What are the most effective strategies for managing a practice during a downturn?

Comunica??o transparente: Mantenha uma comunica??o aberta e transparente com sua equipe e clientes. Compartilhe informa??es relevantes sobre a situa??o atual, medidas tomadas e planos para lidar com a crise. Flexibilidade e adapta??o: Esteja disposto a se adaptar rapidamente às mudan?as. Isso pode envolver a revis?o de processos, a implementa??o de novas tecnologias ou a altera??o de estratégias de negócios para se adequar ao ambiente em constante mudan?a. Prioriza??o de recursos: Identifique as áreas críticas da prática que precisam de aten??o imediata e aloque recursos de forma eficiente para lidar com essas quest?es prioritárias.

You should always be prepared or a downturn by understanding your services, your team and environment. Your business should always be in a state of understanding the environment and by constantly improving or adjusting.

Extend your analysis to incorporate scenario-based risk assessments. Rather than focusing solely on the immediate impact of a downturn, consider various scenarios that could unfold.

"Crise" palavra cunhada por Hipócrates, pai da Medicina, designando o momento crucial em que o paciente se recuperaria ou sucumbiria à doen?a... Assim, "crise" é o desafio que impulsiona Empresas na busca por solu??es criativas e inovadoras, como a: 1) FORD: Em um ambiente de incertezas e poucos consumidores, revolucionou a indústria automobilística com métodos inéditos de produ??o. 2) BOEING: A empresa perdeu seu único cliente após a Segunda Guerra. sobrevivendo fabricando móveis. Mais tarde, retomou sua voca??o, tornando-se uma das maiores empresas do mundo. 3) 3M: Nasceu como uma mineradora, mas o minério se esgotou. Quase falida, a 3M investiu em pesquisa e desenvolvimento e hoje é uma das empresas mais admiradas do mundo. .

Obsessively dissect every line on your P&L, identify what is a need and what is a want or “nice to have”, what expenses would have the least affect on revenue/profit if removed, and systematically reduced fixed overhead costs (think subscriptions or multiple similar softwares, things that could be changed to fortnightly/monthly instead of weekly without affecting day to day operations), alternative suppliers for the same products/services that may be “no frills” options to replace existing services with lots of addons that were never used

Conduct a comprehensive competitive pricing analysis to refine your pricing strategy. Determine how your pricing compares to competitors and adjust accordingly. While offering discounts and incentives can be effective, ensure that they are strategically aligned with your practice's financial objectives and do not compromise your long-term sustainability.

As with my comment about assessing situation - one might be well served in looking at overheads and seeing what might be reviewed without compromising service delivery. We often have outgoings which could be reduced by looking at providers, suppliers and also looking at different systems and considering new software and automation. If we have funding available I think downturns can be a good time to think about spending wisely to prepare for the future - recessions occur in cycles - around 11 years If we survive the downturn we want to be ready for the upturn.

If there was one thing that would help to make healthcare markets more price competitive it would be to allow insurers to sell products across state lines. The ACA has a provision in it to allow such marketing and pricing schemes. The question one must ask 12 years later is why hasn’t it been implemented?

Gerenciamento Financeiro: Avalie suas finan?as de perto e fa?a ajustes conforme necessário. Isso pode incluir a renegocia??o de contratos, a busca de ajuda financeira, a reavalia??o de despesas e a busca de maneiras de aumentar a receita. Manter os custos fixos o mais baixo possível, ajuda a ter uma maior previsibilidade sobre o fluxo de caixa.

Many professional services practices entered the inflationary environment already spending far too much on supplies and services. Index-linked price increase provisions in contracts have compounded that situation. All too often firms do not have a active Contracts Register, so the pro-active optimization of costs and service becomes an impossible task. The benefits of rectifying this situation can be enormous, and savings go straight to the bottom line.

Organize regular feedback sessions with your stakeholders, creating a platform for open dialogue. Encourage them to share insights, concerns, and suggestions.

It can be scary for a team in a downturn. Keeping people informed of plans, ideas,k keeping them involved is essential for team and business strength, staff retention and also using the power of many minds to help steer the ship through tricky waters. Everyone has a skill and knowledge - better than we can be on our own.

Is there a difference between a shareholder and a stakeholder? A shareholder has a financial investment in a company that they expect a ROI. A stakeholder has a vested interest in the delivery of services with an investment that conforms to time, value and the delivery of services. A stakeholder while they may a financial interest in an organization, their financial investment may be very limited.

Comunica??o Transparente: Mantenha uma comunica??o transparente com sua equipe, pacientes e outras partes interessadas. Forne?a informa??es atualizadas sobre a situa??o da prática e as medidas que est?o sendo tomadas para enfrentar a crise.

Organize one or more anonymous staff surveys to collect information on team vibe and perceptions on what needs to change, stress the importance that the survey is truly anonymous with no repercussions, hold group meetings to collectively come up with suggestions for managing costs and revenue improvement ideas

Think about what services you offer and how they might change in a downturn. Although you may spend much of your time helping clients to grow, this might be the time to support clients as they retract. What support can you provide to your clients around reducing the team, outsourcing work and keeping up morale in such a period of change.

Do what you are best at. Don’t spread yourself so thin to chase a buck that quantity wins over quality. Be the best at what you do, and enlist the help and input of other specialists or subcontractors to make the result of your efforts far greater than going it alone.

Diversification can be helpful in a downturn. Income stream variations might be available if we think creatively. Might be a good time to promote your niche. When customers become more discerning about spending their precious finances they will want to seek specialists and see they are getting the best from their money.

Inova??o e Adapta??o: Esteja aberto a inova??es e adapta??es na forma como a prática opera. Isso pode incluir a introdu??o de novas tecnologias, a cria??o de novos servi?os ou a colabora??o com outras práticas para enfrentar desafios comuns.

The shift toward higher priced services may have lower relative costs and increase revenue through fewer clients. Start by performing a treatment profile analysis on your practice as a whole then individual providers to grasp what percentage of different treatment your practice and your individual providers perform, and look for areas that can be increased with minimal effort through packaging offered services to increase overall spend per customer

Downturns are precisely when to double-down on staff. How your teams feel and their perceptions of the situation’s acuity must be a top priority. As leaders we take for granted that our countenance can be thermometers of the organization. If your staff flee, there’s no operations. If their morale drops, care experience will inevitably drop as well. Surviving a downturn can bring the teams closer together. After recovery, staff will remember they were a priority which could improve engagement and retention as well.

In professional services, staff is by far the largest cost on the P&L which is why redundancies are common during a downturn. One alternative strategy that worked really well for law firms during the last recession was to reduce working hours for teams rather than making significant cuts. This meant that there was a feeling of everyone sharing the pain rather than only some of them having severe pain and it also reduced the costs of getting back up to speed once the inevitable recovery commenced.

Investing in staff in terms of team building, cohesion, training in professional skills and knowledge, training in business aspects outside their main role to help them see their part in the bigger picture is important I feel. Encouraging sharing and listening to them can do many things - help them feel heard, valuable and this will also help their creativity flow which lifts mood

Cuidado com a Equipe: Priorize o bem-estar e a seguran?a de sua equipe. Isso pode envolver o fornecimento de suporte emocional, a implementa??o de medidas de seguran?a no local de trabalho e o fornecimento de treinamento adicional conforme necessário. Continue avaliando regularmente a situa??o e ajustando suas estratégias conforme necessário. A agilidade e a capacidade de se adaptar rapidamente s?o fundamentais durante uma crise.

Take any down time to assess your practice mission. Invest in your team. Live your vision. Have a growth mindset and align with others in the same tone. Create an atmosphere and attitude where people want to come work with you.

It is best not to wait for a downturn to happen. If you do, whatever action you take as the downturn bites, will be short-term and possibly panic-driven. It is then harder to recover. While times are good, use some of your profit to plan for a down-turn, create buffers so you can use a slack period to improve your business and protect your people. This builds loyalty and makes your business much more sustainable. Downturns are going to happen - planning for it, creating policies and protocols to handle the situation in a fair and predictable manner will help you strengthen your business.

In a downturn, there is always a temptation to over-adjust; cutting costs and headcount, setting lower pricing expectations through discounting etc. Be mindful of the recovery. You don't want to have cut your marketing expenditure so far as to make attracting new business difficult. Similarly, you don't want to have reduced your fee earner headcount to such an extent you can't deliver increased work levels in an upturn. Be bold when others are fearful (Warren Buffett). Downturns can be good opportunities to capture market share and hire good talent.

Even when not in a downturn, keeping eyes/ears open to the ever changing use of technology could be a future game changer. For example, vet hospitals who had already implemented use of "text to pay", remote checkin for appointments, text messaging for client communication, and similar had a huge advantage when COVID hit and others were scrambling to find contactless ways to continue to function.

Planning is one of the key prerequisites to commence any assignment or project. Planning should be flexible and effective according to the size & nature of business. Quality time should be invested while performing the planning function. There should be a derivative plan in a situation your main plan goes in adversely.

In a downturn, focus on the basics of good financial discipline; prompt time recording, billing and collections. Often these behaviours can become more relaxed in the good times but a renewed focus can give a one-off boost to both cashflow and profitability that can help your practice weather the storm.

What is a downturn in healthcare? The closure of hospitals or practices is an example. These closures have a detrimental effect on the quality of life and perspective of a community, neighborhood. The flip side is that the closures represent market forces at work. The economics must work in order for these practices to operate. Sadly, we see that the impact is on more rural communities vs urban cities.

Preventative medicine like MAWVs and Annual Wellness exams will always fill a spot in the schedule. A lot of times these preventative visits are not addressed because patients only call if they have problems and are scheduled in 15 minute time frames.

A downturn is a great time reflect and analyse. A typical dental practice has a large number of dormant patients. In most cases patients are dormant not because they have gone elsewhere but because life has got in the way. A downturn is a time to attempt to reactivate those patients. Furthermore, a practice can analyse those treatment plans that have not yet been accepted. A typical Australian dental practice has upwards of $500,000 worth of unaccepted/incomplete treatments. Now is good time dig through those and get those patients in for at least an exam and assessment.