I’m surprised how many dentists make decisions about their future without looking at the numbers.
Some dentists make decisions that are often irreversible about advertising, marketing, lease rental, and even practice purchasing based on little more than a whim.
Other dentists never make decisions despite the fact there is good numerical data supporting their actions. They let gut feel and other people’s opinions sway them away from making a scientific logical decision.
I suppose it’s just a case of horses for courses, then.
In my new graduate days, I had a friend, a fellow new graduate, who was the ultimate procrastinator.
He’d put off making decisions like there was no tomorrow.
He’d um and ah and um and ah until the cows came home.
And all to his own detriment.
Truly.
Even about non-dental decisions.
Which was sad.
He suffered paralysis.
And I don’t even think it was paralysis through analysis.
It was just plain paralysis by procrastination.
His procrastination saw him miss out on the Sydney Real Estate boom of 1987-88, a period where I myself bought and sold a property with an 85% increase in value in a twelve month period.
My friend, who had told me he was looking and suggested I do the same, failed to act.
He just sat there, looking.
On the flip side though, because of his hesitancy, he never made a decision he regretted, or a decision that went south.
Because he never made those decisions.
And in his case it may have just been fear that held him back.
Sure, for those of us who have sometimes dived in at the wrong time and without sufficient due diligence, there have been times where a little bit more thought would have been more prudent.
Like buying a practice without looking at the fine print about transitioning the principal out, for example.
I see a considerable number of new practice owners stuck in agreements with selling dentists staying on where the selling dentist is still mopping up the gravy that is meant to belong to the new owner.
And that creates some animosity.
It’s often better to have an all possibilities pre-nup agreement in writing before the sale rather than trying to write one after the arrangements have begun.
Similar horror stories abound about dentists buying Dental Practices from retiring dentists, but having the retiring principal as their less than gracious landlord.
Again, consider the possibilities, all possibilities of what could happen, and get an in writing scenario of what will happen in each possible case.
When it comes to marketing and advertising, dentists just seem to be suckers for spending more than they should.
And that’s a case again of not really doing our sums and our homework as to what’s really available out there, and at what rates and prices.
The simple answer is, that in all decisions involved in the business of dentistry, there’s sufficient evidence out there already of what you should do and what you should not, along with data available as to what will work in a short time, and what may take a little longer.
You’re not Robinson Crusoe.
There are answers there if you do your homework. The right homework.
But make sure you ask the right people.
If I’d have hesitated on real estate in 1987 like my friend did, and followed his lead, I’d have missed the boat.
There’s plenty of really good advice out there.
Find it, and take it.
But make sure that the person whose advice you’re taking is well credentialed.
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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