Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Wednesday, December 26th, 2012
Revenue Growth (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I had a very interesting conversation with a patient of mine recently. His name is Gary and he is a turnaround expert for a Fortune 100
company. Most large companies keep a roster of smaller companies that they may want to buy. It’s a growth and diversification strategy that allows them to easily acquire more customers and gain access to a related market niche. Nestle, Coke and Pepsi use this strategy to diversify their product offerings. American Airlines used it to buy Travelocity, to ensure their flights got preferential positioning in the online search for affordable travel. General Motors used it to acquire what is now GMAC, a company that offers auto financing, commercial credit lines and mortgages.
I asked Gary about how his team works to raise the revenue of companies by a factor of 5-10 times. He shared something that I believe is worth
repeating. He said most companies that bring in $1 million a year operate entirely differently than companies that bring in $10 million. And those companies act very differently from others that earn $50 million. Your company (or in this case your practice) matures to a certain level and then gets stuck. It can crank out $1 million a year but it can’t possibly generate $10 million. It can’t do that, unless someone with a big picture focus takes over and makes the moves necessary to grow the revenue.
Gary went on to say that lots of time growth is a simple matter of bringing in technical efficiencies, opening up new markets, and using
pre-existing strategic relationships to grow the newly acquired company. It’s easy for Gary but next to impossible for the people who grew the business from scratch. They can’t see it any different than where it is now. Gary doesn’t fall in love with the product or the people who make it, and he is unbiased to the results of new strategies undertaken. He is charged with one overall objective: grow the revenue. Very little else matters.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: American Airlines, Business, Gary, Gary Indiana, General Motors, Niche market, Pepsi, Revenue Growth, Travelocity, Wikipedia
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Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
J. Paul Getty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Here are a couple of interesting quotes from J. Paul Getty, a wealthy entreprenuer from the early 20th century:
“I’d rather have 1% of 100 men’s efforts than 100% of my own effort.”
“The #1 guideline to success is you must be in business for yourself.”
Who will you listen to and let yourself be influenced by? Getty? Your colleagues who can never seem to get ahead financially and blame the economy or the government? Political doomsayers and media pundits?
Whether you accept it or not your future is up to you. You are in position to have a great life with great income, the respect of your patients, a meaningful way to contribute to the world and control over your working conditions/hours. In order to do that start building your team. Find out what it takes to hire one more provider and work diligently to make that happen. When you do you will find that more of your income is net income and less work is required of you.
There is a lot that goes into hiring a medical provider and you really have to do your due diligence. I hate to oversimplify that process but consider the spouse test. If you have someone you want to hire take them out to lunch with you and your spouse (and their spouse too if possible). Then listen extra carefully to what your spouse says about that person because they’re probably right. True story: we once turned down 23 candidates before hiring for 1 clinical position. And it took way longer than expected. And to this day we are thrilled with the choice we waited patiently to make.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: Getty Images, History, J. Paul Getty, Net income, People, Personages, Tax, TurboTax
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Saturday, July 14th, 2012
English: emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The skill set that makes you a remarkably good doctor makes you a bad business person. Isn’t that ironic? And the really deceptive part is your high level of book smarts aren’t helping. It’s not that you lack the IQ points but a different kind of intelligence is required to do practice building.
Most doctors, reacting to life in practice with their God-given skill set put on the brakes to practice growth all the time. Hey you’ve got sick, needy and sometimes unreasonable people around you all day long. I get it that pumping the brakes may give you the illusion that you can control the onslaught. But if AT&T ran their business the way most doctors offices run, they would soon be out of business.
The secret that few doctors embrace (but the ones who get it are rewarded with incredible abundance of time, money and self satisfaction) is to reach beyond yourself and grow through others. Or to put it more succinctly, grow others so they can grow you. But you can’t do that and be a one woman army all at the same time.
Swallow your pride and realize your most important job is to build the team strong. Nourish the high performers and whack the rest. Start with your office manager and your practice building coach.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: AT&T, Businessperson, Emotion, Emotional intelligence, Intelligence, Intelligence quotient, Ultimate Fighting Championship, United States
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Monday, May 28th, 2012
Memorial Day Commemoration 2008 (Photo credit: davidyuweb)
Happy Memorial Day from the patriotic staff at Ultimate Practice Builder.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: Holidays, Holocaust, Israel, Jews, Memorial Day, Organizations, Sports, United States
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Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Halibut in Macks Sport Shop, Kodiak, Alaska (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The number one reason why patients leave a practice is apathy. The provider and their staff seem cold, judgmental, slow to respond to legitimate needs, uncommitted and uncaring. It’s not just bad customer service, it’s also bad practice. You get most of your diagnostic information from history unless you are a radiologist or a pathologist. Listen better. Get more involved. It’ll make your job easier.
Make a decision right away about what you are going to do to bring your practice to a significantly higher level of engagement wiht your patients. Then decide the resources you will commit in terms of time, energy and money. It won’t be easy or even necessarily free, but it will be worth it. Send me your success stories so I can share them with the world.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: Alaska, Business, Customer service, David Zahaluk, George Osborne, Google, Kodiak, Kodiak Alaska, Kodiak Island, Marketing, Social media, United States, Wikipedia, YouTube
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Saturday, May 5th, 2012
Cinco de Mayo 2011 (Photo credit: Obtuse Photo)
Happy Cinco de Mayo from all the gringos at Ultimate Practice Builder.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: Cinco de Mayo, Holidays, Mexican cuisine, Mexico, Southern California, Twitter, United States, YouTube
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Monday, April 30th, 2012
tomato nose (Photo credit: tyger_lyllie)
There are probably many other business opportunities – other than your core practice - that are right under your nose but you don’t see them. Courtesy of Jay Abraham – and if you don’t know Jay you should – here is a classic example:
A man in Los Angeles has a high end custom pool building business. His average price to put in a pool is about $40,000. He generates leads to sell pools and he closes about 10% of the leads. While that is not a particularly good sales closing ratio, it pays the bills. His cost per lead is about $5 and his cost per sale is about $50. But still he ends up with hundreds of dead lads at the end of the year.
So Jay tells him to team up with another guy who builds high end fences. His average fence price is about $14,000. The pool contractor now personally introduces the fencing contractor to everyone he ever built a pool for. He is reimbursed 10% of all the new business the fencing contractor writes from this activity. He offers an upgrade package that includes a nicer fence to all of his past clients and again gains a share of the fencing contractor’s revenue. Finally he sells all of his unconverted leads to the fencing contractor at more than $5 a pop so he lowers his lead costs. And on top of that, every time the fencing contractor builds a fence for someone he introduces the pool contractor and his services for a similar revenue share. Talk about optimizing the use of those leads.
Your business might be more tightly regulated than the building professions, but think about that example for a minute. What similar situation exists in your field that you haven’t yet captured? Send in your ideas so I can share them with the world.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: Business, Construction and Maintenance, Fence, Fencing, General contractor, Los Angeles, Shopping, Swimming pool
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Thursday, April 19th, 2012
- learn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you must have some questions about how to build your specific practice. Please send them in and I will attempt to answer them one at a time in this forum. Your question may trigger someone else to great things in their practice.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: Disability, Education, Educational stage, Learning, Learning disability, Student, Teacher, United States
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Sunday, April 1st, 2012
- Image via Wikipedia
If you don’t take control of your practice, the joke’s on you. Only you won’t get it.
David Zahaluk, MD is a revenue enhancement specialist for doctors and the author of “The Ultimate Practice Building Book.”
Tags: Anonymous, Arts, Author, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jester, LulzSec, Sabu, Twitter
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