SILKIN MANAGEMENT GROUP: Job Duties of a Promotional Secretary, Part 1

by Silkin Management Group on February 6, 2012

Silkin Management Group clients often come to us wanting more new patients, but not knowing how to go about it. We have a variety of very successful internal and external marketing and promotion tools that have proven over the last 30 years to regularly get results with Silkin Management Group clients.

But there is a primary target that must be accomplished before any marketing and promotion will be effective: having someone who is overseeing the activity and accomplishing the marketing steps necessary to achieve a result. Someone must hold the duties of the “marketing secretary”. Unless the practice is very large, it is unlikely that this will be a full time position. The duties are most often handled by the Office Manager in a normal size practice but, even then, they must be clearly distinct duties – separate from the day to day administrative actions of the Office Manager.

Over the next few days we will outline the key job duties of the person overseeing the marketing and promotional actions of an office. These duties are elucidated and expanded upon in Silkin Management Group’s Job Description and Office Policy Manual.

For starters, today, we’ll outline what marketing and promotion are.

Marketing is a more overall encompassing activity which includes promotion. The full picture of marketing has to do with how you conceive and package a specific product into the hands of the public. The “product” can be a specific service or an actual physical product. Either one follows the same procedures and rules. It basically means how you prepare the product and take it to and place it on the market.

Promotion is one of the things that marketing does. It has to do with making something known. This can be done in written form through brochures, internet sites, social media, mailings, posters in the office, newsletters, talking with patients/clients, etc. It consists of what to offer and how to offer it so that the public will respond to it. You have to reach out to the public in volume, through numerous ways and vehicles, in order to get enough responses back to create enough income for a practice to be solvent.

How a “promotional secretary” goes about this will be outlined in future Silkin Management Group blogs covering the job duties of this position.

If you would like to know how Silkin Management Group can help increase the number of new patients coming into your office, give us a call at 800-695-0257.

Eric Korb
Silkin Management Group Consultant
www.silkinmanagementgroup.com

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Silkin Management Group’s blog posted on January 31st discussed some new incentives that the Obama Administration is proposing to help small businesses start up and expand. Some of these incentives are tax related and cover some issues we’ve discussed in this multi-part series covering tax issues to be aware of in 2012. Articles from this series can be found on several Silkin Management Group blog sites including this one.

Our earlier articles have covered the following points: a) increased tax audits and b) some potential tax consequences of the federal health care legislation that will be ruled on by the Supreme Court this year, c) extensions of some favorable tax rules, d) federal, state and local governments on the look-out for new sources of revenue, e) the potential effects of the Presidential race and election, f) potential increases in unemployment taxes and g) possible changes in estate taxes.

Here is another issue that any tax payer should be aware of:

• The impact of low interest rates: As we all know, interest rates are the lowest they’ve been in decades and, according to Ben Bernake at the Federal Reserve, they will remain low for at least several more years. While this doesn’t provide much incentive for savings accounts, it does impact dealing with the IRS. With these low interest rates also used by the IRS the penalties for underpaying estimated taxes are greatly reduced. The last quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of this year finds the IRS charging only 3 percent on underpayments. Some business owners will consider the 3 percent underpayment charge small or even irrelevant compared to the value of keeping the cash until the end of the year to run and expand their business. Note: this does not mean that the taxes will not be owed. If you are contemplating this strategy, you still must make sure you have the cash to pay the taxes by April so you don’t incur penalties on top of the interest.

We will finish up this series in future Silkin Management Group blogs.

Scott Barnard
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com or call us at 800-695-0257.

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