#Tubules Live Event: 7 Stage Approach to a Successful Business
This week's TubulesLive was with Laura Horton of Horton Consultancy - a specialist consulting agency in dentistry.
Laura uses her hand on experience in dentistry to help practice owners get the most out of their businesses. The main points of her talk I will summarise below:
- Every dental practice should have a business plan which is not just a file full of spreadsheets and figures, but a strategy to make the most out of their business
- Similar to the Wheel of Life (which I have talked about in one of my previous posts), Laura has her Wheel of Business with 7 elements to it which contribute to a successful practice
1. World class marketing
2. Human resources
3. Effective sales system
4. Optimisation and maximisation i.e. having strong systems
5. Effective business map
6. Financial systems
7. Patient experience
- Marketing and branding is everything to do with your business: from the brand logo, to the patient experience to the way the receptionist answers the phone
- You need to identify who you want to come to your practice and target your marketing towards them as well as marketing to existing patients
- Being able to tap into patients' emotions and enhance the experience you give them will lead to them recommending them to their friends which is the best sort of marketing
- Make sure if you do decide to run offers that these offers have deadlines. Be careful not to get caught up in the 'race to the bottom' with your competitors
- Make sure you have Call to Actions e.g. free consultations and follow these up with phone calls or emails
- A good team works well together when they are given good opportunities and are trained well
- Ensure every person has a detailed job description so they know what's expected of them
- Perform appraisals every 6 months and see this as a opportunity to be positive and thank your team members
- Consider extending roles for team members e.g. Treatment Coordinators, Extended Duties Dental Nurses
- You need to proactive in your financial management: work in REAL TIME i.e. don't wait until you have to submit your yearly accounts to review things
- Make sure you forecast and have a trading account
- Your outgoings can be divided into fixed and variable; the variable costs will be the ones that can catch you out in terms of cash flow
- Some Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that need to reviewed regularly include: treatment mix, recalls, unbooked time, DNA rate, staff sickness etc.
This TubulesLive was a nice change in aspects of dentistry from our usual talks and was really refreshing. Check out Laura's website here.
Let me know your thoughts about how to make your dental business successful in the section below!
To see my posts about previous #TubulesLive events see here.
2 comments
It is really a good plan. You may need more to learn about tactics to develop your business. You could consider learning few tips from dreamnation who is one of the best podcast providing support to enhance business opportunity.
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