What about financial jail cells? How many of us today are finding ourselves enslaved in the MONEY TRAP? We feel frozen and alone as if there is no way out. Time moves so slowly. We count each day while interest rates and overhead steal our future.

As I stared at the cell, it crossed my mind that everyone should see this place. Maybe everyone should have to stay in the cell for a few minutes just to appreciate their freedom. What an eye-opening experience that would be for all of us as we consider our choices going forward.

Unlike the physical jail cell, many of us have already experienced a financial jail cell. Thankfully, we do not have to spend our future there. We do not have to be run by our dental practices or by our debt…or by expensive dental consultants. We can get control of our time and money, clear our debt, DOUBLE OUR NET PROFIT, and have peace of mind.

You can experience financial freedom. You don’t have to live life in a jail cell!

Grant Magers

Practice Analyst – The Schuster Center

In 99% of these conversations the standard answer is, “I have grown my practice production from $750,000 to $1,000,000 but I am still taking home $225,000.” If that isn’t frustrating enough, they go on to explain that in order to get production to $1,000,000 they are working much harder. So the bottom line is they are working harder, have less time and energy, for the same money. This certainly is not the business model they set out to achieve.

Don’t misunderstand me, in business we have to produce in order to grow. However, once your time and energy becomes overly focused on production, it becomes easy to lose control of other aspects of the business. How much time and energy is left for developing organization? How much time and energy is left for building trusting relationships with the patients? How much time and energy is left for building relationships with our families? It is easy to become focused on the production number. After all it is the ego number. It feels good to say we produced 1.5 million in 2008. It feels good to say we increased production 20% from the previous year. But what good is that moment of feeling good if we are not sleeping well at night.

The real number to look at is net profit. Practice profitability is what generates growth. Profitability is what generates wealth. If dentist “A” produced $700,000 and had a 52% overhead, he/she would be $116,000 more profitable than dentist “B” who produced $1,000,000 and had a 78% overhead. Who do think feels better about their effort at the end of the day? Who would have more time and more energy? Net Profit is the wealth number. Net Profit is the growth number. Focus on increasing net profit. You will sleep much better at night.

Contact me about quality dental practice management at www.schustercenter.com or 1-800-288-9393. Or email me at grant@cfpd.com.