There is a simple way to discover whether you are making a positive difference to your patients/clients. Ask them. Then resist the temptation to explain why their answers ought to have been different. We created an online member survey using Jotform. Our email invitation linked directly to the questionnaire and asked Extreme Business owners and managers to respond separately, giving us both perspectives rather than one practice answer. First reality check. Responses arrived b

October marks the start of the final quarter. Take an hour this weekend to decide what you want to achieve before New Year’s Eve, with help from our ChatGPT assistant for business and personal goal setting.

It’s Friday afternoon and you’ve had a good day. You’ve stepped away from the practice, looked properly at the numbers and talked about what you want the business to become. There are ideas in your notebook, a few uncomfortable truths you can no longer ignore and a clear list of things that need to change. Then Monday arrives. An associate wants to discuss their diary. The practice manager needs a decision about recruitment. Someone has followed up a treatment plan, but nobod

The strongest signal across the Extreme Business Community this week is not a shortage of ideas. It is a shortage of space in which to implement them. Picture an owner arriving on Monday with a promising new colleague to welcome, a marketing opportunity to pursue and plans for improving the premises. Before the first coffee is finished, there is white space in one diary, an overdue patient follow-up list and a team member waiting for a decision. By lunchtime, strategy has bec

My new role as Director of Business Education at The Campbell Academy is one that I’m very excited about because, for me, there is a tremendous opportunity here to help independent practice owners to win. There are plenty of dentists and practice owners consuming business content, listening to podcasts, attending events and picking up good ideas. However, what far fewer people have is a properly documented strategic plan for what their business is going to look like over the

I have discovered a powerful productivity technique. Leave me at home, remove adult supervision and stand well back. Annie is away in Africa with Bridge2Aid, and I’m home alone. I miss her. My to-do list, however, has never had it so good. Looking back over the week, I appear to have mistaken an empty house for permission to open a branch office of absolutely everything. There have been financial reviews, coaching replies, client meetings, podcasting, workshop rehearsals and

What does it take to open a dental practice from scratch, attract your first patients and keep going when life gets difficult? In this episode of Two Reds Are Better Than One, Chris Barrow and Ashley Latter welcome Rupchhen Tamang, co-founder of Mapperley Dental Studio in Nottingham, for an honest conversation about ambition, resilience and building a business on your own terms. Born in Nepal, Rupchhen moved to the UK aged ten. His father’s military career initially pointed h

When every cleared space fills with another task, an empty list becomes an impossible target. Chris Barrow reflects on the 120% problem and the conversation practice owners and managers need to have about priorities.

The pulse across the Extreme Business Community this week is asking for a reset. Summer has ended, diaries are filling and projects delayed during the holidays have returned at once. New people are arriving, experienced colleagues are leaving, equipment decisions are moving forward and financial reports are becoming more detailed. On the surface, that looks like progress. Inside several businesses, however, the operating rhythm has started to fray. A manager returns to the de

A couple of interesting questions from clients yesterday: 1. Please can you help produce a priority list for the areas where you see AI should be introduced into dental practices. 2. The pace of AI innovation is frightening. Should we have a dedicated AI budget or % of budget overall? Or perhaps we should look at each area of expenditure and dedicate varying% to AI expenditure. 3. Who should be responsible for AI introduction within any practice hierarchy or do we say AI a