You will not reach your destination if you don’t have the final location listed on your GPS. Can you imagine jumping into your car with your family and driving for hours without knowing where you are going? Frustration, confusion and questions are certain to pop up.

While taking that family road trip, definitely, the kids will ask:

“How long ‘til we get there?”

“Do we have enough gas to get there?”

“Do we have enough money for this trip?”

“Are we on the right road?”

And also without a doubt, everyone else after a long drive will ask “Where the heck are we going?!”

When I talk to dentists, I hear them say “I fly by the seat of my pants,” and others just tell me “I don’t know what I am doing next week let alone six or nine months from now.”

Years will pass and many dentists (Business owners) have never taken time to discover their financial destination. In today’s world if this is you, it’s most likely your profits are down.

The uncertainty about what is achievable tends to prevent many of us, particularly new dentists, from determining what we want to achieve throughout our life as business people – entrepreneurs. (Did I really say entrepreneur?!)

Once you decide on a final destination, you can and need to plan appropriately to actually arrive. What is the goal of your destination? People will be most likely to reach the goals that are set. Remember about the “self fulfilling prophecy”? It is very true in this situation.

When you have failed to plan, you drive blind-folded. Once you decide where you want to go, your efforts, consciousness, and even subconsciously, you are now geared up for success.

When you take time to plan you can create the perfect budget, understand how many days, (i.e. How many hygiene days do you really need? Not just what you have scheduled every year but what needs to be scheduled for 2013) you really need to work in 2013 to accomplish the goals and you can work with the correct number of employees to accomplish your goals. One of my favorite authors Stephen Covey, wrote in his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” that it is essential to “begin with the end in mind.” I have learned a lot about planning from this book and others he writes.

Planning is how success is found and your profits will increase.

Now I will ask you the 60 million dollar question:

“Do you know where you want to go?”

“Do you know what to do to reactivate those 200+ overdue hygiene patients?”

“What is your plan to increase profits over 100k in 2013?”

“How much more would you like to take home in 2013?”

“Do you wish to work 200 days or 150 days in 2013?”

“Have you take time to map our how you can do work 175 days in 2013, working smarter and not so hard?”

“What is your plan to do it?”

As a business owner and dentist, you have an incredible amount of freedom and flexibility to create a wide variety of future destinations, for yourself and your family. You are in a great profession and provide an important service to the people in your community. Patients come to you and you have the tools to create a healthier and happier patient.

Once you have created your plan and written down your destination, you’ll be amazed at how energized you will become. Your mph or kilometers per hour will ramp up! It is amazing how much time is freed up in your brain and now you have time to think about new strategies for success. Strategies that you never before had time to think about.

You will create a whole new world. And guess what?

This is YOUR World! Stop focusing on “what may be” but now, today, focus on what YOU want.

What is it that you want in 2013?