Think Like a CEO and Unlock the True Power of Your Practice
Doug Fettig, CPA, MBA: Dental Entrepreneur - Spring 2023 by Dental Entrepreneur Media
In my travels across the country speaking to your fellow dental colleagues, I sometimes encounter an attitude of… RESIGNATION.
Resigned to working longer hours to maintain the same level of income. Resigned to dealing with endless turnover and staffing shortages within your dental team. Resigned to accepting what insurance plans decide your skills are worth. Resigned to feeling inadequate as you juggle bringing in a producing dentist, running your business, being there, and enjoying the moments with your family.
I believe that these unfortunate scenarios are the result of a very simple, yet very powerful, dynamic. You don’t view yourselves in the correct context. You see yourselves as being victims of forces beyond your control (e.g., DSO expansion, insurance driving down reimbursements, rising student loans).
You don’t appreciate the incredible value that your skills have in the marketplace. You live your life with a scarcity mindset rather than an abundance mindset. You fail to see that you are the leader of a dynamic and vibrant workplace.
YOU LACK THE AWARENESS AND APPRECIATION THAT YOU ARE THE CEO OF YOUR PRACTICE!
Think about that for a second. You are the CEO of a business just like any other business owner. You can create a vibrant, dynamic workplace and positively impact the lives of your team, your patients, and your community. WHAT A GIFT!
I realize that you did not receive much (if any) training in dental school on how to run a business. I realize that the emphasis was to get through dental school so you could earn a paycheck and start making payments on your skyrocketing student loans balances. I realize that you weren’t imbued with the idea that you would become a business leader, a CEO, whose most joyful path to a fulfilling and profitable career would be as a great leader of your own company.
But, as much as we’d like to, we can’t change the past. However, we can learn from it. We can assess what needs to be done, and what needs to change, from this point forward. You must disassociate yourself from the idea that your goal was achieved when you graduated from dental school. That “If I build it, they will come.” The idea that if I hang out a shingle the rest would take care of itself.
That doesn’t work anymore – the competition is too fierce, and the financial and emotional stakes are too high for you to be in a passive role regarding how your professional life will play out. Not to mention the impact it has on your personal life.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE THE “CEO” OF YOUR PRACTICE?
When I speak to dentists, I ask the practice owners to raise their hands. Then I say something like, “Congratulations! You are now all CEO’s! From this day forward you will think of yourselves as CEO’s! Never again will you think of yourself as ‘just a dentist’”.
Gee that’s great, Doug, but what does it mean to think like a CEO, and why does it matter?
Glad you asked - there are many traits and positive aspects to altering your self-perception and thinking to that of a CEO including:
• Inspiring you to start running your practice like a true business
• Making you more willing to utilize benchmarks and set incentives/goals for your team
• Opening you to the power and benefit of bringing in dental industry experts to help you run your practice more efficiently and profitably
• Providing the discipline to use ROI (return on investment) calculations when considering decisions to invest in technology
• Unlocking the use of tools such as a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) quadrant to assess your practice holistically and strategically – running your practice proactively rather than reactively
• Seeking formal leadership training to enable you to create a great work environment for your team
• Thinking outside of your individual “island” and joining with other independent practitioners to gain economies of scale for services and supplies
Think for a second about those bulleted items above. They are all tools and techniques that CEOs around the world use to run their businesses more efficiently and profitably. Why should you be any different?
Think what it would be like to have the decision of a major investment (not expense!) in technology to be considered by determining whether the return is worth the investment. Instead of listening to the argument that the investment (not expense!) is “not in the budget”. The budget is irrelevant if the investment will generate a return far greater than your monthly payments – it would actually improve your cash flow! One of my favorite sayings is, “You can’t cost cut your way to prosperity.” It’s never been done.
Think what it would be like to structure a compensation and bonus plan that creates positive incentives for your team to maximize overall productivity, profitability, patient satisfaction, and patient care? What would the impact be if your team’s behavior was motivated to align with the goal of providing excellent patient care and collaborating with each other for growth?
Think what it would be like to receive top-notch leadership training and to use your enhanced leadership skills to create a more positive work environment. Might that have a positive impact on your staffing issues and any team “drama”? Don’t you owe it to your dental team (and to yourself, to your family, to your community) to create the greatest work culture that you can for your team?
Think what it would be like to take a broader view of your industry and your place in it. There is a growing movement among independent practitioners to band together to achieve leverage and economies of scale that can only be achieved in the marketplace via size and influence. That’s why DSOs are a successful business model – they gain efficiencies and increased profitability through economies of scale. Solo dentists or small group practices are now joining forces in a variety of business structures and groups such as GPOs (group purchasing organizations), dental buying clubs, DPO’s (dental partnership organizations) and the like.
Think about utilizing industry experts to help you grow, just like every other CEO in the world, be it in areas like marketing, legal, accounting/finance. Think about embracing the skills and knowledge of your dental rep, to view them as a consultant versus an order taker, to help you grow your practice. If you win, your dental rep wins! And yes, experts cost money – they need to eat too! But if your dental expert isn’t bringing you more value than they cost well…you are using the wrong expert!
YOU ARE ALL ENTREPRENEURS – YOU ARE ALL CEOS. EMBRACE YOUR POTENTIAL!
Perhaps they forgot to mention/emphasize to you in dental school that you were all CEOs in the making. That you would have the privilege of running a business and impacting the lives of others. That you had control over your destiny and your future.
It’s time for you to join the vibrant, dynamic, creative community of your fellow CEOs from around the world. Changing your mindset and seeking out the resources to help you unlock your potential as a leader will bring untold benefits to you, your practice, your team, your family, and your community.
By the very nature of what you have achieved – running a business – you are already a CEO. Now it’s time to start leveraging your role and reaping the rewards, both financial and emotional, that will follow!
