Chris Barrow’s Blog

  

Creating a team spirit, originally uploaded by coachbarrow.

Me and my mate Tim Thackrah (Elmsleigh House Dental Clinic) experiencing all sorts of funny things

happening on the way to the Forum!

In spite of British Airways best attempts to spoil our weekend by summarily canceling the flight home, we enjoyed a super 36-hour trip to Italy and managed to immerse ourselves in at least some of the incredible sights.

If you take a look at my Facebook site you will see a full gallery from the event - lots of stunning pictures of the Colosseum, the Emperor’s apartments and the Forum itself.

And for the real addicts, a short movie (6 minutes of daftness) taken with my marvellous Flip Video camera.

Tim took his support team of 17 ladies and I was invited along as his beer buddy – so as soon as we arrived on Friday lunchtime it was off down the street for an open-air lunch for the two of us – grumpy old men setting the world of dentistry to rights as predicted.

After a good long apres-lunch walk, we changed for a posh dinner with the girls and chaperoned them to the nearest night club where the predictable party then took place.

Saturday morning saw some grim faces but after litres of orange juice and coffee, it was off to shop and/or see the sights again.

Tim generously arranged for a 4-hour private guide tour of the above mentioned locations and so we were privileged to learn copious amounts of history, rather than gazing at unnamed piles of old rocks.

The team spirit grew and grew as the trip unfolded.

Legends were created – stories to recall and laugh about in the months ahead.

The girls had a blast and will dine out on tales of handsome waiters and carabinieri for weeks to come.

Thats what its all about – creating some fun, creating memories, creating a team spirit.

Teams that play together, stay together.

A short break, originally uploaded by coachbarrow.

Friday morning I will be on a 7.00am flight from Heathrow to Rome for
a 36 hour visit.

Guest of Tim Thackrah, principal of Elmsleigh House Dental Clinic in
Farmham, Surrey, who is taking 17 team members (and me) on their
annual “thank you” trip.

I’m there as Tim’s beer buddy because we will be the 2 token males on
the trip.

Predictably, Tim and I will find a nice pavement cafe or two – and
“fix” the world of dentistry.

I’m looking forward to the change, although this week has been a blast.

Recession – what recession?

Every dentist I have spoken to this week has been busy.

How are they by-passing the recession?

1. Choosing the right demographic niche

2. Making the niche a KEDO (knock ‘em dead offer)

3. Delivering a concierge class environment and service

4. Making it easy and affordable

5. Rewarding loyalty – team and patient

6. Making themselves easy to find on the web and sticky

7. Making themselves even easier to do business with

There are plenty of people out there, ready to pay for what you do.

Oh – and by the way – did I mention that Tesco are creating their
first in-store dental practice in Bristol?

I’ll be back on Monday. Could you please try and halt any more
retailers until I get back.

Ciao!

Have you ever noticed how there never seems to be enough of the three resources?

In just one week I’ll be ending 22 years of self-employment and have been reflecting on my time as a soloprenuer.

There has never been a moment during those 8,000-odd days that I haven’t bemoaned the fact that:

1. I never had enough money to allow my business vision to reach its full potential. I started in 1987 with a £10,000 unsecured overdraft facility with HSBC and, by 2007, that had grown to a £30,000 facility for The Dental Business School.
2. The businesses that I operated had good and bad years, just like everybody else, but even in the good years, although I usually reinvested some of the “fat” in the business, mostly I just went shopping;
3. In the bad years (and there some very bad years), I battened down the hatches, stopped shopping and borrowed extra money to tide me through – but had to repay those loans with sheer effort on my own part – often selling time and thus damaging my work/life balance;
4. My support team were always talented, loyal, fun people – who were in a constant state of overwhelm with the sheer quantity of transactions they had to deal with – just to keep the status quo – never to expand. That’s why nobody ever stayed longer then 4 years – I burned them out;

I have no doubt that the forums, study clubs and newsletters will be gloating over the news that Virgin have decided to slow down their advance into the provision of NHS healthcare and, thus, private dentistry.

There I have been – for the last 6 months, standing up at meetings and using Virgin as an example of a giant retailer who sees the growth in UK dentistry and wants to take part.

Warning all who would listen that, if Virgin started offering “points” for “prizes” that they would more than likely hoover up the UK family market as well as all of your best staff.

Sunday night I received the first email from a dentist- sharing a link to the press release – and Monday morning I had a call from a reader of GDP-UK to quote the threads and some of the comments from members.

So I did the logical thing at 12.30 pm yesterday – and called Chris Potts to ask what the real story was.

Chris and I know each other well enough (our sons are best friends and have played football and DJ’d together for years).

There is no competition or ego between us – neither of us are precious about our respective successes and failures over the years.

So here’s the real story – ready?

Just as it says in the press release.

Economies are in turmoil, there is a credit crunch, the world banks are re-stabilising the capital markets, we have a US election and the “man on the Clapham omnibus” (anybody remember that phrase?) is being very careful financially.

Not a good time to be investing in  healthcare squats for the family market in my view – I agree with Sir Richard – smart guy.

Just like Tom Peters says – “fail fast” – and to further quote Seth Godin in his little book “The Dip” – “sometimes quitting is a winning policy”.

It takes balls to stop before you get too far in and to change when your guts tell you its not going to work, either because you have the wrong people, the wrong amount of money or the wrong timing.

So they have put the brakes on – they haven’t “pulled out” of anything but the Virgin team are going to focus their energies elsewhere until conditions improve – AND THEN THEY WILL BE BACK.

So you’ve had a reprieve – make sure you use it wisely if you are offering family dentistry.

As you can see from the photos I posted last night – I visited the practice in Sainsbury’s last night. 

Its exactly what I would have expected in terms of decor and branding – but the £16 check-up is clearly a considered attempt to “fill the book” and sort out any problems later.

I called in at about 6.45pm last night and the waiting area inside the double glass doors was full.

As I mentioned – it was interesting to observe people at the check outs prodding each other in the ribs and remarking on the existence of the service and the prices.

Its working – even though it might not be concierge class.

And it hasn’t required a gigantic capital expenditure to get it going – unlike the Virgin model.

In the meantime (and before the moaners tell you that Virgin’s “withdrawal”s spells the demise of retailers and corporates yet again) let me tell you that I’m busy as hell at IDH and haven’t started in earnest yet.

I have 21 enquiries for practice purchase before I start full-time – we haven’t even launched yet.

The funding is in place and secure. I toured the IDH head office yesterday and its booming and full of committed people.

Also, yesterday I was interviewing candidates for the first acquisitions manager to help deal with the enquiries.

Today I am looking forward to a meeting with my colleague and Operations Manager Matt Jackson and the 5 Executive Directors of IDH to agree the 3-year vision, 12-month plan and 90-day goals for the Private Sector Division.

To quote Michael Gerber, “we are moving fast and looking for runners”.

I haven’t been this excited for years.

The bottle is more than half full – so go and make some sales today and inspire your team with your vision and confidence.

If anybody wants to pour scorn on Virgin – tell them they are not thinking at the right level.

Sainsbos dentistry in Manchester, originally uploaded by coachbarrow.

The view from outside the store.

Not the greatest photo – but you get the drift.

I arrived back in Falmouth last night after 4 days “on the road” and had a few drinks and a wind down last night at my “local” after an enormously successful week.

Saturday morning I’m sat at my desk (6.30am) looking at 65 emails in my “in box”, follow up from this week’s meetings, an ongoing project list with deadlines approaching and an ominously large pile of mail in my “in tray”.

Is this part of becoming assimilated into the IDH Borg?

No – I have to say that the vast majority of transactions are concerned with “domestics” and also professional stuff outside of IDH.

I’m still being asked to give presentations, write articles, discuss ideas with strategic alliance partners and even offer opinion, experience and advice to my circle of professional friends inside dentistry and in the wider world of business.

Problem is – overwhelm.

Even though I am a devotee and sometimes client of Dan Sullivan, Stephen Covey, David Allen and other gurus of the time management field – I’ve organised myself and my time very well over the years – but I’m not supposed to spend my Saturday morning at the desk.

So I have to get help – in the form of a personal assistant to help me run my private and professional life outside of IDH.

A lot of it is important personal administration – I have 3 domestic properties, one in Falmouth and two in Manchester. There are a number of cars knocking about. I have 5 children who are either teenagers or young adults in full/part-time education.

I have professional activities outside of IDH as mentioned above which seem to have accelerated during September.

I have a busy diary that needs managing, including travel and accommodation requirements that have to be planned carefully.

The role could be filled virtually (the candidate doesn’t have to live in Cornwall) but we would be in constant communication by email and phone.

I want to sign letters of authority so that I can pass ALL the paper across and also hire someone who can make calls for me to service providers, arrange telephone and physical meetings and manage where I am and who I am in conversation with.

I suppose I’m looking for an all-round assistant, concierge and super-efficient sidekick who can just take all of this away and give me my Saturday back.

Do you know of anyone who would fit the bill?

If you do – can you ask them to email me at coachbarrow@me.com and let me know.

Back to work…..