A Space and Time Solution for Dentists

What do you do if you are poised to grow as a practice but your facility won't let you? This is a question that came up recently from a reader when I wrote about the strategy in, “Are You Capturing All the Value in Your Practice?”, of bringing in another dentist to help capture excess value.

This dentist wanted to know what to do if you think your practice is not ready to comfortably handle two dentists and you don't want to go through the trouble and expense of moving into a larger facility? My first response, as an entrepreneur who values growth, is to encourage you to seriously evaluate whether it is true that you are not ready to expand or move.

Almost every successful practice reaches a point where your capacity or the facility capacity is at a peak. Dentists have to ask the right questions: How long am I locked into my current lease? How old is the equipment? Do I have the economics to support a transition to a bigger facility right now? Would a move add more value with either tangible returns or intangible value from working in a better environment? If the indicators are right in each of these areas, you have to ask yourself what's holding you back. Don't let inertia and a sense of comfort stop you from growing.

If you have legitimate reasons for not going ahead with an expansion plan, as in you have a fairly new and updated facility but just not enough room, there are still ways to capture excess value and continue on a growth path. One strategy, which I covered in a previous article, “An Alternative to the Associate or Partner Solution”, is to become more selective and "purify" the kind of dentistry you choose to do. But this is a bold move that comes with its own risks. Another reader was asking if there was a way to move in that direction without "purifying too much."

If you can't expand the space to accommodate another dentist in a small practice, you can always expand the time. What if you changed your schedule to something like 7-2, Monday through Wednesday, and 2-8 on Thursday? Meanwhile you bring in an associate to work 11-7 on those days and to cover Fridays as well. This way you can reduce your hours, offer a much greater range of appointment options for your patients and grow the practice.

It is possible to grow your own production while reducing your hours. In fact, in all the years I have been advising dentists, I have never seen a dentist who employed this strategy not end up increasing their revenue. I'll get into the reasons for that in a future article.

In the end, there are almost as many ways to solve the riddle of capturing excess value as there are practices. You just have to be creative and open to new ideas. If you are at the point in your career where it is time to think about these strategies, I urge to look at our online succession planning lessons where you will find a lot more on this important subject.