Here you will find a range of business related articles covering topics like HR challenges through to the importance of having your practice valued regularly.
If you are a dentist who owns a dental practice, you understand the challenges of providing quality dental care while ensuring your practice makes a healthy profit. One effective strategy to achieve both objectives is by encouraging your patients to join a monthly payment dental plan. In our latest blog, we explore the key factors contributing to the successful implementation of dental plans in a practice and shed light on their advantages to dentists, practice teams and patients.
Financial stability
One of the primary advantages of a dental plan is the financial stability it offers your practice. Having a dental plan at your practice can allow you to generate recurring income, enabling you to better manage cash flow, plan for the future, and invest in equipment, technology, and staff training. By securing a consistent income, you can focus more on delivering exceptional dental care and expanding your practice’s services.
Patient retention and loyalty
A dental plan helps foster patient loyalty and strengthens the bond between your practice and your patients. By offering an affordable and convenient payment option, you create a sense of value and commitment that encourages patients to stay with your practice for the long term. Dental plan patients are more likely to maintain regular check-ups, follow treatment plans, and refer their friends and family to your practice, thus boosting your patient base and reputation.
The recent increase in the Bank of England's Base Rate, from 4.25% to 4.5% in May 2023, has had a significant impact on individuals with finance loans. In this article, we will discuss the implications of this rate rise for dentists and their practices, as well as provide guidance on mitigating the effects and maximising savings.
One of the key implications of the rate increase is that monthly repayments for variable rate loans and overdrafts are likely to rise. This is because the interest paid on outstanding balances is determined by the bank's interest rate plus the Bank of England Base Rate. With the Base Rate increase, those with variable rate loans and credit cards will experience higher monthly payments. However, if you have a fixed-rate loan, your repayments will not be affected in the same manner as those with variable-rate products.
The dental practice acquisition market is dynamic and ever-changing. As a dental practice owner, it's crucial to stay informed about the latest trends and insights that can impact your business. In this blog, we will explore some key findings from a recent Mintel report and discuss how they can guide dental practice owners in navigating the evolving market landscape.
Market Trends
The Mintel report highlights an encouraging projection for the dental industry in the UK. It forecasts a steady growth rate over the next few years, with a particular emphasis on private dental care. According to the report, UK dental expenditure is expected to rise by 18% between 2023 and 2027, reaching £11.98 billion, with 63% of this spend attributed to private dentistry. This trend suggests that dental practice owners who offer private services have the potential for increased growth and profitability.
Are you looking to strengthen your team and boost workplace performance?
Dealing with poor productivity from employees can be daunting, but there are certain strategies companies can apply that can help improve overall output.
In this blog, we’ll explore how to effectively navigate through the process of managing poor employee performance with helpful tips backed by research.
Without transparency from insurers, you may miss out on opportunities to secure the best deal. At All Med Pro, we believe in providing diligent and transparent advice to help you make informed decisions. However, we acknowledge that not all insurers prioritise transparency. To help you avoid getting caught out, we have put together a guide that outlines the importance of transparency in insurance pricing and offers tips on how to evaluate an insurer’s transparency practices.
CSR is important to your business because:
Now we are going to look at practical ways to embed CSR, how to ensure its continued focus and also how to use it to increase the profile of the practice.
PART 1: What is it and why is it important?
You would be forgiven for thinking that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the exclusive responsibility of big corporate entities, after all it isn’t the simplest of labels for a concept. The term itself has been around since 1953, but the idea of responsible businesses existed long before then. In the current climate it can make the difference between a practice that is good and one that is great. In this brief article Mark explains to us:
So, what exactly is Corporate Social Responsibility?
As an HR professional, it is ingrained into us that documentation is crucial for a well-run team, department and business. But if HR isn’t your thing or it’s just one of the myriad of hats that you have to wear this may not be your thought.
The purpose of this blog is to give you the information you will need to decide this for yourself.
We will provide you with the ‘need to know’ about HR documentation, from the basics of what needs to be documented to the best practices for creating and maintaining accurate records.
So let’s get started.
Difficult conversations are never easy (the clue is in the word ‘’difficult’) but they can be especially challenging in the workplace.
As HR professionals, we’re tasked with handling these delicate situations on a regular basis, but as a manager, this might not be such a common occurrence.
Whether you’re dealing with an employee conflict or addressing a sensitive issue with a client, it’s important to approach the situation thoughtfully and with care. It’s essential to resist any temptation to avoid the topic or put off having the conversation as difficult situations rarely resolve themselves and any delay will often make the circumstances worse.
To help you navigate these tricky waters, we’ve compiled a list of five vital rules for handling difficult conversations.
Following months of remote work, the future for many organisations looks hybrid: a mix of office and home-based working. Recent research by Microsoft, spanning 30,000 employees around the world, found that 70% of workers want flexible working options to continue and 66% of decision-makers are considering redesigning physical spaces to better accommodate hybrid work. [1]
Despite the benefits of this flexible model of working, free movement between home and office and lax security in home offices can pose significant information security risks.
A survey commissioned by Shred-it shows that although nearly nine in 10 (88 per cent) home workers said they deal with confidential papers, as many as one in four (24 per cent) revealed they do not always follow their workplace policy on destroying confidential information when working from home. [2]
Having worked with over 200 dental practices has enabled me to understand the common habits of the best performing dentists and also common mistakes that hinder efficient growth. This isn’t to say every practice is the same, but despite these differences, there is a common thread throughout.
In this article I am going to look at 11 common factors that hinder growth, all of which I have seen in more than 90% of practices I have worked with. In an uncertain economic climate, getting these aspects of your dental practice right is more critical than ever, and for each point there are some takeaways to help set you on the right track.
For more information view the full article here
If you're looking to fill a dental position in your practice, a recruitment agency can be a huge help in lots of ways from shortening the time it takes to find suitable candidates to providing valuable market insights and pre-screening potential candidates.
Here are 5 of the top reasons why you should consider using a recruitment agency for your next hire:
1. Access to a Large Talent Pool
Agencies typically maintain extensive databases of qualified candidates, making it easy to quickly locate people who have the specific skills and experience that you need for your dental practice and sift out the very best candidates.
It's no secret that job rejection can be tough to swallow. But, instead of dwelling on what could have been, you can use it to improve your skills and make yourself a more desirable candidate for future roles. In fact, job rejection can be a fantastic opportunity for career development. If you approach it in the right way, you can use it to your advantage and turn it into a positive learning experience.
Have you been having thoughts about selling your dental practice?
There are many different reasons why dental practice owners may decide to sell their business - from wanting more family time to no longer wanting the stress of running a dental practice. Whatever your reasons may be, here are some signs that indicate you’re ready to sell your dental practice. If you recognise any of them, it may be time to consider your options.
When you’re looking to buy a dental practice, you must understand the true profitability of the business. This is often an area of confusion or misunderstanding, as many buyers focus solely on the net profit in the accounts.
However, this doesn’t paint a complete picture of the financial health of the practice due to potential inconsistencies in the accounts, such as paying a spouse or personal expenses which won’t be relevant for the new owner. When it comes to funding, the numbers are, of course, key to the success of any application for lending.
So what should you be looking for? And what are the lender's considerations when assessing the profitability of the business? In this blog post, we’ll discuss EBIDTA and why it’s a more reliable measure of profitability for dental practice buyers.
It’s especially hard if you are a small company or start-up to find and retain talented workers, and that is particularly true as compared with huge players. Competition is high, budgets are low, and your brand is not as well-known.
In this list, it does not include any provisions for bonuses and better compensation. Nor does it have swimming pools, slides, or other gimmicks.
Instead, this is about showing who your truly are as a business, and how you can offer even more, in comparison to a bigger cooperation.
For more information view the full article here
All too often first-time buyers choose not to proceed with a great acquisition opportunity because they have been thinking about the practice price only.
When the team at MediEstates are talking with Dentists that are starting to consider buying their own dental practice we often explain to them that it is of paramount importance to think ahead.
It’s safe to assume that your dental career will cover a span of 15 years minimum, and for each of those years you will generate a set amount of income. With a simple sum you can calculate the total that you are capable of earning during the 15-year period. Got that figure calculated in your head? Ok, keep that in mind.
Now think ahead to when you purchase your own dental practice, you will be acquiring the assets i.e., the goodwill of the business, the equipment, the fixtures, and fittings etc. but you will also be acquiring the historical income streams which is just as, if not more important. If you should have to pay an additional £20,000 to £40,000 more than what you feel a practice is worth, then considering the calculation you have just made this additional amount is meaningless over your career especially if the practice in question has a strong income history and a healthy profit margin.
For more information view the full article here
68% of dental professionals surveyed felt that their stress and anxiety levels had increased since the pandemic.(1)
Running a new or existing business is always exciting, especially when it’s something you feel passionate about like dentistry.
However, there is a lot to consider including:
And the list goes on. This doesn’t take into consideration challenges around future proofing, the economy, regulations, compliance and you and your teams mental health.
For more information view the full article here
When it comes to the workplace, motivated employees are crucial. They are the lifeblood of any organisation, and when they are satisfied and inspired, it shows in their performance.
Research has proven that happy, motivated employees are more productive, creative and engaged, and guess what, they are much less likely to leave their jobs!
So, What Are The Benefits Of Motivated Employees?
Here are just a few:
Increased Productivity
When employees are truly motivated, they tend to be more productive, and this will be highly visible in their work output.
If you have employees who feel appreciated for the work they create, they will always aspire to create the highest-quality work they can, and more importantly, feel the motivation to do so.
For more information view the full article here
Henry Schein Business Solutions specialises in finding partner companies which can help dentists run their practices efficiently and smoothly, whilst they concentrate on providing excellent patient care.
Property compliance and abiding by health and safety regulations are two aspects of dental practice management that can be a real burden for busy owners and managers. There’s a great deal to stay on top of, including keeping important documents up-to-date and stored securely, carrying out mandatory risk assessments, ensuring staff are adequately trained and making sure that the practice is adopting systems and processes in line with changing laws and regulations.
What is business performance management?
If you’re asking that question then this is the article for you.
As a business owner it isn’t just you against the ever changing and evolving business world.
Ideally you’ll have the right managers and team leaders running the departments within your business. These will be expertly filled with the most effective teams, made up of driven individuals.
That is ultimately what your business is when you break it down. Business performance management (BPM) is a way of you and your management team looking at how the teams and individuals within those teams are all working with you together to achieve one common goal.
Driving the business forwards to success.
Your managers will be assessing their teams and individuals within their teams to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
A deep dive into your business will most probably expose those individuals, teams or even processes which are not currently fit for purpose, thus restricting you from performing as well as you could.
By working closely with your HR department (or person) you’ll find that they are the key to helping you drive a consistent, transparent and fair approach to improving the culture of the business through high-quality, professional advice and guidance.
Maja Thompson, Commercial Director/General Manager at MediHoldings, a Henry Schein company, explains how a helping hand can aid the growth and prosperity of dental practices
Operational efficiency has always been a high priority for dentists wanting to optimise the financial stability of their practices. Now, as the pressure on practices to deliver increased activity levels, despite ongoing restrictions, grows, so too does the need for experienced and knowledgeable specialists to assist with all manner of administrative functions.
The force for change that has taken place in the last 12 months has, in some measure, provided a renewed focus for business owners, who are now recognising the need to access support and guidance which will help them emerge from this period, stronger than ever before.
Why have a dental practice valued every year?
Following on from the top 10 reasons to value your dental practice, it would be good to explain how the process works and what the result is.
Every practice owner should have their dental practice valued yearly, as this will help them stay in tune with the market and take action to achieve a desired outcome. If you start with this process early in your ownership tenure, you will feel more in charge of the end result then leaving it to the last few years. To put this into context, if each year during your ownership you improve the profit by 10%, in 20 years your profit would have grown by 215%.
For more information view the full article here
The increased exposure to principal dentists when it comes to vicarious liability highlights the need to consider more than just their own indemnity when it comes to protecting themselves in a world of changing litigation risks.
This week news broke that a principal dentist, Dr Croad, who had retired from clinical practise over 20 years ago was found to be liable for compensation awards and claimants’ legal costs despite having sold his practice 7 years prior.
The alleged negligence pertained to treatment provided by two self-employed associates working in his practice before he sold it. Unbelievably, Dr Croad did not have any indemnity in place which would cover defence costs or compensation following the activities of his associates at the practice. This meant he had no choice other than to fund this case out of his own pocket to the tune of around £100k to compensate the patient.
Employee rights in the workplace are an essential part of fair and legal treatment of the workforce. The Employment Rights Act came into force in 1996 and covers everything from protection of wages and zero hours workers to Sunday working and redundancy payments.
In our blog, we’re going to inform you of the 10 employee rights you need to know about, whether you’re an employee or an employer.
But first, let’s look at the types of employment and what rights they come with.
What are the types of employment status?
Employment status dictates the rights a person has when at work, and what responsibilities their employer has towards them. It is a legal status and therefore very important to know what classification you or your workforce fall under.
There are 3 main types of employment status:
These three are often not used correctly and the difference is not always known. Hopefully by the end of this article you will know the difference, what status you have, and the rights associated to that!
Henry Schein UK Holdings Limited t/a Henry Schein Dental is a limited company registered in England and Wales under registration number 11584480 and VAT registration number 573778979. Its registered office is Medcare House, Centurion Close, Gillingham Business Park, Gillingham, Kent, ME8 0SB.
