private practice development

The Best Place To Invest Your Money

Stock Exchange
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I was listening to a podcast the other day.

They were asking ‘what is the best place to invest your money to get the biggest return?’

If you have a profitable business and you have الخيارات الثنائية المتداول العربي surplus cash, where is the most cost effective place to invest it?

  • Pay off your mortgage or other loans?
  • ISA?
  • Property?
  • Crowdfunding?
  • Stock market?
  • Cryptocurrency?
  • Gold?

go here You’ve guessed it – none of the above!

Why would you put your money in to something that you don’t know much about in the hope that whoever you have given it to will make it grow.

If you think about it, the chances are that you don’t know a great deal about stocks and shares or property investing and so you are pretty much gambling.

http://asect.org.uk/?ilyminaciya=%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%AF&f04=e7 The best place that you can invest your money is in the business that made you the money in the first place.

Warren Buffet is known for making successful investments, but he doesn’t just invest in a company, he gets involved in how the company is run.

…his business is investing in businesses

…and he makes sure that they are successful by helping and promoting them (have you heard how he has a McDonalds breakfast every day – he happens to own significant shares in McDonalds).

If you already have a profitable business (and most doctors do, unless they do something stupid like open their own clinic), you should go to link invest your profits in to growing your business.

Whatever you choose to do, this is the mindset to have and the way to look at it.

You are investing in yourself and you business rather than giving the money to a stranger and expecting a better return.

Don’t think of these things as costs or liabilities.

You should think of it as developing assets.

60 منصات الثانية الخيارات الثنائية Your Private Practice should be an asset.

I know it is hard to shift your mindset, but once you have, it becomes a lot more rewarding to see your Practice grow and accept that it is a الخيارات الثنائية الفيديو بالطبع re-investment of profits rather than a cost.

If you would like your Private Practice to grow, then you need to invest, not only money but also time.

If you want any help with that, schedule a call.

Why Doctors Need A Coach

coaching
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It was only after opening my own clinic when I started running my practice more like a business , that I realised the importance of http://www.dramauk.co.uk/?arapyza=%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%85-%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9&87c=aa coaching and mentoring.

I joined a منتدى المساهم للاسهم السعوديه Mastermind group and had regular calls and meetings with like-minded business owners and my business turned a corner.

Until then, I was http://asect.org.uk/?ilyminaciya=%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AB%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86-24-12-2012&7ce=44 losing money because I had just set up the clinic and the hospitals had stopped sending me patients, so everything that I earned (and more) was going out in costs and expenses every month.

It was difficult to see how I could do anything about it and the more desperate the situation got, the more سعر ذهب اليوم paralysed I was to do anything.

اسرع موقع تحميل اسعار الأسه٠It was a vicious circle

I don’t know what led me to join the Mastermind group, I certainly couldn’t afford it, but that is when I started to take control of my go to link finances and my metrics.

It was no good just feeling sorry for myself. I had to look at my figures and work out where the problems were and how I could improve them.

I now realise the value in having someone have a look at your business and tell you what you should be focusing on

…and holding your feet to the fire to make sure that you do what you say you will do!

For some reason, the الخيارات الثنائية هي القمار concept of coaching is not established in the field of business, and definitely not in medicine!

Yet, if you think about it, we could all benefit.

Obviously, it is in كيفية تجارة سبائك الذهب sports where it is an accepted and embedded part of the culture.

If you want to do well, you need a coach.

Even the http://investingtips360.com/?klaystrofobiya=%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B6%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%85-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9&dff=78 افضل الاسهم للمضاربة اليومية best sportsperson in the world needs a coach to give an external eye and to push and make sure that they get up in the morning and be the best they can be

No matter how motivated you are – everyone needs a push

I saw this clip at one of the conferences I went to and to be honest, it made me a bit الخيارات الثنائية إشارات يوتيوب emotional, but it demonstrates why a coach is so important:

Why You Need A Coach

Private Practice can be a lonely business and no one really gives guidance on what we should be doing to make our business run effectively, which will ultimately result in a http://1conn.com/?b92=c3 better service for our patients.

Certainly in Plastic Surgery, this is why there has been a growth in commercial clinics which are run effectively as a business

…but perhaps don’t have the underlying principles and values that a clinician might have.

This is why I believe it is important for us, as clinicians, to look at our Practices and think about what sort of service we are offering to our patients.

We need to look from the outside in, and that is what a coach can do.

…and that is what I do.

I love to help other Consultants, who have spent their lives working in the NHS perfecting their craft and giving the best clinical care to their patients – to optimise their Private Practice.

…because Private Practice is not like the NHS and you need to think a lot more about the service that you are giving to your patients, not just the clinical outcome.

If you would like to have a chat about how I see your practice and some tips on how to improve it, then schedule a call and we can work something out.

Why Doctors Should Not Pay For Advertising!

Advertising
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I don’t think that doctors should pay for advertising.

I have got no problem with doctors advertising.

It is just paying for advertising that I think is unnecessary and wasteful for most of us.

I actually think that advertising is to be encouraged, although it seems to have a bit of a bad name.

My version of advertising is different to what most people might consider advertising to be.

I see advertising as letting people know that we exist and what we are able to do to help them.

Advertising is not coercing people to buy things that they don’t need or pushing a buy one, get one free offer.

When the NHS gives out leaflets about prostate cancer or runs a television commercial about heart disease, this is advertising.

So I think that advertising is good and we should all raise awareness by providing information to patients to allow them to make an informed decision.

…but I don’t think that we should be paying for advertising.

Not because of any moral or ethical standpoint, but because it is a waste of money.

I don’t think that advertising in general is a waste of money, in fact it is a very powerful and effective way to communicate.

It is just that if you’re a doctor in private practice and you want to communicate your message, there are much more effective ways to do this rather than paying for advertising.

Most doctors think that the problem with their private practice is that not enough people know about them and so paying for advertising will remedy this.

When the problem is usually that they are not looking after the people who already know about them .

When I look at doctor’s private practices I am shocked at the lack of processes around dealing effectively with enquiries.

This is the most basic area to focus on and in fact is just the tip of the iceberg.

We all have a database of patients:

  • who have enquired but not come to the clinic,
  • who have come to the clinic but not gone on to have a procedure
  • and who have had a procedure but not had a repeat procedure or left a review.

Not to mention our database of GPs and other doctors.

There is gold in the database and we just need to nurture it to find it.

There is no point in paying to put more patients into the database if you are not looking after those that are already there.

It is easy to put an advert in a magazine or pay for SEO or online advertising – and there are certainly enough companies out there who will convince you that this is what you need to do.

….but don’t be surprised when you realise that the £1000’s you put in, comes back as only a handful of enquiries worth only a fraction of what you put in.

And then you think that advertising doesn’t work.

It is not that advertising doesn’t work, it is just that you are not maximising your opportunities.

I have mystery shopped many doctors practices and it is very common for emails not to be responded to or the phone not to be answered.

So don’t be surprised that if you put an advert in, you don’t get a return on your investment if you are not answering the phone when someone calls!

You’re much better off making sure the phones are answered and the enquiries are followed up on before trying to get more enquiries.

Not only does this make good financial sense, but it also leads to you building a better practice which is giving a better service to your patients.

Money spent on improving the infrastructure and systems in your practice is much better than money spent on advertising.

So start by looking at how you can improve your communication and engagement with the people who already know about you, before taking an ad out on the back of a bus!

Medical Conferences Need To Be More Relevant

medical conference
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I have registered for a couple of conferences in the next couple of months (the BAAPS and ISAPS conference in London and CATBBAS in Belgium).

These conferences are enjoyable because you get to see old friends and you may pick up a titbit or a nugget that you can take back to your practice.

However, I am becoming more and more frustrated as I look through the programs of these conferences as I think they are missing a huge area when it comes to practice development that none of these conferences really tend to address.

There is a small section about practice management where clinic owners talk about their experience of owning their own clinics, and of course this is of interest to me because I own my own clinic, but I don’t think it is particularly helpful for the majority of surgeons who do not have the desire to have their own clinic.

It is not about owning your own clinic

…the struggle that most of us are facing can be boiled down to one sentence –

how do I get and keep customers?

Since opening my clinic, I had to rapidly start thinking of my practice as a business.

I spent a lot of time going to seminars and meetings with other business owners, and I have realised that it doesn’t matter what business you are in you need to spend time working on getting and keeping customers.

This is true for car mechanics, shopkeepers, accountants, lawyers, builders and doctors. 

When it comes to getting and keeping customers, of course doing a good job is a crucial part of it.

…and medical conferences cover this aspect very well.

However, the gains that you come away with are marginal and will often be aimed at making your clinical work more efficient or easier in some way

…only rarely will there actually be a tangible effect on the outcome experienced by the patient.

I would like to see more time spent on looking at the patient experience as a whole.

This would encompass a much wider remit and would mean looking at all aspects of customer service,

  • how enquiries are dealt with whether they are by telephone or e-mail
  • what can you do if you miss a call or can’t get hold of someone
  • what your system for reminders are
  • what details are sent to patients before consultation and before their procedure
  • how patients are treated during and after their consultation
  • what ongoing contact you have with patients before, during and after their operation

These are areas that we never talk about but I strongly believe will have a much more profound impact on your patient’s satisfaction and ultimately your patient’s result.

The stunning thing is, that by looking at these aspects and by engaging with patients at every level, you will actually achieve a better outcome.

This is because, results are so often subjective,

…so it is not enough to just give good clinical outcomes,

…it is important to make the patients feel they are being treated well and that they are being looked after

…and if you combine this with a good clinical outcome – rather than just having a happy patient you will have a raving advocate that will spread the word and promote your services better than any advert ever could.

We all spend a lot of time learning how to do surgery and perform procedures, and I think it is quite right that we continue to develop professionally and keep up-to-date with the latest techniques and products.

However, in my experience, most patients are happy with the results of their surgery and whether we like it or not, the fact is that most patients will get an average surgical result.

I have found that the difference between the poor, average and good results, comes with the other aspects of their care.

For instance,

  • if they have spoken to someone on the phone or at the hospital who has been rude or unhelpful
  • if they haven’t been sent the right invoice or been treated well on the ward
  • or haven’t got the appropriate information following their discharge

…these are things that can turn a good surgical result into an unhappy patient

…and the flip side is true, that an average surgical result can be turned into a happy patient when all of these things are done right.

I am constantly thinking of ways that I can get and keep customers and dedicate large portions of my working week to this end.

Yet I find that many doctors give absolutely no consideration to this aspect of their practice at all, and are subsequently delivering less than optimal results for their patients.

I believe that this is all part of good medical practice and that doctors in the independent sector need to spend a lot more time considering the service that they are delivering and making sure that their patients are happy with the whole process.

It is the lack of this kind of support and information that is currently available that has led me to offer support and mentoring to other consultants in private practice.

If you are interested in finding out more and would like to come to a discovery day at my clinic in Birmingham, you can find out more here and we can arrange a time to talk.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to the conferences, but am not looking for any major breakthroughs.

…the only major breakthroughs in my practice in the last couple of years have been from learning about how to run a business rather than how to do surgery.

Know Your Numbers – That Is The Game

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As doctors, we tend to focus on the clinical work and don’t like to think about messy things like our financial figures.

…but in private practice, you need to have more of a mindset that you are running a business if you are going to be successful and when you are running a business, it is essential that you know your numbers.

In this video, I talk about why you need to know your numbers and what numbers you need to know:

 

If you are interested in learning more about running your private practice more like a business, then you can read about the P.E.C.A.N. Approach to systemise and automate your private practice and allow you to deliver a consistently high level of service.