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It’s time to take a fresh look at your practice! Successful veterinary practices identify the need for appraising their business in regards to systems, staff and performance to keep fresh and relevant in the current market, ensuring continued success. This begs the question, do you want to improve your practice but don’t know where to start?
Practices are like jigsaw puzzles. There are many little pieces that link together to form a functioning business. Each piece on its own won’t show you the big picture but they are all valuable in their own right. Every picture has a different picture, but they all contain the common pieces of human resources, governance, financial/investment, marketing and operational.
Business must take the time to plan strategically and place emphasis on remembering this as they work through the plan. In focusing on their business lifecycle and determining which phase of the cycle they are currently situated, will help their strategy going forward. In establishing this business planning cycle, the practice must establish a broad vision and mission statement (the key focus of the practice), objectives and goals (where do we want to go), strategic and business management plans (what specifically we need to do and how we are going to get there), and evaluating its success and if we need to adjust our plans along the way.
Strategies act as a roadmap and either hold firm or change depending upon whether the objectives of the practice change. Strategies can be either short-term (up to 12 months) or long-term (3 to 5 years). In developing core objectives, it shows clear, quantifiable objectives for your practice and the overall picture of where they want to go. It is important to continually measure practice objectives and monitor them to gage whether they have met their objectives and are continually progressing.
Progression can be measured in a variety of ways including dollar value (revenue or transaction amount), numbers (of clients and pets that come through the practice) or percentage value (e.g. market share). Remember these objectives or goals must be SMART – specific, measureable, achievable, results driven and time framed.
Successful planning is all about where you are now, where you want your business and understanding the ways to get there. By putting all the pieces of the jigsaw together, through implementation of sound business structures including specific outcomes, expectations and objectives, strategic planning can help practices to:
- Define expansion plans
- Enhance corporate governance within the practice
- Develop practice growth strategies and staff management processes
- Focus on client education and quality pet care
- Improve consistency, confidence and competency within the practice, and
- Implement a comprehensive client care and education system to be utilised by all staff
By completing the puzzle, practices can create a business-savvy positive image and continually develop on-going goals. With proven practical profit making strategies and systems, practices of any size can maximise turn over.
Crampton Consulting Group can help improve your practice bottom line with our Strategic Planning and Partnership Alignment, to help establish practice growth strategies and set clear, defined vision, mission and core value statements. We address practice direction, goals and strategies and provide you with recommendations for improved practice efficiency and profitability in conjunction with future action plans. To find out more about our Strategic Planning and Partnership Alignment contact us on (07) 3621 6005 or send through an enquiry to ccgenquiries@provet.com.au.
Article provided by Sue Crampton, Bachelor of Business, Cert IV in Veterinary Nursing, Cert IV in Training and Assessment, Business Manager, Crampton Consulting Group/Animal Industries Resource Centre, Provet P/L.