Dentaltown February 2016 - (Page 12)

WANT MORE HOWARD? Buy his book, "Uncomplicate Business: All It Takes is People, Time, and Money" at Amazon.com howard speaks column There Ain't No Silver Bullet in Business But a consultant might be close In dentistry there's so much noise about the next big thing that will save your practice or make you a millionaire. "You want to be successful? Learn the new secret recipe, or start placing implants, or start doing orthodontics, or buy this shiny toy." It seems like there's always some "cutting-edge" advice and next big thing you have to do to compete with the big boys. But you know what the bottom line is? There ain't no silver bullet. The next-best thing to a silver bullet though, is this: get a consultant. When I talk with dental consultants, they all tell me that the successful practice owners (everyone who has a million-dollar practice or more and who is taking home The people who hire consultants are usually the people who are already successful but who are humble enough to accept help as they go to the next level. Now, maybe the practice owners from the first group I mentioned (the desperate people in terrible shape) don't get consultants because they're scared to spend the money. That's understandable, but can be a costly mistake; a consultant may be the very factor that turns everything around. You may think consultants are know-italls who actually don't know much. Not the good ones-the good ones can help you get where you want to go. I've used half a dozen consultants in my life and I love to ask them questions The people who hire consultants are usually the people who are already successful but who are humble enough to accept help as they go to the next level. $400,000) keep it pretty simple. They don't have shiny objects, they don't have every fancy new toy, they don't place implants, they don't do ortho, and most of them don't even do endo. Instead, they have this fairly traditional practice where they get about 30 percent from hygiene and the dentist just does restorative dentistry. They do fillings and crowns. You would think that the people who hire consultants would be the desperate people with messed-up practices, right? Nope. about their work. Every time I ask a consultant, "Whose office are you doing?" Or "What size is the practice you're working with?" They go, "Oh it's a really nice place-doing one, two, three million dollars-and we're just fi ne-tuning a couple departments." And then across the street from that dental office there may be an office that's doing $500,000, that's losing money some months and where everything is out of control, and that person will never use a consultant. Continued on p. 14 by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine 12 FEBRUARY 2016 // dentaltown.com http://www.Amazon.com http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown February 2016

On Dentaltown.com
HOWARD SPEAKS: There Ain’t No Silver Bullet in Business
PROFESSIONAL COURTESY: A Magical Meeting Experience
Continuing Education Update
Reverse Prep
An Overview of Sinus Augmentation Procedures
Figuring Out This Marketing Thing
OFFICE VISIT: Doing Dentistry in the Desert
Make Work-Life Balance Work for You
Pulpotomy Materials: An Update
Diligence: How to Successfully Purchase a Dental Practice
Parents Who Fool Themselves About Sugar in Kids’ Diets
Seven Easy Ways to Boost Treatment Compliance
You Should Know: ZendyHealth
Product Profile: DENTSPLY Caulk
Poll
Intraoral Scanning: A Great Resource in Today’s Dentistry
Must Haves for 2016
Product Profile: GC America
Simplifying Everyday Direct Posterior Restorations
Augmentation of Keratinized Gingiva
Industry News
Ad Index
Product Profile: United Business Funding
New Products
Product Profile: TCS
Top Three Strategies to Triple New Patient Numbers
Oral Diseases Associated with Women
Dentally Incorrect

Dentaltown February 2016