How are we all shaping up

I am very much encouraged by our internal Dental4Windowssql statistics that indicate there is no letup in new Dental Practices opening up around the country. This is despite the almost unbelievable assault of the general media out there talking down our overall economy. I would presume it is not really the intention of most media outlets to create a self fulfilling prophecy of recession yet that seems to be exactly what will occur and is in part a result of the down talking hype the media create. One would think they might occasionally try to find a more positive story to report regarding the economy if they feel the absolute need to report on it every 10 minutes.

I accept that the role of the media is to report on the facts but I also understand the name of the game is ratings and circulation and with that must be an enormous temptation to focus on the bad stuff rather than the good due to our inherent nature as consumers of news to be drawn to sensationalized or bad news.

It is good to see our industry, our industry specific publications, our practitioners and suppliers all remaining focused on their individual games and just getting on with what needs to be done. I have seen very few indications of even pessimism for our sector, the health sector overall or those peripheral industries supporting us. My staff at the practice have not seen business slow at all and in fact they tell me that we have seen an increase of business. This is in the order of 5 to 8% and continues to date.

I believe this is fairly indicative of the sector overall but feel this is the type of news and information we should have access to more regularly. No matter if the news is good or bad, if we had this information we could then more easily manage our businesses with better clarity and confidence. Most of us know where we are and how we are performing against our own history as our KPI’s yet this does not show us how we are performing compared to the rest of the sector.

I am happy to state to all and sundry that both my practice in Sydney and dental4windows across the country continue to grow and in fact exceed our projections for this year. If this is indicative of our industry sector overall, the confidence we are feeling is not misplaced and should be tempered with no more than conservativeness.

I don’t imagine we will see this type of information reported in the general media though I am grateful our industry specific publications are reliable and consistent in their overall coverage, so good on them……

Dr Frank Papadopoulos