It is time to roll your sleeves up and get back to work on growing your pharmacy profit.
Burnout is real.
No one is immune, not you, not me, not the owner down the street. With outbreaks dwindling and vaccine demand all but dead, it is time to refocus on your pharmacy’s growth. There is a palpable apathy among owners right now. It has been a tough year and a half. You had to focus on immediate critical needs, navigate unchartered waters, and put many plans on hold. Most pharmacies survived, and now it is time to thrive.
6 Pillars of Pharmacy Profit
There is so much to do in a pharmacy; so many areas need your attention and development. I firmly believe that all pharmacies can be profitable. There is always a way to win. Here at DiversifyRx, we look at creating a profitable pharmacy by optimizing each of these 6 pillars.
Pharmacists gained status and respect during the pandemic. You rose to the occasion to help your community. You deserve to have a profitable pharmacy to continue serving for decades to come. Being profitable these days is no easy task. It takes hard work. However, there have never been more opportunities for pharmacy owners to diversify their revenue streams to grow. These strategies don’t just fall from the sky.
You must actively search them out, get educated, and implement them.
Searching Out Strategies
Where is the best place to discover what other profitable pharmacy owners are doing, what new companies have popped up, and get a pulse on the entire industry? I would love to say there is one awesome place, but there isn’t. Here is a short list of my favorite watering holes:
- LinkedIn both individuals and pharmacy groups
- Facebook for their pharmacy-focused groups
- RPH Ally has quickly become a great hub
- Pharmacy Podcast Network turns drive time into learning time
- DiversifyRx blog and social channels
- Live, in-person pharmacy conferences
At DiversifyRx, I feel our number one job is constantly searching for strategies to help pharmacy owners. Not every opportunity is a fit for every pharmacy owner. Some pharmacies want to dispense high-margin prescriptions, while others think that is evil. Many pharmacists are focused on clinical services, while some pharmacy owners want to stay far away. We don’t discriminate against any opportunity. As long as each strategy is legal, follows the payer’s rules, and helps patients, then it is our job to tell the world of pharmacy owners about it.
Often the best strategies are optimization opportunities, how to use your inventory better, or increase your staff’s productivity. These improvements often cost very little and require a bit of time and training. As tough as our industry is these days, we cannot afford any stone to be left unturned. We have to squeeze out every bit of improvement that we can. I am a big believer in the philosophy that minor, consistent enhancements will lead to massive wins.
To help you stay consistent with activities that can dramatically improve your pharmacy, we are starting up a 75 Hard Challenge for Pharmacy Owners. This is modeled after Andy Frisella’s wildly successful personal improvement philosophy and book 75 Hard. This is a completely free challenge. We invite you to participate and see how dramatically different your pharmacy can be in 75 days. You can join the free Facebook Group HERE.
Get Educated
So you have heard about a program working for other pharmacies, but how do you learn all the details? The most natural method is learning from someone who has already succeeded in what you are trying to achieve. That has been impossible with COVID. No conferences or networking events to chat with other owners have dampened this learning. While in-person events are returning (hello, Pharmacy Profit Summit), we should also look to other methods.
One of the reasons I work with and recommend the companies I do for various profitable pharmacy strategies is that they offer training and education. Sometimes this training comes at a small cost, and often it is no charge. If a company is trying to sell you a product or service and isn’t willing to invest in your understanding of the program, it is time to find a new company.
Implementing Strategies
Change is good; you go first. This common saying is from a popular book by marketing guru and personal friend Tom Feltenstein. It wonderfully summarizes our natural tendency towards change; we don’t want to do it. This reluctance to change is what makes implementing new programs so hard. It isn’t doing new stuff that trips us up; it is changing the old ways that everyone struggles with.
To make it easier for your staff, you should break a new program down into bite-sized chunks. Tell them the whole vision and then create smaller actionable goals. You can do this as a step-by-step list or break it down into weekly tasks. You will need to provide motivation. Set up a reward for reaching milestones. These rewards can be as simple as coffee one morning or cash bonuses. Since change is hard, providing an incentive will help get employees excited about tackling the changes ahead.
Create accountability in your team and for yourself. For every project in your pharmacy, you should have a project lead. The project lead is the one person who holds the accountability for getting the program implemented. They, in turn, will keep other employees accountable for completing their portion of the tasks. Who will hold you accountable? As the pharmacy owner, you are inundated with 1,000 to-dos every day. However, if you want any real change to happen in your pharmacy, you will need support too. You can get accountability from a friend, fellow pharmacy owner, business coach, or employee.
I know the critical importance of accountability and support to reach your full potential. For this reason, we offer our low-cost membership at Pharmacy Badass University, and you can get optional coaching that is effective and affordable. We also use our influence to attract world-class specialty coaches like Dr. Kristin Tallent to help our members. Dr. Tallent is offering a special limited-time point of care testing coaching program that begins September 14, 2022. This program is a one-time fee of $497, and you will get access to Dr. Kristin for 8 weeks! You can learn more HERE.
Working On Your Pharmacy Profits
There is a difference between working in your business and working on your business. I learned this many years ago from the E-Myth book. When you are working in your business, you fill prescriptions, respond to an audit, or complete an employee schedule. In contrast, to work on your business means focusing on goals, strategy, educating yourself, and looking ahead. Our industry is different today than it was last month or last year. Even if you have tried something before, that most definitely does not mean it will never work. You must keep innovating and implementing to keep your pharmacy moving forward. Please reach out to DiversifyRx at [email protected] if you need additional support.
