Profit in Practice

Everybody wants a more profitable practice, but how to achieve it is the question? Profit is the money left over after you have paid all the practice operating expenses and paid yourself a salary. There are two basic ways to improve profits. You either increase income or decrease expenses. The opportunity to decrease expenses is rather limited so the best way to increase profit is to increase income.

Increasing income in a competitive market is determined by how well your practice is structured, planned and managed. There are some essential elements that need to be in place or developed if your practice is to achieve it potential. Without these there is no point in developing a clever marketing plan because you will not have the capability of implementing it. Neither will you have the capacity to deliver what you have promised to your patients.

First make sure you have the basics correct. Having the right frames and the right staff, and being the best optometrist you can be, will get you half way to your goal.

Then the practice needs a planned approach to structuring and goal setting. These elements include effective systems, equipment, processes and policies that will allow the staff to service the patients to the best of their ability.

Finally the performance elements determine the degree or magnitude of profit improvement that you achieve and particularly implementation and performance management will be critical to success.

Use the profit progression chart to evaluate where your practice sits and how you can take the next step towards achieving your business objectives.

If you need assistance with evaluating or progressing your practice Ideology Consulting can help. We have many years of experience in assisting practices with profits and also objectively evaluating current performance.