By Ross Martin, Accountancy Director at Hive Business.

You’re supposed to make hay while the sun shines but it’s hard. You knew something felt good, perhaps you could feel the warmth on your skin through the window while you were busying yourself with another nice CEREC crown; you were only dimly cognisant that it wasn’t going to last.

What I’m trying to describe is something that almost everyone in this country does. It’s a forgivable offence because if you listen to BBC Radio 4 or any other mainstream media outlet over your morning coffee you will swallow the same narrative. It’s a furrow that’s been diligently ploughed by almost every talking head since the 2008 crash and it says that we’re in perpetual economic danger.

Everyone is still framing the slightest movement in the FTSE index or foreign exchange as a portent of armageddon. In reality nothing of economic significance has happened for a long time but when it does, trust me, you won’t need John Humphrys to tell you that you are up a creek without a paddle.

Let’s row back a little for perspective. The 2008 crash happened at the height (except London) of a housing bonanza that saw anyone that bought real estate in the 1990s at the very least treble their money. That’s a lot of people. OK, there were some people who bought at the tail end of 2007 and ended up with negative equity, and we had to make public sector cuts and apparently some people in the public sector lost jobs.

Compare that with a real crisis, like the inflation we saw during the Napoleonic wars, or the rationing that went on into the 1950s after the Second World War, or the constant battle for survival — actual survival that is — currently waged by most people who don’t happen to own a British passport.

The signs are that economic growth in the UK will carry on for the time being, but the things we hear about on the news — post-Brexit uncertainty, the drift towards negative interest rates and the pensions black hole — are only the tip of the iceberg of potential calamities that could suddenly overwhelm us, or any other G8 economy, in a matter or weeks, and it’s happened in the past.

Is your business prepared for the next economic earthquake? If interest rates rise, for example, could you handle the strangely alien inflationary environment (which, by the way, has already been experienced by almost every generation of Brits at some point or other)? Collectively we could be looking at increased costs, an increased debt burden and drastically lower GDP due to decreased spending. Have you been working on your business in the good times to survive the inevitable drought?

What can dentists actually do to prepare for the hard times that will inevitably come — not the pretend “threat to economic recovery” hard times we keep hearing about? There is plenty you can do. Ask yourself whether your business could cope with six per cent interest rates. Historically that’s not very high, so if that looks like a problem you have some work to do. Remember, interest rates are ridiculously, unprecedentedly low at the moment. They cannot stay this low forever.

Sure, some aspects of doing business have got tougher in the last few years; the CQC requirements, for example, but I can guarantee that it’s going to get a lot tougher. So why not do the hard yards now so you’re ready for the storm? I personally think the dental industry should be better at what it’s doing and when I look at the limited number of practice owners doing everything they can to future proof their businesses I sometimes struggle to understand what’s holding everyone else back.

Perhaps it comes down to personal style, or perhaps it’s deciding to run your clinic as a business first and a dental practice second, which doesn’t come naturally to a lot of dentists. That might mean designating a minimum amount of time to the business side of things, for example at least one day a week, but here are some other suggestions:

• Understand what profit should be generated by the business and prepare a financial model
• Ascertain whether you are subsidising your practice without realising it
• Are there at least three additional revenue streams you are developing to potentially add to the business?
• Do you understand your brand proposition?
• Build a catalogue of statistical evidence (as opposed to biased “feelings”) of what marketing tactics work on different segments of your target customers
• Do you have a clear vision of the business’s objectives and is your whole team aware of them?
• Are internal cultural standards (for example dress code and phone answering protocols) clearly set out?

Whatever it is I would urge you to act now, and if you need some help, get in touch. Call 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.