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expressed in this blog are the authors own and are derived from the author’s
experiences and observations. This blog is the intellectual property of the
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Here’s a
quote by American businessman, investor and potentially, the future presidential
nominee, Mr. Mark Cuban which in my opinion should be engraved into the mind of
every budding dentist out there, either fresh into internship or sweating it
out at a locum.
“99% of small businesses you can start with
next to no capital, its more about effort...small businesses don’t fail for
lack of capital...they fail for lack of brains, they fail for lack of effort...
if you start a business, you better know your industry and your company better
than anyone in the whole wide world...because you’re competing!”
The reason being
that the landscape of dental practice today is drastically different from what
it was just a few years ago. Many factors have contributed to this change but
the bottom line is that for a budding dentist today, knowing how to effectively
“run” a dental clinic is only half the job done. With market saturation, the
entry of corporate chain clinics, advancing and expensive new technologies and
a patient base that is more tech-savvy and updated, the budding dentist needs
to know how to effectively manage, market and grow his/hers practice as well!
To put it in simple terms, budding dentists today need to see themselves not
only as “clinicians” with a practice but also as “entrepreneurs” with a
business to run; something that is not taught during the five years of training
at a dental school.
So, while
everyone ends up setting a practice sooner or later, very few actually set
their practice after adopting the mindset needed to understand the risks,
benefits and challenges that come with owning and running a small business. As
a result, in the event that a dental practice starts struggling, suffering or
running into losses, one prefers to blame the profession for its lack of scope
and inability to provide a sustainable living instead of focusing on what went
wrong and introspecting the why’s and the how’s of failure.
This can only
be achieved if budding dentists adopt the “right MINDSET before the right PRACTICE” approach. What does this approach involve? A few general principles which
are applicable to any small business irrespective of the field;
#1 BUSINESSES TAKE TIME TO YIELD,
HAVE A BACK-UP OR CUSHION TILL THEN
Unless you’re
sitting on a pile of money and don’t really care about the cash –flow, setting
up your own clinic will require an investment even before it starts operating
and running costs even before the profits start rolling in. The harsh truth for
any budding dentist when it comes to clinical practice is that breaking even is
going to take a while...reaping the profits, even longer. Thus, the initial
stages of your practice will involve finding alternate methods of
sustaining yourself or your family till the time your clinic starts generating an
income high enough to take care of each and every living expense. By solely
being dependent on a newly set practice to generate enough cash-flow to sustain
itself, your expenses as well as generate decent profits can only lead to a
mind state of negativity since these are high expectations at the onset of your
career journey. Make sure you have a back-up of invested cash or some sort of
cushion to support yourself for at least 8-10 months before you start milking
your practice to meet your needs.
#2 SPONGE IT UP BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO
SQUEEZE IT OUT
Experience is
undoubtedly the key to the success of any practice; make sure you gain the
right experience under the right people before you jump the gun on setting up a
practice. Go for the knowledge, master your craft, develop the talent and then
launch your own path. Strive to know your field better than anyone; strive to
know your practice better than anyone else. Budding dentists need to realise
the role that a proper locum plays in the success of their own practice.
Dedicating at least a year of your time to learning the tricks of the trade
before venturing out on your own definitely gives your practice an edge over the
people who just jump into it as soon as they graduate.
#3 LOCAL BEFORE GLOBAL
Before you
start comparing the financial turnover of your practice with the “biggies” and
get depressed because the numbers are wildly extreme, realise where you stand,
what strata of practice you belong to and what future you envision for
yourself. You can have hours and hours of discussion over how many figures a
particular clinic belonging to a chain makes or how a dentist with years of
experience just bought a Mercedes...but that doesn’t change your present and
neither does it help your future. The focus during the initial years of your
practice should be to become the best locally, establish a local consumer base
that is loyal and dependable. This can only be achieved by working towards it
every day, focussing on providing the best possible service as compared to the
competition and keeping your expectations realistic.
#4 DON’T BECOME A PRISONER, WORK FOR
YOUR FREEDOM
The ultimate
aim of setting up your own business in most cases is and should be “financial
freedom”. Something that enables automation of income after you put in a
considerable number of years in building that machine. However, in reality,
most of us get trapped in a cycle of daily routine and the next thing you know,
what was once meant to provide you with freedom, becomes a part of your life. In
simpler terms, the clinic should not become your home. Just by sitting in an
extra few hours every night in the hope that this will lead to an exponential
increase in income later is a flawed mindset that does nothing more than steal
your freedom away from you. Family, friends, social life and health are equally
important. Try to do the best with whatever time you have. Earn your freedom,
strive to keep it and avoid becoming a prisoner.
#5 NEVER GIVE UP
Last but not
the least is the attitude that separates the satisfied from the dissatisfied.
Working towards your goals every day, taking failures in stride, learning from
them, adapting, improvising, creating new opportunities and actively tracking
your growth and correcting course as you proceed are key to your personal and
professional success. No doubt everyone hits a rough patch every now and then
but the key is not giving in, not giving in to the negativity, self-doubt and
pressure and trying to make the best out of every situation.
So there you
go; the right MINDSET before the right PRACTICE approach when it comes to
treating a dental practice as a small business. Budding dentists need to
develop this entrepreneurial mindset towards a dental practice in order to
overcome the mental and emotional blocks that spring up when you take your
practice forward. After all, challenges are inevitable in any field or venture,
what makes a difference is how prepared are you to handle them.
So learn well
before you take the leap!
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