Episode 157: Let’s Talk Trends

https://youtu.be/3er-1SUZwHg?si=c6mP1B689NNeEtDo Carrie and Jess Webber Talk about the Most Commonly Asked Questions This transcript with our Jameson Files host Carrie Webber has been lightly edited for flow. To enjoy the audio, you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify. Carrie Webber: Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Weber, and I am very happy today because I have coerced my partner in crime and all things in life, Jameson CEO, and my partner in business, Jess Webber. Yes. He's also my husband. Jess Webber: That's how it works. Carrie Webber: So this is probably the first time you have joined me on a Jameson Files episode, which is kind of amazing considering how long we've been doing the podcast, but we finally have lured him in. Today I'm excited because we're going to talk about trends we see– the questions we are getting asked the most from doctors across the country when we're having conversations with them. So thank you for agreeing to join me and being a guest. Jess Webber: You're welcome. Since 2020, we've started to see a lot of different questions come up in the industry, and I think it's great that we're going to discuss this with you. Carrie Webber: Absolutely. Jess Webber: Not at the dinner table. Carrie Webber: Not at the dinner table, not in the car. Our kids will be so happy we found a different place to have this conversation. How to Determine the Profitability of Your Practice Most of the doctors that reach out wanting to know about Jameson services start the conversation with me. And often once they are clients of Jameson, for one reason or another, they'll find themselves having a conversation with both of us or with you, when it's about specific things. So that's what I really want to tap into. When we're having conversations with clients, we're certainly seeing some themes in what those conversations are about. Number one being the pain point of the cost of running the practice. That is something that most of you may have experienced in the big jump in inflation, or costs of salaries and so on, that we've experienced over the last 12 to 18 months especially. Let's talk a little bit about what those conversations are, how we're exploring ways that we can help them, and what you're finding as you're looking at P&L’s and talking through this with doctors. Jess Webber: Sure. So that's right. Since 2020, the team costs have risen with inflation. We have different types of pressures on costs including salaries and supplies and lab and all the things that it takes to run a practice. So we continue to see those, probably not as much this year as we did last year, but it's still definitely there. And we're not going to kid ourselves, costs have always been an issue and a question in a dental practice. Just now, people are really hypersensitive to it for all of the reasons that we're seeing. Carrie Webber: Well, and what I hear a lot is it's not necessarily that there's a specific area of cost that they're struggling with. But sometimes the question is, I want to know if I'm even in the right realm in terms of my benchmarks and what we call the key performance indicators of cash flow, of the overhead of the practice, and so on. That's a question that we get a lot. I don't know if those of you that are watching have those questions yourself, but a lot of times doctors just want to know if they’re even in the right range. Jess Webber: Anybody, any specialty, GP, it doesn't matter. If you want to know those specific ranges, you can just ask us. We'll tell you it's a lot easier. And if you don't know how to figure that out, we can obviously do a little lesson in that math too. But you do need a great P&L. It's easier if you have an accountant do it, because it breaks it down a little bit by percentages and puts it into a normalized type of profit and loss or P&L.