Setbacks happen to all businesses.
Some of them you can see coming.
You know months out that a new Walmart is opening in your town and will undoubtedly grab up some of your prescription business with it.
Others you’d never expect.
Like your top pharmacy technician quitting unexpectedly. A pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) clawing back even more fees. Your landlord doubling your rent.
Some blows are glancing. Others, devastating.
When you experience a shattering pharmacy business setback, how will you recover?
Here are some strategies that can help you recover from business setbacks. (Plus, we’ll tell you the one method you need the most).
3 Strategies to Help You Recover from Pharmacy Business Setbacks
Make practical preparations to bulwark the blow when it comes.
Just as states in hurricane country fortify their buildings to weather the storms, your pharmacy can build in safeguards against hard times.
General ways to prepare for business setbacks:
- Build a deep savings account to keep your business afloat when your cash flow slows
- Track national and state legislation to keep up with regulatory changes that might set back your business
- Set a response plan with your staff for scenarios when things go awry, such as committing a serious medication error or facing an angry patient when you’re busy
- Foster a culture of innovation that can adapt to unforeseen setbacks in creative ways
- Hire great leaders who you can trust in times of trouble
Find alternative ways to make back what you lost.
If the setback comes in the form of steeper reimbursements drops, for example, you can recover by investing in a new service that doesn’t completely rely on third party reimbursement, such as compounding.
Or, improve your primary wholesaler contract with a service like ProfitGuard, a primary wholesaler contract negotiation and management services from PBA Health, to improve your profit margins and boost your pharmacy’ bottom line.
Seek outside counsel.
Sometimes you need an objective eye. When you stare at something for too long, you start to miss things. If you stare too closely, your nose gets in the way.
Outside counsel can guide you to a better business decision, such as whether to borrow money to get through a slump or how to hire a pharmacy tech that won’t bail on you again.
Need to Recover? Use This One Method to Combat Pharmacy Business Setbacks
While those types of approaches might help you bounce back, you can’t correct most business setbacks just by sound strategies or deep savings.
You need something that’ll get you back on your feet no matter how hard you’re hit. And no matter what strategy you need.
You need this one method to recover from pharmacy business setbacks.
Here it is. Stay passionate about your business.
Without passion for your pharmacy business, setbacks won’t just set you back, they’ll knock you out.
If you’re not passionate about your pharmacy and your patients, do you really think you’ll have the endurance and willpower to recover from a 5 percent profit loss?
Or from a CVS moving in across the street?
Passion for your pharmacy business and your patients is the one method that’ll always get you through.
When you care deeply about what you do, you can weather any storm.
One of the most inspiring stories to come out of World War II was about an American pilot, Louis Zamperini, who survived seven weeks on a raft in the Pacific Ocean and two years as a prisoner of war.
Because of his passion for life, he did anything he could to survive. His passion, not simply his survival skills or strategies, kept him alive after crippling setbacks.
When you’re passionate about your pharmacy, you’ll do anything to see it survive, even when it feels hopeless. You’ll have a life preserver to carry you through the roughest pharmacy business setbacks.
If you feel discouraged by dwindling reimbursements, passion for your patients will reinvigorate you to fight for the people who rely on your business to live healthy and happy lives.
And if your best pharmacist quits abruptly, passion for your business will push you to find someone better, to set an even higher standard of care.
If insurance companies won’t reimburse you for providing an important service, like mental health screenings, passion will spur you to create a means of payment for that service to make sure you can offer it.
Passion will always push you to pursue whatever you need to keep your pharmacy business alive.
When patients become your passionate priority, they’ll stick with you even when the waters are rough.
Patients at national chain pharmacies and big box stores feel like they’re just a number. Because they are. A corporation can’t care for them the same way your independent community pharmacy can.
Patients at independent pharmacies expect their pharmacy to care about them. If they don’t feel cared for, they bail.
When patients are your passion, they notice. And they’ll be willing to ride with you through the roughest waters. Even if they can’t see the shore.
They’ll try a new service even if they’re wary about getting it at their pharmacy instead of the physician’s office.
And they’ll walk into your pharmacy when your drive-thru malfunctions or you don’t have enough staff to run it.
They’ll stay loyal even if you move locations because you can no longer afford the rent.
When you’re passionate about your patients, they’ll follow you through your pharmacy business setbacks and see you on the other side.
Passion is the one method you need to overcome any setback. How passionate are you?
(Plus, here’s how to avoid mistakes that kill your passion.)
An Independently Owned Organization Serving Independent Pharmacies
PBA Health is dedicated to helping independent pharmacies reach their full potential on the buy side of their business. The company is a member-owned organization that serves independent pharmacies with group purchasing services, expert contract negotiations, proprietary purchasing tools, distribution services, and more.
An HDA member, PBA Health operates its own NABP-accredited (formerly VAWD) warehouse with more than 6,000 SKUs, including brands, generics, narcotics CII-CV, cold-storage products, and over-the-counter (OTC) products.
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