Dentists contact me daily to help them with their dental practice. As a dental business coach, I am seeing dental team members and the owner of the dental office scared about finances. This inflation is at the all time high and dentists are trying to keep their numbers under control. However, when I ask a dentist, "How much is your overhead?" I get a blank look or "I don't know." You are normal doctor. After all, you went to dental school to treat patients and do dentistry right?
Part of running a dental practice is being a CEO of your business. Let me share the steps to inflation-proof your dental practice.
- Know your numbers! I do a full practice analysis for free, so if you are confused, I will help you. Please schedule a call with me and fill out this confidential webform. How will you know how to spend your money or save money if you don't know where your money stands. All your expenses or measurements of numbers should be off of your collections.
- Have an organized accounting system with detailed categories. Click here to see what I recommend if you want a detailed checklist. You must know what is costing what. How much are dental supplies for front and back office? How much is front desk team members versus clinical team members payroll costing? How much is your lab and marketing costing? How will you know what to adjust if you are not measuring year after year and month after month?
- Make adjustments! Which expenses can you improve? Schedule to goal to minimize roller coaster income every single day you work. The key is to collect consistently. Don't use a different lab just because it's cheaper. The cheap lab may need you to spend time adjusting crowns or re-impress. Your time is valuable!
- Set collection goals. No one seems to want to discuss money. How are you running a business if you don't discuss your numbers and set goals. OH! And NEVER...did I say never? Never, loan money to your patients. Utilize an outside agency to loan money to your patients.
- Reward and train team members. Teach your employees on what to say to a patient when following up or discussing treatment.
- Ramp up your treatment follow up with patients.
- Add visual images to show your patients what services you offer. When I am choosing where to eat, I love it when pictures of the food are on the website or in the window.
The number one question employees ask me is, "What do I say to patients when discussing treatment?" Luckily, this is also the number 1 thing that I am discussing with dentists too. This is not taught in dental school. My passion is sharing with you all how easy it is to inspire patients to say, YES to your dental services. The key to inflation is to collect more! That's it! Set your goals, assign tasks to various employees and may all your dreams come true.
