Get the Lead Out and Stay on Top of Your Practice

ENGEL73 / STOCK.ADOBE.COM

There are many ways to improve efficiencies and help your dental practice thrive. It seems easy to consider doing what must be done to enhance the dental practice and make it prosper.

However, some dentists procrastinate, which delays the dental practice from improving. One excuse is a response such as, “I was too busy to read the last financial article about practice value growth and income awareness.” When an adviser consults with a dentist, they advise the dentist to become organized and not delay what was set for the day’s schedule so there is no falling behind on items that will increase the value and income of the dental practice.

Reading a newsletter, listing questions to ask if there are any, and making sure that the questions are delivered and answers are fully understood is one way to assist in making helpful changes. It’s surprising how many situations and complexities in one dental practice are similar to those in others. Accomplishing things is not difficult if the dentist doesn’t stray from his or her tasks and completes them when they are addressed.

Reading Financial Articles

It is easy to place the professional dental publication on the counter and ignore it after reading a paragraph or two. However, the dentist will miss an opportunity to see what the experts are offering as advice. This is a free or inexpensive opportunity compared with taking the staff to seminars to learn about concepts that are unknown to the dentist or staff. A dental practice has the chance to grow, which will mean more net income for the dentist and employees who want the dentist to strengthen office procedures and give them the opportunity to earn more money.

If only part of the publication is read and the magazine or newsletter is left on the counter, you might not retain the information well enoughand the dentist will realize their time was wasted. The important thing here is the value of the dentist’s time, because time is what the dentist uses to generate gross revenue for the practice. Because most small dental offices are not coming back and continuing as the same type of office they were before the pandemic, this is a critical time for the dentist.

Finish Existing Tasks

Just like completing an article about finances before starting something else, the next step should be taken as the next step; shifting to something else will interrupt what the dentist is already trying to learn. That said, patients need the dentist and employees need answers to various questions so they can finish their specific task with a patient, and many other interruptions will stop the dentist from finishing whatever they have started. The answer may be for the dentist to arrive half an hour early to the office or stay half an hour after business hours until the article is read and understood. Locking oneself in a room may be the only way to complete the task. There is nothing wrong with doing that because the dentist is often the owner of the practice and no one else is going to read the article for the owner. Reading and grasping the significance of an article about dental practice finances is one of the easiest ways to learn and achieve.

Other Sources of Learning

There are so many other sources for the dentist to learn how to enhance the dental practice and its finances. The practice should have a certified public accountant (CPA) who looks at the financial accounting records of the dental office. Start spending time with the dental CPA and listen to their advice. This will mean paying another employee, but hopefully the dental CPA already represents other dental practices and can teach the owner of the practice things they do not know much about and cannot find elsewhere.

Regular meetings with the dental CPA will bring more revenue into the practice, allowing it to increase the income of the dentist and their employees, with additional money for raises and benefits. If the dental CPA does not work with any other dentists, the practice is retaining the wrong dental CPA. The dental CPA should have the knowledge to educate the dentist and answer questions about the dental practice’s finances as well as the dentist’s own finances. The dental CPA should be put on the spot and have the answers or be able to find the answers quickly (at least by the next meeting between the dentist and dental CPA).

Financial Affairs of the Dental Office and Dentist

To acquire financial help that will be long term and cause the practice and dentist to upgrade their finances and emotional well-being, use the resources that are available and don’t procrastinate. Finances are too important to ignore or pay half-hearted attention to with the hopes of improvement. Finances need vigilant approaches and consistent watchfulness.