In every dentist’s career, there will come a time when this question will arise: “Is practice ownership right for me?”

 

Many dentists who are considering building a practice or purchasing an existing practice quickly realize that the qualities you learned in dental school and in the clinical practice of dentistry are insufficient to help you run a practice. 

 

That's because dentists are taught dentistry.  Dentistry is an inherently risk-adverse, detail-focused specialty focused on precision to achieve a specific task.

 

Practice ownership, on the other hand, requires the ability to see global effects of your decisions, take calculated risks quickly, possess strong financial and business acumen and have the confidence to take a leap from the relative steadiness that an associateship position can provide. 

 

Becoming a practice owner means that you are now running a business.

​

Dentists who become practice owners quickly realize that they have to wear multiple hats by learning business and management skills.  A whole new world opens up when you consider things like entity formation, limiting liability, contracts, leases, profits, losses, revenue collection, fee schedules, patient management, tax ramifications, employee management and marketing.  Coupled with working behind the chair as an income generator, running a practice can be an overwhelming process! 

​

Practice ownership requires grit, the ability to learn business concepts quickly, and most importantly, the ability to connect innovation with a solid, actionable plan.  Most successful practice owners have learned the importance of innovation through service offerings and marketing in order to stay successful in a saturated market. 

​

Being a practice owner also requires that you understand people. 

​

Dentists who build thriving offices have learned how to effectively lead a team.  Concepts like leadership are necessary in an office with multiple different personalities.  Practice ownership also requires learning how to appease patients not just through the quality of your dentistry but also through your image, communications strategy, protocols, and marketing.

​

 

Our courses are not designed to push you into practice ownership or to sell you on professional services or products that you don't need.

 

Our courses are designed specifically for dentists who have decided that entrepreneurship is a path they’d like to seriously  pursue and know that they are missing key components (legal, financial, practice management and more) that will help them embark on this marathon. In our professional journeys supporting dentists, nearly every new practice owner expresses the same concerns: "I built it/I bought it. Now what?" 

We we work with subject matter experts who have proven track records in their respective fields of expertise.

 

Our courses are designed for you to learn, create, and innovate so that you can confidently leap into practice ownership and avoid the feeling of "now what" once you get the keys to your own practice.  Our strength comes from degreed, qualified experience from actual industry professionals.

​

Unlike a lot of courses that are targeted purely for start-ups, we focus heavily on acquisitions.

​

In the course of our respective work representing dentists in a legal and practice consultant capacity (please see below to meet Natasha and Malika), we have each privately addressed the same overarching questions and concerns by start-up and acquisitions clients.  While some of our courses will be specially tailored to start-up practices, we focus heavily on acquisitions.  

 

One of the biggest questions we address time and time again doesn't involve understanding the acquisition process but what it actually entails. 

​

What's the difference between the start-up experience and the acquisition experience?

 

Start-ups are created from scratch. Everything is new.  While the process can feel more intimidating, with a good location, strong team, solid blueprints and firm marketing strategy, start-ups can do really well. However, acquisitions are created using an existing practice model. This model will usually come with its own staff, patient-base, revenue, equipment and existing processes.  While this seems to be an easier way to achieve practice ownership, it can arguably be a more difficult path since you are inheriting someone else's work product-- both the good and the bad.  This can present its own set of unique challenges. 

 

Here is where we come in. We've all seen the same acquisition road maps: tour a practice, draft a letter of intent, work on contracts, work on lending, closing, etc. but what you haven't seen is a comprehensive course that integrates all of the acquisition processes with post-closing considerations to help you effectively take the reins of practice ownership from Day 1.  A lot of practice buyers get so inundated with the acquisition process itself that they lose sight of the proverbial forest for the trees.   Our goal is to help you understand the process, and most importantly, the overarching connections that you will need as you position your practice for success.