What does "good data" mean?
Pharmacy is tough, and it is getting tougher. The industry is so much more competitive, new major players coming in, there are reviews into the pharmacy sector, rents getting higher and landlords are problematic, wages, staffing and so forth. It is not easy, but to have a chance of surviving you have to make good decisions.
I have looked after pharmacies for over 20 years now, and amongst many reasons why business are unsuccessful, poor records is a common factor. Poor data results in poor decisions. Good data results in good decisions. It is fairly simple in concept really. But quite often business owners don’t understand the importance of good data.
You would think no one knows their business more than the owner who runs it. But owners are human and sometimes humans can be irrational creatures. We are driven by emotions, and objectivity can sometimes be very difficult to achieve. You then get situations where the owner doesn’t recognise the importance of nice clean accurate financial data. What then happens is decisions get made based on emotion. And that is a very dangerous thing as it quite often results in bad decisions being made on wrong assumptions. Remember the saying “when you assume you make an “ass” out of “u” and “me”.
Make a focus of getting the data as accurate as you can. Employ good bookkeepers who will do it better, more accurate and more efficient. That is unless you are really good at your bookkeeping, some of my clients are better than a lot of accountants. But is it really worth doing this at 10pm at night?
My suggestion is look for sound advice on how to implement good financial systems. Implement good reporting systems that produce accurate financial statements and KPI. Then go see your accountant regularly to help understand what these numbers mean and what can be done to improve them.
You can come see us at Peak Strategies to get your financial information systems up to scratch. We will fix up your data, implement efficient and accurate systems, and produce reliable and accurate financial data. We can then sit down together and implement the right strategies to get your pharmacy functioning successfully.
Good data, good decisions- a motto at Peak Strategies that we embrace.
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