Is Saving Money Actually Losing You Money?

Last week I wrote a very interesting blog article as a response to the question raised on a Facebook Dental Chat Page about the value of providing extra service and the value or cost of providing gift bags to patients.

You can read that blog post here.

So impressed was I with the perspective that I had presented in that blog that, because of the relevance it created, I posted it as an answer on that thread on that very same Facebook Dental Chat Page.

And my blog was well received.

Not only did it stimulate further debate, it received glowing comments and was shared by other readers of that page into other groups and onto their own personal pages as well.

Here are some of those comments:

“Alright David Moffet! ….. super blog!”

“Well Said and Thought provoking David Moffet.”

“Thanks for sharing so much master David Moffet!! This group has been there and done that and enjoy fresh content…. Most are positioning themselves for the 5 million plus practice…with most having excellent business skills but always looking for new fresh and unique pearls which you always give…thanks for sharing!”

“Excellent points David Moffet!”

I also posted the blog onto other Facebook pages as well, where it was also well received.

Interestingly, I did seek out another page in particular where I thought that my content would be relevant, but before I posted I checked with the admin there because the page had a list of rules about posting that was longer than the those on the security sign at the Statue of Liberty checkpoint.

I’m glad I checked because the admin came back to me and replied that his page did not accept any blog posts whatsoever, but I was welcome to post any tips that I had about saving money.

Now, this really started me thinking.

You see, I’d always considered throughout my business life that it was easier to make money and took less effort to do so than it did to try and save money.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one for wasting or burning money, but I do feel that in most cases it’s a lot easier creating more profit by adding to your income than painstakingly spending time trying to trim your expenses.

Here are three examples of what I mean:

1998.

In 1998, as I was heading out of my practice at lunchtime for an off-site meeting that Monday afternoon with my practice coach, I bumped into the dentist who owned the dental office in the rooms next door to mine and asked him, in an off the cuff manner, whether it was his dental practice that had been advertised for sale in the newspaper on the weekend just gone.

And he answered “Yes”.

When I told this to my coach that afternoon, he told me these words:

“Whatever price he’s asking, just pay him, because no matter what it is, you’ll make it back in spades”.

And so I did.

The sale went through seamlessly, and the selling dentist worked on with me for another year transitioning his practice in with mine.

The $130K that I paid for that practice paled into insignificance really when I think that that purchase provided me with over $1M of income over the next ten years, and continued to provide income on and on and on.

1986.

Secondly, I remember back to 1986 when I was negotiating with Dr. Martin to buy his dental practice in Parramatta for $80K. [this practice was the practice I then owned then sold and managed for the next twenty-eight years].

I had found out about Dr Martin’s practice sale through a broker who was then entitled to a commission from Dr Martin on the sale. At the same time, another dentist had approached Dr Martin privately about buying from him, but was haggling him down in price some $5,000.00. in reality, this was not much more than the commission that Dr Martin was due to pay the broker on the sale to me.

History will show you that Dr Martin did indeed sell his dental practice to me for $80K, and that twenty-one years later, in 2007, I sold that dental practice, or what it had become for cash and shares that ended up being more than $4.1M.

It kind of makes you think that the other guy haggled his way out of a gold mine….

What if….

So thirdly, I would ask you this question:

You feel your dental technician is charging you too much per unit for the indirect crowns he’s making for you.

You’d like him to charge you $50.00 per unit less.

Do you call him and ask him to drop his price threatening you will take your business elsewhere?

Even if he does drop his price, how will that affect your relationship with him and what he thinks about doing business with you from this day forth?

Will he begrudge doing crowns for you at that discounted rate?

Will he do urgent cases for you rather than other clients’ work where he is collecting his regular fee?

Or will he be forever grateful to you for showing him some mercy and not taking your business away from him, even though you are now paying him less?

Ask yourself this:

Wouldn’t it just have been easier to improve your case presentation skills so that you were able to have one or two more patients per month go ahead with a single crown that in the past they’d been allowed to “think about it”?

Is it easier to make a little bit more money on the production side of your dental practice ledger so that you can keep a healthy working relationship with your lab, rather than him feeling that you are squeezing him down?

Now I’m not one for flagrant wastage and sure, there are times when overhead can be trimmed and needs to be trimmed, but in most cases it’s a lot easier creating more profit by adding to the income of your business than continually spending time trying to shave pennies off of your expenses ledger.

There are always two sides to every coin.

Sometimes one side is far more logical than the other.

I do like hanging out on those Facebook Dental Chat Pages that think about growing the pie.

Think Abundance.

*****

Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.

You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order

*****

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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