Here are my suggestions for doing written performance appraisals in your practice.

Be low-key and give your staff some advance warning. Let them warm up to the idea that you are ‘trying something new.’

If you have never done performance appraisals in your practice, one way to ease into them is to let employees use your version of the form below to evaluate themselves and then compare their self-appraisal with yours in a day or two. 

Keep all discussions private and confidential. 

If you have a small staff, which means you serve as your own office manager, the appraisal should be

According to Tom Peters, well-known management guru and author of the mega hit, In Search Of Excellence, the key to improving staff productivity is:

a) Money
b) Praise
c) Fear
d) None of the Above

According to Tom, the answer is d — None of the Above.

He says the number one motivator of people is

I recently received the following email from a sharp, young OD I met while speaking at a meeting in California last spring.

Dear Jerry,

I wanted to let you know that I reached the goals we talked about after your lecture last May. We have collected $XXX,000 so far this year and I am on track to net $XXX,000. I am constantly amazed at how verbalizing and thinking about goals really works!

Sincerely,
Carrie Lee, OD

Are You Setting Goals?

Thanks Carrie! I am so proud of you for actually taking the first step in becoming financially successful as a practice owner.

I am big on putting goals in writing and using them to create a clear vision of what I want to accomplish both personally and professionally in 2010.

Recessions come, recessions go. And, it looks like we are headed out of this one. The question is, how quickly?

While we are waiting for the answer, I want you to give some thought as to what would happen to your practice, your profits and your lifestyle, if your annual revenues fell by 5% in 2010? What about 10%?

I truly hope that doesn’t happen. But, I want you to be prepared if it does.

Understanding Your Practice Overhead

As 2009 year-end quickly approaches, here are my thoughts on how you can save taxes in three important areas of your practice:

1. Equipment Purchases: If you are planning to purchase new equipment in the next few months, doing it before 12/31 will allow you to capitalize the equipment and take the depreciation expense on the tax return. This, in turn, will lower your income for 2009 and reduce your taxes.

“I’ve always found that plans were useless once the battle started. But planning ahead was everything.” — General Dwight D. Eisenhower

As you prepare to close the books on 2009 and plan for 2010 (you are in the process of planning I hope!), let me walk you through a simple exercise that will help you get a better handle on your practice finances.

It’s my experience that one of the main reasons ODs don’t like to create financial plans is because many of us have a difficult time projecting what will happen in the future. This year, we’ll make it easy.

I am going to use my December blog posts to provide you with some ideas designed to help plan for 2010.

Let’s start by looking back over the last 18 months.

Although I remain very positive about our profession and our country, there is no point in sugar coating what has happened. The US has just gone through the worst recession since the 1930s.

At this point, it appears that retail eyewear sales

I just read a great article by Seth Godin, author of PERMISSION MARKETING, THE DIP and a number of other best-selling books on customer service.

Seth makes the point that practice owners should train themselves, and their staff, to look past how much you might make (or lose), on any individual transaction with a patient.

Instead, always think in terms of the potential lifetime dollar value

Last week I wrote about the history and evolution of managed care. The big question now is, “What is going to happen over the next 10 to 20 years?”

Here is what some of my readers had to say.

Dr. Hayes, I am sorry, but I, personally, do not consider myself a member of a minority profession as you categorized us in your blog on the history of managed care. Click here to read.

I think some of Optometry’s problems come from this attitude of we’re a ‘minority profession’.

It would seem the AOA also has a problem with this idea of being a lower level profession. We react to perceived difficulties instead of moving carefully and thoughtfully.