Contributed Post | Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

Does Your Healthcare Practice Need A Website?

July 12, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Running your own healthcare practice is noble. Many practice owners start out because they want to do things differently and give their clients more. They want to help and take care of people and offer fare healthcare to as many people as possible. They might be unhappy with the way the healthcare system is run or find themselves unable to find work in the existing system that offers them the flexibility or style of work that they need or want.

But, it’s still a business. However, much you want to improve the system and the lives of those that live in your community, it’s still a business. You need to make money, find patients and become successful. You need to employ the best doctors and nurses and spend time working on systems for keeping patient records and other admin. You need to work with insurance companies, market your practice, communicate with other healthcare providers and officials, train staff, look after them, keep your establishment clean and tidy and make sure it meets all safety requirements. You are responsible for ensuring that your practice is safe, friendly and able to offer the best healthcare services that you can.

On top of all of that, do you really have time to run a website? Do you even need one? The online world has become a massive part of our everyday lives, but has it spread to healthcare? When you’ve got so much to do and to think about, is this extra burden worth the effort?

In short, yes. A website can be a handy tool for a small healthcare practice. It can give you a much better and more convenient way to contact your patients. But, there’s a lot more to it than that. Used well, a healthcare practice website that has had thorough web app penetration testing and is completely safe and secure can help you to build your business, help your patients and build relationships with the community as a whole. Here are some of the reasons your practice needs a website.

To Communicate

One of the biggest annoyances most members of the public have with their healthcare providers is communication. Getting an appointment can be almost impossible and many people find themselves on hold to their surgery early in the morning, in a queue to get an appointment. This is the last thing that you want when you are feeling ill or facing an emergency.

A website offers an alternative way to communicate with your patients. You could have an appointment booking system online, as well as a live chat element so that people can ask for advice without needing to come in and take up an appointment time. A website can also automatically direct patients to the services that they need, cutting time for both them and the doctor. A pregnant women, for example, could make an appointment with a midwife directly without having first to see a doctor or speak with a receptionist.

It can also offer a prescription ordering service, which can then be linked to an online pharmacy who can deliver directly to patients. Saving everyone time.

Having an online presence, and a good website that your patients use regularly also gives you a great way to communicate changes and essential information. If you are closed for an afternoon, advertising online or sending out an email is a much easier and faster way to let everyone know.

Education

A good website isn’t just about communicating information and booking appointments. It has the power to do a lot more. Your site can educate the community. Helping them to take responsibility for their own health and saving your doctors time. They’ll no longer have to teach every patient asking about the flu jab the same things. They’ll be an informative article on your website that they can read.

Post regular informative content. Try to make sure it’s relevant. In summer, talk about seasonal allergies. In winter, write about colds and flu. Offer patients advice on symptoms, prevention and treatment, as well as letting them know when they need to come in and get checked out. You can even film videos with self-care advice or show people how to check themselves for lumps and other serious symptoms. This is an easy way to save lives, build a reputation and develop trusting relationships.

24-hour Access

Many modern surgery’s offer a late-night opening day, or even a weekend surgery to cater for the modern worker. We don’t all work set shifts and have the same days off and visiting the doctor can be hard. But, we’re unable to offer 24-hour care. Especially as a smaller practice. A website gives you this ability. You still won’t be able to see patients. But they’ll be able to book appointments, read up on their symptoms or even send a message asking for a call or some advice, to replied to asap. This is much better than having your patients frightening themselves reading random articles they’ve found by Googling their symptoms.

Marketing, without Marketing

Healthcare providers often feel a bit off about marketing their services. It’s certainly not why people enter the profession. A website gives you a soft way to show yourself off without any hard sell marketing. Add a section about your staff, tell the story of why you started the practice, host Q&A’s with other professionals and let the world see the human side of your practice. It’ll bring new clients in and help them to trust you with their most embarrassing issues.

To Stay Up to Date

We live in a world where the internet is a part of everything. If we look up a store to find it hasn’t got a website or the one that they have is dated and slow, we worry that the store is old-fashioned, behind the times and out of date. An online presence makes you look like you are at the forefront of modern technology. It’ll make people think that you are also up to date with modern healthcare techniques and methods.

4 Reasons Why A Dead End Job Needn’t Necessarily Be A Dead End

July 12, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

There are few feelings as soul crushing than laboring away at a job you despise and feels as though it’s going nowhere. Waking up in the morning and staring down the prospect of 8-12 hours doing something that bores, frustrates or irks you for a boss who doesn’t value respect or appreciate you is an agony we’ve all felt at times. It’s not uncommon for us to become annoyed or frustrated by our jobs, and when this happens we keep our eyes fixed elsewhere. We apply for other, more fulfilling jobs but when our endless applications yield no fruit it can be utterly infuriating and may leave us thinking that we’re stuck in a dead end job. While this feeling is indeed utterly mortifying, let’s not forget that our perception often determines our reality. Perceive your job as a dead end job for long enough and it will inevitably become a dead end job.

But even the worst jobs are not irredeemable. Your seemingly dead end job needn’t necessarily be a dead end. Here’s why…

Your free time is your own (so use it effectively)

Even if you work cripplingly long hours or need to put in considerable overtime to make ends meet, it’s essential to use your free time effectively if you’re to hope to escape this job. Fortunately, the digital realm affords us more ways than ever before to escape jobs we hate. The world of online learning allows us to pursue college accredited courses like this online policing program than ever before. If you want a career that makes a difference, online learning can help you achieve it. Or even set up your own business as a side hustle. If you make time, remain disciplined and avoid the allure of the TV and sofa after you clock off, anything is possible.

You’re gaining valuable skills

Whether you’re aware of it or not, every day you spend in your dead end job you’re gaining valuable skills which will only make you more appealing in the eyes of your next employer. Every time you smile through an unreasonable customer’s angry tirade, every time you swallow your anger and frustration and commit to doing your job as best you can and every time you put your professionalism before your personal feelings you score a victory for yourself. Your perseverance and professionalism will be recognized some day.

You’re making friends

It’s incredible what a difference the right colleagues can make to even the most insufferable of jobs. Adversity has a way of building close and enduring frienships. While this may be a blessing in disguise, it is a blessing nonetheless. If it affords you nothing else, your job has allowed you to make good friends. And one day you’ll look back on all of this and laugh heartily.

Finally… Just think how great it’ll feel when you quit

If nothing else can pull you through the feeling that you’re wasting away in a dead end job, just think about how great it’ll be when the next opportunity comes along (and it will if you keep looking for it). The satisfaction you’ll feel when you hand in your written notice can be an extremely powerful motivator.

Giving Your Offices A Professional Look And Feel

July 10, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

There’s a chance that the importance of first impressions has been overblown. Can you win back those people who didn’t like what they initially saw? Probably…but it’ll be much harder than just getting them on board the first time around. As such, it’s best to make sure there are no question marks about your business. If you give your offices a professional look and feel, you’ll be able to get down to the important matter of taking care of business. Below, we take a look at how you can get your premises in tip-top shape for visitors.

First impressions

First Impressions

There are some companies who spend a lot of time taking care of their interiors, yet completely overlook their exteriors! Remember: the first thing that your visitors will see won’t be the splendid interior you’ve crafted. It’ll be your entranceway, the greeting they get from the receptionist, and so on. As such, take steps to make sure that this aspect of your office is watertight. You’ll want your entranceway to be well sign-posted, well-lit, and welcoming. It’ll be the best way to let the world know that beyond those doors, serious work is taking place.

Lighting and Infrastructure

You can sometimes just get a feel for a place that seems professional, and ones that don’t. But there’s normally a cause for that ‘feeling,’ and it’s the lighting. If you’ve got dark, uninspiring lighting, then you’re not going to impress too many people. If, on the other hand, you have natural lighting, sharp overhead lighting, and polished concrete floors that make the office sparkle, then you’ll be getting off on the right foot. Don’t forget your infrastructure, either: it’s worthwhile having high-quality desks and chairs, and not just to keep your employees on board.

Neat and Orderly

It doesn’t matter how much effort you put in elsewhere: if your offices are in a state of disarray, then that’s all your visitors are going to see. As such, make sure you’re hiring a cleaning firm to take care of keeping your offices in tip-top condition. Also, consider going digital; there are benefits to your energy bill and the environment, of course, but it’ll also reduce the amount of loose paper that’s flying around the place. It’s much easier to keep the sleek and modern minimalism look in order when you have less stuff in the office.

A Space for Meetings

There’s nothing worse than inviting someone for a meeting and then just sitting at your open plan desk area. It’s not a professional look. It’s much better to have a dedicated meeting room located within your office, even if that means you can’t have your own private space.

Set the Standards

Finally, remember to set the standards for your employees! It’ll be much easier to maintain high professional standards across the board if everyone on your team knows what’s expected of them. It might be a case of just ensuring their desks our tidy come the end of the day, but it’ll make a difference.

Flexing Your Entrepreneurial Muscles: The Ways To Do It

July 10, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

I’m not sure many people grow up saying that they want to be an entrepreneur. I find that when it comes to these sorts of attributes it is often something that you are born with. The neutral desire to turn a profit at any given opportunity. Buying sweets from your friends for one price and selling them on for a higher price. Always looking for the next big thing, and even creating ideas like car washing as a teenager to raise funds or selling something. As an entrepreneur you may find that you have lots of passion and drive when it comes to business and this is only something that grows as you get older, so you may feel that it is your natural way into business and your career rather than deciding you want to do it. But how can you flex those muscles in the world of business. I thought I would share with you some of the ways to do it.

Big Idea

Having that one idea

For any entrepreneur I think you will agree that so many would say it takes that one big idea. The one idea that hits you when you least expect it to. It could be that you want to change something, or you have an idea for a niche or gap in a market where you think you can make the biggest difference. The idea can consume you, and it can certainly be the one night thing that enables you to launch a business and make it a success.

Starting up an online business from home

Sometimes it just takes that leap of faith. You could be working for a company and think that doing it yourself would be better. Enabling you to have more time or earn more win the process. Maybe it means going freelance and just starting up at home. Many online businesses start from a laptop in a living room, and often some of these companies can become the biggest success stories. Apple was started in a garage, just saying.

Acquiring a failing business and making it a success

Maybe the idea is simple, you just want to work for yourself. So a great option is to consider buying a business and making it a success. Whether that is a business that is failing and you want to make it a success, or whether that is a business you are interested in and want to learn more on the ground experience in. You can acquire businesses and using business acquisition lenders can help you secure the finance you need to do it. Once you have the business you can then come up with your plan and actionable steps to make it a success.

Expanding your already existing business

Maybe you already have a business that is doing well. But what would be the next step to move the business forward? Have you through about expanding it? This might be moving it from your home into a physical workplace. It might be that you decide to open a shop or retail outlet. Maybe it is expanding your current range of products and services. Could you turn your business idea into a franchise? There are many things you could consider doing. You could reinvest into the business or seek finance to help you grow and expand it quicker.

Building a business with selling in mind

Maybe the end goal is to always sell a business. This is what many entrepreneurs do. They don’t tend to be interested in the running of a business, they are simply wanting to build it up and then make their money and move on to the next project. So you could be building a business with selling in mind. This is a great way to really flex your skills and see what you are capable of doing.

Acquiring a business location and changing the use

Finally, maybe you are looking at the bigger picture. Perhaps you have acquired a business location but now think it is more suitable for another purpose. That might be change a shop into a cafe or restaurant, or vice versa. Maybe it is using a big open space and making it into a fun centre for families and children. A business location that has once been one thing doesn’t;’t mean it won’t work being something different, and this can be the good basis for your next successful business plan.

I hope that his has given you some food for thought on how you can flex your entrepreneurial muscles.

3 Genius Ways You Can Get Your Business Into Your Customer’s Pocket

July 9, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Brand exposure is everything to a business, and it’s something you should continuously be working on every day. It’s not enough to just get your name out there and make people notice your company – you want to be right in the faces of your customers, so they always see your brand and think about you. This is a great way to not only gain new customers but to also retain them and build a loyal customer base.

So, I’m going to provide you with three genius ways you can get your business into your customer’s pocket – literally!

Business Cards

I think the most traditional idea is to print out some good business cards and hand them out to people. This is a surefire way of generating a customer base. People with your business card are naturally going to think about your business whenever the time presents itself. Imagine you run a window cleaning business and hand your cards out to people on the street. When the time comes for one of these people to need their windows cleaned, they’re obviously going to cast their mind back to the business card in their wallet for this service! Also, by giving customers your card you’ve essentially established a bit of a bond between you. If they ever need more of what you offer, then they can pick up the card and dial your number again. The critical thing here is to make the cards look very professional, as this helps you generate more leads.

Free Key Tags

The idea of handing out free merchandise is nothing new. By doing this, you can give people things that have your brand name/logo on it, and provide a constant reminder that you exist. It works the same way as business cards; when a person with your custom key tags thinks about a service/product that you provide, their first thought will be to go to you! You’re in their pockets, but you’re also in their minds! Key tags are the perfect bit of merch to use as it’s something people will actually bring around with them all the time. They attach them to their keys, and the rest is simple subconscious psychology!

A Mobile App

Finally, we have the modern idea of developing a mobile app for your business. This has become a highly popular way of getting your business into the pockets of your customers. Everyone carries their phone with them no matter where they go. So, imagine they have an app that lets them connect with your business in some way. They can order things via the app, use it to collect reward points, or even get notifications sent through via it. There are so many things you can do with a mobile app – too many to discuss in this article alone!

All three of these ideas will certainly help you move closer to consumers and your customers. You can try all three if you’re feeling particularly promotional, or just pick the one that you feel will work best for your business.