What is your website doing?

What story does your website tell? Is it static or constantly changing? Believe it or not, you do not want a static website. The more that your website it clicked, shared and linked, the higher up it shows in Google.

We won't get bogged down in all of the various ways that your website needs to function to have a decent listing on Google, that is far to much to cover in one (or 100) posts. But assuming that your website has a modicum of searchability, you need to keep it alive.

You want your website to be a place for people to visit more often than the first time they look for you. You want to be a resource. You want your clients, and your would be clients to find more value in your website than finding your phone number.

This means that in order for your website to be active, you need to be active. Your blogposts need a page on your website, and the events that you are doing (or that you care about) should be shared there.

This is especially easy with equine veterinarians. Keep your website relevant by posting horse show dates and equine events. Horse people are especially active in their various communities and they will be more inclined to use a veterinarian who is a part of that community. That doesn't mean you need to show horses in seventeen events, it merely means you need to know when these events are occurring and post them on a calendar on your website.

Small animal veterinarians have less to work with. Dog shows are few and far between and most dog owners will never go to one. But what dog owners do care about is sales at their favorite place to find food (if it isn't you), adoption events, fundraisers for local shelters, and dog and cat-centered events.

You can also increase interest in your website by posting the results of social media contests there. Announce your awareness months, any sales or deals you may be having, or anything relevant.

Many websites allow online appointment scheduling, valuable email addresses, access to patient records and links to online pharmacies. All of these drive traffic to your site.

The more traffic your website receives, the higher it will show up on Google. It's that simple. You may have paid a lot of money for your website. Don't use it as a high tech yellow pages.

Hiring for passion

Do you want to know what the best hiring decision I ever made was? I hired someone who knew nothing about the industry who was wildly over qualified and who when asked where she wanted to be in five years mentioned being somewhere far removed from the position I was hiring her for. In fact, far removed from any position I could ever offer her.

I needed a CSC (receptionist), but the hospital had larger far reaching problems that needed to be addressed as well, and no money to address them. So, I hired her. She had a degree in marketing from an Ivy League school and she wanted to work in a big nationally recognized progressive zoo as a marketing professional. To do that, she felt she needed to know something about the animal profession as a whole.

I knew she wasn't going to stay, and rather than that serving as a negative mark against her, I saw that as a positive. I did not want someone for whom answering phones all day was their lifelong ambition. I wanted - and the hospital needed - someone with ambition, talent and a clear vision.

I have never had a better employee - in fact partner - to help move a foundering hospital forward. She built the website, she educated me about marketing, she helped set up outreach events and was a valuable sounding board for all of my non-medical changes.

I could not have achieved half as much had I hired someone whose grand ambition was to answer phones all day - just get the work done and go home.

Too often we (I speak for myself here too) look for the easy way out on hiring. The process sucks - there's no elegant way to put it. You have to sift through dozens or hundreds of resumes, interview, vet and hire, then train and hope the person stays there until one of you dies.

However, there are times and situations when we should look for something greater than a body to fill a space. After all, you have a vision for your hospital - you have a goal and a trajectory to get you there. A progressive hospital is always changing. Employees who just want to put in the time may rustle no feathers, they may do their job well, but they tend to be change averse. They will silently drag the hospital towards stasis, they will serve as an anchor.

So, next time you need someone, especially if your hospital has other challenges take a chance and hire someone whose greater ambition is to be more than what they are today. They will able to understand your desire to make your hospital more than what it is today. They will also likely have the tools to help you bring about those changes.

I believe that every hire needs to bring something new to a practice. If I do not learn something from a new hire then I have made a mistake.

Now, am I saying that it was inevitable that this brilliant hire turned out the way it did? No, I fully realize that could have been just as big a disaster as it was a success. Luck plays a part - I don't care how many psychological profiles you subject people to, you're going to blow it from time to time. It's called taking a chance for a reason, but I assure you, there are times when it will pay off beyond your wildest dreams.