Marketing strategy: Preparing for the first quarter

As we wind down 2013, many folks are looking back on the year that was, but I know that you as a forward-thinking owner of a dental or orthodontic practice are looking forward to the new year.  Specifically, you are zoned in on what should be a very lucrative quarter: the first calendar quarter of the year.

Historically, the first quarter is a strong demand quarter for potential new patients.  On top of that, you usually don’t see any other major expenditures besides, potentially, end of year income tax payments.  As such, the demand from new patients plus low stress on the expense side equal a possible increase in the bank account.  

How do you take advantage of the opportunity presented here?  In other words, how should your marketing be structured to attract as many new patients as possible during the first quarter?  As you consider this, note that two major factors come into play during the first quarter:

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5 acquisition warning flags

We’ve recently come across several acquisition deals that had real potential when reading the basic description of the practice (who writes those?  Most of them are fantastic).  But at some point in the process, red flags got thrown up that caused us to pack up our bags and head in the other direction.  

Here are some of the things that we’ve seen recently and over the years that should immediately sound warning alarms all throughout your head.  Please note that not all of these are necessarily deal-killers, but they should cause you to give extra thought and do extra homework before making a deal.

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5 ways your practice is like Bar Rescue (even if your practice doesn't need a rescue)

If you watch basic cable TV, you may be familiar with the show Bar Rescue on Spike.  In it, consultant Jon Taffer visits a failing bar and turns it around.  Generally, this involves upgrading the menu, correcting some operational problems, weeding out unruly staff, remodeling the interior and renaming the establishment.  Add a healthy dose of drama and yelling and you’ve got a recipe for a successful turnaround.

As an unabashed fan of the show, I am regularly amazed by the parallels between the rescue projects on the show and the operating challenges for dental and orthodontic practices.  How could I possibly compare the average watering hole with a professional practice?  At the essence, you’re simply running a business in both cases so key similarities are present.

Specifically, and without any yelling or drama, here’s what I’ve seen:

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Group Practice Roadmap: the offer

If you're reading this, you've probably read our Group Practice Roadmap book and checked out the discussion of our offer to you in the final chapter.  

Here is the current offering:

• We will provide our talents to help you identify potential strong markets for new locations.
• We will help you to evaluate vacant spaces, lease possibilities and add our comments in reviewing your lease.
• We will work with you to identify a source of financing for your project.  This includes preparing business plans and projections as necessary.
• We will help you find a construction company to build your locations and help you to ensure that construction goes as smoothly as possible.
• If you elect to acquire a practice, we will review and give our input and guidance on the due diligence work.
• We will assist you in designing an advertising campaign that fits within your budget and marketing campaign.
• We will help you find a source for equipment.
• We will help you with your scheduling, staffing and other operational issues required to get the office profitable as quickly as possible.
• Once open, we’ll design your reporting and notification systems to keep you apprised of potential problem areas as soon as they occur.
• If you need to develop corporate services, we will help you to design those functions to minimize costs and maximize efficiency.

All of these services are provided to you absolutely free of charge until the office is profitable before personal expenses and doctor pay (including associates). 

Once the office is profitable, the fee due to us would be $2,500 per month per office.  We would also set you up with our online supply purchasing system – with group practice pricing along with our full range of reporting services.  Within a short time, the savings on the purchases should more than offset this fee.

If at any point, you want to part company with us, you are free to do so.  There is no long term commitment.  Our hope and belief is that you’ll enjoy our services and stick with us.

This offer expires on February 28, 2014 so e-mail me at bpalmisano2@gmail.com and get started today!

Check out our new e-book!

If you've read our blog before, you know that we have a lot of experience and passion when it comes to building dental practices and orthodontic practices from the standard 1 to 2 office setup to one having 5, 10 or more full-time offices.

We've summarized the process in our e-book: Group Practice Roadmap.  In it, we lay out the path for hyper-growing your practice beyond its current existence.  We start with a self-assessment for doctors considering this path and then take you through site selection, financial modeling, financing, construction, building back office services, adding specialties, acquiring existing offices and staying on top of the whole operation.  On top of that, we'll show you a number of potential pitfalls and how to avoid them.

If you need further assistance in building your dream practice, check out our offer here.

Get your copy of the book today!!

PDF version here (free!)

Kindle version here (99 cents, Amazon's rules, not mine).

Marketing strategy: social media updates

We all know that there are thousands and thousands of articles out there about the best way to advertise on social media, but let’s take a closer look at some recent developments within the big 3 – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – to see how dental and orthodontic practices might be impacted.

To the news wire:

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Employee incentives: lesson learned

In the brief existence of this blog, I think you have noticed that we have regularly preached the importance of numbers and good reporting.  More important than just having the information is understanding what that information is telling you.  Does the data appear to indicate one thing, but the practice is moving in a completely different direction?

When it comes to employee incentives, the importance of quality information and goals is doubly important because if your team is unfocused or has goals different from yours, you will end up with a mess on your hands.  And by mess, I mean you are paying a bunch of money for reaching an incentive that has nothing to do with the overall success of your practice.  

I’d like to give you a story of one case in which we thought we had all the incentives lined up properly, but ended up learning a costly, yet valuable lesson instead (kind of like the plot of most sitcoms).  

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