I’ve recently spoken with a few practice owners who were disappointed with their financial results. Two of them had added staff in anticipation of growth, but it never came. Increasing expenses without a matching increase in revenue can quickly reduce profits and cash flow.
If this happens to you, how should you react? In this blog, we’ll talk about what to do when your plans don’t unfold the way you hoped. You’ll also learn how optometry bookkeeping and benchmarks can help you make smarter, data-driven decisions for future growth.
1. Give Yourself Grace
Just because your plan didn’t turn out the way you hoped doesn’t mean you made a bad decision. If you never miss a goal, you probably aren’t stretching yourself as much as you could.
Plans can fail for a variety of reasons:
- The goal wasn’t realistic
- Execution fell short
- External factors like a recession or a key employee leaving
Recognizing that failure is a natural part of business is the first step to learning and growth.
2. Learn From Setbacks
If your goal turned out to be unrealistic, think about what factors you may have overlooked. Should you have considered your team’s ability, your local market, or even your own resources and bandwidth?
If the issue was execution, ask yourself:
- Were expectations unclear?
- Was there insufficient follow-up?
- Did you and your team dedicate enough time and focus to the initiative?
Every failure is an opportunity to build your culture. Is failure met with anger and recrimination? Is it ignored? Or is it acknowledged with accountability and then addressed responsibly?
3. Respond Responsibly
The worst reaction to missing a goal is to withdraw in frustration or despair. Again, if you never fail, your goals probably aren’t ambitious enough.
In many cases, you’ll have committed dollars to achieving your goal, whether in new equipment, additional staff, or expanded space. When faced with a setback, many owners instinctively cut costs, and sometimes that is the right course of action.
For instance, you might have hired additional staff to support a new OD in the practice, but that provider fell through. Unless you have another candidate waiting in the wings, it might be prudent to let the new staff go.
However, in many cases, the answer is to double down. Invest more in marketing, spend extra time on training and reviewing results, or strengthen relationships with referral sources. Growth can be challenging, but so is adding and training new staff or investing in equipment. If you’ve already built capacity to meet a goal, make every effort to “grow into it” before trimming back your costs.
4. Embrace Failure as Part of the Growth Process
Building a successful optometry practice is not for the faint of heart. No matter how many business books you read or courses you take, the path to success usually feels more like “failing upwards” than “batting a thousand.”
The best way to avoid getting stuck in disappointment and frustration is to embrace failure as a normal part of growing a business. Without taking some risks, you cannot grow.
5. Use Data to Guide Your Decisions
If you struggle to determine whether to “grow into your overhead” or “add overhead to grow,” professional bookkeeping and benchmarking can provide clarity.
Books & Benchmarks helps practice owners track performance, generate benchmarks, and gain a clear picture of where their practice has been and where it’s headed. With accurate data, you can make smarter, confident decisions to drive growth.
Contact us today to learn how we can help your practice turn insights into actionable growth strategies.
