A team approach to business planning and profitability

The whole-team approach is the future for dental businesses. This is predominantly because of care quality requirements, which are rooted in total quality management theories that have been proven to achieve increased effectiveness and efficiency through an inclusive team approach.

This article looks at ways to involve the dental team in setting business targets and objectives, so that each team member can make a positive contribution towards business success.

Woody Allen, American actor-director, once said: ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans’. This quote is often rolled out by small business owners when asked to invest their time and resources into producing a business plan. In the current perilous business environment, many dental practices are finding that things are not exactly ‘going to plan’. By this they mean that they are finding it increasingly difficult to run a profitable business. If they had a formal, written business plan would their business environment be any less challenging? No, it would not. If they had a formal, written business plan would they be better placed to address specific performance gaps? Yes, they most certainly would.