Do you own your practice, or does your practice own you?
by Chuck Blakeman
Most dental practice owners hope that going into business for themselves will result in a great life. The opposite is too often the case. We bought the Industrial Age lie that if we work hard and make a bucket load of money, that we will somehow be happy and fulfilled. The problem is our assumption, that bigger is better, when in fact bigger is too often just a faster treadmill. We keep trying to grow the practice hoping it will begin to serve us, but just get more trapped. You thought you owned a dental practice, but it owns you. Welcome to the treadmill.
The Seven Stages of Practice Ownership
How do we get off this treadmill? First, we have to know what the treadmill looks like. We have identified seven stages of practice ownership and how it impacts you, the owner, and everyone else who works there. Until you get to at least Stage Five Success, the best you can hope for is a faster treadmill.
Stage One Startup
This is the planning stage everyone dreams about. We envision the future with streams of patients coming through our practice, creating rosy spreadsheet projections. On paper, the business model is unassailable, and all the time we’re thinking about how we’ll be free. The operative emotion is “What Fun!”, and the focus is on Sales. Then we make the decision to take the leap, and everything changes. Welcome to Stage Two.
Stage Two Survival
You know you’re in Stage Two Survival, because more money is going out than coming in. All that buildout, marketing, advertising, and set up to get going will push you right into Survival. The operative emotion here is, “I didn’t think it would be this tough” and the focus is even more on Sales.
Most of the great ideas and a lot of your fondest stories will come from this time in your practice, because Survival is a very strong instinct. Don’t squander Stage Two by focusing on how tough it is. Every day we are faced with opportunities cleverly disguised as obstacles. Look at Stage Two as an opportunity, not an obstacle. Embrace it, learn from it, and then get the heck out of it as fast as you can.
Stage Three Subsistence
”Holy Cow! I broke even last month!” You slump in the chair and stare at the wall with a mixture of disbelief, exhaustion, and growing excitement. This practice might be viable after all! But the euphoria doesn’t last long because you realize that the “break even” is a very fragile time in a business. Some unexpected expenses or a dip in patients can push you right back into Survival. The operative emotion is, “If I stop, the practice stops”, and the focus is on becoming an even better dentist, to deliver more, faster. The treadmill is spinning up.
Stage Four Stability
Your accountant calls you one day and says, “For three straight months now, you’ve paid yourself, your people and all your bills, and you’ve made a profit all three months.” You’ve made it! This is the American dream, a profitable business. But amid the satisfaction there is a growing, gnawing sense of, “Something’s missing”. Then it dawns on you, you finally have money, but no time to do anything with it. You’ve created a trap for yourself because the Industrial Age taught you that if you made money, you would somehow be happy.
But money is not wealth. Money equals riches; time and money equals wealth. I’ve met a lot of rich dentists who have no wealth. Their practice is booming, but there is a quiet voice inside saying, “What about me?” When you strip away all the appearance of external success, all they’ve really managed to do is build a really fast treadmill for themselves.
The euphoria and pride associated with achieving Stage Four Stability can last a few years, in some cases even a decade. But dentists who want a life as well as a practice will eventually realize that money is only one of two resources the practice should give them; the other is time. I call this “coming to the end of myself”. My practice is successful, but effectively, I’m not, because I don’t have the kind of time I should have to enjoy the money I’ve made.
The Big Mindset Shift
When people come to the end of themselves, they realize they need to demand that their practice produce both time and money, not just money. This isn’t just a clever mind game. I’ve personally seen hundreds of business owners lives’ transformed when they started to believe that their businesses should produce both, and then acted on that belief. And thousands more have reported the same results. This isn’t about being lucky or smarter, but about changing your mindset from demanding money from your practice, to demanding it produce both time AND money.
Stage Five and Beyond
I’m guessing only one out of 20 dentists ever get to Stage Five Success, or Stage Six Significance where they have both time and money, and can live the life of Significance that they desire. These people have run right through Survival, past Success, straight to Significance. They have made the Big Mindset Shift and have moved from Income Producer (Stages One through Four), to Business Owner (Stages Five through Seven). They are no longer the only Income Producer, but now have a true business that produces income while they are not there.
You get what you intend, not what you hope for. We all hope we could have time and money to live a life of Significance, but the Random Hope strategy of business (“I’m going to work really hard and I hope something good happens”), is at the worst, the most common “strategy” in business. Most dentists (really, Income Producers in any industry) are committed to this strategy. But by simply changing your intention, and by demanding that the practice produces both time and money, not just money, you can change your reality.
You get to choose whether you stop at Stage Five, Six, or Seven. Whether you want to stop at Stage Five and be one of many producers in your practice, stop at Stage Six Significance and be focused more on leadership, or go all the way to Stage Seven Succession and own a practice that runs largely without you, in any of these three Stages you will be exponentially better off than if you stopped at “The American Dream”, Stage Four.
Make Producing Time a Real Business Goal
We all have revenue goals every year. Add to that a time goal. Every year, demand that your business will take less of your time. Put a goal on it and begin figuring out how to get there. Next time we’ll talk about how to play the Business Owner’s Game, which focuses on two simple questions that can transform your practice, as well as your life.
Be a Business Owner, not just an Income Producer. Don’t stop at Stage Four Stability. Be relentless and break through to Stage Five, Six or Seven, and you’ll get a life while owning a practice you’ll love, too.