Should You Lease or Buy a Space For Your Start-Up Dental Practice

One of the most common questions among dentists who want to start their own practice is whether to buy or lease a commercial property (Practice real Estate). Through in-depth analysis, it was concluded that buying commercial property is the better option if you plan on staying in the same location for 7 or more years. Therefore, considering the growth of your business will be a large decision making factor in choosing whether to lease or buy a space. 

On average, over a 15 year occupancy period, leasing commercial real estate costs as much as 86.6% more than buying commercial real estate. In cases where you lease a space for less than 7 years, oftentimes this cost will be less than buying. Therefore, seven years is considered the “breakeven” point in terms of occupancy costs. 

When determining whether to buy or lease commercial property for your practice, there are some questions to ask yourself:

• Will I outgrow my space, and if so, how many years will it take for me to outgrow my space?

• Am I in a position to tie up capital in commercial real estate?

• Do I want the flexibility of leasing? Or do I prefer the stability of having a mortgage?

• Am I up for the challenge and the hassle of maintaining a property?

• What are the local trends in the commercial real estate market?

There are benefits to both leasing and buying a commercial space and by considering the pros and cons of each, you will be able to choose the path right for yourself.

Commercial properties tend to store their value, making them a good investment. Additional benefits to purchasing real estate include, but are not limited to, equity upside, asset appreciation, rental potential and tax benefits. On the other hand, when leasing a commercial space, you have more liquidity, more flexibility, and additional tax benefits you are able to take advantage of. 

Overall, it is important to take the time to plan both your short term and long term goals in order to determine whether buying or leasing is the best choice to make. Ultimately, however, it is important to remember not to sacrifice location on the basis of buying or leasing a space for your dental practice. If investment in property is your concern, you always have the option to buy other real estate for investment purposes.

Guest Post by Armincoinc

Steps To Opening Your New Dental Practice

Ever since the thought of becoming a dentist crossed my mind back when I was a teenager, the goal of opening my own practice was right behind it. From my parents who were exemplary business owners to my dentist and mentor who had his own practice, the thought of working for someone else was never an attractive option for me. Fast forward a few years post-residency with a lot of experience in the field of dentistry under my belt, owning my dental practice has become a dream realized.

There are many factors involved in opening your own dental office which can be both confusing and overwhelming. Knowing the correct steps to take can help you save a lot of time and money and keep you on track to starting your dream dental practice.

1.Knowing Your Budget

The average cost to open a start-up dental practice is more than most people think. Depending on your location, most start up practices range from $350k - $450k in total costs. Before looking at spaces, or meeting with equipment companies and other specialists, the focus should be on talking to banks and getting approval for a loan.

2. Finding The Best Location

The location of your practice is first and foremost the best method of exposure for your future office. You want patients and lead sources to find you easily and quickly. An experienced realtor in the dental industry is your best resource when locating a space. They will help you find a location in good proximity of your targeted patient demographic and within your budget.

3.Selecting an Architect and Contractor

Once a potential space is located, it is time to begin dialogue with an architect or contractor who are experts in the dental industry. An experienced architect or contractor will be able to point out any red flags or potential hazards within a space that can affect costs significantly. They can also help provide a preliminary construction proposal to ensure the project stays within your budget.

4. Receiving Equipment, Cabinetry, IT and Computers

Architectural plans take approximately 8- 12 weeks to be completed and approved from the local governing body. Within this time frame is when equipment, cabinetry and IT/computer bids should be selected and received.

5. Planning for Staff

The construction period takes anywhere from 60 to 100 business days depending on the locations and size of the project. During this time you should be finding the right employees for your practice size and making sure you have everyone you need to run your office come opening.

6. Double Checking All Licensing & Legal Needs

It is very important to not push this step back. It can take months before you can accept insurances and in addition, you will need to be licensed in your state, have a national provider identifier number, and register with the DEA. All this needs to be done before construction is finished so you can start practicing right away.

7. Marketing

Planning is key, get the word out any and all ways you can from Social media (Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat), TV ads, prints ads, online ads, promotional events, etc. Develop your website so that it stands out but also simple enough for patients to schedule.

When planned carefully and properly managed, the process towards opening your new dental practice can be exciting and fulfilling.

In part, a Guest Post by Sasha Hewadpal & Araik Safarian at: Arminocoinc

Steps To Improve Diversity & Inclusion in The Workplace

Companies that embrace diversity and inclusion in all aspects of their business statistically outperform their peers.

– Josh Bersin

Diversity & Inclusion has been a hot topic lately, and the fact that October is Global Diversity Awareness Month I thought it would be fitting to be having the conversation at this time.

While many companies are slowly adopting the idea of diversity and creating awareness, there are others that are confused as to what it truly means. The common misconception is that this idea came about as a way to fill some kind of quota but nothing could be further from the truth. This article aims to outline exactly what Diversity & Inclusion means, the effects it has on your business and the steps you and your company can take to get on board and become a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Diversity

Diversity is defined as the many ways individuals are different and similar to one another. Thus, workplace diversity is understanding, accepting, and valuing differences between people including those of different races, ethnicities, genders, ages, religions, disabilities, and sexual orientations. It is including people with differences in education, personalities, skill sets, experiences, and knowledge bases.

Inclusion

Inclusion is the behaviors based on knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity that permit people to engage one another respectfully and value contributions. It is fostering a collaborative, supportive, and respectful environment that increases the participation and contribution of all employees.

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion is a company’s mission, strategies, and practices to support a diverse workplace and leverage the effects of diversity to achieve a competitive business advantage.

Some actionable Steps to Improve Diversity & Inclusion:

1. Your Executive Team Should Portray Diversity & Inclusion

   The top management of a company or the make up of the executive team speaks volumes and is a big signifier to the rest of your workforce, as well as customers, partners and stakeholders about the company’s culture. It is essential to have diversity among top management. Men and women should be equally represented and should be from various cultural and religious backgrounds.

   According to Boston Consulting Group, among the Fortune 500 companies, only 24 CEOs are women, which represents just 5% of the total number of CEOs. It is also known that among the 500 CEOs, only three are black, another three are openly gay, and one identifies as a lesbian.

2. Foster A Company Culture Where Every Voice is Welcomed, Heard and Respected

   Companies must make sure employees feel included and respected regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, physical conditions, cultural background or country of origin. Most often employees quit jobs when they feel that their authentic self and uniqueness is not appreciated or valued. As such, it is vital to create an environment where they feel a sense of connectedness to the company and its people. 

3. Communicate Effectively to Differences

   This can be challenging if there’s a lack of experience speaking or interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. It’s important to understand how people communicate, verbally and nonverbally. Depending on the culture, it may be appropriate to demonstrate, for example active listening by nodding and smiling, whereas in some cultures smiling would be inappropriate. It is important to do some research so as to be on the same page when communicating specific job tasks and deadlines to accomplish goals.

4. Be Open-Minded and Flexible

   It’s important to be open-minded when meeting someone with a different cultural background. Easterners and Westerners, and many others don’t think alike, nor do they solve problems in a similar way. Avoid frustration and anger, by seeking to understand the basis for the cultural thought process. Strive to engage in productive conversations and facilitate work flow to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. Taking the extra step to communicate with an open heart and you will earn respect from your co-workers. Try to implement these methods to foster an inclusive work environment for everyone in the office.

5. Eliminate Bias In Promotion Opportunities

   According to Harvard Business Review, the hiring process is unfair and full of bias. Much of it is unconscious sexism, racism, and ageism. If left unchecked, it can harm your company. Iris Bohnet, director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design explains, “Seeing is believing… If we don’t see male kindergarten teachers or female engineers we don’t naturally associate women and men with those jobs, and we apply different standards” when we hire, promote, and evaluate job performance. “Managers have to learn to de-bias their practices and procedures.

Be observant, kind, and understanding to work colleagues. Be mindful of your thought process, words, assumptions, and avoid stereotypes about anyone. By treating people with respect and kindness, your cultural sensitivity will increase, creating an inviting, inclusive environment in the workplace.

I am currently reading and highly recommend the below books which have been very helpful in understanding Diversity & Inclusion in the workplace:

Benefits of Social Media to Your Dental Practice

For many years, dentists relied almost exclusively on reputation, word of mouth, expensive advertising and flyer marketing to help build their practices. But, it’s a different time now and more likely than not, our patients/audience are on one or more social media platforms. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat,etc being active on social media will give us the ability to drive traffic, reach new patients and build lasting relationships that will only benefit our practices.

Some great benefits of Social Media to our practices are:

1. Increased Visibility

   Social media allows for greater visibility, provides us the chance to reach a wide audience and create relationships with current and potential patients. Because of this increased visibility we are now able to spread information about our practices far and wide.

2. Reach & Interact with Potential Patients

   One of the most important things about social media is that we are able to reach and connect with our audience. It’s a great place for them to see customer testimonials, experiences, friendly office images and the results of our work. Responding to questions through social media helps as well - our patients will like the fact that their doctor is accessible.

3. Strengthen Patient Relationship

   Before now, patients needed to call the office and speak to the receptionist to schedule an appointment, ask questions or discuss a concern. Now that there’s social media, our patients have better access to us and our offices. They can send messages and get a quick response, and If our social media pages are less clinical, it will be easier for our audience to see us as relatable. The viral nature of social media also means it’s easy to spread information about you and your practice far and wide. By writing articles, posting videos and sharing information that demonstrates our expertise, we can begin to show our patients what we and our practice(s) are about. It is also a great tool to elicit responses by creating content that gets people to click, comment or share.

In my practice, we recently started to utilize Facebook, Instagram and we are working on snapchat filters (kids love this!). The results so far have been great! Our patients learn more about our practice, staff and doctor(s), and they are leaving us really great feedback which is helping to drive traffic to our website and ultimately our practice. If you’re not already, you should definitely consider utilizing social media in your practice - if done correctly will benefit your practice in the long run.

Related Post: Social Media Blunders that Will Hurt a Young Doc’s Career

What I Learned In My First Year of Being an Associate Doctor

After the completion of residency, we have a couple options: Practice ownership or associateship. I am one of those that chose the latter. My goal was to gain a few years of experience before taking the plunge into being "the boss" and just like with anything else I learned some valuable lessons along the way. Here are a few:

1. Fully understand your contractual obligations before signing

This is one of the most important parts of starting your new associateship. It sets the tone for the next year+ of your professional life. The contract is a legally binding agreement so do your due diligence and ensure the terms are mutually beneficial.  Have an attorney read through it before signing. This is very important! If there's something that you do not agree with, do not sign. (More on contracts in a subsequent post). 

2. Patient first! Despite any circumstance

 You are the doctor and your duty is to your patients! If anything disrupts patient care, it should be discussed with your employer.  Employers hire associates for various reasons. Those reasons could range from the employer slowing down/phasing out or simply to grow the practice. In situations of growing the practice, make sure there is a healthy balance between increased patient load and quality of care. If you feel the volume of patients is preventing you from offering the best quality of care to your patients don't be afraid to discuss it with your employer. Ultimately your license is at stake. Patients first.

3. Have and keep a good rapport with the staff and other doctor(s), but do not fraternize.

Remain professional. You are in a professional environment and should act accordingly at all times. Be courteous and friendly but not too friendly. There is a level of respect that you first will have to earn and then maintain. Being too friendly and/or fraternizing can send the wrong message and opens the floor up for disrespect. Do not allow it. Conversely, you may not always like everyone, but you certainly should make an effort to "get along" with everyone. Trust me, it makes life less stressful and the days go by faster.  Your staff can be your biggest asset when they are fully invested in the practice. They are human beings with lives outside of the office too. Some things that really go a long way are remembering birthdays and  anniversaries, treating the staff to breakfast or lunch on occasion, giving gifts at christmas, etc. Those little things can go a long way toward a healthy work environment. Keep it light, keep it fun but keep it professional.

4. Be nice, but be firm.

Be respectful, kind and courteous but also maintain boundaries. Keep in mind that you are not the boss, you are an associate and some staff members will try to push their limit, do not allow this. On the contrary being mean can destroy your relationships with staff and sometimes the patients. You have your reputation to uphold so protect it!!

5. Learn to say NO.

Those words should be utilized in life and in the workplace.  If you are uncomfortable with something it is your duty as a practitioner to speak up.  There is a tendency for some employers to push to see how much they can get out of you. As young professionals we want to look good to our employers but know your limits and exercise them. The lesson to be learned here is Your license is at stake.