The 3 Undeniable Truths of Practice Ownership

Over the past several weeks we’ve been talking about the four areas of your practice that determine the degree in which your practice either facilitates or hinders your life. I trust you’ve taken time to think deeply about these.

As I demonstrated in my Radically Better Way To Practice Dentistry training, these Four Freedoms liberate you from the restrictions imposed by insurance, time, overhead, and turnover by putting you in a position of power and profit.

You should arrive at three very distinct conclusions as a result of our previous work. These are the undeniable truths of practice ownership that serve as the catalyst for the Ultimate Freedom that allows you to achieve greater levels of prosperity and autonomy.

First, there is no right or wrong way to practice dentistry. There should only be ‘your way’ to practice dentistry.

Most doctors (and I mean the vast majority of the ones who aren’t here reading this), who own their practice are stuck in nothing more than a well-paid job. They don’t own a business, it owns them. Not only from a position of their dependence on it for income but in terms of their peace of mind. The ownership aspect is considered a burden.

Once you find ‘your way’ to practicing, all of that changes. You gain the advantages of owning your practice because you are in complete control. You decide how you want to lead your team, what type of dentistry you want to do, how you handle the administrative tasks, what kind of culture you want to create. It’s all up to you which ultimately delivers more joy, fulfillment, satisfaction, and pride.

The next conclusion is that you are capable of more. No matter where your practice is today, growth is possible…and without harder work, more hours, more patients, more team members, or more stress.

There are only three components you need more of in order to grow your practice…

One: more belief in what is possible and reasons why you want to achieve it. You have to see it, believe it, define it, and then orchestrate it.

Two: more room (not physically) for what you want by having less room for everything you don’t. You want to get rid of everything in the way of your desired growth which means you must be more discerning, more decisive, and more committed.

Three: more focus, intentionality, and deliberate action in order to create your way of practice by living out the four freedoms.

Now, growth means different things to different doctors. Your clarity around what growth you are looking matters. So, you do have to prioritize what is most important to you.

Often times this is the biggest hang up for doctors. Figuring out what you want to pursue and what you are willing to forego can be difficult. There is a fear of making a wrong decision or missing out on something else. But guess what? You are missing out on everything by sitting idle.

Decide right now, commit to new growth goals, and start achieving more today. The results may take some time to realize but the decision happens now.

If you drop insurance, you will go through a process but the decision happens now.

If you hire or fire someone, reposition or repurpose, it might take some time to work out but the decision happens now.

If you want to restructure your schedule, you may need to do it over some period of time, but the decision happens now.

You are capable of more than you are achieving right now. You have to believe you are worth it and back it up with your actions.

The trick is very simple… shorten to distance between consideration and decision – then shorten the distance between decision and action. You will be amazed at how quickly things will happen and results will materialize. Before you know it, you will grow your confidence along with your results and be embolden to do even more.

Stop delaying start deciding. What you truly want is not some mystery. It’s never for a lack of knowing, it is always for a lack of deciding.

The final conclusion from all of this should be that it’s not based on rocket-science complexities nor does it depend on accepting arbitrary results. There are actual predictable formulas to follow that clearly define the cause and effect of dentistry as a business. If you do this, you’ll get this as a result. There is no randomness to business outcomes when actual strategy is applied to it.

You might be used to the unpredictable, the random, the guesswork, or the unknown. However, those outcomes are the result of making knee-jerk reactionary decisions or defaulting to no decision at all or leaving it up to the capabilities of everyone else or lacking confidence in yourself for past mistakes or trying to make everyone else happy or missing conviction to stick with changes until the end.

Here’s the deal… you can’t, you won’t, they aren’t, you shouldn’t be, they won’t be, and not anymore.

This is your business and it has be treated like such. There is no rule by committee here. It’s up to you to lead the way, set the pace, and follow through on your committed path.

I often talk about practicing on purpose and we’re going to talk about this in great detail when it comes to your dentistry next week. The exciting part about all of this is once you set up the structure for the business itself, getting the patients and filling up the schedule with the dentistry you are passionate about is the easy part.

Your clarity sets the alignment for everything else to just fall into place. Once you experience this harmony, you’ll know you’ve found ‘YOUR WAY’ and nothing else will matter.

That’s the key to finally find, achieve, realize, and live out your Ultimate Freedom. What else is practice ownership about all, than this?

Ultimate Freedom Questions…