If you own a dental practice, you’re both a leader and a decision-maker. You’re often sought after for your expert opinion. But when it comes to your business, who do you look to for the same?
If you’re like most dental professionals, offering advice comes more naturally than seeking it. But when it comes to your dental business, those who are truly open to guidance (and not just looking for validation), can develop better solutions to problems or find new opportunities to grow than they would have on their own. After all, those who achieve the most in the world didn’t do it on their own.
No matter how well you’re doing with your practice, there’s always something to be learned from those who have been where you are by offering a fresh point-of-view. We’ve tapped into a pool of dental industry specialists with unique perspectives, to ask for their expert advice on four questions:
- What it the single biggest opportunity in dentistry today?
- For a Dentist with a typical practice, what is the one thing that they can do to make the practice more valuable?
- What separates the best operators from the average dental practice owners?
- What is the best advice you’ve ever given or been given?
As the fourth in a four-part series of questions, we collected answers from a cross section of industry leaders on the question:
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER GIVEN OR BEEN GIVEN?
KATE: “I always advise dentists to be proactive instead of reactive. Dentists need to set very clear, written short-term and long-term business and personal goals. And they need to be nimble; making adjustments as necessary. This means that the dentist should always be looking over the horizon for possible dental business changes coming ahead and continue to adjust their business as needed so that they are proactively staying on the forefront of those changes with their business model.”
Kate Willeford is the President of The Willeford Group, CPA, PC, an accountancy and consulting firm focused on helping dental practices shape retirement plans, practice transitions and personal financial plans.
MARGARET: “Be comfortable with change, as small steps lead to a stairway of success.”
Margaret McIntyre is the founder of M. Mcintyre & Associates, the city’s premier dental management consulting firm.
JOHN: “Every doctor should put an inter-oral camera in place and use it for every patient. Nobody sees what a doctor does, so an inter-oral camera can show the patient first-hand what problems they have and what the course of treatment should be. Sometimes even the patient will recommend the course of treatment. Also, successful doctors must see more patients and can do that by using better internal marketing tools to help patients make better decisions quickly.”
John Zengel has been a top producing dental equipment representative at Henry Schein for many of his 38 years of experience. John’s expertise goes beyond the typical in helping to update, open or equip a new dental office.
BRYANT: “The best advice I’ve ever given is to operate your practice close to where you want to live. The investing that you’ll do in the community—with your kids’ school, church or volunteering—will make marketing easier and more fulfilling. Others you meet and spend time with will want to support your business, but they’re not driving 10 miles more than once or twice.
The best advice I’ve ever BEEN given is to focus on a narrow vertical. In small business, it’s easy to become a mile wide and an inch deep in your industry, but companies win when they become an inch wide and a mile deep. That kind of focus makes them unshakeable in their clientele. We’ve done that by focusing on representing dentists in real estate transactions and when a dentist learns all the services and tools we’ve developed for just their business; they can’t wait to engage us.”
Bryant Cornett, SIOR, LEED AP is the President at DTSpade. Bryant began working in real estate in Atlanta in 1999 and is one of 250 Office-focused SIORs in the United States.