7 Requisites to Harness the Power of Your Pharmacy— When You Do, Watch Your Cash Flow Soar

                  “The biggest single problem within almost every  business is
                          the confusion between efficiency and effectiveness.”
                                                                   The Pharmacy Sage
 
“Efficiency” means doing things right. “Effectiveness” means doing the right things. Unfortunately, throughout the years,  I’ve found that pharmacy owners and managers become all too efficient at doing the wrong things.

There are seven requisites around which you must organize your time, effort, and activities, to be efficient and effective, helping you to concentrate on achieving results at the highest level. Let’s jump right into them:

1. Mission. Your mission is your starting point, it keeps you focused and gives you direction. Just make certain it is the right mission, then never deviate. Understand, your mission should have nothing to do with filling prescriptions and everything to do with patients’ health.
   
   
2. Vision. Your vision depicts what your pharmacy is all about. It describes the products and services you offer, who your team is comprised of, the ambiance of your facility, as well as your marketing and community relationships.
   
   
3. Goals. Your goals should consist of both long-range and short-range objectives, and have the strategies necessary to reach those goals, in place. To be effective, each should be specific and contain a measuring unit, as well as a timeline.  For example, increase sales of nutraceuticals by 30% by June 30th.
   
   
4. Strategies. These are your action plans showing how you will achieve your goals. If goals tell you where you’re going, strategies tell you how you are going to get there.
   
   Having the right strategies is basic and fundamental to your success. Pursuing the wrong strategy not only can lead to chaos and confusion, but it can cost you money and time. The road to achieving your goals should be carefully chosen.
   
   It’s about allocating scarce resources, such as your time, to create a fail-safe pathway to your goals.
   
   
5. Business model. Your business model represents the way you do business and the way you serve your customers. It also relates to the products and services you provide and what you get paid for, as well as how you get paid. The most productive, the most profitable model I have encountered for independent pharmacies is as follows:
   
   

• Natural meds. Higher quality and broader assortments than are found in chains and big box stores.
  
  
• Compounding. Offering your patients customized scripts for whatever is ailing them. It beats the one-size-fits-all traditional scripts.
  
  
• Fee for services. When you become significantly knowledgeable about chronic diseases, you can and will get paid for your expertise, just as a medical doctor does for his or her knowledge.
  
  
• Marketing. You can be the greatest pharmacist in the country, but you will remain a secret, unless and until you present your community with compelling marketing messages.

6.  Marketing. Your marketing is the only element of your business that creates significant results. Everything else is just a cost. In       order to be effective, it must be meaningful, that is, marketing that gets read and creates a response.

     To the degree that you have some alternative solutions to patients’ aches, pains and maladies that go beyond prescription               meds, don’t remain the best kept secret in your community. Get the word out that you are the go-to pharmacy for chronic                 diseases in your community.

     When you have all the components of a total marketing machine, which should include online and offline marketing, direct mail,       and a website that sells, you can increase sales of your high margin products and services.

7.  Never, ever, do that which can be done by someone else equally as well, if not better, and at a lower cost. Few things are           as destructive to an organization as having its leader do work that could— and should— be done by its employees. The                   opportunity costs are just far too large. Think about it this way, if you want to be worth $250 an hour, then why are you                     spending your time doing $15 an hour work?

    Time is the scarcest resource we all have. Your scarce time is best spend by doing the things that build your business bigger          and more profitable. Concentrate on results, not just efficiencies. Start making your pharmacy work for you, not the other way          around.
 
Once you embrace and organize your time around the 7 requisites, you will discover a greater joy in owning your pharmacy. And one that attracts new patients, and doing more business on a cash basis.

Many of my current and past clients have been doing so, while watching their profits soar (some have reported gross profits as high as 61% to 65% with net profits-- after payroll, including paying themselves), as high as 25%!  

No one knows your business goals and vision better than you, but perhaps you're not certain how to obtain them. We can help you clarify, define and put into action, that vision for your pharmacy. We take a unique holistic business approach to find the perfect balance of strategies, tactics, ideas and marketing to integrate solutions to meet your unique needs.

It just takes one phone call to change the future of your pharmacy. Sign up for a free business analysis, and let me help you figure out your best plan of action.

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