CHECKLIST: CREATE A PLAN FOR SUSTAINED GROWTH

STRATEGY SESSION:
     Perform a SWOT analysis ¹
     Prioritize goals and objectives ²

HUMAN RESOURCES:
     Communicate goals to staff ³

STAFF TRAINING:
     Hold frequent training sessions ⁴

FINANCE:
     Track progress using metrics ⁵

Several factors impact the market value of a practice; a strong and consistent track record of growth is a major one. Unfortunately, many practices pre-maturely plateau in their growth cycle. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but as CEO of your practice, the onus is on you to execute strategies that continuously add value to the business.

1 PERFORM A SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Make a list of the areas where your practice operates from strength. Some examples are customer service, specialized services or advanced technology. Know your core strengths,and use those to differentiate your practice from competitors.

Likewise, address the limitations (weaknesses) that interfere with your ability to add value to the practice. Opportunities and threats must be identified to help you determine how and where to invest your efforts. Optometry is constantly facing threats that challenge the growth of a practice. As CEO, you have to decide whether to attack these threats or navigate around them.

2 PRIORITIZE OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

Creating a culture of continuous growth requires a certain comfort level with change. Most optometry practices are small businesses with limited people and resources. Trying to introduce too much change at once could backfire, leading to a stressful work environment.

As you create a list of growth strategies, prioritize this list, and focus on one or two items at a time.

3 COMMUNICATE GOALS TO STAFF

Clarity around expectations is a critical component of leadership in any organization. Meet regularly with your employees, both as a team and individually, to keep them focused on the goals of the practice and their individual roles and your expectations. Without keeping a spotlight on new objectives, staff may resort back to the “old way” of doing things.

4 HOLD FREQUENT TRAINING SESSIONS

A business continually focused on increasing value will require the staff to adapt to new ways of doing things. Make a point to continually train employees to become competent at their new responsibilities. A culture of, “That’s how we’ve always done it” is not aligned with a culture of continuous change, which adds value to the practice.

5 TRACK PROGRESS USING METRICS

Without data, it is difficult to reliably measure progress. You risk an overreliance on unmeasurable observation and feedback. Your eyes may tell you that you are making progress, but the numbers may tell you differently. Know where you currently stand with important benchmarks and how they compare with industry averages. Then, use this data to set goals that can be measured. OM

DR. VARGO serves as Optometric Practice Management Consultant for IDOC. A published author and speaker with more than 15 years clinical experience, he is now a full-time consultant advising O.D.s in all areas of practice management and optometric office operations.