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A dental clinic is not a cheap business to launch or maintain by any means, but you are probably well aware of that fact. It’s true that the expenses can even seem overwhelming at times if you are not particularly careful about preparing a practical but strict annual budget.
Unfortunately, the problem is often with how the budget is created, rather than the actual expenses. In fact, that is one of the first points we will focus on here. Whether you are new to the profession or not, at least some of the following pointers will help you in preparing better annual budgets for your dentistry practice.
Don’t Set Up an Impractical Budget
Money management in business is never about being stubborn and impractical, but all about getting as much from every spent pound as you can, without sacrificing on the essentials. If you set up an overly stringent budget that isn’t really feasible, one of two things will happen.
In the best-case scenario, the budget’s limitations will fail, and you will end up spending more anyway to meet the minimum expense requirements. Sometimes though, cutting costs in a business as sensitive as dentistry can lead to several negative impacts, ranging from bad reputation, poor work quality, and poor patient satisfaction to disastrous equipment failure. In any case, a clinic with an impractically low budget will ultimately end up spending a lot more than they should have had to. Avoid the lure of short-term cost savings and think about the big picture.
Take Advantage of Online Sales
Major dental equipment and supply vendors like the Dental Directory Group will occasionally host online sales to clear their stocks. Be on the lookout for such sales and bring down your annual expenses budget by taking advantage of them. Other than regular dental supplies, buying discounted dental machinery can help the clinic in expanding its list of offered services at a significantly lower cost. Equipment sales may also be used to upgrade your existing equipment for better performance and significant savings in annual energy costs.
Reduce Avoidable Expenses
The definition of avoidable expenses will vary depending on the clinic’s size, services, location, requirements, and more. Consult with a financial expert to identify them with greater clarity and efficiency. Nevertheless, the following strategies can be applied in varying degrees to bring down avoidable expenses within most dental practices.
Limit the Permanent Staff Count – Keep the number of permanent staff limited and outsource the more complex office work (payroll, HR, accounts, etc.) to an external partner.
Reduce Your IT Costs – Lower the number of paid digital business management tools and applications currently in use to a minimum. Do not use or pay for multiple applications and digital services for the same work.
Avoid Overinvesting – Do not invest in expensive dentistry equipment that your clinic does not need right away. Consider the demand before spending money on adding a new service with a new machine.
Finally, reconsider your office space. Don’t pay rent for a place that has significantly more space than you need right now. If you need that space in the future, that will still not make up for all the money you lost by paying for the extra space before that time.