Scaling success is a constantly evolving journey. Whilst our scaling goal may be clear in our own minds we have to remember where scaling leverage really comes from. That is our systems and our teams.

When truly aligned these two critical aspects of our practice work to ensure the patient experience is delivered by your team as if you were in the practice delivering it yourself.

That is true scaling. Knowing and trusting that your team will deliver excellence and look after your business and your patients the way you would.

The trick to scaling is to invest time and energy in the activities that will project you along your scaling path towards your end goal.

In this blog I am sharing with you the scaling lessons, and strategies of one of my elite clients.

Dr Jahnavi Vora knows what true scaling looks and feels like. Along side husband Dr Jay Shah the couple have built two tremendous businesses over the past 10 years. But during the past 4 years in particular they have successfully managed to scale up to a multi-practice enterprise in Albury – Wodonga on New South Wales/Victorian boarder.

Scaling has given them the life they dreamed of.

Dr Vora believes real scaling is achieved when you focus on 6 key strategies. The couple began their scaling journey in order to achieve real work – life balance for their young family. “Growing up in India our parents worked 9am to 9pm, and we didn’t have much time with them, especially with our Dad” said Dr Vora. “We wanted to create a life where we had more time with our children. So scaling our dental practice was the best option for us to achieve that goal. Practice ownership is a dream come true”.

Strategy 1: Identify clearly your vision and values.

It is important to know what you want to achieve through scaling and why.

Do the critical thinking. Understand why you want to scale your practice and what a scaled business and a scaled life will look like for you. You need the end goal in mind. For some it is a multi – practice business for others it is one thriving practice run by a team of others.

Ask yourself this question; What is motivating you to want to scale your business?

Dr Vora explained that vision and values work hand in hand. “Vision and values have become the bedrock of what we teach our team. The values on which the team are trained manifest in the behaviour’s we see from them within the practice, and what patients see and experience, so values are really important when scaling”.

  • Take the time to create a meaningful vision and set of values.
  • Train your team to your vision and values. And remind them at every opportunity.
  • Use vision and values to educate your team on their own purpose and the practice purpose.
  • Remind yourself of your vision when any self doubt or obstacles present themselves.

Strategy 2: Nurture culture.

To create a truly stronger, more profitable business, you need to invest time and energy into what makes it strong and profitable…people and culture.

“You want people who will work for you the way you would” said Dr Vora. “We hire people based on their attitudes and personal values and train them on the skills their role will demand of them”.

You will often hear me talk about the importance of culture. When you are all in alignment with culture this creates synergy, creates speed, creates ease and creates flow.

“We spend a lot of time nurturing our team culture and I truly believe this is felt by patients. If they see team members with positive professional behaviors – team members that are calm, well organized, happy, respectful and kind with each other then they as patients feel easy, and know everything is running smoothly here with this practice. Patients feel I’m in the right place. I’m in safe hands” said Dr Vora.

Strategy 3: Invest time in your Team.

Many practice owners undervalue the significance of spending time educating, developing, meeting and just chatting with their teams. But it is the team who deliver the scaling plan day in day out.

Dr Vora sees this as a key factor in scaling. “We could say the time we spend with our team we could spend with patients. But the time with team is paid back to us many times over. We talk about what the patient may feel, see and experience. The time we spend with team is definitely an important part of our success in scaling” she said.

Strategy 4: Use what you already have.

This applies to many facets of practice scaling. It may relate to putting to best use the individual talents of team members such as someone’s great people skills or another person’s attention to detail, writing SOP’s or creating great patient birthday messages.

It may relate to making the most of the unique location of your practice.

But in particular, over a number of years now you have heard me talk about using what patients you already have.

It is the retention piece.

Dr Vora explained that using what they already had was and still is an important aspect of their scaling achievements.

Much of their early scaling success came from their existing patient base. New patients were coming in, but the existing database was under – utilized as it is in many practices. A focus was placed on nurturing existing patients.

This meant systems such as recall and reactivation had to be implemented.

“We started reaching out and getting patients back in. We developed new habits around booking patients before they left after an appointment”.

“Our systems became much more important to us in all these patient related aspects of our practices” said Dr Vora

Strategy 5: Develop strong systems.

Strong well structured, well defined systems and the knowledge team members have of them, and their dedication to them, is critical in any practice looking to scale.

Dr Vora believes systems need to underpin the actions and behavior’s necessary for scaling to succeed in a practice. Reflecting on the belief that to scale you need a team who will work the way you would yourself, many systems need to be written with the vision and values in mind.

Strategy 6: Invest in Yourself.

Dr Vora believes it is also important to have other identities and develop your own interests and passions outside of the common day to day roles we play.

“It’s great to be a Mum or Dad, Dentist, Practice Owner, but it is important to have time away from these things to develop other passions and interests that you desire”. She explained.

Dr Vora has a love of cooking and recently expanded this into making cooking videos where she cooks and shares recipes. Knowing that she was always struggling with what to put in to her children’s lunch box she decided other Mum’s must be struggling with this too. So, she has created a series of videos which are promoted to practice patients and the general community.

“I was blown away. The response from the community has been fantastic” She said. “Lot’s of people have been talking about the dentist who has cooking videos. It has been a way for me to take an interest that I am passionate about but not related to dentistry and use it to introduce me and the business to broader parts of the community”. She explained.

Dr Vora’s final words of wisdom…“Do something that gives you inner happiness”.

Great advice I think. And I am sure you do too!

Final Words…

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