7 Habits for a Successful Dental Practice

There are several Habits that we will be discussing in the upcoming weeks based on Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." The Impact both Personally and Professionally will be profound within your dental office.

Your Dental Practice must be consistent in Communication, Time Management, and Leadership to be productive. Dr. Covey references two types of Ethics in his book. They are Character Ethics and Personality Ethics. In brief, Character relates to the core and Personality is on the outside. These are important to understand as your Dental Practice starts with YOU. As the Dentist, you are the owner of the Dental Practice. In many cases there are Associates. The Associates must also think as an Owner. The Character of a Leader must be derived from their core. Your Dental Practice will only produce in abundance if you are healthy. The overall state of your health and the Dental Practice is pertinent in order to maintain growth and development.

3 Most Important Things to Watch Within Your Dental Office

There a three areas of your Dental Practice that absolutely must be managed impeccably. By managing these areas you increase profitability. Most Dentists have a tendency to focus on New Patients in hopes of achieving the goal of profitability. In fact, having new patients is not always the resolution. The 3 most important systemic areas of your Dental Practice are: Cash Flow, Hygiene, and Case Acceptance. Let's discuss how each area impacts your profitability.

Cash Flow affects your Dental Practice in an imperative way. This area must be managed in a healthy manner. The adage from every business school is "Cash is King." Without great cash flow, not much else matters within a dental office. The two best places to examine the health of the dental practice from a cash flow perspective are, Outstanding Patient Balances and Outstanding Insurance Claims. This is where all of your cash flow comes from. Watch these reports regularly!!

Social Media is the biggest trends in today's Dental Marketing! One of the hottest resources in social media is Facebook. Facebook is an excellent social networking platform. By platform I mean that it allows you to connect with your dental patients as well as family, friends, team members, other dental practices, as well as businesses. Let's begin by creating a Facebook Page for your dental office. It is important to select more than one administrator when creating your Facebook Page. By having more than one administrator it will allow more than one perspective.

Once you have created your Facebook Page keep these 3 underlying components in mind. Each component is important in forming a balance that is attainable in reaching your overall goal. The first is to keep the posts entertaining. When updating the page...add some dental specific humor or entertaining news related to the topic at hand. Second, continue to educate on your Facebook Page. Third, offer promotional tactics that will allow a return. An example is an in office special or referral incentive that your dental practice might be offering at this time. By utilizing these areas you will allow proper balance and measurement of tracking. There are various ways to keep your audience intrigued. Brainstorm with your dental team and patients when deciding on topics to be posted. Be certain that your content is timely, relevant, and more importantly FUN!

How Best to Handle the Competition of Your Dental Practice

This is one of my favorite topics to write about and discuss. My first question to everybody regarding this topic is, “who do you think your competition is?” The range of answers is interesting to say the least. I hear everything from "all the dentists that have moved into my area," to "Apple and other companies." My personal opinion on the matter is that your competition is any and all discretionary spending sources. Letʼs face it, people have less spending money in the past 5 years or so than they did before. If you have ever sat through one of our programs then you have seen the evidence that many consumer product companies are doing surprisingly well. In fact, recently most all are doing well, as is shown within the stock market. In late 2008 the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a low of 6626 and, as of writing this article, had hit a high of over 15,000. For those of you unsure of what that means, it means lots of companies are doing very well within the stock market. Of course to do very well in the stock market, they are selling lots of stuff. What this means for you is people are spending money again. They are being more discerning than they used to for sure.

This article is provided by SBA.gov to help all dental office owners understand the impact on their businesses.


Key Provisions Under the Affordable Care Act for Employers with Fewer Than 25 Employees

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act occurs in stages, with many of the reforms and requirements taking effect in 2013 and 2014. Some of the provisions that may impact employers with fewer than 25 employees include:

Small Business Health Care Tax Credits

The small business Health Care Tax Credit helps small businesses afford the cost of health care coverage for their employees and is specifically targeted for those businesses with low- and moderate-income workers. The credit is designed to encourage small employers to offer health insurance coverage for the first time or maintain coverage they already have. Since 2010, businesses that have fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees, pay average annual wages below $50,000, and that contribute 50% or more toward employees' self-only health insurance premiums may qualify for a small business tax credit of up to 35% to help offset the costs of insurance. In 2014, this tax credit goes up to 50% and is available to qualified small businesses that participate in the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). Eligible small employers can claim the current credit through 2013, and the enhanced credit can be claimed for any two consecutive taxable years beginning in 2014 through the SHOP.