I'll start with this; I'm a fairly intelligent guy. I think there are a lot of smart people who try to downplay it but I'm not one of those people. I'm certainly not at the level of renaissance man as Neil deGrasse Tyson, but I try to be. I read books on a lot of different topics and have done a lot of different things that are based on having the right knowledge. I know a lot of things about a lot of stuff, and there are some things I believe I'm pretty great at.

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That's why it's always very depressing when I realize that I'm not as smart as I think I am; not even close. Let me explain.

You know the phrase that many people use as the definition of insanity: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Actually, I don't think that's insanity at all; it's being stupid. Sometimes, that fits me to a T.

What's the problem? The problem is that I've been in business on my own for 14 years, but I'm not overly successful. A big part of it is because of my leaning towards consulting in health care finance.

I work hard at convincing the people who are the ones who can hire me that I know how to solve a large part of their problems as it concerns revenue and cash. I do that because when I get the opportunity to do so I've had some major successes. I even talk about what I consider my biggest success, helping a large hospital to increase their revenue by $730 million in a year's time, a more than 100% increase in their yearly revenue, which resulted in a very large increase in cash at the time.

You know what I get? Almost nothing; nada; zip. In essence, I'm trying to convince people who don't understand what I'm telling them and pretty much don't care to not necessarily accept me, but just to talk to me; is that so hard?

Actually, yes it is. When I get a health care gig I get paid well enough and quick enough that I can accumulate funds nicely. Yet, there are long gaps, which means instead of being able to grow that cash in a more regular way I end up spending all my reserves, barely making it to the next adventure.

Frankly, that's a lousy business model. It's also a very passive business model. It's a frustrating business model. Finally, it's an unrealistic business model for long term success.

The thing is, for all the business pundits who say one should find an industry and basically concentrate on that, it's not always true. There's around 5,500 hospitals in the United States, and even that number is kind of false. There are systems with multiple hospitals; in some records each hospital is considered individually, but the reality is that it's one hospital. When I worked for a hospital system based in Rochester years ago there were 4 hospitals in the system but it acted as one because only one made all the decisions for the rest. That shrinks the number of potential clients one can go after.

Back in March I wrote a post here titled Changing One's Business Model where I gave 7 things I wanted to look at regarding my overall business. I went back to look at that post and zeroed in on one main point, something that was highlighted by a conversation I had with someone a couple of nights ago. That point: "I want actual clients."

That's the entire thing right there. I want to find people who'll work with me and come back to me over and over. The model I have right now will never do that; once I've done my business, I'm sent off and never hear from those folks again, whether I do good or not.

So... come Monday I'm changing the focus a little bit... maybe a lot, depending on how it all goes. But I'm not talking about it until Monday... this is just a teaser, a heads up that something is coming. And it's going to involve anyone who reads this blog, my I'm Just Sharing blog or my Top Finance Blog site. It offers the potential of either changing things drastically or going absolutely nowhere.

Either way, as I wrote last week, we all have to do something when there's nothing to lose. I'm not giving up health care finance, and since the majority of articles on this blog are related to leadership, I'm not giving that up either. Something else is changing though; if you care, or even if you really don't, come Monday folks will start knowing, and if anyone cares, they'll get to help make some decisions on how things will go from this point on.

If it works, I just might be as smart as I'd like to think I am. Maybe that is... 🙂