Your Business Goals

Your Business Goals

Establishing concrete goals at the outset will help provide your dentistry business with both focus and direction. If your dental school had taught you what you need to know about business, you would already know how to set these intentions. A business management consultant can help you crystallize your vague ideas of dental success into a workable plan. You can prepare for your consultation by thinking (and writing down) goals you are interested in pursuing. Your consultant can guide you through the following steps as work to achieve those goals.

1. Set a Few Main Goals – Goal-setting can be a powerful method of enhancing the success of your dentistry business. Yet, it is important not to get too carried away with setting dozens of small goals. Focus on the most important things you want to achieve. When you have too many goals, you not only have a hard time keeping track of them all; you might not even remember that you have set them. Many dentists find that setting a maximum of five main goals is most effective.
2. Set Attainable Goals – It is important to stay in an abundance mentality when you set the goals for your dentistry business. On the other hand, if you set goals that you can never attain, you are setting yourself up for failure. The problem is that as a new dentist, you probably do not know exactly what is possible. So take the time to do research to find out what others are doing in your career field to get an idea of what you can do.
3. Be Specific – Instead of saying “I want to make a good income from my practice,” set a goal to make a specific amount. Rather than saying you want to serve the community, think of a concrete goal you can track and achieve, such as acquiring a certain number of patients to your dental clinic.
4. Make a Commitment – Once you decide on the goals you want to pursue, stick with the plan. Do not second-guess your decision until you reevaluate your goals next year.
5. Create a Daily Reminder of Your Goals – You can use many different methods to remind yourself of your goals. You can use your digital calendar to set up notifications that come up each morning when you open your computer. If you are a more visually-oriented person, you can make a poster for yourself to put in your home office or bedroom. Or, you can simply write down the goal and look at it each night when you go to bed and each morning before you start your day.
6. Tell Others about Your Goals – Telling others what you plan to do is a good way of gaining support from your friends and family. One word of caution, though: refrain from telling your patients how much money you intend to make. They are likely to take this as a sign that you care more about their money than you do about their oral health. You lose their trust along with their business.
7. Set a Time Frame – How long do you think it should take you to accomplish each goal? Savvy dentists choose a time frame for their goals that is reasonable based on their research. Remember to make it doable so you can enjoy the victory of what you have defined as business success.
8. Plan a Reward – You have given yourself a target to shoot for; now it is time to think about the rewards and benefits you will have when the arrow has met its mark. These can be rewards you give yourself, such as a lavish vacation or the car of your dreams. Or, they can be rewards that will come naturally as you achieve business success, such as self-respect or more time to enjoy being with friends and family.