Surviving the First Years of Your New Dental Practice

Young dentists know a lot about teeth — taking care of them, repairing them, making them look beautiful. What these young professionals don’t know a lot about is running a successful business. If this describes you, don’t worry; help is available!

Let’s say you’re fresh out of residency and you just bought your own practice. (Finding and purchasing a dental practice is another process you shouldn’t tackle without guidance). Our team has helped many young dentists get off on the right foot so we have worked with dentists like you. You don’t need to wade into the business world without guidance, and there’s no reason why you should.

Your New Practice: Year 1

Your first year in business won’t just be about taking care of teeth; that will be the easy part. That first year will also be a crash course in business: planning, budgeting, accounting, tax strategies, patient relations, employee relations. We won’t turn you into an accountant, but we’ll make sure you’re comfortable around a spreadsheet. Likewise, we won’t turn you into a diplomat, but you’ll come out of the experience better able to get along with the people around you.

Here are a few of the goals we’ll set for you:

Goal 1: Getting a pro forma done.

A pro forma is a financial statement that anticipates your income and your expenses. It plans for your taxes and lets you know, in detail, what you need to bring in to make your new practice a success.

Goal 2: Get hiring done.

One way to preserve as much of the staff as possible is to make sure your personality is compatible with that of the dentist who sells you the practice. Even then you’re bound to lose some staff. We will work with you, ensuring you get employees who are not only well qualified and trustworthy but also fit the environment you’re creating. It’s not rocket science, but it is a skill that needs to be learned.

Goal 3: Learn about financial planning.

There are many things that go into making your new practice financially secure.

You need to understand that your expenses will be higher than those of your selling dentist. Not only will there be basics such as equipment maintenance, payroll, utilities, insurance, taxes, etc., but you will also be paying off student and business loans. This means you will need to boost your income and economize wherever you can.

Year Two and Beyond

The first year will be a lot of hard work, but you will come out of it with a real education in business. In the second year, we’ll have you bring in an efficiency consultant. Think of this as graduate education; we teach you how to keep your business on the road, while the efficiency expert teaches you how to turn it into a high-performance vehicle.

Beyond the second year, you should already be very good at running your business. At that point, we serve as your CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS™. We help you plan your taxes to ensure that as much of your income stays with you as possible. We make sure you have the right insurance, with policies that protect your needs without turning into another money drain.

As a dentist, you’re highly trained and skilled in caring for people’s teeth. Those skills don’t necessarily translate into business management. There’s no shame in that. Reach out to us and learn how the Financially Simple team could help you to turn the business side of your practice around.