The Hidden Profit Sitting Inside Your Practice

By Steph Trattles, VP of Education

The Biggest Risk After Any Webinar? Doing Nothing.

Two months ago, practice owners joined our CFO, Jonathan Hoy, to explore one of the biggest questions in healthcare business growth: how do you build a practice that grows sustainably, predictably, and profitably?

The discussion challenged a common assumption that growth always requires more patients, more staff, more chairs, or more marketing. Instead, Jonathan highlighted something many practices overlook: the biggest opportunities for growth are often already sitting inside the business.

Most practice owners would probably agree with that statement, but the challenge isn’t understanding it. The challenge is creating the time and discipline to act on it.

The value was never in attending the webinar because insight alone doesn’t create results. The value was always in what happened next.

Most business owners don’t struggle because they lack information. They struggle because the demands of daily practice life make it difficult to consistently apply what they know. The urgent takes priority over the important, old habits reappear, and good intentions are gradually replaced by familiar routines.

So before revisiting some of the key takeaways from the session, it’s worth pausing to reflect on what has actually changed over the last two months:

• What actions have been implemented?
• What commitments have quietly slipped down the priority list?
• And where have old ways of working crept back in?

As you read through the key takeaways below, use them as a simple profitability audit. Not to judge progress, but to identify where the next opportunity for growth may be hiding. After all, practice growth isn’t determined by what you know. It’s determined by what you consistently do.

Key Takeaway 1: Growth Doesn’t Always Require More

When practices want to increase revenue, the instinct is often to add more — more marketing, more staff, more chairs, more overhead. But one of Jonathan’s key messages was that growth often comes from making better use of what you already have.

The question isn’t always how to get more patients. Often, it is how to create more capacity with the resources already available.

One example discussed was treatment mix. While braces and Invisalign may generate similar revenue, they do not require the same level of clinical time and intervention. By understanding how different treatments impact chair time and doctor capacity, practices can make more intentional decisions about how they grow, unlocking additional capacity without increasing overhead.

This is where growth begins to shift from expansion to optimization — doing more with the same infrastructure rather than simply adding to it.

Key Takeaway 2: Profit Matters More Than Revenue

Revenue is important, but revenue alone does not determine the financial health of a practice. Profitability depends on how efficiently that revenue is generated and how much is ultimately retained.

This is why the conversation focused not only on increasing income, but on improving margins. The practices that scale successfully are not always the ones doing the most; they are often the ones operating most efficiently.

In other words, two practices can generate similar revenue but deliver very different outcomes depending on how well they manage time, resources, and cost structure.

Key Takeaway 3: Tax Strategy Is a Business Strategy

One of the most memorable moments from the webinar came when Jonathan said, “If you want to change your tax, you have to change your facts.”

For many practice owners, tax planning happens after the year has ended, when the opportunity to influence outcomes is already limited. But proactive tax strategy creates possibilities that reactive filing simply cannot.

Business structure, timing of decisions, investment choices, and compensation strategies all shape financial outcomes. Yet many practices only engage with these decisions retrospectively.

The practices that retain more profit are not necessarily earning more; they are planning more intentionally.

The Bottom Line

The biggest lesson from the webinar was not about working harder, but about working differently.

More capacity. Better margins. Stronger cash flow. The same practice, but run more intentionally.

So the question becomes simple: what has actually changed in the last two months?

If the answer is not much, that is not unusual. The reality is that change rarely happens through insight alone. It happens through deliberate action taken consistently over time.

The best time to act was two months ago. The next best time is now.

Watch the Recording

Missed this one? You’ll be able to watch the full webinar recording with Jonathan Hoy right here.

Ready to Go Further?

Sign up to our next webinar with Ellie Baldini using the link below.

📅 Thursday 9th July   ⏰ 12–1pm