If you want to make your dental practice more profitable, you either can get more customers, reduce costs, or do both. Unfortunately, not all dental practices can produce clients out of thin air and have to find ways to squeeze costs and overheads if they even want to survive. Luckily for them, however, there are plenty of ways that any dental practice can reduce operation costs, sometimes by making minor adjustments. Here are a few ways dental clinics can reduce their expenses.
Install Motion Detectors
We’re not talking about security here. Adding motion detectors could help you save on your energy costs. You could use motion detectors to operate lights or special equipment in places like storage and examination rooms. Doing this alone could eventually save you hundreds of pounds in energy costs every year. You could also use them to control heating in various rooms.
Shop Around for Utilities
Know that you don’t have to accept whatever fee your utility company is charging and you can always negotiate. This is especially true if you’ve been with them for many years and are letting them know that you’re ready to take your business elsewhere. You should also check business electricity comparison sites and shop around for better deals. Some people have been able to save up to 45% on their electricity costs by using utility comparison sites and making the switch. These will allow you to check multiple quotes in minutes and help you find the best one for your needs.
Go for LED
If you’re still relying on halogen as many practices do, it’s time to make the switch to LED or CFL lights. Both options will cost you less on electricity, and will also last much longer. You could cut your lighting energy costs by up to 75% by making the switch.
Cut on IT Costs
A lot of practice owners make the mistake of spending way too much of their resources on IT. One of the reasons for this is that they’re not being proactive and only use an on-call IT service when something goes wrong. In these cases, the professional will leave them with a hefty bill once they fix everything and will gladly do so every time there’s an issue.
But if you work with an IT managed service, you’ll have a team with you that will work to make sure that issues won’t happen in the first place. This is like having an IT department, but without the costs. They will monitor your systems and network, make sure your infrastructure is secure at all times, provide assistance with software and updates, fix computers and provide ongoing support all for a flat fee. This way, you won’t have to pay thousands in damage control and restoration every time something breaks down.
As you can see, there are tons of ways dental practices can cut their expenses and get a little more extra room to breathe. Make sure to always find new ways to cut on costs, and always try to identify any potential leaks.
