Growth, Plateau and Decline
There's only one stage to be in. Here's how to make it happen.
As with any business, your dental practice is always in 1 of 3 stages of business: Growth, Plateau or Decline. Obviously there is a preferred stage to be in here, but did you know it’s actually harder than you think to steadily stay in the growth stage?
Every year, your costs of doing business are going to increase by some (hopefully single digit) percentage. Supplies gradually increase in cost over time, your team cost will surely rise, and inflation is seemingly inevitable. All that means is that if you aren’t growing by a double-digit percentage, meaning 10% or more year over year growth, then you are actually in plateau, heading for decline.
Let’s look at it as a sigmoid curve, also known as an S-Curve.
In the early stages of your practice, especially if it was a startup, you’re living in this part of the curve (above.) You’re investing heavily on your team and getting everything ready to start generating revenue and then profit, but you aren’t quite yet.
Eventually you’re going to enter the growth stage. This is both the best and most dangerous stage to be in. You see, growth is fragile, mainly due to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset. If you as the owner don’t reinvest in your business, you are naturally destined to decline, and it may show up faster than you think.
So what do you do?
Reset the curve, of course. By constantly reinvesting in marketing, training and innovation, you can place your practice on a new growth cycle, and with the right planning you can keep it there.
Again, there are 3 stages of any business cycle. If you’re serious about running a healthy practice, there’s really only 1 stage for you. Constant Growth.
For more information on how to keep your practice in the growth stage, send us an email. info@profi2020.com
