Get your team on one page for harmony, efficiency and growth

You entered dentistry because you had a vision for helping people. Now you want your practice to fulfill that vision. Yet it is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day details of running an office that eventually leads to losing your focus.

To work on what is most important, start with a short business plan. Share it with your staff to get everyone on the same page.

Create harmony in your office
Make your office a harmonious work place. Have each member understand his or her role, how it fits into the bigger picture, and how the team works as a whole. Create a climate that acknowledges and celebrates success. Your patients will sense and experience the harmony in your office, as well.

By writing a One Page Business Plan R and sharing it with your staff, you can consistently communicate to them the vision, mission and measures of your practice. When everyone is aligned with the plan, harmony is one beneficial result.

Create efficiency in your office
Running a dental practice is like running a small business. You need systems, methods and quality standards. You also need a way to track and measure performance. Yet you don’t want to get overly complicated. The strategy section of a One Page Business Plan is the place to capture the best practices and methods for an efficient practice.


Create growth for your practice
For a profitable practice, you should determine the key financial measurements for your practice. First, understand your breakeven point. This means understanding your variable and fixed costs and determining your pricing structure.

Next understand how to attract and retain patients. Create a marketing strategy to retain patients and gain referrals that your and your team can implement to keep your practice full.

When you have your team working together to maintain and improve skill level, patient satisfaction and efficiency, your business is poised to thrive and grow.

Capture your best thinking on a single page
Michael Gerber, author of the classic book, The e-Myth Revisited, cautions the entrepreneur to work on your business, not in your business. As a dentist, this means being the leader of your practice, creating clear, consistent practices that take the guess work out of daily activities. It also means that while you use your expertise in treating patients, you also spend time on the essential practice-building activities.

It’s easy to lead your staff when you can get everyone on the same page. They will be inspired when you share the vision and mission of your practice and how each person contributes. Use your plan to:

• Embrace best practices.
• Create systems and policies that are clear.
• Communicate consistently.

This minimizes confusion and frustration. Your team members will be on board and new staff members can get up to speed quickly.

You can write your plan on your own with the help of the book, The One Page Business Plan. or you might consider working with a One Page Business Plan Certified Consultant to speed up the process, get expert advice and an outside, objective perspective.

Amy Grossman, MBA, is founder of the business coaching and consulting practice, Broader Vision. Amy is a One Page Business Plan Certified Consultant and has served on the executive board of the International Coach Federation, New England Chapter. You can email her at amy@broadervision.com.

Keeping Your Cross In Balance

Let's face it…not may people love going to the dentist. They feel stressed. I can say from experience as an emergency room nurse-turned dentist that the level of stress, albeit different, is high in both environments. As a nurse, everyone was glad to see me, seek my help or care. As a dentist, most patients want good oral health and a pretty smile, but don't usually relish a trip to the dentist. In our practice, we have been able to change this attitude by going the extra mile to make our patients feel welcome. It all starts with a philosophy that is mindful of “the cross”.

In our office patients quickly note the beauty and flow of our Feng Shui designed office, the carefully selected art, the pretty "live" flowers and the nice warm smiles to greet them. Our staff is trained to pamper. We offer Bose headsets and MP3 players, warm fleecy blankets to snuggle under, a place for their shoes if desired, dark "safety" sunglasses and heated seat. Are we at a spa? NO! But when our patients can relax and feel pampered our job as dental professionals becomes easier.

How do you get to that place? You create a philosophy of care that suits your style. Ours is “pampered, warm and cozy”; and as a practice we follow the motto of “… keep(ing our) cross in balance", as outlined by L.D. Pankey.

To construct your own cross, write WORSHIP at the top.
Below and to the left, write WORK . To the right, write PLAY.
Write LOVE at the bottom.

When your life is weighted too far in one direction, the three other areas suffer. And then, something gives: divorce, staff leaves, kids feel neglected and get in trouble, you feel like you have to work all the time and can't enjoy your life, it seems meaningless…It goes on and on. Asking for help when you cannot manage was the choice I made.

With the help of The Pankey Institute in Key Biscayne, Fla, I feel I have been able to keep my cross in balance. The expense of attending was returned 10 fold just in the week's following each course. I didn't become a "Pankey Office" I became Dr. Dianne B's office. My designer didn't design the "Feng Shui office" she designed a Feng Shui office personalized for my staff and I. This transformation and stability didn't happen overnight; we evolved over several years, and are still growing. In my case, The Pankey Institute offered a well-rounded course to help run my practice, be a better dentist and be financially sound, yet still have time to raise a busy family.
The combination of a well-designed office and the advice of a top of the line management consulting firm continues to reap its benefits. Recently, a favorite patient of mine met my husband on a Boy Scout camping trip. His new job requires commuting Sunday night through Friday night to another state, and thus had to transfer dentists. He told my husband he really didn't realize how special our office was until he was lying there in a cold unfriendly office, people too busy or grouchy to smile or show they cared about him, the quality of the cleaning was not a good etc. etc. That indirect feedback was music to my ears. You can make a difference in your patients’ lives. Not only doesn’t have to be that bad to go to the dentist. Gee…it might even feel like an hour of rest for weary soul. Have a great rest of the summer!

Dianne B. is a seasoned dentist practicing in Massachusetts.

Marketing Don't Checklist

Don’t send out copy with spelling or grammatical errors.

Always proofread and use your spell check

Don’t show off how many fonts you have when designing a project.

Select only 2 – 3 fonts at the most.

Don’t wait.

Always ask at the end of a project when a client is pleased with the outcome for a referral.

Don’t be the world’s best kept secret.

Network, join organizations, write articles, blog.

Don’t sell on price. You won’t win in the long run.

Sell on value. What is your value proposition?

“Don’t make enemies….

Cultivate opposites” (Thomas Watson, Jr., of IBM)

A good enemy forces you to improve your company. As was the case with Apple and IBM — it helped Apple succeed.

Don’t try and do it all yourself.

Hire people who excel at what you don’t

Don’t forget to track what you do.

Important to find out which of your efforts generate the highest returns and capitalize on your successes

Don’t wait for the media to find you

Write a letter or article to the local paper.

Don’t ignore your customers

Write a bi-monthly newsletter or hot tips. Clip articles that may be of interest to them.

Submitted by marketing maven Angela Rutzick who can be reached @ Angela@e-dds.com

Improve Office Dynamics

Your business is your source of income, creativity and job satisfaction. Your goal is to make sure your office looks inviting, has the best equipment and supplies, and your staff is experienced and knowledgeable.
You want to communicate to your clients that your firm provides the best products and services available.
Thus, you’ve attended to your business’s needs with the utmost diligence: spent money in advertising, attended educational lectures and classes, and implemented the latest technology in your profession.
Yet, something is not quite right but you cannot put your finger on it. Your clients are happy – but you’re not attracting “quality” ones.
Maybe you are not attracting the “right ones.” Your staff seems content (for the moment) but internal workings are not flowing easily. You look around and wonder, what’s missing?
What is often missing is an understanding of how the environment – the decor, the architectural elements, the scents, the noise and the particular energy of these elements – affect the day-to-day operations of the office.
You can undertake a renovation, move or add more space. This is a great way to look fresh and updated. Nonetheless, analyzing the inherent energy of the space and its people according to ancient Feng Shui principles may make the difference between an effective office and a pretty space.
The latter temporarily masks the original problems. The design that incorporates Feng Shui principles yields an effective and beautiful space. Additionally, because the space becomes well balanced, it produces an environment that continuously promotes healing and harmony.
Feng Shui is a 6,000-year-old Oriental art and science geared to balancing people and the environment through the use of ancient principles of energy. Particular energies are present in every aspect of the business, including people. Feng Shui recognizes these energies as five elements represented by wood, fire, earth, metal and water that, when manipulated to produce the correct relationships, create harmony.
Thus, a Feng Shui analysis will yield an understanding of how the environment influences work flow and interpersonal relationships within the office, as well as the health and general feeling of the business. It will help uncover “what is missing.”
In reading the energies of the people who work in your office, one may inherently carry wood energy; the other may be an earth kind. These two individuals will have difficulty working together. Adding fire elements (purples, reds or diamonds) will introduce the bridge energy and help both workers coexist in harmony.
Similarly, a staff carrying wood energy will feel overworked, stressed and inefficient in an environment abounding with metal energy – whites, grays and round elements. They will tend to create clutter or feel that the space is crowded, even if it is not. Painting the walls in lavender tones and adding water features or soothing sounds, wavy elements and greenery will provide the nourishment they need to feel supported and productive.
It is well documented that living and working spaces have a profound effect on physical and mental health. An environment created to support the specific energies of its users can make a positive impact in all aspects of your business. Your clients will feel it and want to be a part of it.
The combination of excellent interior design, grounded in Feng Shui principles and the use of non-toxic and sustainable materials, creates a total healing environment.

Lidia Scher is an award-winning interior designer, an accomplished visual artist and Feng Shui master. She has been at the helm of L.A.S. Associates, an interior and architectural design firm based in Arlington, MA for the past 23 years. Her specialty is dental and medical environments where occupants love to be in work in and return to day after day. She is also a partner in Virtual dental Solutions, a web-based consulting company to the dental community.

The Power of Integrating Feng Shui Principles

The art & science of Feng Shui is a practical way to arrange a home and office that will enhance relationships, work flow, health and prosperity. The advantages of incorporating these ancient principles when considering a renovation, remodeling, repainting, and/or even prior to buying and selling property can greatly enhance the design/build team and give owners and their property a new lease on life. This is because a layout of a home or office provides hidden cues to the success of the business and of people’s life and career.

When we select a space to live and/or work in it, we do so based on our current thinking and feeling patterns. These patterns are a combination of our passion, attitude, goals and beliefs. You may have discovered that in order to succeed you need to come up with smarter goals and you are eager to implement them. Yet if your office or home environment has been arranged based on your former thinking patterns, your chances of succeeding are greatly dimished. Understanding how to tweak the space to support your new thinking may yield amazing results. Don’t under estimate the impact that your environment has on your life. There are no management systems, marketing efforts, or client-centered practices that can be sustained without a supportive environment. That is the power of using sound design practices that integrate Feng Shui principles!

Lidia Scher is an award-winning interior designer, an accomplished visual artist and Feng Shui master. She has been at the helm of L.A.S. Associates, an interior and architectural design firm based in Arlington, MA for the past 23 years. Her specialty is dental and medical environments where occupants love to be in work in and return to day after day. She is also a partner in Virtual dental Solutions, a web-based consulting company to the dental community.

email: lidia@e-dds.com