Financial Wellness Practices For Dental Facilities: 6 Expert Tips

Financial wellness practices are a set of principles that help people manage their economic wealth to provide them with a sustainable and predictable financial future. But what's most important for us is that we can easily implement such practices in the dental facilities to benefit all clinic staff.

As an owner, you must provide proper financial management to ensure your facility's business growth and stability. As an employee, you should manage your wealth to guarantee that, despite any turbulence in your workplace, you will not run out of funds immediately.

These matters became especially important in the modern unstable economy with all its downfalls, tariff wars, pandemics, and other kinds of disasters.

So, how do you handle your financial wellness?

Recently, DentistryIQ media reviewed these troubling questions with an invited expert, Katrina Klein, dental hygienist and founder of the ErgoFitLife company. Katrina shared a list of tips on how to keep managers' and employees' financial wellness at the appropriate level.

Practice owners advice

Most managers' tasks involve decision-making – they work mostly on practice, rather than in practice, and need to focus their efforts on building a strategy. In other words, they provide long-term initiatives to guarantee financial benefits for the business and increase employees' financial responsibility.

Gradual financial education. Basically, you can't just start spending your money wisely. Take it seriously and search for a certain workshop or course regarding financial management available in your city. If there is no such option near your place, you can purchase online workshops from respected speakers or visit free webinars from industry professionals, such as Remedico, sometimes organized with prominent experts like Prof. F. Schwendike or Prof. Paul Tipton.
Benefit your team. Minor solutions, like free coffee, snacks, and, of course, water in the office, are not a big deal for the annual budget. However, it has a significant return on investment indicator: it can significantly cut their daily financial burden and thus increase employee retention and gratitude. The practice owners will get more productive workers, and employees can take a free coffee break – a win-win condition.
Motivate your team. It's not enough to give free tasty stuff to your coworkers; managers also need to encourage employees' long-term financial planning. For instance, you can offer contributions to employee retirement accounts or motivate your employees to have lunch without "takeout" to decrease their daily financial burden.

Improving employees' financial management is just as essential for them as it is for practice owners. The more stable their economic life is, the more effectively staff members fulfill their duties.

Employees advice

For members of dental and administrative teams, Katrin shared a list of recommendations regarding self-management and personal financial control. In that case, the global strategy is more straightforward – you are responsible for your own good:

Create a budget and emergency fund. First, an individual needs to analyze their daily expenses to identify unnecessary spending, cut it, and redirect the money to specific priority goals. One of these goals, for instance, is the creation of an emergency fund – a certain amount of money that will contain about 3-6 months of your living expenses. Thus, you will be invulnerable to all possible financial fluctuations related to your job.
Pay your debts. Despite the nature of the debt, individuals need to pay it down to prevent possible financial burdens. Even a small amount of money is essential for getting out of it, but it's crucial to make this payment regularly.
Invest your wealth. Money makes money, and even a small amount of investment with a certain annual income can help save your money and improve your economic well-being. Here, you can choose the option that you personally like the most – company stocks, bank deposits, etc. The crucial point is that your money should not just lie under your pillow but work for you.

In addition to the abovementioned tips, Katrina Klein advises not to neglect financial advisor services. These professionals can analyze your income and expenses and provide you with precise guidance on how to spend your budget more wisely and effectively.

Why it's important?

A stable financial flow is a crucial element of a comfortable life that can help you avoid a possible nervous breakdown and professional burnout, regardless of your role in a dental practice. Still, financial wellness practices aren't a single tool for that purpose. Read other insights about how to improve your workflow and practice management on our Newsfeed:

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