Episode 800: How to Fixing a Bad End of Year

 The Dental A-Team has heard from a number of offices who waded through a difficult December financially. Kiera gives tangible tips about how to get out in front of everything to make sure 2024’s year-end will go from bad to good. She touches on:

• Going through your P&L

• Reaching out to patients regarding end of benefits

• Planning strategically for those bonuses

• Establishing discipline

• And more!

Episode resources:

Reach out to Kiera: [email protected] 

Practice Momentum Group Consulting

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.59)

Hello, Dental A Team team listeners. This is Kira and welcome to the podcast today, guys. I hope you're having such an incredible day. I am on cloud nine. I have had some incredible guests and now I get to do a little solo casting with you guys. I just love this family. I hope you guys know that. I hope you feel that. I hope you feel the love that I have for each of you individually. I hope you just know that I truly do believe that you are doing better than you think you are. I think you should just give yourself a huge giant high five today. Know that you are so loved.

that you are so appreciated and you are so needed. I'm not sure who needs to hear that today, but I watched a lot of social media during December and I was just brokenhearted by some dear friends committed suicide, some family members lost other family members through car accidents. And I just was so committed to reminding people I have been on that dark side of life a time or two. And I just want to remind every single one of you and hopefully I can reach you, but just know that you're loved.

that you care, that you matter, that people need you. I know when those days get junk and they're just hard, that sometimes it feels like daunting to be able to see past that. But I just want to remind you as someone who's not your family, as someone who's not even maybe in your life directly, but through the podcast, that you matter and that you're needed and that your family loves you. And if your family's not the person for me, it wasn't my family that could save me. It was one other person. And just remembering that you matter.

and that you're needed and that you're loved and that there's so much more in this life that you can even see from today and that your life is so great. There's so many amazing things and let's just shift our focus and it's just that one small moment that we need to get you through. And today I'm here to say, get through those moments. I don't know when your time will come. I don't know what heartache or hardship or just stress that's gonna hit you, but I just wanna remind every one of you that you matter and to remind people around you that they matter and that you love them.

and that you're here for them. And if there's ever a time, you guys reach out to me at any time. I will give you my cell phone number. It's 801 -885 -5351. I'm happy to be your lifeline. I'm happy to be the person that reminds you that you matter. Like truly just text me. I'll be there for you. But whomever needs to hear this today, I'm here for you and I love you and I'm so proud of you and you're doing a darn good job. So stop beating up on yourself. Stop shoulding of all the things you should do. There's no shoulds in life. They're just meant to be happiness.

Kiera Dent (02:21.838)

and to be joy and I've seen both sides of it and I've seen the hard side and I've seen the great side and I'm just hoping that you are on the great side and if you're ever in those times because they will happen, just remember you matter, you're loved, that people care about you and this world would be so lost if you weren't here. So just remember that and today you guys, I just wanted to go through, I know some of you, your December was just crummy. You had hard numbers, it was a hard month for you, some of you crushed it and high five to that.

but I know we've been consulting and there's been quite a few people and a common theme that we've been having. I love consulting. I love being able to pick up patterns and I love being able to share those patterns with our clients because you think that you're the only one and I'm here to tell you that you weren't the only one. So I wanted to give you guys some tangible tips today of what to do if your December was junk and let's come up with a plan so that way next year it's not that way. I truly believe that there's no failures. There are just results. And so if we can figure out what that result was and how we can have better results in the future,

Rock on, let's do that together, shall we? So as always guys, if this podcast is serving and blessing your life, please, please, please go leave a review, please download, share this with someone because your shares are what keep our podcast to the top of the list. And I just appreciate you guys doing that. So go share it with someone today, even that first part intro, share that with someone and they don't even have to be in dental, but just remind them that you love them and that they matter. So with that, all right, December was a hard month or it was a great month. Here's how we can prepare for it.

So number one, I want you to go through your PNL. I know PNLs sound like a pain in the bootay. I feel like PNL should be like the PIA award. Like I really do. And that stands for pain in the ace. Guys, keep this PG over here, of course. But I don't enjoy looking at a PNL. But what I do enjoy is that it truly is the treasure map to your success and your failure. Like it really is. And so for all of our clients that were struggling in December, let's go look at our PNL. Let's find out why.

And then let's go and see what was our schedule, what was our case acceptance, what was our reappointment rates, what was our new patients. Those little indicators are like the vitals of your business. So just like when I go to the doctor, I need to be looking at those quick vitals because I'm looking for the lever I need to turn in January. And also what do I need to put into place for next year at this time of year? So that way I don't have another crummy December, like high five, you had a crummy December. Let's never have that happen again. Let's figure out why it happened and let's proactively prepare for it.

Kiera Dent (04:42.926)

So a few things I would be putting in my software in August to reach out to all of my patients and let them know about benefits ending. Why do we wait until October when it's psychotic? Let's do that in August this year. So I would pin that and go put that in my schedule right now so I don't forget about that. Also go look through that PNL. A lot of our clients, it was because they were paying end of year bonuses. They were paying out a ton and their payroll was just sky high. Well, could we prepare for that and maybe break out those bonuses or be saving throughout the year?

knowing we're going to be paying those bonuses out at end of year. It always boggles my mind. And it's just cause I don't live my life is what you guys, I literally would like cry at night when I first started the business, because I was terrified that I was going to get some surprise bill and I wasn't going to be saved up for it. So that has in turn turned me into like an obsessive weirdo with the number of savings accounts that I have. I have savings accounts where every single month I set up an X percentage off the top. So whatever my profit margin was 10 % of that or whatever percentage you want.

Literally goes into my end of year bonuses. If I know I'm going to be paying out so many dollars, I just figure that in and I put it into a high yield savings account throughout the year. If I don't end up needing to pay it, fantastic, but at least I was prepared to pay it. So it doesn't feel like that gut wrench knife in the stomach. Oh my gosh, I can't afford this. Well, of course you can't afford it. You weren't planning that. And unless you had a high producing month, you're going to be struggling. And so let's put into play this year. Let's look at the bonuses. Let's look at those three month payrolls that are going to hit us this year.

and let's strategically plan for those. Let's start saving today. So when they hit high, we're able to just pull money out of savings and it doesn't hurt at all. Like literally that's what I do for taxes. That's what I do for bonuses. That's what I do for my extra payrolls. When I'm about to hire a new employee, I start planning about three months before I hire them if I can and just make sure that I am like, I'm putting them on payroll, like massive air quotes around that before they even join my team. And the reason why is because I need to make sure,

that they are ready to go and that I know what that like feeling of loss of revenue while they're being trained is going to feel like. And so I'm really, really big on let's just make sure we're prepared. Let's make sure that we have these things in place. You guys, we can. That's the beautiful thing. We can set this up. We can do these things. And so if we just take the time to plan and to look at that, where is the lever? What causes pain? I remember my CPA used to call me and he's like, hey, Kara, great news. You made so much money and you owe this much. And I was like,

Kiera Dent (07:03.278)

How does this happen to me every year? I would cry in December. It was awful. And I found out it was because of like the retirement we had not prepared for, my charitable contributions we had not prepared for. I had only really been paying attention to the tax line. But that took me going back to those hard December's and saying, why was this December so hard? What could I do throughout the year to make it so I don't have hard December's? I also set up tax planning meetings with my CPA in July, because I still have half of the year to save more if I need to save more.

So I am always, always, always tax planning. I put myself at the highest tax bracket, even higher than what I probably would ever pay. So I put myself at a 40 % and I'm starting to pull out 40 % of the profit, excluding my pay, because I've already paid taxes on it that are like sky high and I see nothing out of that paycheck. It's always depressing to me, but I'm pulling that out right now. I'm putting it into a savings account. You're paying your quarterly payments if that's what you plan to do, or you're at least saving it and making money on it in a high yield savings account.

Discipline equals freedom. If I can quote Jocko Willings, like from Extreme Ownership, the discipline to save, the discipline to go through your PNL and figure out why your December was hard, the discipline to go through your schedule, the discipline to look through your treatment tracker. People are always like, Kira, so many offices seem like they can do it easier. And I'm like, it's because they're disciplined. This stuff is not fun. This stuff is hard. But if you will literally like,

I don't care if you don't know how to read a PNL, you can figure out where that money is. Go put it into a spreadsheet. Denali team, we have it. I've done a podcast on it. Reach out, our consulting, we do this, but we put it into an overhead calculator and we show you, all right, your payroll should be this based on industry standards. And I don't care what industry standards are. I care what yours are. If you want 40 % profit, if you want 20 % profit, whatever it is, let's put that as our target. And then let's start to create that because tracking, measuring, and following through is how you're gonna not have hard Decembers.

Now, if it was marketing and something externally, great. What could we do to ramp that up? If I know my December's lower, could I reduce hours? Like, should we close out in December? That way I'm only doing two weeks of production and not having to pay for all of it. Could I prepare and get a marketing company? We've got an amazing, amazing marketer. His name's Ryan Gross. You have to be referred by Dental A Team. So let us know, email us, hello at thedentalateam .com. If you guys want that overhead calculator, email us, hello at thedentalateam .com.

Kiera Dent (09:20.206)

I'm happy to share that with you. But really like, can we prepare now to start having that tour where we're not down in the dumps? Could we put signage outside of our building? Could we start a referral process earlier in the year? Could we do, I know that there was an office that did Christmas cash as their referral program in December. So every person who referred, there was a giveaway and I think they gave out like 500 or a thousand dollars to the winner and it was called Christmas cash and they gave it out the week before Christmas.

You better believe they had so many referrals because people were so excited for that. They gave away, I think, two or three of those. So multiple people won. And like, that's a very small amount for the number of referrals they got in December. But getting creative, looking to see what is it? Was it our scheduling? Was it not following up? I don't ever want to hear, because I'm sure you'll tell me like, but Kira, they were maxed on benefits. High five. Of course they should be maxed on benefits. Benefits are like a coupon. It's like spit in the bucket.

Insurance benefits do not exist. Like they're so small and they're so minimal. And I want you to always remember that. So even at the end of the year, their benefits will be maxed out, but they still need to get treatment done because next year we are going to do the same thing. And so why are we waiting and procrastinating when right now is the time that we need to get these things done. So it's never about interns. And also I don't want you blaming. Blaming just takes the freedom away from you because you can't fix it now.

There's no way for you to make it better. There's no way for you to figure out the solutions because now you're dependent upon someone else. That takes all your power away from you. So we don't blame. We only blame ourselves and we're commit to fixing it. So those would be some things. Look at your P and L. Let's figure it out. If we need to bring in marketing, let's do some referral processes. Let's reach out to an incredible marketing company and let's see what we could do. Other things that created a hard December. The bonus is we're going to start preparing and planning right now. So let's start saving for that.

your taxes that can also be a hurt like sting like, oh gosh, that was hard. What about Christmas parties and holiday parties and the team? Start saving for that. Look to see how much it was this year based on how many employees you had divided by the number of employees, estimate how many employees you expect to have by the end of your next year and create a little fund and divide it by 12 months or 11 months and start just putting it in. You guys, I have savings accounts beyond savings accounts, but I do it intentionally and they're labeled. So this would be like holiday party.

Kiera Dent (11:35.31)

This one would be labeled end of your bonuses. This one's labeled new employee. Like I literally have those funds in my third party bank account and I just keep adding to them. So that way when my December's hard, I know I have the funds. I've been preparing and planning for this all year long. So then I'm so excited to pay the bonuses. I'm so excited to pay the party because I've been saving for it and it's not cutting it and making it to where I don't have any profit in December. December, just so you guys know, I always have a junk overhead in December.

Every year, Denali team has a junk overhead because I'm spending money on purpose of what's gonna propel my business forward. But throughout the year, I know I'm going to do this. So I have the cash so the cashflow doesn't hurt. So I want you guys to start planning this way, thinking about it, look to see. So I have a spreadsheet for end of year spending and I do it every year. You could just go back to your December P &L, your December even credit card statement and put in all the things you spent that were extra above and beyond.

what you normally spend in a regular month. If you don't even know what you spend in a regular month, you really need that overhead cash calculator. And you might even need to join dental team. Dental team, we have practice momentum, which is group consulting. And we also have platinum private consulting, which is one -on -one. The group is way affordable and it puts you through a whole system. And there are office hours called ask consultants everything every single week. If you're like, oh, I need some help with this, but I'm not a hundred percent ready for private.

Fantastic reach out. Hello at thedenalineteam .com. I'd love to help you out with this. So don't feel like you have to do this alone. If you're like everything you're saying right now, Keira, I know I need to do, but I'm not disciplined to do it on my own. Hey, welcome. I'm giving you a huge hug. I'm the same way. That's why I have coaches. And once you get the system in place, you don't ever have to remember to do it. It's a system and it runs and we just have to make sure that we keep that system up and going, but that's it. There's no more remembering. It's just there for you. And I think the hardest part is just starting.

Like we just have to start. So for that, I want you guys to really like, let's go look at everything we spent in December. I have an end of year spending. I know how much extra this last year, it was actually a lower year for me, but dental team ended up spending over 30 ,000 at the end of the year of additional things. So we're buying plane tickets for the year. I'm buying office supplies of things that we need. A lot of dental offices will buy their supplies. If I do not bulk up on them, let's keep that overhead up. But truth be told, my December is always junk.

Kiera Dent (13:51.438)

Like it's just, it is because I'm intentionally spending more money to reduce my tax bill only on things. I'm not doing it to reduce the tax bill. I'm just buying things that I know I would buy anyway. And so things that will move my business forward, like plane tickets, CE, consulting, I always pay for my consulting between October, November and December. I know, cause I know how my year does. I know what my estimated tax bill is. I have the money saved up and then I'm able to use some of those funds because I'm not going to have to pay taxes on it. Right? So use those funds for cash.

I still need to have the additional cashflow for it, but that's how you're able to like pull the funds from one savings account, pay for it to where it just doesn't hurt and sting. It would hurt and sting if we went and bought a house with no down payment. Like that would feel very stressful, but we save and we prepare and we plan for it. Why don't we do the same thing for our December's? Why don't we do the same thing in our businesses when we should like we could and we can, and we can do it. So my challenge to you is go look at your P and L and let's figure out why, why was December so hard. Next up, look to see what are the extra costs that came into play in December.

And can we start preparing for those these years, like right now throughout the whole year, so it's ready to go. If it was low patience, go look at your treatment plans. If you're not tracking your treatment plans, let's start tracking those treatment plans because this is gonna boost that case acceptance. It's going to reduce the stress and it's gonna make sure that we're ready to go. So I want you guys like, there's so many things and that's why I love numbers because numbers tell you the secrets to where we need to go. So if your December was great, do the same things. If your December was hard,

Do the same things. Get that P &L out. Let's look for the levers. Let's look to see our December amounts. Let's start saving and planning and preparing for it now. Let's start figuring out where are we gonna have three payrolls this year. Let's prepare for those. Let's start building up savings accounts. Now, you might say, but Kiera, this sounds all fine and dandy, but I don't even have any profit. High five. That's great. I'm so happy that you at least know that.

We need to find out again, why? Why don't we have profit? Why are we not taking home a paycheck? And what's a one, two or three change that we could do each month to get you more profitable? I know right now I'm looking at our costs and I'm like, okay, that would be nice, but do I have to have it right now? Or can I get by without it? I often find that people spend things on nice to haves rather than our must haves. And my question to you is how bad is the pain of not paying yourself versus the pain of saying no?

Kiera Dent (16:11.662)

And until the pain's bad enough, you're probably not going to change. My husband the other day was like, I need to really take my glasses to work. And I said, put an alarm in your phone, put them in the car. Let's get you another case to keep them at the office. Like you have four, four pairs of glasses. I don't know why he has so many, but I find them everywhere. He didn't. And I said, I guess that other pain's not that bad that you really need them at work because when the pain gets bad enough, we'll make changes. I'm just a proactive person and I'd rather not have to get to that pain to make the changes. Let's just do the changes now. So.

If you need help reach out, hello at the dental team .com. No judgment, no stress. Everybody starts here. I started here. I wasn't getting paid for like almost my first year of owning dental team. It's cause I didn't know about AR. Well, once I learned about AR and how to bill and collect instantly, my problems went away. It was crazy. Uh, there's an office that we helped. So it's really cool. They were struggling. They didn't feel like they had any cash and it has been a long journey. I'm not going to lie to you.

So I saw them back in August and we have finally, so August was hard. Months before that, let's even go clear back to, let's just do May. May was hard, June was hard, July was hard, August was hard. I found out that they had, oh my gosh, I think we had over 10 ,000 accounts in accounts receivable. Great news, we have money available. We just have to collect it. So daunting and exciting. So that was August, September, October, November, December, January. They are now well over

100 % collections. They're now sitting at like the 120, 130, 140, because all their hard work is finally paying off and the money's coming in and those doctors are ecstatic. But it took us like that's not an overnight turn, but it was less than a year. They just needed help knowing. And then every single week, I literally email and check in on them and ask them, okay, tell me where we are, where our accounts I look at the tracker, I see their tracker, I see where they're at. I look to see it we

go after the biggest balances first. We write off certain things that are old debt so that way we know it's not collectible. But there is money sitting there, hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting there. So when people are like, I'm not paying myself, are we also going to all the avenues to be able to pay ourselves? I have definitely paid for our consulting just by collecting as much as we've helped them collect. We paid for ourselves by reducing their overhead and training their team to be able to do this. I barely talked to the doctors. We trained the team completely. So it's become this really fun thing to be able to do for them.

Kiera Dent (18:30.766)

But if you had a hard December or you had a great December, discipline really does equal freedom. And I was just re -listening to Extreme Ownership. I have my team listen to it every year and I re -listened to it. And it was interesting because they said that like leadership has so many dichotomies and I hadn't thought about this and I didn't catch it until this year of there are dichotomies, right? Discipline feels counterintuitive to freedom. The go -giver, like giving seems counterintuitive to receiving. Being calm.

seems counterintuitive to when it fills chaos. Like all these different areas within business that feel counterintuitive, but they really are the secret to success. So all those things that feel counterintuitive, working less days, dropping insurance plans if it's the right time, letting go of toxic team members is actually a better choice than holding on to a toxic team member. Like all of these things really will help you guys have a better practice.

So I would say the discipline right now of going through and figuring out why your December was hard. And again, reach out, we do this one -on -one with our clients and literally go through their PNL for and with them, send it over to them, help them put into place, make sure they're following up with it, make sure they're saving the amounts, figuring out how much they need to save. Like if you're not a numbers person, high five, we're here to help you. But whatever it is, have the discipline and set yourself up so that way you don't have another hard December. I am so glad you had a crummy December. If.

you will learn from it. If you will take the lessons that you learned and do something about it. If you're willing to have that discipline, you will be far greater ahead than all the rest of the practices. And you're not going to have the stress. There'll be other stresses that hit you, but you fix this one. You've mastered it. You've overcome and it's no longer a failure. It was a learning because you learn from it. You put a system in play and you execute it. So go out, make it amazing. Reach out. If we can help you. Hello at the dental team .com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the dental team podcast.