Setting a Clear Vision for Pharmacy Business Success
In the coming year, 2012 is the perfect opportunity to grow your independent pharmacy business. Now is the time to begin thinking about setting clear goals and determine a strategy and plan so you're more productive. With a strategy, you can achieve more balance in your life, and you can produce the results you want to achieve.
Since there's a lot of change happening in the pharmacy industry, it is particularly important for you to have clear direction to insure you do not lose ground in your business. You are dealing with many factors, and I’m not just talking about market conditions, or regulation changes or increased competition from the chains and mail-order, all of those things are happening and, customer expectations are also changing.
To have a clear direction, we always start with a vision for your business. Why are you really in business? How do you do what you do differently from everyone else and more specifically, what exactly do you really do?
We then use that vision to set specific goals you want to reach, thus creating a roadmap for you and your team to follow in order to obtain the success you desire. Once we are clear on the vision, we can get more focused on creating a plan that we can measure and correct as you progress.
Over the course of 13 years, we’ve spoken with literally hundreds of pharmacy owners, many of which actually do have a particular vision, or an idea of what they want to accomplish. However, they’ve rarely written it down. They haven't really captured it though, even though they think they have because it's not written down. The problem with a vision which is not visible and written down, is that it's a moving target.
To actually capture your vision and to guide you through this exercise, I want you to answer these questions:
- What does your ideal business look like?
Don’t let your self imposed limitations get in the way by telling you what is or isn’t really possible. If it were possible, what would your ideal business look like?
- What needs to happen for you to be happy with the results of your business?
One of the first questions we like to ask when we begin working with a pharmacy owner is, if we are having a conversation one year from today, what has to happen both personally and professionally in order for you to be happy with your progress? We ALL want the exact same thing and that is to be happy. What does that look like for you? A very important question to answer.
- What specifically does success look like for you?
Success isn’tmeasured in dollars and cents for everybody.
- What is your business known for?
Everyone knows that word of mouth advertising is the most effective form of advertising. What’s the word on you?
- What is the reputation of your business in your community?
- What are the metrics of your ideal business; gross revenue, net profit, number of staff, number of locations?
- What types of programs do you offer?
- Who are your customers?
- Who is your ideal target audience?
- And some of you might want to take a look at what's your exit strategy.
For example, do you want your pharmacy to be something handed down through generations? Do you have somebody else you want to sell the pharmacy to? Do you want to build to a point that you can then sell it? Do you want to continue working and just work less? Do you want to still own your pharmacy and have your staff doing most of the day-to-day, and you do what you want, when you want to? So part of your vision: what is the image of your pharmacy when you decide to hand it off to the next stage?
Some people have details in their brain, other people have an actual full color, high-def picture. It is important to remember when you're doing these exercises there's no right way. In other words, you could draw pictures. You could describe it. You can do point form. You can write a paragraph with lots of detail. It's literally how you want to capture you're vision; there's no right way to do it. The most important thing though is that you actually write it down.
Once you've captured your vision – sit down with your business coach and/or partner and refine your vision so you have a sense of a three-year, five-year, and ten-year plan. This allows you get a big picture overlook and where you want to be three years from now, where do you want to be five years from now, where do you want to be ten years from now? If you have an exit strategy, what kind of timeframe are you looking for?
Writing Down Your Goals
And please remember that you are never limited by your vision or your goals. We often meet with people who don't write down their vision, or don't put goals to paper because of the concern about getting the right goal or the perfect goal, or that they might limit themselves. You should never restrict yourself because it's your goal and vision, and you have the authority to change it.
That's the beauty as an entrepreneur, it's your business, it's completely your choice. But not having proper clarity will cost you and therefore diminish the results you achieve in your business.
"Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare."
There is a physical cost in your business, in your energy, with your staff, and financially in your business if you do not get clarity around the roadmap for your business. You will use your vision to determine your goals, and then your goals to create a strategy and plan, and that will align your actions and decisions.
To help realize the vision you have set up for your pharmacy business, I recommend answering the previous questions and then buying a large bulletin board for your wall. This is where you’ll put numbers, diagrams, pictures, descriptions, anything that will help you capture your vision. I recommend keeping it up all the time so it is front and center throughout your day and can be changed as needed. About once a year, you should change the numbers, extend dates, remove certain items because things change or you’ve accomplished certain goals.
Want to learn more about vision and goal setting? Check out our Setting the Stage for Growth with Vision and Goals for Your Independent Pharmacy on-demand webinar.
