Do a simple search for the terms “next recession,” and you’ll discover something both fascinating and alarming.
The fascinating part is that virtually every financial pundit says the next recession is coming. The alarming part is that the predictions on when the recession will occur are all over the map – ranging from the next six months to two to three years. Just as widespread are the predictions about the severity of the next recession, ranging from mild to worse than the Great Recession of 2008.
In other words, something bad is coming but you don’t know when or how bad it will be.
But something is bad is coming, and dental practices need to prepare.
If you were in practice in 2008, you probably saw your collections take a hard hit. You also probably saw your practice’s income recover very slowly over the next seven to eight years.
And now, just as dentists are getting back to roughly where they were before everything went smash, the economists are saying that things are going to go smash again. Granted, pundits have to have something to talk about on the cable news shows and to write about in their blogs and columns. That could easily make you cynical about believing anything they say. But there are a number of factors that should make dentists sit up and take notice.
Making the Same Mistake Twice?
The current Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, told a Senate subcommittee in May that the Administration favors some form of a 21st century Glass-Steagall Act. That act, you’ll recall separated commercial banking from investment banking. To put it another way, bankers weren’t allowed to play “stock market roulette” with other people’s savings. It was the lack of Glass-Steagall, which was repealed in 1999, that allowed the Great Recession to happen.
You’d think that the Administration would be looking out for small businesses and working people with its “some version” of another Glass-Steagall. Not so. Mnuchin went on to say that the act under consideration would not separate commercial and investment banking. So, the same free pass that banks had from 1999 to 2008 to gamble with all the money is still in place. And, the “too big to fail” banks are even bigger now, and the Administration doesn’t favor breaking up those banks.
The stage is set for a virtual repeat of the financial disaster of 2008.
What Will You Do?
The old saying, “Hope for the best, but plan for the worst” applies to this situation. No one knows for sure how far-reaching the effects of the next recession will be. You can choose to take an optimistic view, and do nothing. Or, you can plan for the worst.
Dentists discovered during the Great Recession that their traditional approach to filling their new-patient pipelines was much less effective under adverse economic conditions. Nothing has changed in that approach for the vast majority of dentists – they still advertise on price, discounts, and specials.
Just as with the current financial system, what failed before can fail again. Are you willing to take that chance?
If you’re serious about your practice’s success, and safeguarding it against the coming economic downturn, go to www.PatientAttractionBlueprint.com. Schedule a Blueprint call, and we’ll show you what a Patient Attraction System™ can double or even triple your practice. Just as importantly, you’ll learn why the patients who will fill your pipeline are your best insurance against another financial disaster.