I meet a lot of doctors in my professional and social life. Luckily I met a great homeopath doctor about 30 years back – and he has kept me away from medicines SINCE then! So I do not meet doctors for seeking medicines / treatment. However, here are my observations about a doc’s business skills. If you are a doctor I know, Or I do not know, please give a feedback on what I have said here!

Some amazing facts that come to light are the following:

1. Many doctors lack business skills, but do not know that they lack business skills.
2. The income that is reflected in the Profit and Loss account is a function of what their accountant thinks should be shown as an income – the reality is nowhere near the shown figure.
3. As they have a large amount of cash accumulated, the only “investment” that they can think of is property.
4. Throwing data about equity performance vs. real estate performance is of no use to them – they have far too much of cash to be invested – which can only be invested in real estate.
5. All the skill up-gradation that Doctors do is with regard to their own field and very little on practice management.
6. Doctors are a little scared of technology, finance, income tax, search, seizure, raids and of course accountants – unless they are married to one!
7. Most of the “finance” and “investment” knowledge that they have is got from their Accountants, real estate agents, or fellow doctors – and could be very lop sided.
8. A very, very few doctors plan their practice – which means taking on a partner, creating a franchise, selling while retiring, taking a vacation, are all very difficult.
9. Doctors ability to “market” their services is restricted to “hoping” that their existing clients will give them references. They do not even seek to members of networking organizations to learn the nuances of networking.
10. Doctors idea of financial planning is largely restricted to tax planning – which means they buy assets (and claim interest and depreciation as “expenses”), or use some tricks given by their accountants.
11. Insurance planning, wealth creation, making a will, financial goal setting, MIS, are alien to most doctors.
12. In all their education they have never thought it necessary to learn money or practice management skills. Nobody thinks it is worth teaching the docs!