What is your intellectual knowledge worth?

This time of year I have the privilege of lecturing at many of our veterinary schools throughout the country. I really do consider it an honor and in many respects believe it is one of the most important things that I do. I believe that if we are going to make a difference in this profession and help our future veterinarians utilize excellent management concepts it has to start at the university level.

Are You a Leader?

"People are willing to follow leaders who are honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent." - Kouzes and Ponser

Your health care team doesn’t want to be managed. It wants to be led. Leaders know that the more they manage and try to control their health care team, the less likely it is that their people will excel.

Leaders have to be inspiring. A gifted leader has to inspire our confidence in the validity of the goal. A leader must have enthusiasm and excitement to show their personal commitment to staying with the goal. If a leader exhibits no passion for a goal, why would anybody else be interested in that goal?

A leader must also be competent. To enlist in another’s cause, you must believe that the leader is competent to guide you from where you are to where you are going. Team members have to see the leader as capable, effective, and consistent. If they doubt the leader’s abilities or if the leader applies situational ethics (different standards for different people), the team is unlikely to enlist in the future of the organization.

Are You Using Team Leaders?

The old adage "inspect what you expect" is sometimes easier said than done. Managers face the daily challenge of motivating, training and supervising an entire healthcare team while having to oversee other important duties ranging from financial management to supporting the vision of the practice. Depending on the size of the healthcare team and practice, this can be an overwhelming task. As many of you know, we at VMC practice what we preach by working smarter, not harder. The same should apply to practice managers. My suggestion for providing a more comprehensive management structure within your practice is implementing team leaders. Promoting individuals within your practice is a win-win situation. You gain the assistance you need while leveraging key players.

The position of team leader provides an excellent opportunity for career development while providing the attention to detail and intimacy that your receptionist, technician and kennel departments need and deserve. Not only will team leaders inspect what is expected more closely, but I assure you the level of individual attention and encouragement your team leaders will provide will greatly enhance the performance and quality of care and service experienced at your practice.

Here are some scenarios that will hopefully paint a picture that validates the need for team leaders in many practices

1. Do you have team members that have never received performance evaluations or are greater than one week past due for their evaluation because you have not had time to conduct this important component of their feedback?
2. Do you hold monthly departmental meetings to focus on topics directly related to the individual departments within your practice or do issues go unresolved and cause unnecessary frustration among the healthcare team?
3. Do you find yourself more often than not trying to rearrange the schedule when someone calls in sick or even have to cover the front desk or for a technician instead of being the practice manager?
4. Are you inundated on a daily basis with minor training or disciplinary issues that keep you from daily duties such as marketing and budgeting projects?

Year End Financial Checklist

As 2006 comes to a close and the holidays are upon us, it’s time to make your year end financial checklist and check it once or twice to make sure you’ve covered all the bases. Year end is a great time to meet with your advisors and consultants to make sure things are in order. So plan a meeting with your accountant or tax advisor as well as your financial planner and insurance agent. Items you should consider:

• How successful has your year been and will you owe taxes? Look at profitability and weather your financial success will generate taxes due. Better to know now, than on April 15th. No one likes surprises and the need to have to write large checks without ample notice. Good planning helps cash flow and can assist with minimizing taxes.
• Should you make equipment expenditures before year end or wait? The IRS expensing election for 2006 is $108,000 but be careful because it is not available in all states. Some states limit the allowance.
• Should you make accelerated estimated state tax payments before December 31st and create a tax deduction this year vs. next year? Making early payments can provide you an accelerated tax break that you might have to otherwise wait another 12 months to get. Just watch out for the alternative minimum tax. You will not be able to get any advantage if you are subject to the tax.
• Do you have stock losses in your portfolio with no chance of recovery? Now may be a good time to take advantage of selling losers. You are able to deduct up to $3,000 of losses in any one year. The end of year is always a good time to review your portfolio with your investment advisor.
• Review SIMPLE and 401K withholdings. We find a lot of people shortchange themselves and lose the advantage of the tax deferral from their contributions. Take a look at your last pay stub to make sure you are on track to contribute the maximum you can afford to make. The maximum limits for 2006 are $10,000 for the SIMPLE and $15,000 for the 401K. If you are over 50, add another $2,500 for the SIMPLE and $5,000 for the 401K. Plan to change your withholdings for 2007 since the IRS has increased the withholding amounts to $10,500 for a SIMPLE and $15,500 for a 401K plan. If you are over 50 add another $2,500 for a SIMPLE plan or $5,000 for a 401K plan. Now is also a good time to review the type of plan you have and determine if it is the right plan for you. Today you can structure plans that can provide you a yearly contribution of anywhere from $1 to $180,000. Will you meet your retirement objective with the plan you have today? Contact your pension consultant/administrator for an analysis of might work best for you.
• As year end payroll processing approaches, remember that owner’s of S corporations must add to their W-2’s, the owner’s health insurance, which is then taken as a self employed health insurance deduction on page 1 of your individual tax return. In addition all owners of corporations who have vehicles on their books must add the value of personal use of automobiles to their W-2’s as well. Without the additions, beware of the audit consequences.

Quickbooks and the New Microsoft Internet Explorer 7

Many of you might realize that Microsoft has recently released Internet Explorer 7(IE7) and soon will set it as an automatic upgrade for your computer. If you are running Quickbooks on the machine that will upgrade, beware that not all versions of Quickbooks are compatible with the upgrade.

For you, there may be reasons to delay the update for now. Generally, older versions of QuickBooks do not support IE7.

To help you, Intuit has created an Internet Explorer 7 Resource Center. The site has a full list of compatibility with IE7 and Intuit software products, as well as links to instructions on reverting back from IE7 to IE6 if necessary.

The following is the Quickbooks version list:

• QuickBooks 2007 (Enterprise 7.0) – this software is compatible with Internet Explorer 7.
• QuickBooks 2006 (or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 6.0) – be sure to update to Release 8 and then accept Internet Explorer 7.
• QuickBooks 2005 (or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 5.0) – we recommend that you decline the Auto Update for Internet Explorer 7 at this time. Please check Internet Explorer 7 Resource Center periodically for updates on a solution (or for more information on how to revert from Internet Explorer 7 to Internet Explorer 6).
• QuickBooks 2004 or earlier (or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 4.0 or earlier) - we recommend that you decline the Auto Update for Internet Explorer 7.