One of the biggest challenges of owning a dental practice is keeping your revenue and cash flow even month-over-month. There are normal yearly fluctuations in business, yet your bills stay the same every month regardless of how much you bring in. This can be very challenging to manage! Often this means that the dentist business owner can’t take as much money home for personal expenses during those months.
For General Dentists summer tends to be sluggish, as patients go on vacation and don’t want to schedule or they cancel appointments last minute. In contrast, December is usually the busiest month as patients try to fit in dental work to maximize their benefits.
For Orthodontists summer is the boom time as many teens want to get their orthodontics started over the school vacation. The months of May and September can be slower as the school year starts and ends.
Keep reading to find out how to get your business steadier month-over-month and reduce your cash flow headaches!
Know Your Business Fluctuations
The 1st step in evening out your business is to gain a deep understanding of your business trends. Every business is slightly different, and yours may have ups and downs that are unique to your demographics or geography.
Take a close look at your last 5 years of month-over-month numbers. Review key metrics including revenue, cash flow and new patients. It might be helpful to do a simple spreadsheet so you can graph monthly numbers and evaluate trends.
When are your down months? What are the factors behind your business slowing down? Are your slow months consistent each year, or do they change? When are your busiest months? It’s critical to understand your business so you can plan to keep it as consistent as possible.
Planning for Your Slow Months
One of the best ways to even out your monthly business is to strategically plan promotions around your slower months to drive traffic into your office. Work with your marketing vendor to ensure that you get the word out to patients about promotions.
You may consider offering a new patient special, running an Invisalign day promotion, or of giving free whitening with a big procedure like dental implants. Often dentists and orthodontists don’t want to discount services, so adding an extra value product or service as an incentive is an effective alternative.
Another idea is to strategically plan some of your biggest procedures during your slowest months. If you have a patient who needs several veneers or implants, schedule them during your slow months to give yourself a boost in production.
Use Your Down Time Wisely
After you’ve identified your business trends and know when you have the most open time in your dental practice schedule, you can also plan to use your slower time as wisely as possible. Planning for these down times – instead of pretending they don’t exist or wasting time worrying – can allow you to still be productive.
Make a list of all the things you’ve wanted to catch up on in your dental practice, and plan to complete these tasks during your slow months. Delegate tasks to your team members to keep them productive and working when there are less patients in the office. It may also be a good time to encourage team members to take vacation, or plan a vacation yourself.
Many dentists and orthodontists complain that they don’t have time to do any practice marketing because they’re too busy. Plan to spend time on your practice marketing efforts during your slow months to maximize this time.
Stay Productive in Your Slow Months
Every business has natural ebbs and flows. As a dental practice owner, it can be challenging to have fluctuating cash flow and revenue month-over-month when your expenses stay the same. Learn about your business, and plan for those times. Run promotions during your slow months so you can generate more production. And use your time productively on other tasks such as marketing for your dental practice.
At ClearEdge, we can help you with your overall dental practice business management, and create a robust strategy for you to even out your business trends. Contact us today to find out more!