It was more than 15 years ago that I first met Chris Barrow, the business coach.
I was recommended to have a conversation with him- a discovery meeting, it was called in those times, I think. To discuss the possibility of paying for coaching and being coached to help to run my business.
The truth at that stage (and some would say at this stage!) is that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
It was definitely true then.
Chris and I met and discussed things; he was a confident, confident guy at that stage.
He arrived in his BMW M3 with his matching luggage, and immediately told me that he had to leave in 30 minutes.
I was fascinated, though, by what he had to say, and he recommended some reading immediately and told me what the terms were for coaching and what I could expect.
I was happy to accept, and in fact, I went back to the two separate partners I had in 2 separate businesses and negotiated with them so that we were in a position to have Chris come to us monthly instead of every 3 months, to accelerate the process.
In 2010 and 2011, I invested £36,000 of my business's money to have Chris for £2000 per month for a day to spend with us.
Chris's saying that resonated through most of this was “The client does the work”.
If I didn't produce an agenda and points for discussion, there was no agenda or points for discussion.
I learned many things through that process:
But the most important thing I learned was that I had to do the work, and doing the work meant writing the plan, and then following the plan, and then amending the plan, and then writing a new plan, and then going again.
At 18 months, I didn't need to have Chris come every month anymore, and so we stopped and moved to a situation where he may come on occasion if it was required.
And what we did from that point on was to write the plan, exercise the plan, review the plan, write a new plan and go again.
That started around 2011/2012, and that's what we do today.
In a few weeks' time, our senior leadership team will meet for a whole day with our non-executive director, and we will present the outline of a plan for the next 3 years, and everyone will debate, discuss, agree and disagree until the plan is accepted.
By the end of that meeting, we will have a plan for the following year, which is year 1 of the next 3-year plan, and next November we will repeat that.
We created a business which is 50 times greater than the business was when I first stepped through the door, using this methodology and this ability to plan.
We've been coached from many different directions by many different people, and that is essential, but the first and most essential part of this is the ability to honestly write your plan (while paying attention to very little else).
And so moving forward from here, we're trying to create something extraordinary and special around the Extreme Business group that Chris Barrow created and the tribe of people that The Campbell Academy has looked after, and anyone who wants to subscribe to our philosophy or our journey moving forward.
This is a journey of ethics and profit and healthcare, and growth and understanding and community and empathy.
It is a little mini republic of wonderful people getting together to learn together, who understand that they have to do the work like we did the work, but they can be helped and directed in the work that they provide.
All of this starts with a plan, and the ability to write a plan, and although that seems like it might be easy, it isn't.
The problem now, compared to 2010, is that you simply do not have the time to write a plan, and if you do have the time, you simply do not have the time or the energy or the inclination to follow it, but you must, and you can, and you will.
And so, in our world, you can do it digitally, or you can do it face-to-face; there are 2 options for writing your plan.
We would suggest you write your plan first before you do anything else, but everyone seems to want to go in the other direction, and the next way is to be coached.
This is to be able to ask questions and to examine what you're doing, to reflect, change course and get better.
Again, there is a digital or a face-to-face option for that in our world.
You must be able to set what your products are, whom you seek to serve, your financial model, your marketing, your HR structures.
You must have insight into the numbers within your business and the ability to have that insight regularly.
Dentistry is now becoming a business in which it's much easier to fail.
If you are interested in talking to us about starting this journey, you can have a discovery call with Chris Barrow, a little bit like the one that I had all those years ago.
You don't have to pay for that; it will take you in another direction, a better direction.
Just click here if you want to have one.