For your practice to succeed in a large-scale way, it’s important to take care of the little things first.
Often, a patient will ask their dentist for a high-value transformation such as teeth replacement, only to find themselves hesitating over a recommendation of pre-treatment essentials such as gum cleaning.
In comparison with the big-ticket item itself, these preparatory treatments are typically quick, easy and inexpensive. It’s confusing, therefore, that many of us see these tasks as less important than – or even a frustrating barrier to – the larger-scale change that we’re seeking. Sure, they’re not as exciting as the grand reveal, but they’re still massively important; we all know that valuable (and pricey) dental work will be wasted if it’s going into an unhealthy mouth.
It’s the same on the other side of the patient’s chair, when it comes to running your dental practice. Here too, it’s important to stay on top of the little things to achieve the best health.
At Hive, it’s part of our process to take care of these “business hygiene” tasks for you. Sometimes, this is through small but helpful extras, such as setting up Xero accounting software for our accountancy clients, or identifying ways in which to improve your tax efficiency to save money.
It can also be through bigger steps, such as reviewing your bookkeeping during the approach to year-end. Again, this might not be the most exciting task for you to tackle, meaning that it might slide down the list in favour of other things. However, if you’re considering selling your practice, having accurate and up-to-date financials could add thousands to the price, especially if the potential buyer is a large corporate. In this instance, it’s the sad reality that anything below par becomes a hefty bargaining chip and ultimately a lot of money lost.
As we can see in this scenario (and many others), not taking care of the essentials can cost you more in the long run – just like putting implants into bad gums.
Here, we’re not about these kinds of short-term fixes. We’re committed to creating a firm grounding in the basics and helping you to do things properly. Many of the services we include as standard are above the norm, because it matters to us that your practice is in the best possible health.
Having a good financial infrastructure and discipline means that you’ll be ready to respond to an opportunity at the right time. It also helps with decisions and gives you peace of mind, knowing that you have numbers you can rely upon.
However much we stress the importance of these small financial health measures, we know that they can seem much bigger when you’re facing them from a practice perspective. Often, it’s relatively small things such as bookkeeping that form a sizeable barrier to change. By taking on these unwanted tasks, we’ll help you remove the block; and then we’ll help you go after the change that you really want – the big, beaming-smile payoff at the end.
If you’re looking for change, get in touch.
