Business Continuity for Your Medical Practice
What happens to your business if something happens to you? Do you want to leave your future and your business’ future to chance? Let’s discuss your practice disaster recovery plan for natural disasters, fire, frozen pipes, tornadoes, hurricane, meltdown of email system, flu epidemic, negative publicity or violence in the workplace, key company people dying in a plane crash, water contamination, etc… The list just goes on and on. Prepare for safety with a plan for prevention, preparedness, response and recovery from a disaster. You have to ask yourself, how safe is my computer information? How do you handle every day potential disasters like IT breakdown, sick staff or crime? The truth is that your staff is expecting you to look out for them and will look to you for leadership in the event of an emergency.
Retaining Key Employees
You are your business if you are a small practice owner. You have an investment of time, money and passion. You may need to do something special for your employees to make sure they don’t leave you for the competition. If your key employee(s) leave you are they going to ruin your life? What if your employee who runs your office, leaves and goes to work for your competitor. Where does that leave your business? What if they are out sick? Don’t leave anything to chance. Get a non-compete agreement when you hire them. Written desk procedures should be in place for temporary workers so they know what to do in the absence of key employees.
You can put together plans that make it very attractive for people to stay with you. Identify who your employees are and what they are worth. Put a dollar value to these employees and understand what they want and need and figure out if at all possible a way to recover the cost. A good incentive plan will help you get the most out of your employees. You can make your incentive plan reflect greater rewards over time so that your employee will stay with you longer. Try insurance products and split dollar incentive plans where you and your employee share the costs of an employee incentive.
Change in the Economy
Lets focus on the economy, today people bought homes that have no value. The recession we’re in means that no one is spending. The baby boomers that drive the economy weren’t buying much anymore and the economy is went down as a result. By knowing the road ahead, you can navigate successfully. Understand a balance sheet, understand a financial statement, know where your money and time go and innovate. After you’ve decided on your course of action, take action and believe in yourself because how you think and your thoughts make your reality. You would be wise to not buy real estate right now and put it off until 2015 when housing prices will be 25% less than they are now (2011). Buy gold directly and store it or buy from a gold depository where they can house it for you and you can get it at anytime. Also, buy currency such as Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, the British pound or buy ETFs in UDN which are currencies which are traded against the dollar. You retain the profit. Fortunately, you’re already in one of the best industries, healthcare. Wise stock investments would include commodities like rice and if you’re in a rural area you would do well to learn how to farm. Start additional businesses in other areas such as governmental services, education, and utilities for multiple streams of income. ibm disaster recovery