Episode 20 – Deeper Dive: Staying True to Your Dental Business Goals

“Successful entrepreneurs stay very clear on their goals and they are determined to live in that way.” ~Victoria Peterson

Dental practice owners who build Investment Grade PracticesTM ask themselves something every day: What do I want? I know it sounds simple, but I want you to write it down and ponder it. 

Here’s the thing: 99% of people in dentistry are altruistic. You’re concerned about your community and serving people well. When you see roadblocks that limit your ability to serve your patients, you get frustrated. But that’s the time to get creative and find thinking partners who can help you.

Successful entrepreneurs surround themselves with people who elevate their thinking and they stay very clear with their higher purpose. I was so pleased to have Dr. Bruce B. Baird on our last episode, because he’s been a great business partner for 17 years. Whenever we talk, I leave that conversation feeling energized and focused.  

People consistently reach out to Dr. Baird for advice because he consistently delivers. But that’s because he was always focused on his goal: high tech, high touch. He wanted to provide his patients with the highest and latest technology, and to be progressing as a clinician and he stayed focused on that higher goal every day. 

You’re listening to this podcast, because you too have a higher goal. So join me today to break down the Investment Grade Practice thought process by looking at these questions:

• What is it that really matters to you?
• Do you know your numbers?
• Do you know your endgame?

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READ TRANSCRIPT

Victoria Peterson
It’s always an amazing time when Bruce and I get together and I think we love talking about investments and value more than any other topic. Maybe it’s like it to leadership, they seem to go hand in hand for the two of us and I hope that you had as many great takeaways, as I did from this interaction between Bruce and myself. He has been a terrific business partner for the last 17 years and I think it’s because we think differently than 95% of the world and yet we don’t seem to think that our different thinking is anything unusual. Let’s see if we can break down this thought process a little bit. Investment Grade Practices Podcastand owners of independent private practices who really excel? Here’s the question that they ask themselves every day. What do I want? And I know that sounds simple, but I want you to write it down and I want you to ponder it. What do I want? And each time you go through your day and say, Man, I’m doing this because it’s an expectation that someone else has of me, you’re going to start to get really frustrated.

I think because when you answer this question, what do I want? What do I want? I know that 99% of people in dentistry are very altruistic, there, they really are concerned about the community and serving people. Well, that’s why most of us got in dentistry and when you see roadblocks of I can’t provide the quality of care that I want. Because the patient’s perception of insurance, for example, limits me or my team doesn’t show up as enthusiastic as I am about the procedures or whatever those roadblocks are, that’s the time to get creativet, that’s the time to really reach out if you’re stuck and find someone to be a thinking partner. Because successful entrepreneurs surround themselves with people who elevate their thinking, they stay very clear on what they want, what their higher purposes, what their higher goal is, what their highest values are and they are not dogmatic, but they are determined to live in that way and you hear that in Bruce’s voice over and over again, people reach out to him, because he has been extremely consistent in one thing. I’m going to do what I’m going to do because that’s the way I’m going to do it and it is based on his one vision, high tech, high touch. I want to always provide my patients with the latest technology. Throughout my career I want to be progressing as a clinician.

I have seen Bruce after Bruce hung up the handpiece, he was taking classes on dental digital dentistry and 3d printing. Even though he’s not in the day-to-day clinical, he is still such a clinical advocate of doctors, it’s in his blood. He’s also very entrepreneurial, and saying I only have two goals. Number one is to take great care of my patients and number two is to meet my goal. So when he walks in the morning, if his goal is $10,000 for the day, and there’s only 8000 on the books, he knows without a doubt that his team is going to do everything in their power to fill that gap. They’re going to pull patients out of hygiene, they’re going to use their short call list. They’re going to talk to the patient in the chair to see if they want to extend appointments, and he’s going to be flexible enough as a leader to say let’s make it happen. Whatever we need to do, because my goal is to take great care of my patients and to make my goal and I have watched him live that for the last decade and a half. I watched Dr. Baird go from 815 hour to 1215 hour 1515 hour 1815 hour 20 to 50 an hour he retired out doing some ridiculously big numbers because he focused on quality and hitting my goal on a daily basis and I think that’s the takeaway sometimes we get into our grand vision and our grand scheme of where I want to be a year from now, 20 years from now, it all happens through daily intention.

So start there, start with what do I want, as a philosophy of care? As a patient bill of rights? What do I want my patients to experience? What would I like my team to experience? How what do I want to experience as an owner and leader on a daily basis how I want to feel at the end of the day, what do I want my bank account to look like? Because our goal is leaders is to take care of the people around us, and then make our goals. It’s just that simple and that is at the heart of building an investment grade practice. Know what your financial freedom number is, know where your gap is, and work with someone to help you really chart the course, between here and there. If you do that, if you know your end game, as Bruce kept saying, start with the end of mind, start with the end of mind, know 10 years from now, what your sell date is, so that you can start planning it to get top dollar, I can tell you, you’ll probably sell and work at least two years, if not three. So the days of just putting up putting up for sale sign up and within six months to a year have a buyer and you toss them the keys and walk out the door. You can’t do that. But you probably throwing 2030 40% of the value out the window. It’s not something I would recommend if you can help it. The days of hiding from your team like oh my gosh, one day I’m going to get old and I’m going to retire. Don’t tell anybody. You want your team to be an advocate for you. You want your team to be part of the process so that they can help onboarding, make the transition exciting, and make the transition easy for themselves, the new doctor and the patients. Those are the kinds of things we work with when we’re helping you build an Investment Grade Practice and optimize what you have today and be prepared for that day when you want to hang up the handpiece. So Bruce, thanks again for being my guest this week was really just such a treat to have you on and I appreciate who you are and how you role model it for the rest of us.

Narrator
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Investment Grade Practices Podcast . If you find value in this episode would help us spread the word by passing it along to a dental friend subscribe and give us a Like on iTunes or Spotify. Learn more about building your Investment Grade Practices at productivedentist.com Today