A A DOCTOR, PRACTICE OWNER, tech entrepreneur and vendor, I get to see many sides of our wonderful profession and love sharing them so we can all take advantage of the opportunities that come our way, but in many meetings I attend, I constantly hear that doctors are bad at business.
Well, of course we are … we went to optometry school to become great clinicians not to business school. And we are busy with that patient care to keep our businesses running. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn to be good at business.
Now as a vendor of software that helps us run our businesses more smoothly, I want to share a different perspective: We are a sure thing at the bank. Meaning if we ask for a loan, 98% of the time, we will get one because we have the cash flow to pay it back and a flow of patients calling our offices asking for our help and needing our services. This is not usually the case for other businesses.
That brings me to the concept of our clinical mind versus our business mind.
When seeing patients, we have to be confident. We can’t take risks because we are taught to first do no harm. We can’t really take chances and have to be sure of our decisions.
In our businesses it is the complete opposite. We have to take risks, be uncomfortable, and take educated chances. But many of us, because of one bad past decision, fret over making another mistake or get hung up on tiny hurdles that shouldn’t really hang us up… But that’s the fun of it! It is called practicing for a reason. Just like we practice medicine we also practice business.
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Knowing the difference between these two mindsets allows us to make clear, conscious, and educated decisions over emotional ones. And yes, it is hard to go back and forth between the two.
Are you giving yourself the necessary time to work on your business, not in your business?
Knowing what mindset you’re in also puts you back in control of your vendor conversations.
No one likes to be sold to, but looking through your business lens versus your clinical lens really changes the conversation. You are now in control of the conversation versus the other way around.
Have confidence in your abilities, ask for help, read a business book or two, and implement the new things you learn. Just like you have confidence in your dry eye clinic, myopia management, specialty lens fitting, primary care, or whatever else you love about your practice, you can bring that same confidence to your business.
No decision is a decision. It is the decision to stay the same. Our profession is not standing still, it’s evolving quickly … evolve with it! Don’t let your clinical mind rule and define your business mind. A lot of people are cheering for your success.
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