An article released by Reem Borrows on the ‘Top five challenges facing Australian Pharmacy Owners in 2022’ is honest and accurate. It is easy to see challenges looking from the outside in, but when you are in the thick of it, it can be hard to see the ‘mistakes’ taking place, day in and day out – but think of the advantages you could have by taking a moment to look at your business from a new perspective.

Let’s look at challenge number two that Reem outlined:

‘Not identifying profit opportunities’

Let’s double down and look at this concerning new products and category management. It is easy to dismiss new products and sideline category management. You have so many other things to do. Categories seem to be going okay, sales are fine, but could they be better, and what about customer satisfaction? Do you offer unique products, innovative products, and products that help address common healthcare concerns? New products are often...

As a pharmacy owner, you are used to striving for perfection in everything you do on a daily basis, both in what you do and what you expect of your team. High expectations are important in this industry as people depend on you when it comes to better health care outcomes for themselves and their families.

It has been exceptionally busy, and the demands have been high of you and your team over the past three years. There is a shortage of staff, and the threat of burnout is real.  Right now, it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of your schedule and lose the ability to focus on where you can improve in your business.  To help highlight some of the areas that could be looked at in Pharmacy here are five of the biggest personal challenges that have been identified across the industry right now. Please note, we are first looking at challenges that are within our control to curtail and benefit long term from in a quick and succinct manner.

1. Lack of planning and being...

When you hear the words unconditional love, what comes to mind? How can you practice unconditional love towards yourself?

 Let's reflect on a few things, unconditional love and how you treat yourself. How often have you observed yourself treating other people differently than the way you treat yourself? What do you say to yourself? Are you as forgiving with yourself as you are with others?

From all the work I have done with people I have realised it's an observation exercise and realization, this is incredible and eye opening but it's a beautiful journey all the same.

We often say things to ourselves that we would never ever say to other people, for example - whenever you make a mistake you say things to yourself like; I will never get it right, I knew it wouldnt work, how dumb am I, I am ugly, I am useless. 

Now imagine saying that to someone you love. It seems cruel, unkind, right? There are things we say to ourselves that we would never dare to say to...

In the world of sales, your business results are tied hand-in-hand with how your team performs to best meet your customer’s needs. Without strong team performance, you won’t be able to have strong sales results. So, if you want to reach those high and lofty sales goals by the end of the fiscal year, you need to reevaluate your sales team performance by first looking at the leadership of that team to boost those end-of-year sales.

To accomplish this and turn your sales team into a lean, mean sales producing team that works like a finely tuned machine, we need to discuss the (not so) secret formula to creating this better team performance, for which your customers will thank you.

• Authentic Leadership: A good team is full of authentic people, but a great team starts with the authenticity of its leader. Read that again. It is a well-known secret that if you want to have a great team, then you need to have great leadership.

Everything starts and ends with leadership....

Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to build a high performing team in your organisation? Or felt like it’s way out of your reach and control? Intellectually, we can all share opinions on how high performing teams are built and what great leaders look like. 

Opinions are a dime a dozen especially with social media these days, and leadership as a topic has become like any other national sport or pastime, with many people chiming in on their opinion, criticising current leadership frameworks and sharing what it needs to look like.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Everyone is entitled to share their opinion and thoughts and many people genuinely do this to help others. 

We do need to be aware though that it’s so much easier to look from the outside in and criticise, yet much harder to execute on and deliver results.  It takes a special type of someone to gently put to one side people’s opinions and criticism, and focus on truly...

In business, you are only as good as your sales team. Sales teams are a critical part of organisations, and how we view/treat our sales teams will determine how successful they are. Even one recruitment error can have negative impact on overall organisational results if this new team member fails to secure the lucrative contract the company was looking/budgeting for. On the positive side, a team full of A-players can catapult your revenue far beyond your projections.

Many companies struggle to build the dream team they want and that is usually the result of bad decisions, lack of experience, absence of clear processes and systems, as well as unclear expectations and communication.

Building a sales “dream team” begins during the recruiting process and continues throughout the employee lifecycle.

Here are some very simple first steps to take that will help build the sales team your business needs to make it to the next level:

• Determine the type of team you need: 

Do...

Goal setting and developing life plans. Something that we all naturally do but we all do it so differently at varying levels. 

Some people set a plan; others focus on short term goals… Having a written 5-year plan for your personal growth and life goals is such a powerful way to influence your future. You just need to ask yourself; do I want to create my life by design? Or do I want to have it created for me depending purely on circumstances? Do I want to create balance, focus, and flow? Or do I want chaos and noise take over while I hope for the best?

We all have some form of goals for our lives. How clear are they though, and how well thought through or planned are they? 

Often, most people set very general kind of wants without clarity, specific timelines, and measurements to pursue. Sometimes people do not even consider what they really want, why these goals are important to them, or even how long they should spend pursuing them!

So, if you don’t...

A healthy working environment is essential for fostering increased productivity, happier employees, lower absenteeism and all-round wellbeing of the business. The good news is that it’s neither hard nor expensive to make some small changes that will have a great and immediate impact.

Here are some simple steps to help guide you:

1. Promote a work-life fit.

The term more commonly known as work-life balance may be a myth.  Work-life balance implies that you divide personal and work related tasks equally.  Calling it work-life fit allows people to “see the possibilities, instead of focusing on what they can’t have.” –  According to work culture strategist Cali Yost.

Regardless of how you view it, praising those who arrive early and work late, or expecting them to work from home in the evenings, hurts your company in the long run. Without a healthy work-life fit, productivity is likely to decline, and employees may end up suffering from burn...

We read so much about goals and the purpose of goals but it’s estimated that up to 97% of us don’t have real goals set for ourselves in our personal life. So, let’s explore this a little bit…

Firstly, what is the difference between a scary, audacious goal and just your every day run of the mill goal? How can you tell if a goal is one or the other and which one is better to set? What is the real purpose of a goal and what happens if we don’t have any goals set?

There are three types of goals:

1. Goals that we can achieve with our eyes closed.
2. Goals we think we can achieve with a bit of work.
3. Goals that we only dream about and have no idea how to achieve them.

The third type of goal is those that dreams and fantasies are made of. Most of us, when we think of those big dream goals, tend to quickly push them aside

As kids we are so good at imagining, dreaming and picturing the impossible. Then, for whatever reason, as we grow up we start to...