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I've chosen to work 7 of the last 7 days and it will be 12/12 days by the time we get to Friday evening.
Last week was an intense one of client meetings, either on Zoom or face to face.
Last Thursday I trialled for the first time a new service for my clients:
The Extreme Focus Day©
We rented a room at Fora, London's newest and brightest hot-desking location - and I had a private Boardroom for the day, in which I was able to meet face to face with clients for a one-hour laser-coaching session. Every meeting recorded and summarised on Plaud, of course.
As a result, I've had a lot of feedback in the last week.
Here's what my clients are telling me (and I wonder if this is you as well?).
Recruitment (clinical and non-clinical) still a very challenging environment;
Few responses to clinical advertising and, conversely, lots of responses to non-clinical advertising;
People applying for jobs, agreeing to start and then changing their minds before the first day;
People leaving after their first week because the job wasn't what they expected;
Dentists refusing to deliver NHS dentistry - "I only want to work privately."
Retention of existing team members requires attention;
Headhunting is back on the scene - managers and clinicians are being poached;
Rachel Reeves has set a high bar for wage reviews by increasing National Living Wage by 6.70%;
People are signing off sick with physical or mental complaints.
Marketing is getting tougher;
Back to the Government again, people are worried about the future economic landscape and are cautious;
Which means "white space" in some clinician's diaries;
And treatment plan conversion rates slowing down.
Financial modelling is more important than ever;
With a 40%+ increase in payroll costs in the last 2.5 years;
With a similar increase in operating costs;
With reluctance to raise prices, given the above comments about the economy;
What's happening is that the MVP (Minimum Viable Production) from self-employed clinicians is rising rapidly, if you want to maintain your Profit Margin;
Profits are down, cash flow is tight.
I completely understand that this is a list of reasons why the bottle seems half empty (and that there are always reasons why it's half full) but simply having a "positive mental attitude" isn't going to get us through the challenges I've listed.
We are all about to take a well-earned break and, perhaps, have some time to reflect on our "wins" and our challenges in 2024, think about what we have learned from that and then focus forward on the New Year.
Here's what I'm seeing:
It is hugely important that you enter 2025 feeling confident that
Your financial modelling and monitoring is super-accurate;
Your internal, inbound and external marketing systems are in full flow;
Your patient experience is generating raving fans, who are saying "yes" to treatment;
Your team are working in a motivating environment;
Your clinicians are enjoying their work and are hitting agreed targets;
You feel supported by excellent managers;
You have a strategy and a plan of action for the next 3 to 5 years;
From the guy who just worked 7/7 days, you are maintaining an overall balance;
You are part of a supportive community of like-minded business owners - perhaps most importantly, so that you can remind yourself on the tougher days that it's not just you.
As a wise man once said to me, "Chris, whenever anyone asks you how you are at work, always reply "business is good, but there's always room for more."
That advice came a long time ago - perhaps a modern-day version would be "business is tough, but there's always room for improvement."
My next 5 days and my 2025 will be about making absolutely sure that my clients never feel alone, always feel supported, recognise that the challenges they face are shared - and that if we keep on keeping on, things will only get better.
Here goes then - the final full week - game on.