2011: Small Steps, Big Change

By: John Burch

Do you have a vision for transforming your practice in 2011? Or perhaps you have some personal goals that seem just out of reach? You're not alone. If reaching goals were easy we'd all have "abs of steel," million-dollar bank accounts, perfect relationships, and everything else our hearts desire.

Even with determination, focus, goal-setting and knowledge, one year from now most of us will be professionally and personally where we are now. What makes change so hard? Large, sweeping change is daunting because the goal is often so far away from completion. Doubling your practice revenue, purchasing the latest lab equipment, and running a triathlon from couch potato status are admirable. Unfortunately, nearly half of us will give up by the end of January, and most of us will never make our goals.

Here is a fantastic alternative. Take smaller steps in frequent intervals. In other words, pick one thing you would like to work on at the beginning of each month, and commit to doing that for thirty days. At the end of the month, if the habit has paid off, then continue it. By year's end, you will have potentially made twelve positive changes. The secret is that after thirty days most actions become habits, so you are likely to continue if you are getting positive results.

You can use this same philosophy to improve your practice. Can you think of one small change to implement in your practice? Or ten? Or twenty? Obviously, there are many areas to consider, including human resource matters, accounting, facilities, continuing education and more.

Fortunately, AVImark can help you achieve some of these practice-related goals. For example, are you using AVImark's reminders feature to its fullest potential? How many pet visits are you missing because of poor reminder execution? Or, how much could you improve work flow by implementing the AVImark whiteboard? Could you make timelier purchase decisions and help minimize shrink by using AVImark's inventory feature? Or, if you wish to take smaller steps, you could develop a glossary as you type in notes, double-check your canned estimates, and verify your daily back-ups.

Just like with other goals, full utilization of practice management software is a daunting task. So, many veterinarians get by with just basic customer database functionality. However, just imagine how you could improve your practice if you learned one new feature each month for the next twelve? The benefits to your practice would be enormous, just by making one small, manageable change every 30 days. And in January of 2012, everyone else will be admiring your progress.

John Burch is Director of Sales at McAllister Software Systems and plans to follow his own advice for achieving goals during 2011. He can be reached at johnb@avimark.net.