March 5-10
OPERATIONS The year is gathering pace and those small operational adjustments you made in January should be starting to stick. Always document best processes as they emerge as well as common errors to save employees time troubleshooting later.
planning Jenna Gilberston of McCulley Optix Gallery in Fargo, ND says this month it’s “Probably time to look at all of our patient forms again. Plan a staff retreat day. Plan the 2018 event schedule … and that might just be in the first month of the year! First six months … always looking at better technology solutions, including a new email program for our office.”
STRATEGY Set times to meet with your advisers — your lawyer, accountant, banker, consultants and especially if you haven’t done it yet, your tax pro. Review the state of the company and take advantage of your changing tax obligations.
EDUCATION If you send staff to Vision Expo East (starts March 15), ask them to each pick a course they particularly enjoy and plan to recreate it for the rest of your staff.
March 12-17
OPERATIONS EMR/PM systems have undergone some big changes of late with features such as iPad sign-ins that encourage customers to update their demographic and medical histories, e-signature pads and so on. But in many cases the technology has outpaced the implementation. If you have yet to fully integrate the features in your practice, make it your big to-do item of the month.
MARKETING Start plotting a trunk show for summer.
TECHNOLOGY Does the name of your network promote your services, as in “best-eye-doc-in-town”? It should.
March 19-24
MAINTENANCE Schedule a tune-up of your A/C. Maintenance now will save you money come summer.
MARKETING Send a spring promotional e-mail highlighting your fashion frames. Longer, sunnier days are right around the corner.
SALES FLOOR Step outside your store and assess how staff interact with customers. Research suggests words account for only around 7 percent of communication. What kinds of things are your sales staff communicating with their body language?
March 26-31
ONLINE The FCC’s recent Net neutrality ruling introduced a lot of uncertainty for small business with regards to how their online operations might be affected. Visitors to your site won’t have patience if pages don’t open quickly. Check your download speed with one of the sites recommended here: invmag.us/021802.
OPERATIONS Create an employee suggestion box but add a twist — they have just 30 days to suggest ideas to make your business and their working lives better.
EDUCATION Take out your notes from all those education courses during Vision Expo East and start implementing the great ideas you learned.
GENERAL March is a good month to catch your breath. You’ve likely been working non-stop since the holidays. Try to grab a long weekend to recharge.