These days, there are many threats to small business. Whether it's from increasing costs, government and regulation challenges, or ever-evolving competition within the industry it almost always feels like there is something waiting around every corner to challenge your business. While these types of things may seem like the biggest threat to your eyecare practice's future success, there is one thing that could be getting in the way before all of that. 

And, it's you.

You have the ability to control the future success of your practice and business. The decisions you make, or don't make, will affect the profitability of your practice moving forward, and your ability to keep up with the industry. In many cases, this comes in the choices you don't make due to a fear of change or failure, complacency, unwillingness to learn, or a general lack of keeping up with the changes of the industry.

6 Ways to Overcome Fear of Change in Your Eyecare Practice

Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Your comfort zone probably lies in the way you've been running your practice and doing business for years, but if you aren't keeping up with changes and testing out new innovations or ideas, you could quickly fall behind. Doing little things each day to break comfortable habits can help prepare you to take bigger and more impactful steps outside of your comfort zone.

Do Your Research

Big changes can be scary, which is why doing your research will help you become more comfortable and confident in the changes you're making. Rushing into big decisions can lead to unhappy results and this could scare you off from continuing to make necessary changes in the future.

Acknowledge Your Concerns

In most cases, you and your staff will have concerns about what's to come after a big change. Open the lines of communication with each other and acknowledge the issues you're nervous about facing. Being upfront and aware of the concerns you have when making a change will keep everyone on the same page and working hard to avoid letting these concerns turn into actual problems.  

Have Realistic Expectations

Trying something new or making a change will likely throw some curveballs your way. Knowing that you'll run into complications or hiccups is a realistic expectation to have. What's not practical is to expect a new process or change to continue on flawlessly. Be prepared to adapt to changes and be flexible in the way you view and move foward with these new changes.

Celebrate Successes

If you've implemented a big change and are seeing positive results, celebrate them! Even if they are small successes, keeping your team excited and positive about the change will make it easier to stick to your guns moving forward and not turn back to the old ways.

See Failures as Something Positive

As we mentioned before, you're bound to run into a few problems with something new. But, failures don't always have to be a negative thing. If anything, your failures can be a learning experience for the future. Mistakes are all part of the learning curve that you should expect with something new.

To help get you through the change of implementing new practice management and EHR software, read our quick guide on software implementation.