practice management
Does Your Practice Have You DOWN ?
by Duane Allen Gallup
Why did you open your practice ? Was it to enjoy the freedom of being selfemployed ? Or to improve your patients ’ health , based on your experience and training ? And / or was it to hopefully make a better than average income ?
Now you ’ ve been open for a while , it ’ s time to ask yourself : how is it going ? Are you commanding a prosperous practice – or do you find yourself enslaved to a practice that is always needing more from you than you can give it ? Are you struggling to take off ? Do you feel enslaved ? If your practice is thriving and you are on cruise control , feel free to turn the page .
For everyone else , your answers to the above questions are all based on your management and leadership style . Now don ’ t go and beat yourself up if your practice isn ’ t where it should be . Dental schools fail to teach management practices , who while you are a Doctor of Dentistry , you may need to grow as a manager .
I recognize that this is difficult and often uncomfortable . So , I ’ ve broken down management styles to four types , leaving out the lazy and incompetent and starting with the least mature style :
The DIY-er The Know-It-All The Teacher The Entrepreneur
Obviously , we all see some of each trait within ourselves based on one situation or another . However , we each have a dominant trait , which is what we are addressing here .
The “ Do it Yourselfer ”. Most of us have all been a DIY-er at some point in our lives . We may mow our own lawn , do our own painting , or work on our own car . To some extent , we all did this as a means of necessity . However , with financial growth you have the freedom to hire someone else to do the things you don ’ t enjoy . But just like a high school jock who becomes a sloppy drunk at the 10-year high school reunion , we all can be susceptible to getting stuck in a phase of life that we need to grow past . A dentist that is still stuck with the mentality of a DIY-er is probably killing their practice . They get so focused on saving money that they lose opportunities to grow their practice , or simply don ’ t have time to focus on the practice ’ s success . For example , I had a young employee tell me that he overheard a client scoff at a service we perform , saying she ’ d do it herself . Already knowing the answer , I asked the technician , “ How did the office look ? Did it look professional ? Did it exude confidence ?” His reply was , “ No , she is not only the doctor , but the office manager , and hygienist .” This practitioner is so concerned with saving money , that she has lost focus on growth and is thus working herself to the bone for little reward . This is a prime example of how it takes money to make money .
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