In this episode, Dr. Manning and Jeremy Bluvol, CEO of Anagram, discuss the importance of and how to evaluate the vision plans you accept in your office. Not all vision plans are created equal 

Takeaways:

1. Review your P&L to understand your overhead, fixed, and variable expenses. Leverage those numbers to understand how much revenue your practice needs to generate per hour, per day, and/or per patient to generate a profit. 
2. Pull reports from your PM system to understand the average revenue per patient for each plan that you take. What's your current breakdown of insurance utilization? What insurances generate the highest revenue per patient? Are there insurances that don't generate enough revenue per patient to cover your costs of doing business?
3. Make the decision to drop plans that are losing you money. 
4. Get creative with businesses in the area to attract more patients out of network so you can continue to see the patients that you serve while making your business more profitable. 

Books Jeremy is reading:

Breathe by James Nestor

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

In this episode, Dr. Manning joins Susan Mason, Principal at Vital Visions Consulting  to discuss the power of inspiring both patients and team members through a clear vision statement and communication skills. If you're looking for a way to transform your practice and business this year, this is it!

Key Takeaways:

1. Your vision statement should be clear and concise, focusing on why you exist and where you as a business are going. It is aspirational in nature.
2. Communicate your vision to your patients and your team as often as you can.
3. Leverage Aristotle's rhetoric (Logos, Ethos, and Pathos) and the power of story when you share the vision and inspire your team

Other Resources/ What Susan is Reading:

1. Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton
2. Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini

Design Thinking is a powerful tool for solving problems in your practice, whether they range from staffing issues to patient experience challenges. In this episode of the PracticeAdvantage podcast, Mike Feinson, President of Engaged Strategies, joins Dr. Manning to discuss how independent eye care professionals can implement the five steps of design thinking to improve their businesses: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. 

Key Takeaways to Implement This Week

1. Focus on empathizing with your patients and staff around problems they’re facing in their daily lives and in their work lives.
2. Put a whiteboard in your staff common area and encourage them to write their ideas on the board. Consider posting the challenges you want to solve within the practice. Avoiding anonymity builds trust.
3. Ask each of your team member these questions: “What’s on your mind? What’s an opportunity where you think we can do better?” Don't be afraid of silence in waiting for a response.

More Resources: 

Change by Design by Tim Brown

IDEOU

Design Thinking: How It Helped Me Build a Specialty Contact Lens Niche

What Mike is reading:

1. John Adams by David McCullough
2. Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker

On this episode of the PracticeAdvantage we resume our conversation with Dr. Gilan Cockrell, CEO of Williams Group in discussing the power of consulting. In this episode we discuss these key business strategies:

1. Implement the new idea that you’ve been thinking about for awhile. Even if it doesn’t work out, FAIL stands for First Attempt In Learning.
2. Engage your team for their new ideas for how to improve your practice.
3. Find ways to pay your team more. Set goals for financial growth and devise an incentive structure so your team gets to share in the growth the practice obtains. Motivate them to fill your schedule and grow the business. 
4. Take the leap and work with a consultant to help you achieve your practice goals. The ROI on working with a consultant can be upwards of 10X. 

Learn more about the Healthy Eyes Advantage membership and the PracticeAdvantage program, where your first month is free, at www.hea2020.com or by calling 800.959.2020, Option 3. 

Join the very first PracticeAdvantage podcast with Dr. Gilan Cockrell, CEO of Williams Group. In this episode, we discuss the power of independent eye care professionals (IECPs) having a growth mindset. In this episode we discuss these key business strategies:

1. Your practice's success begins with designing the life you want to live. Design Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans provides a unique framework for designing the life you want to live and the life you want your practice to provide.
2. A growth mindset is essential for practice success. To maintain that focus on growth, identifying your specific motivators makes it easier to avoid complacency.
3. Encourage your team to have a growth mindset, by hiring people who know how to problem solve and

Learn more about Healthy Eyes Advantage membership and the PracticeAdvantage program (your first month is FREE!) at www.hea2020.com or by calling 800.959.2020, Option 3.