I know – I know.
I spent 3 weeks bemoaning the fact that I was travelling, working in hotel rooms and the occasional stately home – and now, here I am, 4 days at a desk and losing it.
It’s that bloody “to do” list.
I do this when I have 1 day to do 4 days work.
I sit there and look at the list, telling myself “I have 1 day to do 4 days work” – over and over again – but not doing anything about it other than BMW’ing (bitching, moaning and whining for the uninitiated).
I’m in what Dan Sullivan calls “The Gap” – the place between the present and the future where everything is still “to do” – although not, I believe, in Seth Godin’s “The Dip” – the place where you know it’s time to quit.
Having said that, by the time this photograph was taken (at about 6.00pm last night) I was ready to quit the working day and take a couple of hours out to sit by the sea and let the ocean wind blow the cobwebs out.
In the UK financial media there has been coverage this week of a take-over bid for Oasis, one of the larger dental corporates – £79 million on offer.
Both Simon Hocken and I have had emails and calls asking “why aren’t you buying Oasis?”
It appears that our current lack of £79 million in petty cash is of no concern to some investment bankers, who are flush with funds and seeking opportunity.
Does this mean that we need to raise our game – just a little?
I genuinely think that Simon and I could put together a team of people that would make a very good job of expanding that business.
It had me thinking – as I spent an hour yesterday afternoon trying to get some video email software working and searching fruitlessly for the username and password I was allocated 6 months ago and haven’t looked at since.
Am I playing at the right level here?
This Oasis business is really unsettling me.
On a less histrionic note – I am making progress with developing the “on-line” end of The Dental Business School with Kim Black. I have a vision of creating a monthly subscription service for all in UK dentistry, as well as a web-based toolkit shop. More on that later when we have something to show you.
I’m supplying the intellectual property and experience, Kim the back-stage electronic wizardry – we should have something visible in the next 3 months that would give potential clients some alternative entry levels to our products and services – to complement (I hasten to add) the existing DBS services.
Whilst I am tackling that end of things, Simon is driving forward the development of a national Producer Group for UK dental principals, working with our Financial Director designate (a chartered accountant) on the launch plan.
Chatting to Simon last evening- he, too, had finished a rewarding day of coaching calls and emails but agreed that there may be a bigger game to play here.
If somebody could just pop that cheque for £79.5 million in the post – we can get on with building the best corporate in the market…
For now – I’ll be meeting with Team CB this (Friday) morning:

• Review cash flow forecasts
• Review marketing activity
• Review new business pipeline
• Review 101 ideas on how to serve our clients