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Helmut
G. Flasch,
CEO Flasch
Expansion Service |
Always
work on visibility first and last. Not to say that
ability in technical skills is not important - it
is, but there will be too few patients to ever be
able to experience your expertise if you are not first
visible.
Visibility
alone is not enough either - you must be visible to
the right people or you will spend most of your time
convincing people with the wrong insurance or people
with simply not enough money or desire to value your
expertise.
You
have to build trust before patients are patients -
before they ever walk into your practice and/or before
they even need or want your service.
I
also believe that if you do not get fairly large (several
practices with several doctors in each practice) you
will not survive the next 20 years or will be having
a completely un-sellable practice. Never mind that
if you did survive, you will have done it at the cost
of little income and long hours which will drain your
personal and family life.
I
also believe that no matter what medical specialty
you belong to, you must start taking a holistic approach
to the welfare of the entire body.
'Doctors'
by definition in the Webster dictionary are 'teachers'
and the ADA journal in 2001 said that dentists are
some of the best qualified people to help the country
with the obesity epidemic. This example is of course
not limited to dentist. Any doctor from any specialty
can widen their view on taking a holistic approach
to helping their patients.
I
also truly believe that any business, any medical
practice, must create additional income sources. Mostly
that will be started from the existing patients but
is by no means limited to patients. In fact additional
income sources can and should be used to feed patients
to the existing practice, thus additional income centers
can be a perfect practice builder.
In
my opinion, any shortsighted thinking on not willing
to become large and not willing to open extra profit
centers to existing patients WILL make doctors constantly
struggle with the problem of lack of new patients
and also poor retention of existing patients. The
financial duress will get insidiously stronger and
stronger (like cancer or gum disease) and turning
things around at that time will be literally impossible!
This
is my belief and my philosophy only. And anyone who
does call us for help with improving the cash flow
and the bottom-line take-home pay should at least
have some agreement with this philosophy.
My
philosophy is to create the future by acting in the
present and never ever even consider the shortcomings
of the past as a parameter of what could be achieved
in the future.
Helmut
G. Flasch,
CEO Flasch
Expansion Service
