“’It’s all about the quarters and halves’ is Andy’s classic phrase and it’s absolutely true”

Many thanks to Jon Swarbrigg from Farsley Dental Practice in Leeds for his brilliant testimonial, which details his experience of working with dental business mentor Andy McDougall and his team at Spot On Business Planning.

We started working with Andy McDougall and the Spot On Business Planning team in the summer of 2016 following a recommendation from Tony Gedge at the Marketing Pirates of Dentistry.For us, the reasons for seeking out the services of Spot On Business Planning were to do with restructuring, working with our practice manager, Vicki, and preparing our exit strategy.I took over as principal back in the late 90s and in the early days what you earned was what you kept. With the increasing costs of overheads, such as CQC, extra staffing costs, associate pay at 50:50 etc, I found that I was working extra hours and we seemed to be busy but our profit margins were going down. I could see that we needed to manage things differently and look forward financially, rather than at the year that had just passed.Like most principals I was guilty of doing everything and never delegating. As such, my team had no real idea of the costs of running a dental practice: all they saw was the money coming in. Through working Andy, as well as working more closely with Vicki, I soon learned that success has to be a team effort. If your team understand the implications they are more likely to buy into your plans.By being more open and sharing financial information, my team now understands why the targets are set as they are and what they need to do to cover our costs. The more you share, the more you build trust. They also understand that profit is not a dirty word.We used to discount at will and would run special offers without understanding the implications. ‘It’s all about the quarters and halves’ is Andy’s classic phrase and it’s absolutely true. The staff get a set wage and the overhead costs don’t change but the owner gets paid last, so it’s effectively your money you’re giving away.The data gathering required at the beginning of the process with Spot On Business Planning can be difficult. I delegated this task to my team and as such we progressed quickly. Our culture of sharing information meant this hasn’t been a problem for us. I see the different parts of my team as mini profit centres – and they do too, so they understand that the targets we set are realistic and necessary.What do I most like about working with Spot In Business Planning? It’s the detail – I do like detail! It feels good to be in control and not be retrospective when it comes to our numbers. Back in the 90s you could turn a profit without much difficulty; now you have to be much more mindful. The important cog in the wheel is knowing your numbers. This is what I say to people when I recommend Spot On Business Planning.