Cash Flow Management Corrects Optometrist’s Business Vision
If your business isn’t doing as well as it used to; isn’t making enough income to meet your financial goals; the cash flow management solution activity called Income Planning says it boils down to ONE THING…
The one thing you need to investigate is WHAT CHANGED. I’m not talking about looking outside your business at the economy, or the fact a competitor opened up down the street. That is something the practice owner can’t control. I’m talking about what changed inside the practice. Something did. It may be hard to spot, but investigating what changed can reverse the falling statistics immediately.
Here’s one example. I started working one-on-one with an optometrist who bought the Money Management Solutions software program. As part of the weekly money management process, we spent a great deal of time on income planning, and focused on promoting the business.
An investigation into what promotional activities had worked well in the past revealed that some of the most successful had been dropped out over time. Those were immediately put back into action, and the new patient and income statistics started going back up. We brainstormed creative new promotional ideas focused on new, innovative products and tested those.
In just a few weeks the new patient statistic increased even more. So far so good, but we weren’t satisfied yet.
Correct money management says it’s smart to have several sources of income so if one dries up, your cash flow is still okay. I noticed the optometrist most enjoyed talking about her work designing a line of signature sunglasses. Hmmm. Here we were trying to increase her current practice and she had much of her attention focused on a manufacturing-for-retail venture.
So what else had changed? She finally realized she was BORED with her current practice. While she loves her work, the one practice was no longer a big enough game for her. She was trying to develop a bigger game to play by going into the sunglass design business, which is great, but, even that wasn’t enough. The discovery that she was bored, that opened the floodgates of opportunity!
What did she do to relieve her boredom? Last month she partnered up with another optometrist and they bought 6 failing optometry practices that had tons of potential all at once. That’s right, SIX! Needless to say, she is no longer bored.
By using the money management software on a weekly basis for each of the new clinics, they turned a profit the very first month. Her financial statistics are on the rise, she is enthusiastic about her business again, and, to top it off, her first sunglass design just got delivered from the manufacturer, and they are gorgeous!
If your business was doing well in the past, but income and patient counts have been going down, then correct money management, and finding out what changed, can quickly lead to renewed growth. A great tool to help you find out what changed is Sandra Simmons’ book Unleash Your Cash Flow Mojo – so check out this book!
If you would like a cash flow management consultation regarding your practice or business, contact Sandra Simmons at 239-331-70551 or contact her by e-mail
Cash Flow Management Corrects Optometrist’s Business Vision