This Pandemic has turned to be a historic and challenging time for all individuals, and as a result, we are encountering difficulties in different levels. The impact of COVID-19 has left many professionals with questions about,” What next to do with their businesses and practice?” Each hour escalates new changes, making it hard to keep up or know exactly where to reach out for assistance.
Currently, all of us have been facing two crisis, Health and Economic. Part of managing through it financially has been stressful and a struggle but on the bright side, this also allows us to determine ways to manage our finances better, which could be useful even after the end of this pandemic. The most you can do right now is to keep your financials up to date, determine your fixed cost, what they look like professionally and personally and list down possible business impacts.
To help you navigate your finance during Covid19 crisis, Kelly Gall from Credabl and Prabin Gautam discuss financing options available for dental practice owners right now. This series focuses on some frequently asked topics below which will surely help you to action your finance.
- Deferment and your options
- Planning your budget in personal and professional terms
- Relief packages and Grant availability
1 Deferment and your options:
In this unprecedented time, many dental practice owners are at stake with a question like “Should I defer?” or “What other options do I have?”
There will be business decisions and problems that you will no doubt encounter over the next few weeks and months that you have never experienced before. The key is to find out “What you have got?” “What are your current needs? “after determining these than you can work through these options.
Dental practices considering different options should give it careful thought: think about how it will impact their situation. The best that could be suggested now is, if we pass through these six months and still, we are not in a great place then we can change repayments to interest-only or we can move to defer them. It’s kind of a plan C to your Plan B and Plan A. We will get to deferment option if it is needed but at this moment it doesn’t feel like its right to jump into it.
Maybe we can take this time to shed more lights or look carefully on the option we have in stock and our current commitments.
Kelly shared, with her own experience with clients recently, majority of them have not chosen the deferment option and enabled to restructure payments to maybe interest-only for a little while so it’s not capitalised and tact in the end. We enable to put in place lines of credit are more flexible.
2 Planning your budget in personal and professional terms:
Other financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted communities, households, business and practices is managing cash flow and budget. This time of economic disruption and uncertainty has led many to arise questions like;
- What’s my budget?
- What does my household need to live each month?
- What do my practice commitment look like?
It is undeniable that uncertainty can be scary, however, keep in mind that we are all in this together. This situation has been affecting everybody and led to more unpredictability than ever. We should remember that nobody is going to come out of this fully-fledged, we are all going to be a little bruised.
What’s even more important is that we should utilise this opportunity to look through different areas, what can we move away and what can we trim back. As Albert Einstein had once said that “In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity”. The key is thinking about what you could do to fix/address/improve and implement those plans. If dental practices and profession have not much going around their practices, now is a great time to look at numbers. “What do my numbers look like?” “What more can I achieve if I add another consulting room or another chair?”
Determine how the crisis has affected your budgets and your action plans and how you can improve it to a better direction. Stress-test financial plans for multiple scenarios to understand the potential impact on financial performance and assess how long the impact may continue.
If the impact is material and former budget assumptions and plans are no longer relevant, remain agile and rework on it. At the same time, review overall operating costs and consider slowing down or lowering expenses which are non-essential right now.
3 Relief packages and Grant availability
During this crisis management situation, having your trusted advisor and your team is primary. Communicate and consult with your team for advice on potential packages and grants available and how you can manage and action them.
To understand the current financial state of your practice, identify the best possible actions to keep your practice afloat, you must update your financial statements. You can speak with your trusted advisor to see what other options may be available. As now we are moving up to 60- 50 version of the stimulus package in the last 3 weeks, manoeuvring and being able to transition. Be aware of the benefits you can obtain from It. Discuss with your financial advisor and your accountant and start to action these pieces.
As we move forward grants and relief packages are being provided, even if it might not be completely clear now but in a couple of weeks we believe it will be much more clearer.
Australian dental association (ADA) has also recently released Decision Tree to help you decide how best to manage your patients. This can also help you ensure your practice’s safety as well as understand which services to promote in your marketing campaign.
At times like this, it’s a collaborative effort, it is about the relationships and the connections you have. The ability to work through this together and mostly being adaptive of the situation. It is more important than ever that we look out for each other, build community, and take positive action so that we are better-prepared post-COVID 19 as well.
Remember, this tough period will gradually move away at some point. Make the best of this short time to come out financially stronger and give you benefits that will last a lifetime.
We are here to help you navigate these uncertain times. If you have any questions or concerns about what to do next, please reach out to us, we can connect you to our trusted partners who are experts in these matters.You can count on us to support your practice through this important time. To know more, book your 30-minute FREE consultation
