The first thing a healthcare business must do is to take stock of its financial situation.  The business managers must ask themselves tough questions about their salary, project and budgetary costs.  They must question every aspect of the business to see where the problem may lie.  If they have asked themselves all of these questions, and still cannot find why they are losing so much money, then it is time to hire in a healthcare consulting business.

Healthcare consulting businesses can enter an ailing business and figure out what is causing the business to decline.  This can mean everything from looking at your payroll expenses to helping your practice define which projects or practices need streamlining in order to turn that loss into profit.  It may be that there are certain initiatives the practice or hospital needs to abandon in order to recuperate their losses.  Perhaps there are some new initiatives that would help the healthcare business increase their profit margin.  You just never know until you actually speak to a healthcare consulting representative.

Healthcare consultants can help you focus in the following areas to help improve your revenue and cut costs.  These areas often overlap and that’s where the experience of a good healthcare consulting business can come into play.

• Reimbursement/Accounts Receivable In-Depth Analysis
• Fee Schedule In-Depth Analysis
• Billing System Analysis
• Analysis Of Your Managed Care Contracts
• High Level Operations Analysis

Sometimes it is hard for a new practice to admit that they need a healthcare business consultant. Especially in the early stages of a private practice or in a hospital program that takes great pride in their work.  That early in the game, it can make a doctor, dentist or hospital administrators question their overall game plan.  The truth is that there may be something quite simple that is causing some budgetary problems.  A healthcare business consultant can use their experience over many years with many different healthcare businesses to help your business find the holes and fill them.

If you cannot find answers to some hard questions about your practice or hospital, then it may be the right time to find yourself a healthcare consulting business to help put your practice on the right track.  Rather than see this as a detriment, look at it more like an opportunity to put things in perspective and steer your organization to a successful end.

Do your research before hiring in a consultant, but rest assured that you will be making a great decision.

Where do you start?

• Like any plan or proposal, a good business plan must start with a summary or an overview of your project. This is like the introduction in a book or even the first scene in a movie. It is key in that its purpose is to grab the attention of the readers, peak their interest and make them want to read further.
• Once you have written your overview, you can start to get a bit more specific by stating your objectives. These should be succinctly stated and use clearly defined measurable goals.
• The next part of a good business plan is the part where you give what you think are the “keys” to your future success. Simply said, what will make your company or idea fly?
• After this, comes the mission statement of your company. This should include a value system of some kind relating to the treatment of both your patients and your staff. What are you committed to doing?
• A company summary follows this mission statement, which gives a history of the company, its employees, or founders of the company. It should stress all accomplishments and successes.
• A detailed account of the services that the company will provide is the next part of a well-written business plan. These should be listed using behavioral language telling clearly and precisely what the company will do or what services will they provide.
• A good business plan must demonstrate to the reader that you have done your homework; therefore a solid thorough market analysis summary must be included. What has your research told you about the need for type of business and the future prospects of your business? What is your competition and how will you compete?
• Once you have given all of the above mentioned background data, you need to give the hows. How will you go about setting up the company or implementing your ideas? What are your start up strategies?
• A managerial summary follows and lies out the administrative structure of the company. Who will be responsible for what and who are the overseers of the business?
• A financial plan is essential to a well-prepared business plan. What will be the costs – the startup cost, the cost of running the business, and additional sources of funds, including loan options?
• A well-prepared business plan ends with an appendix. This appendix gives detailed projections of all aspects of the business.

Remember, a solid well-written business plan is crucial to the future success of your Health Care Business. To read a sample of a well-prepared business plan, you may want to check out the following sites -http://www.hjventures.com/Health-Care-Business-Plan.html, http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan.

Assistance with various management tasks such as planning, strategies and procedures

• Management development
• Selecting, recruiting and training of staff
• Marketing strategy for promotions, advertising campaigns and other sales related activities
• Assisting with market research, new product development and distribution
• Accounting and bookkeeping services
• Specialist knowledge or skills in manufacturing, packaging and buying
• Research, development and organizational planning and implementation
• Office management and administration skills
• Operations management assists with planning and implementation of procedures to obtain the results as outlined in the business plan and goals
• Assistance with international activities such as import, export, duties, licenses and general international business relations
• Specialist assistance with activities such as strategic business planning, communications, business tenders, grants, buy-outs, liquidations, government consultation and the various fields of information technology
• Survey and data administration
• Event management

More than ever before, healthcare institutions are in need of advice and assistance to help them balance their busy personal and business lives. Sometimes all they need is a simple, practical solution to their problem.

As an independent consultant you many have just the right kind of information and advice that is needed to help either a corporation or individual complete a task successfully.

Too many plans revolve around what the target audience wants: "What do we need to say, and how do we need to say it to get our hands on those funds?" This can be a major mistake and may well backfire on you. Sure, you want the funds but not at any cost. Imagine you suit the plan to the reader’s needs and then fail to hit targets in 3 months time, knowing that you couldn’t have met them anyway but needed the funding, what then? Understand what the funder wants from you, and make sure that you include all of the relevant core detail they need to help make a decision. But use your health care business plan as two things: (1) a tool to manage your business ongoing and to help meet those targets you are setting, and (2) as a marketing document that sells your business idea and strengths to your audience. You may only get one chance, make it count first time, every time!

A health care business plan is like a story. It has a start, middle and end. It has a plot that needs to unfold in front of the reader’s eyes, taking them on a journey that throws up a host of challenges and shows them how the characters can overcome, and succeed! There is always a happy ending in a business plan, but along the way there are real terrors and dangers which the reader needs to be convinced can be conquered, and at the end they are confident the main characters are the one’s to do it! It is not a cold and mathematical document…bring it to life, make it real. If it looks and feels real, then with hard work and the right people it can become real.

The main components of a health care business plan, and the key way to approach them, should be:

1. An executive summary: This is where you set the scene and outline the ‘plot’ of your business plan, where you bring the characters to life. Explain why your product or service is so good, why it is unique or better than the next best thing. Tell the reader who the characters are, what makes them so experienced and special that they have the mental and technical skills to make the plan work. Build the confidence, build the belief. Present the figures for cash flow and profit and loss, do it graphically and include a second graph to show a ‘what if’ scenario. Let the reader know you have thought about slow sales, slow cash collection, cost increases, and that even in the worst case this is how you are going to see a return on your money!

2. Aims and objectives: Let the reader know what makes you tick, why you are wanting to do this and what you want from it, not just financial. That helps build the confidence in your drive and resilience, but also shows how much you’ve thought about things. The action points in your plan should also drive you down the route towards achieving these aims.

3. Business description: This is a bit more methodical in that you need to describe what you will be doing, but give it a warm feeling that shows your passion for what you do. Tell them what makes your business different, and how you plan to differentiate yourself. Include a small section here on regulations and licenses here if they apply, this makes sure you have factored in costs and ticked the legal boxes.

4. Managing your business: You need to let people know that you have everything in control, that you can manage every bit of your business and if you don’t have the resource then your plan explains how you will acquire it. Split it into easy sections covering finance and accounts, marketing, sales, HR, administration, health and safety etc.

5. Customers and the market: To get confidence in your plan you need to do your homework and not just about the key players in your target market. You need to show you understand them, what drives them, what their aims are and how you can satisfy them. How will you persuade them that your product is better? A thorough understanding of the competition is key too. Who are they and what are their strengths and weaknesses, and those of their products? How are you going to overtake them, can you add value to an existing product, or release something that complements it? How will you differentiate and catch the eye of the customer? Show the reader that you have tirelessly done your research, and that you have those entrepreneurial skills to better your competition.

6. Marketing plan: Include your strategy for marketing, and how you will gain access to your planned customer base with what methods. Describe your approach, who will be doing it, the timescale for enacting the plan. If you lack marketing experience look at grant-funded consultancy to bridge the gap.

7. Sales plan: How many units are you going to sell to whom? What services are being purchased from your business? Are the sales one-off or recurring, where will new customers fall into your plan, what are the prices and who is driving your sales effort? These all need to be answered, but make your business plan stand out by not making it matter of fact statements. Write it like a diary almost, tell the reader what you will do on what day or week or month, how you will do it, who will do it…it’s like a bulleted action plan of sales achievement. Include a section on courses of action if your plan slows down or customers are not won. Sensitize the sales line to prove you are also a realist, but that you have a backup plan.

8. Operations: Every plan should cover the things you will need to operate effectively. These can include staff, offices, statutory requirements like rates and insurances, suppliers for you processes, distribution centers, etc. There’s generally nothing sexy about the operations side of a business but think of it as the engine room on a ship. If it doesn’t work, the passengers are going nowhere. Explain how each area is covered in your plan, and how you and your team will use their skills and drive to make it as efficient as it can possibly be.

9. Financial forecasts: It is worth having this done professionally, or at least audited by a professional. The profit and loss is important but even more so is the cash flow forecast. The timing of purchases and collections from debtors can seriously impact on your cash requirement. Take time to ensure you have made realistic assumptions and also to do some sensitivity on it. What if you have a major breakdown and need to find $4,000 up front, what if your debtors slow down from 30 days payment to 60 days, what if your energy bills go up by 15%? All of these examples hit your cash flow, meaning your nicely prepared cash flow forecast that said you could manage in 6 months time has been blown out of the water. Be realistic, have a plan that lets the reader see what your contingency is.

10. Business Risks & SWOT Analysis: Not every plan includes these but it is worth including them to ensure the reader sees you have covered all of the bases, and put ideas at least in place to combat any potential risks. A good SWOT analysis shows that you are a realist who understands that your business plan isn’t based on you thinking you are perfect, or that threats do not exist from day one.

So make your health care business plan come to life as it is being read. Make it clear and concise where appropriate, and always be thinking of a ‘what if’ situation in every part of the plan…after all, the reader will be. If you answer the question before it can be asked, that’s the best way to convincing your audience that you are serious, realistic and can adapt and overcome. Let your business plan become the blueprint that you can work to in the first 12 months of your business. Amend and update as you go, but don’t lose sight of those original aims and just how you told people you would achieve them!

Good luck with your business plan!

Steve Jones is the founder of Stellar Consultancy (UK) Limited.