There is a dental practice in Malaysia; it's quite small and quite new. The woman who founded and owns it is a new friend of mine. We have met twice now, once in Vietnam and again in Madrid on Friday at Straumann events.
She is interested in learning about The Business of Dentistry and is very keen to improve and grow her business in the best way.
My advice (which she is totally on board with) is to work around the clock.
That is my advice to any business of any size: do the homework and see the results.
Not the actual clock (although that may also be required at the early stages), but round the business clock.
We invented our business clock some years ago, not for you but for me. It was a way of structuring my work and the work of our team in a systematic way to become better and even bigger.
It works, mostly because it keeps us honest.
It comprises a circular image (nearly) with discs or plates inserted to represent parts of the business to work on. See the image above.
In the centre is the question “whom do we seek to serve?”
This is super, super important because if you can’t define that, you can’t decide which products to provide.
“If you try to look after everyone, you will look after no one”
Once you decide who you are for, you can decide what to sell, your product mix. There is no point providing braces to pensioners.
Then you can define the vision, the why. Do this well and do it once. This really should not change.
Your company values come from here.
Now build a financial model, decide how to market and sell, then build a team and decide how to lead that team.
Roll all of this up into a 3-year plan, then break it into tasks and go.
I would always suggest you have good advice throughout the project that you can count on and rely on.
Once you finish this… start again. Go round the clock more deeply, then again and again and again, then retire or die.
There you are; there is your homework for the rest of your life.
If you need any help with this, let us know. Free resources around all of this are here.
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