It's been some time since I've been writing this blog for a Sunday evening on one of my favourite subjects (the business of dentistry).
Tonight, though, I want to talk about the most important thing that I ever discovered about running a business and the approach to the business of dentistry.
What I'm really keen to go into in detail here is the plan.
What I would like to promote people to do moving forward, and what has made the biggest difference to my business life, is asking yourself the question, “Do I have a plan?”
That sounds like the most ridiculous and unlikely thing to talk about because it's obvious that you need to have a plan, and it's obvious that you need to execute your plan. The research, which is quite credible from Harvard Business Review and other places, shows that some 90% of global businesses either don't have a plan or don't execute their plan, and therefore, in order to be in the top 10% of all businesses, all you would have to do is execute a plan.
There must be a barrier to this, and the barrier is that it is more complicated than you think, but it doesn't have to be as complicated as you might imagine.
And so, this centres around the whole of the decision to purchase and merge Chris Barrow's Extreme Business Universe and The Campbell Academy Business Education Universe to create something bigger and better, more adaptive and more responsive and more resilient to the community that it is set to serve.
To be 100% clear, that community is independent dental practices in the United Kingdom.
In independent dental practices in the United Kingdom, there are approximately 8000 practices, and if only 10% of those practises execute a plan, it means that there are 7200 or more practices that could do with some assistance in setting and executing their plan.
Why would you ever want to improve at this?
It may be that you want to get bigger, or it may be that you want to get better, and it may be in the long term that you want to do both (I would argue you can't do both at once).
If you don't want to get bigger and you don't want to get better, you're consigning yourself to what is effectively a slow death and then trying to get out of your business as easily and as quickly and as cleanly as possible at the other end, not caring about anybody else, but just jumping off the plane and hoping that your parachute will open.
There is no doubt that there is a significant number of people who will adopt that approach, but for those who don't, this is why I suggest it might be the antidote.
Firstly, develop your plan, the way that we would recommend that you do that (and you don't have to do it with us, but it is helpful to do it us) is either to take the six-week digital dental entrepreneurial programme, which is online and, in your house, and after work and at the weekends, but it stops you having to close your practice and come for a week.
This is a tough course, and people will complain that there is too much work to do, but if you do this course, you decided that you wanted to do it and continue to work at the same time, so for a short period, you're effectively taking two jobs, and that is the point.
The second is easier, at least on your mind; it's 5 days of Dental Entrepreneurial Bootcamp, either in Nottingham or in Scotland (more venues to come).
This is a more in-depth experience in the 6-week course, and you build lasting friendships for the rest of your life. It's full on for 5 days, but at the end of the 5 days (like the end of the Digital Dental Entrepreneurial Course), you'll emerge with a plan for the next 3 years to be able to execute moving forward to make your business better and potentially to make your business bigger.
What you will develop is a strategy, but you won't develop our strategy; you will develop your strategy. In doing that, you will be able to come away with clarity and the insights that you can pass to your team about the direction you're travelling in and where you want to get to.
This is one of the most important things that is possible to do in developing your business moving forwards, because it is clear and it is known, and it is proven in research that if you have a culture and a direction, then income for your employees becomes less important as long as it sits within the usual guard rails.
Imagine that.
Imagine you developed a plan for your business that you are happy with and excited about, transmitted that to your team, and at least most of your team bought into this process and then understood that they were invested in the process moving forward like you; they worked harder and happier and better, and everyone went in the same direction to achieve the goals.
If you watch this space moving forward for everything that's coming in Campbell Academy Business Education, you'll understand that these two courses form the basis of plan setting and then other products from the basis of coaching through the plan for 3 years to get you to a better place.
At that point, you stop and get out, or you go again, another 3-year plan, some more coaching, and an even better place.
When I came into what The Campbell Clinic previously was in 2008, it turned over £248,000 in a year.
This year, The Campbell Clinic Group is likely to turn over somewhere near £8 million, eighteen years later.
This is how you grow a business; you don't grow that big in one year (unless you're extremely lucky or unfortunate and you blow apart). You build a plan, and you set a path, and then you walk the path every single day.
The Digital Dental Entrepreneurial Programme starts here.
The Dental Entrepreneurial courses are here.
See you soon.
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