Storm Warning

Yesterday, my final Practice Plan regional workshop of the year, amidst the very premature Christmas decorations and music of the Orida Hotel in Maidstone.

My thanks to Sarah Barnard for bringing together a small but committed audience of dental folks who wanted to know more about where the money comes from and goes to in the current dental landscape.

I had to stop myself part way through and apologise for the doom and gloom of higher wages for team members and fees for self-employed clinicians, increased variable and fixed operating costs and lower profit margins, as well as the challenge of communicating necessarily stiff price rises to patients - but sometimes the Chris Barrow panto has to pause, take into account the reality, and issue words of warning.

It's tough to maintain profitability at the moment, and my presentation was laced with tips on what to do to halt and reverse the diminishing cash flow that I'm hearing about from so many clients and others.

I was unexpectedly reminded by our hotel yesterday, that you have 53 days to get this right.

There's nothing to be gained by sticking your head in the sand and thinking that just working your tripe out from now to the year end to "see what happens" is going to make things better.

The prudent reader, having digested this post, will call together those team members and professional advisors necessary to review and overhaul their finances NOW.

You've heard a lot of storm warnings in the last few weeks - well here's another one from me - batten the hatches folks - Storm Profit Margin is upon us - stay focused, don't maintain the status quo unless it's absolutely necessary, and make sure that you have the supplies, reserves and a map available to navigate the next few months.

Let me know if you need a guide.