I recently had a conversation with an entrepreneurial colleague outside of dentistry. We were discussing the value of time, money and the creation of opportunity. Every dentist is well educated on what it takes to serve patients. The rest is learned from mentors, colleagues, professionals, instinct, mistakes and wins.
When it comes to dentistry, fulfilment, sustainability, and profitability seem to most commonly exist together in a bimodal fashion. Sustainability and fulfilment reflect how you work and can be reflected by the question of “Can you go on like this forever?” or better yet, “Do you want to go on like this forever?” Ideal profitability in a dental practice reflects a margin of 20% after all expenses including associate and owner remuneration are paid. And, as a “BHAG” (“Big, Hairy Audacious Goal”), that profitability is generated as a self-managing company that doesn’t require you as the practice owner to be living in stress and chaos for that goal to be achieved. That is to say, the pie in the sky profitability and sustainability achievement is for the practice to have the capability to operate as a self-managing company that you choose to own because it is fulfilling to do so.
As business owners and health entrepreneurs, we often get the time-money thing wrong. Most live as though money is finite, and time is infinite. But this is the inverse of reality.
I am not suggesting one ignores budgets or live beyond their means. I am suggesting that how we choose to spend our time and what we do with that time brings a quality of life that can absolutely change our sustainability, fulfilment, and even profitability. Money can be created. You can attract more patients, improve annual revenue per patient and procedural offerings, retain more patients, improve practice overhead, and create scheduling efficiencies that realize results. What you can’t do is buy more time. We never know how much time we have left, but we can choose how we spend that time. That’s what we often forget in the rat race that can be business ownership. We often let a perceived scarcity of money dictate how we must spend our time.
At some point in every dentist’s career, time is spent doing things you don’t love doing to keep the business going. That’s just part of building something that’s worth building. But this shouldn’t be your status quo. If you find yourself caught in a trap of frustration, resentment, or resignation that you can’t get out of, it’s time to put more value on the commodity you can’t get back. With the right investments, money buys you time. Time creates freedom. Freedom leads to fulfilment. And fulfilment is a place of sustainability.
If you want things to be different you need to act different.
Practice Advocate is your solution to creating operational procedures and standards of management that are built on this. I would love to prove this to you with a discovery call and the opportunity to learn where you wish things were different in your practice.
On the theme of time and money, our Buyer Advocacy Blueprint in person workshop on November 28th is now accepting registrations to change the lives of 8 dentists only. Email us to inquire if you are interested and we will let you know if any seats remain. Spouses and partners receive a massive discount if attending together.
Your investment in this workshop will give you confidence and capability in your next acquisition (making you money), see you design customized projections to create a bigger, brighter financial future after acquisition (making you more money), and arm you with the skills to be your own advocate when you analyze opportunities (saving you time and making you money). It will also serve as your business plan to provide your lender when “the one” comes along (saving you time).
