Are You Taking Advantage of this Private Practice Growth Strategy?
What is your private practice growth strategy? As a doctor who is running a private practice, you are a business owner … an entrepreneur. Many doctors make the mistake of forgetting this, which leaves them vulnerable to making bad investments. Knowing how to make good investments can be difficult, especially if you are still trying to learn how to be a business owner on top of being a doctor. That is one of the reasons our founder Jay Geier, developed a way to simplify the process for identifying how to strategically invest in your private practice. He says if your investment can produce a return in one (or more) of “The Big Five” areas of your practice, it is a solid choice. What are these areas? They are Human Capital, Marketing, Space and Equipment, Financial Discipline, and Clinical Duplication. (Click here to read an overview on all of them.)
The Easiest Private Practice Growth Strategy is your Space and Equipment. And you will see a return right away
Your Space and Equipment are the physical surroundings of your practice – the building, the walls, the rooms, the equipment, etc. This area is easiest to actually improve or “fix” – but can be one of the most frightening because of the perceived cost. Let’s take a deeper dive to help you understand why you should definitely not be afraid of it.
When it comes to Space and Equipment, practices usually fall into one of three categories:
- About 75% need bigger offices. They keep butting up against a ceiling in terms of growing their business and can’t figure out why. It’s because they’ve neglected the area of Space and Equipment and they are literally too small to keep up with demand. This is actually a great discovery because it means you likely already have or are very close to having the patients needed to fund the expansion!
- Roughly 15% can’t fill up the space they already have. In this case, most doctors want to blame their building size, but this is actually usually caused by neglecting two other areas of The Big Five: Marketing and Human Capital (aka your team). In this case, Jay would recommend you determine the root of why you aren’t able to maximize the space you already have before taking on more. One easy way to do this to take the 5 Star Challenge to see what really happens when a New Patient calls your office. You may find out that the reason you’re not at capacity has more to do with how your team handles the phones than your building. This is also something Scheduling Institute can help you easily resolve!
Private Practice Growth Strategy: The Finale
- The last 10% invested in Space and Equipment… but didn’t do it right! They built a bigger office or leased a bigger space, and now it’s too small, too! A word the wise: if you think you need TWO more operatories, you don’t–you need FOUR more!
From our experience with practices all over the world, we find that virtually ALL offices are too small. The typical private practice was designed with a kind of minimalist thinking. So, when we go about working with those doctors to grow their businesses as much as five times or more, they bust right out of their office space!
The Curse of Comfort
Most dentists or doctors are good about buying new technology, but they’re not good about creating the additional CAPACITY needed to grow. They think buying a new building or getting a new lease on a bigger building is too expensive. That thought process is a huge detriment for them.
If you’ve been in the same office for 10 years, then frankly you should have moved by now. Additionally, if you have made the lease payments for a long time on a 20-year lease, you should have bought your office years ago. If you’re a young doctor, you should buy real estate. Over time, you’ll get your office paid off, which will make a huge difference to your overall financial strategy AND net worth. You’ll receive rental income, including paying yourself rent, instead of paying someone else month after month, year after year.
Simplicity as its Finest!
It’s really as simple as it seems. All you have to do is go to the bank, get a loan and build out! In today’s economic climate, doctors and private practice owners are the kinds of people banks WANT to loan money to! If you’ve handled your finances wisely, you’ll be able to get a loan at great rates. So, go get one … and supercharge your practice growth!
At our semi-private events, Jay Geier spends some time answering doctors’ questions about practice growth strategies. Come to our next event and see for yourself! Visit www.JayGeierEvents.com to secure one of the limited seats.
To learn more about “The Big Five” or how to make more money in your practice, come to our semi-private event in May with Jay Geier! Whether you want to keep your practice or sell for maximum value in the next 3-5 years, this event will give you a solid action plan to make your practice as lucrative as possible. We have heightened safety protocols that will keep you socially distanced and healthy while you’re with us. Visit www.JayGeierEvents.com to learn more about this event and all the health and safety measures we are taking!
