When you run a business, you’re always looking for a way to generate more revenues. The reality of running your own dental practice is that the price of buying a practice is rising, competition from corporate practices is increasing, and a hiring pool where new dentists are looking for guaranteed salaries.
As the costs of running your practice rise, you may need to pursue new revenue-generating methods just to stay on top of it all. These five strategies are worth considering for your practice.
#1 Increase Capacity
Increasing your capacity is one of the most reliable ways to increase your revenue, especially if you’re regularly booked and you feel like there’s business you’re missing out on because of wait times.
You can increase capacity in several ways, and some are more expensive than others. If you’re already making the most of your space, investing in a larger space with an extra procedure room is a significant investment.
If that’s not on the table, consider time. Some dental practices aren’t open on weekends, and others have limited weeknight hours. Consider expanding these by hiring people willing to work the evening and weekend shifts.
#2 Recycle Dental Scrap
One way to start generating more revenue now without adding to your debt is by recycling dental scrap. Dental scrap often contains valuable precious metals like gold. With gold prices what they are, you might be surprised how much you can earn by selling it to a recycler like Muzeum Dental Refining.
You can get started with a recycling kit that allows you to collect dental scrap and send it in. There, it will be melted down, weighed, and valued, and you get paid.
#3 Offer More High-Profit Procedures
Your time is valuable, and prioritizing procedures that produce a higher profit for your business can help. These are usually procedures like implants, veneers, and teeth whitening. If you’re not already offering services like these, get the training to do it or hire staff who can provide them. You can also bring in new patients by offering services like these.
#4 Raise Your Fees
Raising fees is always a difficult decision to make. The biggest fear is that your patients will go elsewhere if you raise prices. It may be time to do some research on your local competition to see what their prices are like. Given the rising cost of providing dental services, it can also be a justified action to take.
#5 Help Patients Understand Their Benefits
Dealing with patients’ insurance benefits can be a pain, but washing your hands of it will ultimately hurt your retention rates.
The thing about insurance benefits is that a lot of your patients don’t have the time or the energy to do a deep dive into them either. Many people who get dental insurance through work or school don’t know what they have.
Putting together information about how dental insurance works and common treatments covered by dental benefits, as well as information packets that remind and encourage your patients to use those benefits every year, can help improve your revenues.
Plus, by focusing on your patients’ insurance benefits, these information campaigns can feel like you’re looking out for their best interests rather than trying to upsell.
These tips can help you generate more revenue for your dental practice.
