![]() Is your practice a business or a self-sustaining hobby? As many small towns do this time of year, those near us hosted their annual Harvest Day Festival. This is when a town shuts down the main street, invites in local vendors, food trucks, and even car enthusiasts. My family decided this kind of event was perfect for our fall Saturday afternoon. We made our way through the classic cars, ate BBQ, and even indulged in fried Oreos (if you like Oreos, you’ll like them fried). Ultimately, we made our way through the vendors selling their wares. We found the ubiquitous network marketers, the local insurance agents, and the town craftspeople. My wife and I stopped at one craft table as their offerings were fairly unique. This woman and her husband took old plates, drilled a hole in the middle of them, and made three-tiered trays for food and snacks. Essentially, if you had just a piece or two of grandma’s old china, you could create something with them that was both usable and practical. Their creations made for a good story for guests as well. I told her, “What a great business.” She responded, “It’s more of a self-sustaining hobby. It gives me something to do with my husband.” I was stunned. Not by her statement as it related to her and her husband. They seemed to love their little business and what it provided for them. No, I was stunned because the description of a “self-sustaining hobby” is the description of many eye care practices (and general businesses to be honest. How do you know if your practice is a business or a self-sustaining hobby? Let’s apply this woman’s definition. One: The business takes in only enough to pay the bills. Two: It’s something they do in partnership together. Three: It offers something unique. Is that your eye care practice? Does it only do enough to pay the bills? Do you run your practice with your spouse or another doc or manager? Do you offer good service? If so, your practice is functioning like a self-sustaining hobby. Hear me, please. Maybe you are making a good salary and are able to employ some folks and offer good service. You do this with thin margins that are just enough to cover your expenses. That is a wonderful option for your practice. But know this: the cost of business never stays static. If you aren’t actively trying to grow your business, its community imprint, and its revenue, your practice is at risk. Every practice has to grow in revenue because expenses all increase. That means the self-sustaining model can’t last for long. Hopefully, you know that and are taking actions to grow in all the areas mentioned above. If you would like help in growing your practice, please let me know. ProSight Success would love to help. We have several resources listed below, specifically designed to help you grow your practice. Additionally, if you would like to listen our podcast that covers this same topic, you can find it anchor.fm/prosightsuccess. Thanks so much, Gordon Gordon Duncan is the CEO/Consultant of ProSight Success. He has worked in the eye care industry for nearly 20 years. He has consulted in the medical field, manufacturing, accounting, and many other disciplines. You can contact him at [email protected] ProSight Success offers a host of resources for your personal growth: Streamlining Planner (the most practical daily planner on the market) Digital ProSight Success System And our best value: the ProSight Success Workbook that includes a digital copy and a free hour of consulting. As always, I will be glad to help you towards your goals in any way I can.
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How The 2018 Election Will Affect Healthcare, The Eye Care Industry, and What to Do About It10/17/2018 ![]() The 2018 elections are weeks away, and while the issues at hand are myriad, the future of healthcare is once again on the ballot. The balance of power in the House and Senate will affect government healthcare, and as a result, the revenue of your practice. As a practice owner, manager, insurance filer, etc., what should we do? Aside from voting, here are a few steps. One: Maximize your out-of-pocket revenue. Invest time in money in your frame sellers and your contact lens sells. Remember, the eye care industry is as much a fashion industry as it is a healthcare industry. Train your staff to sell. Provide premium eyewear. Remind them that retail dress projects confidence in their patients. Maximizing out-of-pocket revenue protects your practice from all manner of insurance changes because it excludes third-parties. Two: Invest in your insurance filer. Without a skilled, confident insurance filer, your revenue will drop, no matter who is in Congress and the Senate. And even the best insurance filer needs training. Seek out conferences and training events so that your filer can be equipped and so they can equip your staff. What’s going to happen to healthcare is anybody’s guess. Maximizing your out-of-pocket revenue and investing in your insurance filer are two steps you can take to protect and grow your practice. We tackle issues like this and lots more on our ProSight Success Podcast. To find out which platforms are available, go to the podcast’s webpage. Gordon Duncan 919-412-8161 If your insurance person needs training, or if you are an insurance expert and would like to branch out into your own business, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our HealthCare Pro Academy – Billing & Coding Mentorship is designed to help you. Know this above all, we salute your hard work. Other resources: Front Desk Academy www.prosightsuccess.com www.prosightworkbook.com Marketing Help ![]() Welcome to the ProSight Success podcast. My name is Gordon Duncan, and I am your host. In this episode, we talk about the essentials of marketing: Do you have a dedicated person to do your marketing? Do they have the skills to market your company effectively? Do you have quantifiable goals? Most small businesses don’t have those three essential elements. Because of that, there is great value in hiring a marketing company that can create campaigns, images, and events that will grow your practice. We have created such a company. I’ve partnered to create CTP Marketing & Consulting, and you can learn more about us at www.ctpmarketplace.com. We combine marketing experience in NASCAR, the medical industry, manufacturing, and a host of other fields. Follow the link to find out more about us, and reach out for a free marketing assessment. Whether you go with a company or not, make sure you have a skilled, dedicated person working towards quantifiable goals to help you grow your company. We would love to help you or be an encouragement. Just email, and we’ll get right back in touch with you. Please let us know if this podcast and the information is helpful. If so, please drop me [email protected] ![]() Where does the eye care industry fit in the personal growth movement? You may be asking yourself, “What is the personal growth movement?” If you don’t know the answer to that question, then it’s time to play catch up because your employees know what it is. In brief, the personal growth movement is a wave of books, podcasts, speakers, and conferences designed to help people be their best selves. Attached to that is the encouragement for people to invest in themselves, get healthy, start businesses, and even become entrepreneurs. Typically, 75% of the top 20 podcasts on iTunes fit into this mold. The effect of this movement is an inspired generation who are trying to be their best selves. Every day they go to school listening to podcasts while they commute, workout, and even clean their houses. Their education is free and immediate. What does any of this matter for the eye care industry? I offer three observations: If you aren’t investing in your people, your staff won’t trust you. Your employees are growing and investing in themselves. Are you investing in them? If you aren’t creating opportunities to invest in them, they will eventually grow to distrust you. They will think your purposes are solely your own. If that happens, your staff will doubt your integrity, and you will effectively lose them in your leadership. If you aren’t investing in yourself, your staff won’t follow you. Does your staff see you investing in yourself? Do they see your personal and professional growth? If not, then your leadership will shade towards hypocrisy. If that is the case, your staff will not follow you wholeheartedly. Eventually, they won’t follow you at all. If you aren’t creating a team, your staff will go look for one somewhere else. Personal growth always leads to greater partnership. Like-minded people want to partner with like-minded people. Unless you purposefully work to create a team among your employees, dissatisfaction will creep in. Ultimately, a non-team like environment will cause your employees to look elsewhere. The personal growth movement is benefiting so many people today. Its impact can’t even be measured yet, but its applications are clear. Invest in your employees. Invest in yourself. Invest in your team. Not doing this is going to negatively impact your practice. If you feel like an outside voice would be helpful to you and your practice, ProSight Success is here to help. Just email me at [email protected] or text me at 919-412-8161 to discuss our personal and company consulting services. Gordon Duncan is the CEO/Consultant of ProSight Success. He has worked in the eye care industry for nearly 20 years. He has consulted in the medical field, manufacturing, accounting, and many other disciplines. You can contact him at [email protected] ProSight Success offers a host of resources for your personal growth: Streamlining Planner (the most practical daily planner on the market) Digital ProSight Success System And our best value: the ProSight Success Workbook that includes a digital copy and a free hour of consulting. As always, I will be glad to help you towards your goals in any way I can. ![]() Do you have a marketing plan? I mean a written down, marketing plan with quantifiable goals with a pathway to get there. In the newest episode of the “ProSight Success” podcast, we ask, “What is your marketing plan?” along with questions like: Who does your social media? What are your quantifiable goals for your marketing? How do you know if you have hit those goals? What is your plan for print media? The questions are endless, but here is the thing. If you don’t have a plan, you don’t have an effective engagement in your community, and your practice is not growing. We hope this episode helps. We would love to help you or be an encouragement. Just email, and we’ll get right back in touch with you. Please let us know if this podcast and the information is helpful. If so, please drop me a note at [email protected] If you want to know more about ProSight Success, we have several resources. www.prosightsuccess.com www.prosightworkbook.com ![]() We’ve published another episode of the ProSight Success podcast. This is a “Focus Friday” episode, and our Focus Friday episodes are always five minutes or less. In this Focus Friday episode, we talk about how to hate your practice. It is easy, and there are only three steps. They are: Not setting goals. Keeping underperforming staff. Not making hard decisions. Listen in and tell us what you think. Thanks for listening. Gordon If you would like, you can contact me at [email protected] If you want to know more about ProSight Success, we have several resources. www.prosightsuccess.com www.prosightworkbook.com |
Gordon DuncanGordon Duncan is an award-winning educator, salesman, teacher, manager, and writer. He has taught in the public school system, lobbied for school's accreditation, managed eye clinics, led sales' teams, and also publishes books on theology, church, and culture. Archives
September 2021
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