Dental Business models

It is really amazing to hear about all the different models of dentistry that are successful, and it bears some examination, I think.

Perhaps the success of a model isn't the result of a superior model, but a decent model well executed, just like a particular offense in basketball isn't a guarantee of success, it is the matching of the plan with the people skills that the team brings to the effort. If a dental practice is seriously underperforming (all of us are underperforming in some degree, right?), then you ask questions about the people, their skills and training, or the model they are running. But it should be clear that just because a model worked ten, twenty or thirty years ago, that doesn't mean it will be successful today, as Detroit and the newspapers are finding out. 

I think that too many dentists are worshipping at their image of LD Pankey, GV Black,  or Pete Dawson as if their system was the holy grail, when looked at logically, those systems were fabulous adaptations within the business environment of that day! But we all know that any change, or new tweak can get adopted and pretty soon is no longer new. And remember, those dentists were not particularly popular in their day, because they challenged the existing systems of care!

Isn't is a great time to be a dentist when there is so much demand for what we can do, and where people are willing and able to pay us for our efforts?

As Michael Gerber likes to say, the time we spend working ON the business is often more important than the time we spend IN the business!

What services do you think your patients might enjoy enough to pay for? What services or options could you offer that would introduce a "Wow" factor to give the office image some juice? Those sorts of questions should be on your mind all the time, especially now as business conditions seem to change more rapidly than ever!

We are seeing some very interesting developments within dentistry and there are so many things we can add to our menus- six month braces, sleep appliance therapy, spa services, botox and the like. But I would caution any of us that we cannot forget the core values of our practice and that any addition has to be evaluated for relevance as well as profit potential. 

The breathing effect - the economy and you

I was just visiting with a good patient and she was telling me how things were slow in her business, (the oil business is way down now), and how she was sort of enjoying it.

It just seems to me that we have been going crazy the last few years, nobody taking much time to enjoy things, we just are working ourselves crazy. Often we are too busy to be productive, I think.

A good analogy might be breathing- you can't just keep breathing in all the time, you know? A normal person breathes in, and then breathes out and both things are necessary. 

I think that we have all been holding our breath for too long, and we need to take advantage of a lull, if we have it, to really think about what our business model actually is, and how it might be better. Can't really do that when things are booming, can we?

Dentists have such blessings from an economic standpoint, truly. But it doesn't save us from the consequences of not thinking or applying what we know.

Have a great day.