I seem to send clients and delegates slightly loopy when I talk about how often dental teams should congregate and converse. So let me begin by repeating my suggested schedule of meetings: Daily – the 20-minute morning huddle Weekly – a 60-minute conversation (during billable hours) to review best bits of the last week. What
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Michael Gerber defined different levels of business ownership over 20 years ago in The E-Myth Revisited: Technicians – tend to focus their energy on the skill they originally learned – the dentist who wants to do dentistry at the highest level Managers – want to combine the technical work with responsibility for people and systems
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You can’t do it all by yourself. At £600,000 in sales you need a full-time practice manager. You handle: Overall business strategy Dentistry Your practice manager handles: Finance Marketing The patient experience Treatment co-ordination and sales Operational issues Teamwork At £1.2 million in sales you need a full-time business manager and a full-time clinic manager.
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Matter by Iain M. BanksMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I love to dip into a Culture novel every now and then. A galaxy-wide imagination, 40 separate species of alien, the astonishing Shellworld and a story-line that grips to the end. Action, humour, drama. Pure escapism of the very best kind. View all my reviews

It is 20 years since I first walked through the door of a dental practice and asked “how can I help?” I’m still doing the same this year. I’ll be doing it until I drop. The problems haven’t changed very much – same stuff, different year. Dentistry has become a more complex profession AND business but
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Back in the 80’s…. Financial management in dental practice often consisted of a phone call to the bank on a Friday afternoon to check the balance. Accounts arrived once a year, months after the year end, with a narrative from your accountant to prepare you for a forthcoming tax bill. The Dental Payments Board sent
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So last week I pitched up for the 08:30 daily huddle at The Smile Spa (as per normal) and said my “hello’s” to the team. As I listened to the conversation, it dawned on me that they had made some changes to the questions asked around the room. With their permission and with huge thanks
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During a recent practice visit I produced a bag full of 100 £1.00 coins – much to the surprise and curiosity of the team. Before the meeting I had analysed the existing management accounts of the practice, to see exactly what was being spent in every key area of the business, including lab, materials, associates
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The 60’s American sales trainer, Joe Gandolfo, penned the following: Successful business is 98% understanding people, 2% product knowledge. You need 100% of the 2% but its the 98% that makes the difference So nothing has changed. I’ve enjoyed my first week back at work so much – meeting with lovely people who are building
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We live our lives “connected” to the web (if not fully connected to each other as a consequence). We PULL data to keep us informed on things we need to know and to entertain ourselves: train times football fixtures ferry and airline schedules tube maps the news travel locations and directions the weather traffic conditions
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