I recently recorded a podcast titled “5 Things Successful Practice Owners Do Differently.” I won’t go into all five here, but for this article I will focus on one of the key differentiators – Execution.
Most practice owners have given thought to business strategies and how these strategies can help their practice grow. Perhaps these owners have observed other practices that have implemented these strategies. They have talked with colleagues, followed social media commentary, met with vendors, and signed up for practice management lectures focused on ideas to grow their practice. They have weighed the risks and considered the rewards. They have spent long hours contemplating if these strategies will have a positive ROI in their practice. The key word here is contemplation.
Studies have found that one of the top challenges for large organizations is executing on strategies, so it may come as no surprise to hear that many optometric practices with far fewer resources struggle in this area as well. Strategies are just ideas bouncing around in your head that add little to no value to your practice until you decide to execute on these ideas.
Each situation is different and I don’t want to overgeneralize this, but a clear trend I’ve observed that differentiates high-performing practices from low-performing practices is the practice owner’s willingness to move past contemplation and take action on their ideas. They execute! These ODs are not necessarily better at business. Most of us come out of optometry school with very little business training. While we sometimes look at successful business owners and ponder, “How did they do it?”, sometimes it’s as simple as this: While their competition was contemplating, they were doing.
I’m not dismissing the value of planning, but at some point you have to take action if you want to turn ideas into results. Is change risky? Sure, it can be. However; a lot of practices make the decision to play it safe by not taking risks, but playing it safe is the riskiest thing you can do if it prevents you from reaching your goals.
What are you going to DO to grow your practice? Let us know how we can help.
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