In today’s age, many industries have pivoted. Most work is conducted in an online environment now. This has factored into the dental industry. With lockdowns, dentists were forced to focus on virtual appointments for many checkups. Pictures were sent to them from clients and communication was done from home. If you are considering starting a dental practice, this pivot might very well be the way of the future. Consider it when evaluating how your new dental practice will get off the ground.
Make sure you have a business plan for your dental practice
When you are starting a dental practice, you need to have a thorough business plan. So many people try to jump the gun because they found the perfect premises or they think they have the best name for their practice. They buy a domain name and start their online website, but all the while they don’t have a business plan. Your business plan will be the foundation of everything you do. It will set you up for success when it comes to acquiring capital should you need it, determining the staff you need, where you want to operate, and what your budget will be.
Another part of setting up or starting your dental practice is to determine your registration requirements, your personal liability, and what tax forms you need to file. You might need to obtain a business loan, which again requires that business plan. You’ll need to find good insurance that protects your assets, your business property, as well as your employees. Finally, it’s up to you to know any local regulations and guidelines where you plan to practice.
Get the right space and staff
Finding the right office is going to take some time. There are different national and local standards to which your office building must adhere. You should be proactive with your office compliance and make sure that you understand the local rules for things like waste management.
Understand how much square footage is necessary for an efficient office layout. Determine what staff you need to truly facilitate a functioning office. When you hire staff members, abide by all national requirements and compliance items for hiring and training your staff. It’s important that you appreciate best practices for hiring, training, and managing your dental staff. Similarly, you also need to make sure that your business and those you hire are able to abide by legal regulations regarding the protection of personal client data and health information.
Prepare the dental practice for the virtual
Certain aspects of that virtual capacity will remain. Prepare to accommodate some of the virtual aspects to which people have become accustomed. For example, many people grew accustomed to the ability to make and change appointments entirely online. No longer will it be effective for your office to hire a secretary to constantly field phone calls about people who need regular check-ups. It is not financially worth it to hire a marketing team to send those 6-month reminder postcards in the mail. Today, people prefer getting their reminders on their phone, via text message or email. They want to make appointments and set them in a digital fashion without any in-person interactions.
Form good relationships
As you start to invest in a new dental practice, you need to form good relationships. This applies to things like dental associations. Professional associations give you additional legitimacy as you set up in a new location. Saying that you are part of a professional organization can boost authority in the eyes of potential clients. This also applies to the other businesses with whom you will be working. You might turn to a wholesaler of dental products to help you get started with the equipment you need and to provide you with supplies on a regular basis. This relationship needs to be one that is professional and reliable, but affordable as well.
Moreover, if you are just starting out, hire virtual staff to help you with things like accounting or a call center for appointment-setting tasks. A web designer and marketing team will help get your business off the ground. In all of these areas, maintain good relationships with reliable team members.
