Unfortunately over the course of my career when I have seen businesses go under, (which is not something any of us want!) poor financial records are a common issue. This is because the business owner doesn’t have clarity over how the pharmacy is actually performing.
Generally, you need someone to undertake this function, who are professionally trained, and subject to the highest of quality practice standards. My view is that all pharmacy owners should be outsourcing their bookkeeping function.
Team dynamics, how the community perceives your store, how your team responds to failures, challenges, the effectiveness of systems, how procedures are executed, health focus pharmacy offering, and most importantly, how your team and your business grows and evolves.
The reality is, how successful your business is (and success is not just defined by $, it is more than that) comes down to culture.
As a pharmacy yes, you can help everyone with their meds and health. However, that doesn’t mean that they will shop from you. For example, a lot of community pharmacies lose customers to big box discounters due to price. But not every customer is going to price conscious, some customers will value certain products, expertise, and service. So, as a pharmacy you need to pave out what audience will best suit your pharmacy.
I am very much a firm believer than every negative has a positive, every positive has a negative. To me that is the balance of life. So, whilst we are going through a Corona virus life adjustment phase and listening to all the tales of doom and gloom, it’s good to stop and find the positives out of all of this. For me personally, I cling on to these positives during these times and they become my focus.
