Business Tips for New Dentists
I recently had the opportunity to be featured as a guest on the podcast Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran.
If you aren’t familiar with him already, Howard Farran is a practicing dentist as well as the founder of online communities for dental professionals, Dentaltown, Orthotown and Hygienetown, which offer continuing education courses, monthly magazines and more.
The hour-long episode is packed with business tips for new dentists who have received little to no business training with which to run their practice. When dentists leave dental school, they may not realize they’re going to be the CEO, the CFO, the head of HR, the Chief Production Officer, the head of marketing and more in their practice. Without an understanding of the business side of dentistry, they struggle to maximize their practice and set themselves up for a prosperous career.
We discussed a range of topics, including:
How the state of the dental industry may be better off than we think.
How dentists should prioritize saving for retirement while paying off their student loans.
The consolidation trend in dentistry and the benefits of joining forces with peers as well as important factors to consider when navigating a partnership.
Benchmarking and warning signs to look for.
Fraud prevention techniques such as segregating duties and cross training whenever cash flow is involved. All you need to do is spend a little bit of time to let your team know you’re a part of that process. When you abdicate your responsibility is when embezzlement happens.
The importance of having disability insurance when you are your own boss.
How to manage labor and overhead costs.
Whether to rent or purchase property for your dental practice.
The value of a yearly fee analysis specific to your zip code and broken down by the procedure. Many dentists do not realize they are performing procedures in their practice that are below the 50th percentile for their area.
The value of freeing up staff’s time by replacing antiquated bookkeeping methods with a cloud accounting tool.
Whether you’re a new dentist wondering what you should do next or you’ve been in business for years but aren’t seeing the results you’d like, be sure to listen to this episode.
