Doing Nothing Is Still a Business Decision

We Measure the Risk of Action

Business owners are usually pretty good at identifying the downside of making a decision.

• If a new piece of equipment costs $30,000, that $30,000 is staring you in the face.
• If a marketing campaign costs $2,000, you can see the expense.
• If employing another podiatrist costs $100,000 a year, you know exactly what you’re committing to.

The potential loss has a number attached to it, but the cost of inaction is much quieter. And that’s what makes it dangerous.

What Did You Miss?

Imagine you’ve been considering increasing your consultation fees by $10, but you decide against it because you’re worried patients might complain.

Twelve months later, you finally make the change and discover almost nobody cares; in fact, only Tight-Butt Terry and No-Money Mary complained, but no one else.

You immediately think, great. Except now calculate how many consultations you performed during those twelve months and multiply that number by $10.

That’s the cost of waiting.

The same applies everywhere in your business. What did you lose by waiting three years to introduce a profitable new service, like shockwave?

What did inefficient systems cost you in staff hours and lost patients?  

What potential opportunities disappeared because you didn’t market your practice properly when you had the opportunity to do so?

How much time are you wasting because you’ve decided AI isn’t for you and you’d rather just keep doing things the old-fashioned way?

Suddenly, doing nothing doesn’t look quite so safe.

Run More Experiments

I think business owners need to become more comfortable with the word experiment. And an experiment isn’t a lifelong commitment.

Try something for 30, 60 or 90 days and measure what happens. If it doesn’t work, change it or stop. If it works, keep going and see whether you can make it even better by experimenting some more. 

One of the most liberating things you can realise as a business owner is that most decisions are reversible. You’re allowed to change your mind if things do not work as you planned.

Discomfort Isn’t a Stop Sign

This is where many business owners become stuck, though; most decisions feel uncomfortable, so they interpret that feeling as a warning.

But discomfort doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong. Sometimes it’s simply telling you you’ve never done this before.

• Your first employee was uncomfortable.
• Your first significant fee increase was (very) uncomfortable.
• Your first video was probably uncomfortable. I know mine was. 
• Your first difficult staff conversation was uncomfortable.

But after giving it a go, you did it again. And again. And eventually, what once felt uncomfortable became normal. 

Calculate Both Sides

The next time you’re considering making a change in your business, don’t just ask:

“What could go wrong if I do this?”

Ask the opposite question as well:

“What could it cost me if I don’t?”

If you can, put a number on it. Calculate the lost revenue, wasted hours, missed opportunities or delayed growth.

Because standing still isn’t standing still when your competitors, technology, patients and profession continue moving forward. If everyone else is moving forward, you are actually falling behind; you just don’t see it. 

Therefore, doing nothing is still a business decision, but make sure it’s a decision you’re deliberately choosing, rather than one you’ve made simply because it feels comfortable.

Need a Different Perspective on Your Business?

Sometimes the hardest problems to see are the ones you’ve been looking at for years.

I work with podiatrists who want to:

• Challenge the way they’ve always done things.
• Identify opportunities they’re overlooking.
• And build more profitable businesses without simply adding more hours to their week.

If your business has become a little too comfortable, it may be time to look at it from a different angle.

If you’d like help creating a podiatry business that’s more profitable, less dependent on you and gives you more freedom so you can enjoy life, let’s have a conversation.

You can reach out to me at tf@tysonfranklin.com, and I will help you where I can. 

Or, if you just want to make more money in podiatry, we can talk about that as well.