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Articles from February, 2010

Business Management Failure: Obstacles Are Not Why People Fail in Their Quest for Success

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

business-management-successWhether you are running a dental practice or running a restaurant, it is easy to concentrate on problems and forget to see the thing you wanted in the first place.

After all, problems are impinging on you – no money, bad employees, creditors chasing you, governments not giving you the licenses you need, customers not having the money to pay for your services etc.

But, you see, the more you obsess on the problem the more it will consume you to the point, like a horse with blinders on, you will see nothing but the problem.

Hey, at least those horses with their blinders are made to see the road only. They only see what the jockey wants them to see. They are made not to see the horse next to them, the crowd, or anything else. In this case, the blinders are good but if you keep worrying too much about the problem you will not see the goal, and thus never reach it.

I have seen doctors obsessing so much about one particular ‘bad’ employee that every time they open their mouths, they assign the reason for their poor business to this employee!

Concentrating only on the mechanical steps of doing your job is just another way to forget all about your goals.

Management consultants, though many of them have helped business owners to grow their business, have tended to teach business owners to focus too much on organization. “You must be organized first before you can make money” is only true to a certain degree that you are also marketing aggressively.

The most organized office is just ‘mechanically’ correct but does not guarantee many new customers.

Make it a daily habit (especially when you have problems) to force yourself to look at your goals. Do not, however, lessen your goals because of the magnitude of your problems. Look at your original goals only.

In fact, whenever you think you can not make it, make the goal bigger not smaller.

Do you remember a time when your dreams or goals were so big that you could not sleep and nothing else mattered? People around you might have even have discouraged you from undertaking such a big thing, and though you knew it would be hard you embraced it anyhow.

Well, if your problems are currently overshadowing your goals then you better remedy that by making your goals so big that you will be so excited you will have no time for those skimpy problems.

Try it, it works!!

As Joseph E. Cossman said, “Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.”

Remember: Your goals can be achieved – as long as you do not forget about them and have your eyes on them. Any business owner, dentist, doctor etc will have a thriving business with many new customers or new patients, if he or she constantly keeps his or her eyes on business expansion. A dentist might feel that his dental office is not organized enough, staff not efficient enough etc. Improve organization and dental staff training and motivation, yes, but he must keep his eyes on creative new patient marketing because practice growth is still his original goal.

The Impossible Dream

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

DETERMINATON

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.

“We told them so.”
“Crazy men and their crazy dreams.”
“It`s foolish to chase wild visions.”

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.

He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.

It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their teamwork, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.

Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence. No dream was ever achieved without persistence, despite the many obstacles lying in the road. This story teaches us what one person can do when faced with what others claimed to be impossible.

http://www.indianchild.com/inspiring_stories.htm

bridge

Marketing For New Patients or New Customers: How Much Business Do You Want To Do?

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Group of ambitious  people celebrating success

Marketing, Public Relations, and Advertising are three big misunderstood words for most of all business people and people in general.

Who am I, Helmut Flasch, to say that?

Simple, 98% of all people in this country retire broke at age 65.

Sure, you say, that is because of the government, taxes, the economy, etc. Maybe you even say, “Well, that is life and only the crooks survive well.”

I agree, after all “success is a matter of luck, just ask any failure”.

So I hope I got your attention. Let’s talk about marketing.

It is not a question whether marketing at one time was not necessary. It always was. It is not a question whether your prospects will think ill of you if you advertise. They don’t—it’s in your head only.

It is a question of how much business you want to do!

In fact, if you do NOT market, you give a message just the same — a message that you are small, that you don’t have what the others who market have, that you don’t care since after all “marketing and selling” are the means of educating people about good products or services.

I look at this in this way: the amount of money you make reflects directly how much of your good service you delivered. How many people did you help? That is if you have a valuable service – do you?

What is the purpose of your practice? Do you believe you help people? If you do, then market the hell out of it. If not, then get the hell out of what you are doing –NOW.

80% of people don’t get the regular dental, chiropractic, dietary, and general health care they should get. Most of you doctors are concentrating on the 20% of the chronically ill who go to a doctor because it hurts.

You have, so it seems, forgotten to do preventive care. At least the individual practice is not promoting to those 80%. You are not educating the population in large enough quantities.

Most of you are not promoting at all or in quantities which could be considered a “drop in the ocean”.

Do you know about one of the definitions of “Doctor” in the Webster dictionary?

Doctornoun [derived from old french or latin doctor, teacher. Derived from past participle of docere, to teach]  1. Origin, a teacher or learned man

“Teacher”. Yes, a teacher. Does it make sense?

So when are you going to start teaching in numbers which count?

Who did you think was supposed to do it – the government, the schools? They do what they can, why should they do all of your teaching?

Or should I say why should they do YOUR MARKETING?

Let me ask you how did you find out about some brand new equipment and technology, let’s say ‘laser dentistry’? From some advertising or a salesman maybe? I bet if you have not been one of the developers of this, then the answer is 100% YES.

How would you feel about your neighbor who is a heart surgeon, not telling you about a new cure for a heart disease because you did not come to him and asked and your loved one is dying from it? You see, he only did what is “professional”– don’t advertise! “If you are good, people will come to you by word of mouth”.

Balderdash!

How can you expect people to look for things they don’t even know exists?

So, you must do marketing, advertising, and public relations, or you will do a disservice to the people, the profession and to yourself.

How much marketing is needed?

About 500 times more than you think in your wildest nightmare.

Advertising and marketing does cost, and it makes, if done ethically (don’t promise things you can’t deliver), money always — always, always!!

The trick in making yourself known is only modified by your ability to reach as many people as you can, and using not only your own money and resources, but using the money and resources of other entities to help you.

To reach a great amount of people you better bring the cost of reaching those people way down.

I know that most advertising companies tell you to do the “best quality marketing” (good printing, etc.) and spend enormous amount of money getting the “best” mailing list. Once you have all that high quality stuff then usually you, of course, have no more money to actually mail them out.

Over and over again, I see doctors putting promotional material together which cost 50 cents to two dollars per piece, —not including the postage. Considering the high price, they sent 200 – 2000 pieces per month and hope there are returns.

Why does nothing happen? After all it is such a ‘nice’ brochure!

Balderdash, first of all, you properly described you and your practice perfectly which was the first mistake, a real big mistake! Then you expect some magic 5 or even 10% return. Or you say, well, even at 1% something should have happened.

Not so!

I say, a percentage of one (or ten) can never really be averaged out without minimally having sent 20,000 mailings minimally three to five times. That makes 60,000 — 100,000 sent in a one to two months period. Remember what I said: minimally three to five times to the same people or you waste your money!!

And by the way, 1% is high for your service! There is not a marketing expert who will not tell you that if you don’t hit the same population five to ten times, every two to four weeks, you might as well not do it and go to Las Vegas with your money.

In marketing you are always better off hitting a small segment many, many times rather than a large segment once.

Here is another thought: most people ponder about all the money they lost and might lose when yet the real money you lose is the money you neglect ever getting.

Could you see this? It’s the millions you never make which are hurting you!!

Set aside everything you “know” about marketing and about “how people react to marketing”, and stop being penny-wise and dollar-foolish.

Start making noise. Start making noise, in a way you never did before.

Keep in mind that if you change nothing, discredit everything I and other marketing experts are teaching as “not workable”, “not functioning”, “not in my area”, “not over my dead body”, — then of course nothing will change in your practice.

There is a world out there waiting for good service and products, — tell this world loudly that you have them!

If you have not already done so, speak to us about the latest automated internet marketing tools that will reach out to approximately 100,000 to 200,000 people, at only pennies on the dollar.

Click on this link to request an appointment.

Helmut G. Flasch
CEO
Doctor Relations

Finding Gold Where the Competition Won’t look

Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Finding Gold Where the Competition Won’t look
Doing for a little while what others are unwilling to do,
means that you will be able to cash in for a lifetime
for what others are unable to do
- By Unknown
Every educated person can relate to this. Becoming a doctor or engineer takes some doing and willingness and sacrifices.
But after it is all done, those people are able to cash in on their knowledge for a lifetime.
Their somewhat higher salary, better social status, having better connections, will let them in on many other opportunities which other people who were not willing to pay the price could never tap into.
Now, if we are referring to academic and professional schooling as I have in the above example, then that has been true until a couple of decades ago, and has become less of an advantage as time has gone by. It will also continue to become less of an advantage at an accelerate speed, as time would go on.
Or is it?
Maybe the high education in a certain profession still has the effect of being able to cash in for a lifetime, but one has to be willing to continue to do things which others are unwilling to do.
After all, the price of freedom does not come free and one has to fight for it at all times.
In the old days when change was slow, one could rest on the laurels of one particular thing one was willing to learn, such as a doctor, for a lifetime.
In a fast — let me correct this — in a super fast moving world, where whole industries get created and recreated every few years, one must now be willing to do what others are not willing to do several times in a lifetime.
Otherwise, life will be pretty bleak by being overworked and underpaid, with worries of what the future will hold. And as we well know, such worries are destroying any and all spirit of play.
Let me tell you about one skill, not necessary the only other skill, but surely one you can not eliminate, which you must be willing to embrace as full and as serious as the skill of your profession.
It is the skill of being a master in strategic marketing.
There is a difference between advertising as a tactic and marketing in a strategic way.
Strategic marketing includes, image building or branding, it includes becoming an authority in your field and/or in other fields, it includes becoming a man who can command the power of the press, and a man who knows and strategically places all tactical advertising tools available on the market.
This person will also have been willing to learn, and spend money (do what others are unwilling to do) on “how to put money where it has a chance of growing into more.” This person, who wants to succeed in today’s world, will have to be willing to become as good of a, if not a better, marketing person than he is a doctor or engineer.
Two to three decades ago that was not needed, the willingness to become a doctor was enough, for a lifetime to cash in on what others were not willing to learn.
But today, its back to school and doing more things which others are not willing to do.
And that is the way it is.
A new generation of doctors who are going to make it big will emerge, and is emerging if you look closely. And anyone who is not willing to do for a little while, even if with great pain, what others are unwilling to do, will suffer slow evaporation of income, less respect from others, and loss of personal happiness and satisfaction.
So, let’s go where the competition does not go, and let’s do what others are not willing to do!
Helmut Flasch
CEO
Doctor Relatio

Doing for a little while what others are unwilling to do, means that you will be able to cash in for a lifetime for what others are unable to do

- By Unknown

symbol

Every educated person can relate to this. Becoming a doctor or engineer takes some doing and willingness and sacrifices.

But after it is all done, those people are able to cash in on their knowledge for a lifetime.

Their somewhat higher salary, better social status, having better connections, will let them in on many other opportunities which other people who were not willing to pay the price could never tap into.

Now, if we are referring to academic and professional schooling as I have in the above example, then that has been true until a couple of decades ago, and has become less of an advantage as time has gone by. It will also continue to become less of an advantage at an accelerate speed, as time would go on.

Or is it?

Maybe the high education in a certain profession still has the effect of being able to cash in for a lifetime, but one has to be willing to continue to do things which others are unwilling to do.

After all, the price of freedom does not come free and one has to fight for it at all times.

In the old days when change was slow, one could rest on the laurels of one particular thing one was willing to learn, such as a doctor, for a lifetime.

In a fast — let me correct this — in a super fast moving world, where whole industries get created and recreated every few years, one must now be willing to do what others are not willing to do several times in a lifetime.

Otherwise, life will be pretty bleak by being overworked and underpaid, with worries of what the future will hold. And as we well know, such worries are destroying any and all spirit of play.

Let me tell you about one skill, not necessary the only other skill, but surely one you can not eliminate, which you must be willing to embrace as full and as serious as the skill of your profession.

It is the skill of being a master in strategic marketing.

There is a difference between advertising as a tactic and marketing in a strategic way.

Strategic marketing includes, image building or branding, it includes becoming an authority in your field and/or in other fields, it includes becoming a man who can command the power of the press, and a man who knows and strategically places all tactical advertising tools available on the market.

This person will also have been willing to learn, and spend money (do what others are unwilling to do) on “how to put money where it has a chance of growing into more.” This person, who wants to succeed in today’s world, will have to be willing to become as good of a, if not a better, marketing person than he is a doctor or engineer.

Two to three decades ago that was not needed, the willingness to become a doctor was enough, for a lifetime to cash in on what others were not willing to learn.

But today, its back to school and doing more things which others are not willing to do.

And that is the way it is.

A new generation of doctors who are going to make it big will emerge, and is emerging if you look closely. And anyone who is not willing to do for a little while, even if with great pain, what others are unwilling to do, will suffer slow evaporation of income, less respect from others, and loss of personal happiness and satisfaction.

So, let’s go where the competition does not go, and let’s do what others are not willing to do!

Helmut Flasch
CEO
Doctor Relations

P.S: Our next teleseminar on “How to Get a Truckload of New Patients in 7 Days” will teach you where to find ‘gold’ where your competition won’t look!!

Helping Haiti

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

For close to two decades, we have taught doctors from many different health care fields and small and large business owners from many industries, marketing, PR, business management and sales skills.

One thing that we have never stopped doing at the same time, is to also show our clients how to give back to their community while working to improve their businesses.

Recently, we are working closely with Operation Smile to assist the people in Haiti to recover from the devastation of the earthquake.

Instead of just asking for straight donations, we would like to do our part to give back to the donor as well – creating a win-win event.

These gifts are a token of our appreciation for you giving your contributions.

Business owners here in the US have their own challenges especially in a slower economy. Consumers are cutting back on spending in a wholesale fashion.

With these gifts, we hope to teach practice and business owners that they can be a financial winner – not despite of a slow economy, but because of a slow economy!

Through your donations, you will receive our un-advertising tools to help your business grow and expand.

Gifts include, “Double Your Business But Not Your Troubles, a book by our CEO and founder of Doctor Relations Inc., Helmut Flasch, instructional videos, 100 pages of materials on how to market for new clients without using your own money and time, and three hours of consulting and personal guidance on marketing for new clients without using traditional advertising.

(Get full details at http://haiti.unadvertise.com)

Update from Haiti

Operation Smile Sends More Medical Volunteers and Supplies to Haiti

In response to the continued need for critical medical and surgical care for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Operation Smile has further mobilized its global resources and sent three highly skilled medical teams and over 2 ½ tons of medical equipment and supplies into the region over the last two days. The Operation Smile volunteer teams, comprised of 44 credentialed medical volunteers, will be deployed across three locations in Haiti.

This coordinated effort comes less than two weeks after Operation Smile sent a team of 20 medical volunteers, who provided nearly 100 life-saving surgeries, and over three tons of life-saving medical equipment and supplies to the people of Haiti.

cg-haiti-108_450

The Operation Smile Haiti Relief volunteer surgery team at the Love a Child Health Center in Fond Parisien, Haiti on Sunday, January 31, 2010. The surgical team comprised of surgeons from Penn State University – Hershey Medical Center, as well as nurses and staff from around the country, were in Haiti treating eathquake victims.–(Photo by Chet Gordon for Operation Smile)

(Read more at http://www.operationsmile.org/haiti/ )

Help Haiti and get FREE ‘Un-Advertising’ business tools at http://haiti.unadvertise.com

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