Knowing your numbers might not be sexy – but it is profitable

I invested some time over the weekend in finalising the content of our second Extreme Business 2018 workshop, taking place in London on 16th April and Manchester on 30th April.

The title is “The Money Sessions” and we will be taking a detailed look at how the money flows through a dental business, identifying areas of common leakage and how to ethically maximise profits.

I’ll be showing the delegates an example Profit & Loss statement and lifting the lid on how you can use some simple Excel spreadsheets to identify:

1. Key Performance Indicators (that show how you are comparing to industry benchmarks);

2. The productivity and profitability of individual fee-earners;

3. The importance of knowing Operating Cost Per Surgery Per Day;

4. How to create a budget and cash flow forecast and use that as a diagnostic tool throughout your trading year;

5. How to measure the Return on Investment from your marketing activity;

6. How to measure the new patient conversion rate of your TCO and/or clinicians.

After all these years, it still surprises me how many owners don’t pay enough attention to the numbers, thus creating a “leaky ship” – profit seldom flows out of gaping holes in your business but frequently seeps through the cracks.

I have to admit to getting quite geeky about the numbers.

Even though a day on marketing seems more entertaining, there’s nothing I like better then to get my head into a good spreadsheet and see the look on a client’s face when we identify the causes of poor cash flow.

I meet many people who tell me that “I can’t understand it – I’m working as hard as I ever have and yet don’t seem to have enough cash to get by.”

Knowing your numbers is the solution – in one day I can often identify “leaks” that can cover my fees for a year.

The Money Sessions might not be the sexiest day at a workshop but it has the possibility to be the most profitable.