Two of the most frequent questions community pharmacy owners ask us are, “Am I normal?" and "How do I compare to other pharmacy owners?”

We feel these are among the most important questions to answer because doing so allows you to set benchmarks for measuring your progress through your life in pharmacy. Answering these questions innumerable times during over 30 years of working with community pharmacy owners helped the Waypoint team create The Community Pharmacis Lifecycle™.

Every community pharmacy owner goes through their own version of the lifecycle. Buy, even though each pharmacist is unique, they all pass through common stages within the lifecycle. And, each of these common stages presents a set of challenges and opportunities that can be anticipated and managed in an optimal fashion.

How you take advantage of your opportunities, and meet the challenges within The Community Pharmacists Lifecycle™, has a huge impact on the success you enjoy during your life in pharmacy and during your life after pharmacy.

That is why it is imperative for you to have a system in place that enables you to navigate the lifecycle. It is also vital for your advisors, pharmacy team and your family to understand where you are in the lifecycle. If you don’t have system and you and everyone around you doesn't know the direction you are heading, then you can end up wasting a tremendous amount of time, money and opportunity. Dr. Roy Meninger of the Meninger Foundation put it this way, “You will be like the airplane pilot who radios the control tower and says, “I don't know where I am, but I'm sure making great time.”

Creating a system to navigate the stages of The Community Pharmacist Lifecycle™ (start up, strategic, growth, mastery, reward and contribution) will help you take full advantage of all the opportunities available from a successful life in pharmacy. Here are three key benefits available to you in understanding and intentionally navigating The Community Pharmacist Lifecycle™:

1. You can create a road map for your future: Understanding where you are enables you to more clearly see what lies ahead. This creates positive momentum and positive energy in your personal life and your life in pharmacy.

2. You can set clear benchmarks your life in and out of pharmacy:  The lifecycle provides a set of best practices for your life in and after pharmacy. These enable you to measure your progress (and performance) against what countless other successful community pharmacists have experienced.

3. You can create accountability: The lifecycle helps you get your staff, advisors, and community on board with your vision for the pharmacy. People want other people to be successful, and having a game plan to navigate the lifecycle helps them help you do just that.

What frustrates you the most as you navigate The Community Pharmacist Lifecycle™?

Knowing where you are now, and where you wish to be in the future, are the first steps towards achieving inspired independence. Having a game plan for achieving all of your goals - in and out of pharmacy - is the mechanism for successfully navigating the lifecycle.

But, it is not a perfect world (as if I need to tell you that!) and we are constantly asked to help community pharmacists deal with significant and often very frustrating challenges. We have developed a very short survey to dig a little deeper into what frustrates you the most. Your responses will enable us to develop new and better ways to help all community pharmacists overcome the challenges they face and take full advantage all the opportunities available.

Please take two minutes to complete the survey. 

When we receive your response, we will immediately send you one of our more popular strategic planning tools: The Contingency Plan Builder. Also, once the survey is complete and we have analyzed the results, we will share them with you.

Click here to learn more about The Community Pharmacist Lifecycle™.

Where does this wisdom come from?

The content of this blog is inspired and substantiated by our experience helping independent community pharmacists enjoy financial independence during and after their life in pharmacy. When a pharmacist reaches out to us for information and help, we endeavor to give them as much free value as is possible. In addition to providing educational and strategic planning tools (like The Helping Community Pharmacy Survey), we invite qualified pharmacists into our formal discovery process.

The first step of the process is completing The Inspired Goals Workshop. This 90-minute session enables us to deliver a detailed and personal Inspired Independence Blueprint. The blueprint provides a personalized roadmap for achieving your goals and enables you to fully understand the value of joining The Inspired Independence Program.

If you wish to learn more about any aspect of our work, the free value we offer, or to be considered for The Inspired Goals Workshop, visit our web site at www.waypointus.com or call 843.873.4420 and ask for Ben or Matt Coakley.

At Waypoint Pharmacy Advisors, we take care of you!