What if you were faced with the decision of closing one of your independent community pharmacy’s locations?
Now that’s a tough decision. How do you react?
Whether it’s deciding to fire an employee, switch wholesalers or stop selling durable medical equipment (DME), it’s important to understand how to effectively weigh your options to do what’s best for your pharmacy business.
Use these steps the next time you come up against a tough decision.
1. Define the decision
Making a decision starts with identifying the problem and defining the specifics of the decision that has to be made.
Consider why the decision is important and if there’s a deadline for making it.
For example, are you deciding whether or not to hire another employee? This may be important because lately you feel understaffed, though you’re also operating on a tight budget.
And, you may need to make the decision before the next quarter when you expect an increase in traffic at your pharmacy.
2. Gather information
Getting input from others can help you to come up with an effective solution and ultimately make a decision.
Ask your employees to weigh in (when appropriate) on the decision, or seek advice from a trusted mentor.
Depending on your decision, there may be other parties who can lend a hand. For example, consulting your accountant may be wise if you’re deciding whether or not to open a new pharmacy location.
3. Brainstorm solutions
Before you can even think about making a decision, you have to brainstorm every alternative that could be a potential solution.
For example, if you’re deciding whether to hire a new employee, what are the alternatives?
One may be that you give your current employees more responsibilities to pick up the slack. Or, you could invest in an automatic dispensing system to create a more efficient workflow and free up more of your pharmacists’ time.
4. Choose an alternative
Once you’ve brainstormed, weigh the pros and cons of each option to help you ultimately make a decision.
Try visualizing how each alternative would play out, and see which one leaves you feeling the most satisfied. If you can’t realistically see one decision working out, eliminate it from the list.
And, don’t forget to consider the advice you’ve received from others when deciding which alternative to choose.
5. Implement the plan
After you choose an alternative, be careful not to second guess your decision.
If you’ve chosen to fire an employee, do so with confidence, and stick to your plan.
After you’ve carried out your decision, you can monitor the outcome.
6. Evaluate outcomes
It’s important to evaluate whether or not the decision you made was the right one, so you can learn from mistakes.
If your decision didn’t work out the way you planned, you should be prepared to make adjustments.
Maybe the reason you’re considering closing one of your pharmacy’s locations is because you recently opened a new pharmacy location, but you underestimated the amount of capital you needed. Now expenses are mounting for that new store and your other locations are falling behind.
Using these steps, adapt your plan by pushing the opening of your new location back or finding a partner to invest in your pharmacy business. And, the next time you’re faced with a decision like expanding your business, you’ll know to look harder at your financial situation.
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