Don’t rely on No.11 Downing Street to Help your Dental Practice

Take charge and Market like you never have before!

It would be easy to provide commentary on today’s budget, and just re-iterate much of what has been said in the press already.

Some key points that will impact many of the dentists we deal with on a day to day basis include:

• Firms with fewer than 250 staff will be refunded for sick pay payments for two weeks
• Small firms will be able to access “business interruption” loans of up to £1.2m
• Scaling up of HMRC’s “Time to Pay” service, including a new helpline so businesses and the self-employed can arrange to defer tax payments.
• The rate of corporation tax will remain at 19% rather than falling to 17%.
• Entrepreneurs’ Tax Relief – Business owners who sell their firms on were entitled to tax relief on profits of up to £10m over their lifetime. The tax relief has been scaled back rather than abolished, with the lifetime limit reduced to £1m.

Push Even Harder with your Marketing

Whilst some of these actions may be welcomed to help with the coronavirus issue (except for anyone selling a business for more than £1m) the businesses that will survive (or even thrive) in these interesting times will be those that don’t rely on the actions of the Treasury but actually take the bull by the horns and take on the challenge of what may be in store for the economy.

Let’s be clear, this is not a time for the faint hearted, but a time to step up and take on the many challenges that your business will face.

The public may be staying away, people maybe working from home, shops, restaurants, supermarkets and your dental practice maybe quieter. This, therefore, requires you to be present in people’s faces, now is the time to step up your marketing, not cower into insignificance.

So if you have not done this already, do the following:

1. Rally your team together – you will not get through this on your own, but with your team. Now is the time for leadership, and your team need to be on board with you whilst you drive the business forward in these challenging times.
2. Market your business until the cows come home – Other’s may pare back on marketing expenditure, in my humble opinion – DON’T. People still need your services, and they may be fearful, but now you need to raise your head above the parapet and be seen. Patients, who need your services will come to the practice they see most. Make sure you are the practice of choice in your area – period, now more than ever.
3. Use all Marketing Channels Available – Email your patients, tell them you are open for business, continue your Google and Facebook marketing, keep writing your blog posts, and be out there so people see you. Whatever you have done in the past, and it worked, just do more of it.
4. Rinse and repeat 1-3 above – Constantly strive to improving your marketing message.

It may sound scary, and you may be tempted to cut back on your marketing spend, worried about a lack of patients coming through your doors, but keep the marketing going – this should in fact be one of the last things you stop, as people still need your services whatever maybe lying ahead.

Keep going, and push hard as this will make the difference in these trying times.