle as the target ideal!
Let’s begin by opening up with advanced strategies that will really challenge your perspective of your Dental Practice as a Business. While some are somewhat obvious others will allow you to evolve your thinking about making money in dentistry as an OWNER versus only a DENTIST.
There are six components to the 4 Advanced Growth Strategies…Money, Time, Space, Capacity, People, and Patients, with the key being learning how to optimize each and every one of these things.
To begin let’s talk about the almighty cashflow… the ultimate and only thing that matters in any business. Simply stated, my MBA about money in one sentence: In business your overhead repeats itself each and every single month… unless you learn to master the strategy of accelerating cashflow, you will spread money out over time instead of consolidating it into less than a 30-day period.
In Dentistry, the acceleration of cashflow comes in 4 different ways…
1st – Faster acceptance of treatment plans.
2nd – More bundled treatment in shorter numbers of visits.
3rd – Accelerated payments and cash upfront or in-full for treatment plans.
4th – Turning procedures and completing cases faster.
You must monitor not only how much money was made today but how much was created for tomorrow. The simplest things such as STARTING cases the same day they are consulted with, or asking for PAYMENT or at least DEPOSITS to start, and controlling the scheduling of treatment plans and visits instead of letting patients dictate; these are the most important ways for you to accelerate your cashflow and get more money in faster.
The most astute are operating with a significant negative accounts receivable; meaning they have been paid far in advance for the dentistry they are doing. That’s not just production in the schedule, that’s money in the bank.
There are of course obvious and significant benefits to this: the increase of commitment and follow-through for your patients, and reduction of cancellations and delayed treatment.
The next strategy for growth is about actually expanding your services and procedures that are available in-house. This could be bringing specialists in for anything that you currently refer out. It could be expanding your repertoire of ways to make patients healthy: ortho, sleep apnea, TMJ, implants, and many other options that allow you to give patients a more complete experience.
One of the most powerful things you can learn to do is have team members who become passionate experts at supporting various types of specialty or niche procedures in your practice who can run them as a “practice inside a practice.”
Additionally you can bring in associates to do things you do not want to do. There are simply limitless options that are possible in dentistry. There are ways to grow your skills or grow the skills of others, for you to do more or for you to bring in others to do more. Often times this is the best way for you to transition out or move to a more boutique or lifestyle based practice while actually increasing your practice value and income.
The next advance strategy to grow is very similar to this but I’m going to call it the non-dental method of creating other income streams. There are, as you know, so many other ways to expand your non-dental services to patients.
This is one of the most overlooked and misunderstood aspects of business that all Dentists miss out on because of such narrow minded focus. And I will tell you this, I am not here to suggest all of these for each of you—of course—it depends on your goals and objectives and what you really want your practice to look like.
Your age, stage of life, health, financial objectives, and many other things determine this. My goal today is to simply share and allow us to explore all the ways you can grow your practice WITHOUT doing any more work.
For this we can look at Dr. Miron’s PRF and Facial Esthetics as one immediate example available to any doctor, model, style, or specialty of practice.
Here’s the concept I want you to understand: the most difficult thing in all the world is to get and keep a patient. The most valuable part of your dental practice is NOT the dentistry, it’s not the equipment… it is and will always be your relationship with your patients.
That’s you personally, your team, and your practice entity in general. Once you have the patient, why not find other ways you can help them, serve them, and get them healthy.
This strategy is NOT for every dentist and probably very few, still there are many alliances that can be formed that accomplish this same concept without taking you off of your mission and vision.
Finally, the most important way to grow your practice is to increase profit by optimizing your capacity and efficiency.
I would venture to say this is the most complicated part of any and every practice. There are so many reasons why this is true that it’s impossible for me to talk about it in a short Weekly Report like this.
Let me give you quick run-down of what I mean and then next week I’ll elaborate to show you how this advanced strategy to grow your practice is the rising tide that will lift all boats and impacts every single thing you do.
This one item has the power to impact and multiply your profit all by itself.
The most obvious thing about capacity and efficiency is to expand your hours of operation by moving to an Associate Based Dentistry model. The problem of course is this also increases the most expensive part of your overhead, team members, and you keep a lot less of the money—BUT you did not have to see the patients or do the dentistry.
And, after all, the space, rent, overhead of the building is already there and not being used.
All that said, I strongly encourage you to do this last—not first—after you follow my practice optimization formula and have it mastered. Then if you so choose (and this is what matches the vision of your practice), then expand hours.
Here’s the short list of optimizing capacity and efficiency in:
Your Schedule, Time, and Effort; hourly and daily profit Your Team’s Schedule, Time, and Effort; hourly and daily per person profit
Hygiene Visits; and profit and production out of Hygiene Patient conversion and acceleration of treatment acceptance And finally your space and people within your practice; each operatory, column in the schedule, and member on the team all fully utilized and optimized.
I guess you could say, to be continued…
It’s going to be a provocative discussion when we pick up right here next week on the most sophisticated strategies for optimizing your practice capacity and efficiency to become a high profit and most of all a Lifestyle Practice that you deserve. Make the most of your dental practice business investment, not just as a doctor, but as an owner!
