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This Dental Specific Podcast is dedicated to the Dental "Entrepreneur" Michael Dinsio, Founder of Next Level Consultants, delivers #TRUTH when starting up a dental practice. From the very first step to getting the keys of a dental practice, Michael shares his raw & unscripted playbook with you. Not only does this podcast provide you with "What To Do" but more importantly "What Not To Do". With over over 15 years of experience & over 150 past clients, Michael delivers an educational and informative program in a real and genuine way. Start w/ Episode 01 - as we go through a STEP by STEP process.
00:08
Start up unscripted, the questions you have, with the truths you need to hear. And now your host, Michael D'Anzio.
00:23
All right, all right guys. Welcome to the show again. This is Mike D'Incio, founder of Next Level Consultants on Startup Unscripted. We are keeping this bad boy going. We're actually starting back at the top and working our way back through. And today is the demographics episode. Thanks for everyone joining and being part of the program. We are actually live today on Facebook. We have upgraded our game. And if you folks want to actually be
00:53
part of the program, which is interesting, a new element. You can follow us on Facebook and actually write us and comment and we could maybe answer your questions live. again, Mike Dinsio, founder of Next Level Consultants, we are startup consultants and coaches and help people get into ownership the right way and try to bring you guys awesome people to help you guys along the journey.
01:21
because you can't do it all, I can't do it all. And today we're working on demographics. So starting back at the top, if you missed quote unquote season two, check that out. Episode one is literally vision, demographics, real estate all the way through. And now we're going back up at the top. We already did vision, now we're doing demographics. And today we have Dentagraphics as the professionals for you. had them on...
01:48
dental acquisition unscripted. So we talked about acquisitions with Dentagraphics, but we haven't done Dentagraphics on the startup side, which is actually a little bit more fun because I think you guys do a lot more startups than anything else. So I think today's going to be a great episode. So without further ado, let me introduce Kent Miller and Kevin Klingtscher and the owners of Dentagraphics. Guys, welcome to the program. Thank you, Mike. Yeah, thank you for having us.
02:17
Give us a little bit about Dentagraphics. Like just tell us why you guys are awesome and the authorities in the industry and why Next Level endorses you. Go ahead. Yeah. So Dentagraphics, we are a dental market research company. We work only with dentists. We work across the entire country and we work with dentists of all specialties. So whether you're a GP, pediatric dentist, endodontist,
02:45
whoever we've got custom tailored approaches to each different specialty. And what we really focus on is helping doctors, both current and aspiring practice owners, find the best areas to practice in. So we'll look at things like the level of demand for care within each area. We'll look at the supply of existing practices. We actually have an in-house research team. It's really cool. They go through and manually count every practice in an area.
03:14
And we're looking for your specific vision and your target patient base so that if you come to us and say, hey, here's where I want to practice. I'm in the Phoenix area. I want to have a cosmetic practice. But my friend over here also in Phoenix wants more of a Medicaid oriented practice. We're going to produce two totally different things. yeah, we work with dentists nationwide of all specialties. My name is Kent Miller. I, along with my colleague here, Kevin, we run the company.
03:42
My background actually is in urban planning. So prior to the dental industry, I was working across a variety of sectors where a public entity like a city would come to us and say, there are lots of vacant storefronts in this area. What kinds of businesses could be supported there? So we'd interview residents, you know, we'd look at economic data and we'd say, hey, maybe a hardware store or
04:07
You know a little grocery store or something along those lines So my focus really is the product side and I'll let Kevin introduce himself Yeah, so I joined dentagraphics and fun fact I guess for next summer Dentagraphics is going to be 10 years old we get asked, you know, how long you guys been around 10 years next July I think Wow Congrats guys. That's huge. So dentagraphics only Existed for about one year, maybe a year and a half with really just can't run in it
04:36
before I jumped on board. Before that, I was in the tech space in Austin. had a job at the time that was so-so. I guess I'll leave it at that. was running... You might be able to relate. Yeah. Kent was running dentagraphics and I saw how much fun he was having. I know it was a lot of work for him, but as soon as he kind of hinted at, you maybe you could help out and do this thing with me, I was all in.
05:06
Currently I'm the chief revenue officer. do a lot of the doctor facing kind of day to day helping them figure out what's the best product, what's the best way to go with us. But just growing the business is primary focus of mine. Guys, thanks so much for being on the program. Demographics is such a huge topic because it's kind of a catch 22. I want to get into this today is like how like how
05:36
important it is. But by the end of the episode, I want to talk about how it's not everything also. Like, there's both, there's both, right? I have that conversation with my clients and even a lot of real estate professionals of how the market is in the state that it's in. you know, depending on where you're at, in on a timeline, and when you're watching this episode, in this current market, it's kind of challenging to find spaces, it's single digit occupancies. And so
06:04
you get this amazing report that Dentagraphics provides you and then the real estate person can't find anything in the spot. And so there's this like really, really important side where data, you know, is king. And then there's this other side of like, what's possible realistically in a market. And so that's a prelude to where we're going in the episode, but.
06:31
let's just jump right in. So as far as like dentagraphics, demographics in general, when you're doing a scratch start, how important is it guys? Like I could go on and on, but I want to hear it from you. Like why should someone get a demographic report if they're thinking about doing a scratch start? Yeah. So we all know, you know, the value of one additional patient, right? And I'm sure everyone who comes on these podcasts talks about, if I get you one more patient, pays for this service.
07:00
so quickly. Your location is something you can't change, right? When you sign that lease for five, 10 plus years, you can't move. what we, what any of us would hate for you to do, or you can't move very easily at least, is get into a market, realize, hey, you know, I can't really have the type of practice that I want here, right? My patients don't live in this area, or this would be a little bit less of a concern, but still not very fun.
07:28
Hey, I didn't realize just how many competing practices were already in this area. Doesn't mean I can't be successful. It just means that buildup is going to be a little bit more challenging and keeping my edge against the competition in this area a little bit more challenging than maybe if I had gone to an area where there were fewer practices relative to the population. So obviously one of the huge, huge building blocks, foundational building blocks in your practice. Yeah, no, mean, location, location, location. went to
07:57
Business school at the Ohio State we took we actually talked about this before the program started I had no idea Kent and Kevin are Alumni like I am so I knew I liked you guys. I just didn't realize how much more now I like you As Buckeyes, so for all the haters out there. Yes, we went to the Ohio State University and and at school I Location location location was so important
08:27
And it's the difference of a fast start versus a slow start. It's true. Like location in itself can determine that. They look at all kinds of things. So when you're looking at location, Kevin, I'll have you answer this one, because when I refer folks over to you, you're the one that's really breaking down what areas to kind of focus on and where you're going to do your data and search and all that.
08:57
when someone calls you, what are they expecting? What kind of questions are they gonna ask you? Because essentially, the more specific they are for you, the even better you can get for them. there probably should be a little bit of prep work before they come to you. Is that right? It's not required, maybe ideally. The process, especially when you send us over a client, it goes, Kevin, meet Doc.
09:26
I talked to the doctor and the first thing I want to ask him is, you know, tell me about the areas in which you're open to starting to practice at. Usually that doesn't follow like city limits. doesn't follow county limits. It doesn't follow a certain number of zip codes. They can sort of define on a map, you know, where within their just general area, Phoenix, Seattle, Austin, et cetera, they're open to starting to practice. Once we have that in mind, we can move forward with creating a map that is going to cover
09:56
you know, all the practical areas within that sort of pre discussed area that we already agreed on, and then come back and say, Hey, based on, you know, that's the final result of the report is everywhere you're open to, here's where we recommend you, you know, team up with a real estate agent and go search for space. So yeah, I mean, it all just kind of starts with it. And everybody's in a different phase of the search. Some people don't know states. Some people don't know, you know, within a state, you know, Northern or Southern California.
10:25
And that's fine. We can work with those people too. But in a lot of the cases, it just starts with kind of like a predefined area. Yeah, very vague term. But, know, we use the term market a lot. Like, tell me about your market. Like where I live in Cleveland, for example. I know, you know, Northeast Ohio as a whole, it's a really big area, bigger than a lot of people I think realize. But a lot of people will come to us with a certain part of the Northeast Ohio region kind of already in mind.
10:53
And then we just go from there. Yeah. Nothing defined by like, usually not defined by counties, city limits. It's just a general market. Um, and then, yeah, we will kind of take it from there. from there. So, um, I, I get all kinds of, of clients that are all kind of different places of there's this journey. Right. And oftentimes like, I'll get somebody it's like, Mike, where should I go? What state should I go in? And I'm just like, that
11:22
That is like so such a big question. Like where do you want to live? Where do you want to raise your kids someday? What cities do you want to be a part of? What are you a foodie? Are you an outdoorsman? I mean, or gal or whatever, right? Like that's really a personal preference. It's kind of difficult to find a state or an area that we, the three of us couldn't find something that's actually viable. Totally. I could probably
11:51
pick a handful of like, okay, like Vegas is like kind of out at this point. I mean, that is like for an example, right? There's things where ratios don't make sense. So just in general, like be very difficult to not be able to find a viable area with your help. And then I get the other extreme of like, want to be in this block, right? What does this block city block look like?
12:20
and everybody in between. so you guys have different reports that kind of help with all three of those, or those, those mentality of three reports, walk us through those reports and how they help folks get in the right frame of mind to help them make better decisions. Right now we actually only have two reports. What used to have three. Used to have three. Okay. But we, you know, we've kind of like,
12:47
think we condensed our offerings in a way to be efficient or.
12:54
It, we have two reports right now. We used to have the multi-site comparison. Yeah. Right now, just of the two reports, it's area analysis. So Kevin, I live in Austin. Tell me the best place in Austin or the most favorable neighborhoods, pockets, et cetera, within greater Austin for a startup practice. So again, you, just have an area in mind, but you don't know within that larger area where you should be focusing. And then report two is the site study. I've identified a location to start a practice at.
13:23
real estate agent has this available property. I like the terms. I'm fond of the area and I'm really close to signing for the property. I want you guys to tell me everything I don't know. Then basically, you know, from very weak to very strong, how do we feel about that location considering the doctor's practice strategy, competition, so on and so forth. So that's like the last, again, really the last kind of checklist item that we would handle before a doctor actually moves forward.
13:50
with the space. guess that makes sense because every time I send someone over it's either one or the other. I guess the other the third one didn't even matter and I'm sitting here thinking three. Yeah. Okay. So that's perfect. When someone let's say you're looking at an area I think that's probably the most common one for me anyways. I don't know about you guys but when we're looking at an area you said Austin let's just run with that. So Kevin can I want to be in the Austin area. What
14:20
Like what, how are you going to help them figure that out? What's the mechanics of the, of the rapport? And then what are the things that you guys actually stack rank? Like, like what, what are those algorithms I call it of the best, uh, top, top areas? What specifically? Yeah. So we start with, um, vision, right? The previous episode of your podcast with, doctor, what type of practice do you want? Where do you want to live? Right? The things that you were talking about, not only where do you want to live now,
14:50
Where do you see yourself living in five, 10 years, right? A lot of doctors are at the age where maybe they're getting married, having kids, and maybe the downtown location is cool now, but is it going to be as cool in five or 10 years, right? So kind of thinking a little bit ahead or like you live in Austin, but you grew up in Northern Virginia. Are you still going want to be there in 10 years? So thinking through some of those things, but also like the scoping that Kevin mentioned, you have restrictive covenants or the areas, you know, you would never practice it. So it's really just getting that study area narrowed down.
15:20
Once we have that, we're going to break that region down into smaller sub markets. like with the Austin example, there's downtown Austin, there's East Austin, there's Round Rock, Klugerville, all these surrounding suburban markets, where we're then going to assess what I was talking about earlier at a high level, the three sort of primary components of market analysis. So first of all, the level of demand for care. Are there patients in the area? Do they want dental care? Secondly,
15:49
the supply of existing practices. So how many competing practices are there? How many are there relative to the population? And then thirdly, is there a good fit with your target patient base? Do the people who live in that area look like the patients that you want in your practice? So we're going to look at a total of 10 inputs in this report that help us assess those in various ways. So things like the first metric.
16:13
usually is going to be the level of competition, which is going to be ratio of potential patients per competing practice. If you're a general dentist, residents per general dental office, if you're a pediatric dentist, usually we'll do kids age 0 to 11 per pediatric dental office. Then in terms of demand for care, we're looking at total population size. 100,000 people means a whole lot more potential patients than 10,000 people. think that's one that's overlooked a lot of times. that called saturation on your report? Sorry to interrupt. Is that the saturation one, right?
16:43
That one's density. Density, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Looking at total market size. And there are a couple of reasons we can get into it a little bit more as to why we really strongly prefer densely populated areas, all else being equal relative to less densely populated areas. When I say all else being equal, I'm talking about things like income and education and growth as well. Speaking of income, education, age, those are factors in demand for care.
17:10
Obviously higher income, higher education, higher dental IQ. You could have young residents though in their 20s, all the disposable income in the world, but if they're in their 20s, might not have as much need for restorative care. lastly, target patient base, right? So we're to look at things like homeownership and still income and education. Average household size tells us how many families are in the area to help you find the right area for you and for your practice. Yeah. It's awesome because
17:40
Like my audience, the dentists out there are very analytical, right? mean, naturally, you guys are scientists and very good at reading data. the report that you guys generate, this demographic report is so key. such a small expense for such a huge decision of yours to make. I mean, it's
18:08
the best insurance policy ever, in my opinion. they do a great job. You guys do a great job of like, again, stack ranking the all of these things and putting it in a very easy way to read. I what are your like, if you were to give us like, what when you guys are going through these reports, how do you walk someone through once the reports come out?
18:37
How do you walk through like the best things? give us some, again, I'm a little fearful because this is a podcast and people take stuff very literal. So folks, this is the big asterisk. Do not take me literal, but if we could get some kind of bracket high end, low end for some of these metrics, what would those be guys? me some ideas of what like a good.
19:03
Density would be a good education level, a good income. And again, I know the state has averages and all kinds of stuff, but just generally speaking. Yeah. So generally speaking, and just add a little bit more to that, Astros, it depends on where you are, depends on the type of practice that you want. For a general dental practice, we're typically looking for a minimum of somewhere between about 2000 and 3000 residents per general dental office for a startup.
19:30
I can go a little bit lower if it's an acquisition. can go a little bit lower if, particularly if it's a productive acquisition, if the level of demand for care is really strong, but 2000 to 3000 to one is kind of a good barometer to start with. Income is going to be one that varies a lot depending on do you want that cosmetic dental practice? Do you want that Medicaid practice? Where are you in the Bay area? This is a fun stat. A household income level of about a hundred thousand dollars a year, actually over a hundred thousand dollars a year is considered low income.
20:00
in most of the country, that's not low income, right? So like the number, you know, the 75 or a hundred thousand dollars a year, it just really, really varies. So it's so, so important to know about the context of your area and the type of practice that you want. But one that I really like to look at to kind of get a gauge for what's really going on in this market. If we can only look at a number is actually going to be education because in the Bay area, you might not have a college degree. You're in a hundred and $10,000 a year. That's low income.
20:30
Uh in most of the country under 10 000 dollars a year high income So about 30 percent of people nationwide have a four-year degree or higher level of education So if you see that number is way higher than that, it's a more educated market way lower than four percent. Let's educate 30 30 30 I was going to say three zero. Okay, 30 of the population is considered median That's pretty standard. Yeah. Yeah, okay cool Uh income well, you you touched on that. Uh, you touched on ratios
21:00
saturation, what's that like, what would be considered dense versus not dense? So typically we would say that having about 30,000 residents inside of a three mile radius is kind of like a suburban population density. So a lot of this of course is going to impact the type of market you want to be in. Do want to be in a rural area, suburban, urban, and those different practice models carry with them different risks and different trade-offs, I guess.
21:29
So for a suburban model, typically about 30,000 residents inside of that three mile radius. If you go lower than that, you're just getting into more of a rural environment. Usually that means lower competition, both in terms of the number of competing practices relative to the population and in terms of character of competition. Who is this office? Is it, you know, a 70 year old guy with no website? Is it a DSO? Is it a local group with multiple doctors? Um, as obviously you get higher and higher above that 30,000 metric.
21:59
we can just tolerate more competition. We can tolerate a lower level of median household income, but 30,000 is kind of a good place to start to kind of get a sense for like how densely populated is this area? love lots of numbers, totally speaking my game. love that. Lately guys, I've been talking to clients a lot about like, so you've chose an area that might be lower than 2000.
22:28
ratios, right, 2000 patients per dentist. And I've been asking my clients to take your report to another level. And that is start digging into the actual competitors that we have identified as actual competitors, because I'm finding that if the ratios are lower, and the competitors are maybe older,
22:56
They're just not marketing. There's no other startups in the area. You actually could do really, really well in a situation like that versus a ratio that might be like 3000 to one. For example, you said that was kind of like you're a good spot to be. Um, but there's another startup in that same area. And if you go to those websites and you start really looking at the, the, the competitors in a very specific way,
23:26
You might actually have a harder time ramping up because think about all that marketing is going at the patients from two different offices aggressively versus just you so Are you are you guys you gave me the thumbs up folks? If you're not following us on YouTube get on YouTube because you can watch us. It can't like all about this Kevin do you agree with that? Idea the thinking there any other tips any other tips? So just to go off
23:53
what you said there. If you're in, remember on the last podcast we did with you, we talked about San Jose. I mentioned it. San Jose is a really dense market. It's also really competitive. lot of the practices there have been there forever. No website, 70 year old doctor who's not marketing at all. You go to, you know, the outskirts of Dallas where growth in Dallas is at its highest level, which is really high among the highest in the country. Every practice there is new. You look at the doctor, it looks a lot more like
24:21
startup doctor that you're working with. you're almost like looking at them looking in the mirror at an ambitious young doctor who's ready to establish that market as theirs. Even if a lot of the other figures like competition overall isn't nearly as insane as it is in San Jose. Yeah, right. have that other aspect of it. It's a newer community of other families aren't as familiar with who the local dentists are. So there's kind of this this
24:50
this gold rush over in Texas now to, uh, gold rush. I love that gold rush. Establish yourself as like the, uh, the town's, you know, premier provider, guess. But yeah, no, it always helps to dig in more, figure out how many practitioners are there, see if they have a specialist on staff. There's lots of multi-specialty offices out there. They might have an orthodontist, a pediatric dentist as well. Um, and then, you know, just figure out who they are and.
25:20
and assess accordingly, I guess. But yeah, I know it certainly helps. then other things that I would talk about or I would talk about is, you know, what are the other practices focused on in terms of services, maybe hours, when are they open? Is there ever a time where nobody around you is going to be open as much as it must, as much as it could be unpleasant, maybe Saturday morning is a good time to open up your office. So that's That's great advice.
25:44
as much as we help them with, we do, but I think that there's always more you can kind of dig into and our report's a really good starting point there. Yeah, this varies more than people realize, I think. If you look in the upper Midwest, the Northeast areas that haven't seen a lot of growth recently, we have what we call digital practice score. And it looks at like, does a practice have a website? Does that website perform well in terms of search engine optimization? Do they have Google reviews? Are those reviews good? Are they bad? How many reviews do they have? look in the upper Midwest, the Northeast,
26:14
tons and tons of practices are getting a poor or a fair score, which are our two lowest scores. And you go to an area like Kevin mentioned, the North side of Dallas, huge high growth, high income households, elite, good everywhere. It varies a ton. So we actually have free state and county level data available on our website. And so if you're looking at, you know, Wayne County, Michigan or Oakland County, Michigan, uh, and you see, Hey, man, this is really competitive. I should go down to Collin County, Texas, which is suburban Dallas.
26:43
Because look it's so much less competitive that may be true But you really got to think about who the competing practices are too. So there is another layer to dig into Yeah well one thing you guys Mentioned the beginning of the episode was vision and I love that you did start the conversation with vision because that that really does drive everything like I I talked to our our clients all the time is like if you're not super clear about what you're trying to do your your your
27:11
vendors, I'll call them or professionals, partners, you guys would be part of that team aren't going to know how to help you and create what you're trying to create. So, so yeah, the rural area might need more of a super GP, whereas urban might need a more out not a la carte, but a very like specialized type service. And then you refer out I don't know, all I'm saying is, figure out what your vision is, and then tell folks like Kent and Kevin what
27:40
what you're looking for. That way they can find that. And if you're not super clear about it, well, you're going to get those results. I'm not sure what you're going to get, you know? And that is so key. No one's doing enough. No, I shouldn't say no one. I tend to give examples and extremes just to prove my point. But but a lot of people are not putting in the time to prepare for this business.
28:08
and it starts with demographics. So I love that guys. So big, big, big picture. We talked about like the doctor doing some of the groundwork and doing their own research. One of the reasons why I've chosen you guys as our partners, because you do some of this groundwork for them. You guys have data centers where you're, right? Like explain.
28:36
how you verify some of this information for them. I don't think folks realize the importance of this, this segment, this part. There's a lot of census stuff. You could Google, you could do all of those things, but like, Dentagraphics do some things for you that check some of the boxes to make sure that the data is quality. What are those things, guys? I always refer to it sort of,
29:05
in so many words is like the least flashy but important part of our business is the competition research. I don't think, as you said, people really appreciate it. If you explain it to them, I think they can appreciate it. we have, Kent mentioned it earlier, we have a US based research team, full-time research team that is just dedicated towards manually checking dental practices within an area. So that just
29:34
means phone verifying to make sure that they're still open, checking to make sure the address is correct, checking to make sure, you know, multi-specialists, do they have an orthodontist or is it just the general dentist on staff? So we do it by dental practice. We don't do it by practitioner. There, I would definitely agree that practitioner numbers would be important to have, but we can't, we're not in the, we don't like the guessing game. We don't like saying, Hey, we think that there's four practitioners total here. And we go off of what we can know.
30:04
So that level of research goes into every report as opposed to a doctor just doing it themselves, Google searching it or whatever. That's not going to be very fun. It's not going to be very easy and it probably won't be very accurate because you'll get residential addresses, you'll get hospitals, you'll get prisons, you'll get dental schools where it says there's 4,000 dentists on staff. We're used to figuring out, just getting to the bottom of it, looking through a market, figuring out how many practices there are.
30:34
And that is, as I said, it's the least flashy, least sexy thing about what we do, but probably at the end of the day, the most important thing that we do and the thing that separates us from other providers that would get into this space like this. Yeah. I think a better way of saying that is the most under appreciated is better because it's very valued for sure. All right. So we talked about you guys and
31:02
the authority you have and the quality of report and some of the strategy on picking location. It is one of the first steps of this whole startup process. Again, the more you can prepare before going to demographics, the better it is. So vision, business plan, all that good stuff. And you might not have it all, that's okay, but at least some preparation that goes into it. Now let's talk about, okay, so you have this
31:30
Really really good report. It's quality. They verify tons of information for you You've narrowed it down. You know what area and you hand this to a real estate agent And the real estate agent looks at and says you're smoking something in Washington State, right? I live there. I can say that and so And they're like no we're not gonna be able to find something in this in this circle because they the guys give a report that
32:00
kind of identify circles and where you want to focus on. And so again, keeping an open mind about the data and like what we talked about competition and all the different things to try to open your purview of that report. But are you guys seeing and hearing the same thing I am about, hey, it's just becoming harder and harder to find space in these really quote unquote viable spots. What's your what's answer to that and what's the solution to it? Yeah.
32:30
So we definitely in all of our area analysis report is the one that you're talking about where it's like, Hey, I'm in Seattle, where should I go? And you know, just tell me theoretically, which area would work best. We make sure that when we place a circle, so a sub area, we place it over commercial real estate. So we'll look for Starbucks, we'll look for grocery stores, so that we can say, Hey, you know what, there may not be a space here that's going to work for you. We can't guarantee you that. And that's where your real estate agent is going to come in.
32:59
but we can say there is some commercial real estate here. So we're not ever going to place a circle like in the woods or in the middle of a golf course or something. Cause we know that's not going to work from the start. And then after that, once they get the results back, our guidance from that report is, here are your top two, three, maybe four areas, depending on how big of a search you ran, depending on the results of the search. But I'm going to give you two to four areas to focus on. And the reason for that is that,
33:28
we might see, doc, here's this awesome A rated market, good demand for care, no competition. And then you go there you're like, yeah, but you know, the only property is like super expensive. There's no visibility. I can't even build out the practice I want. I work only on the market side. I would still say, doc, don't go to that market. Go to your B rated market. If you can get an A rated property as opposed to that A rated market with the F rated property. Now, you know, you can take that a step further and say,
33:57
there isn't any commercial real estate available at all in this area. And we really do our best to avoid including areas like that. But if that does happen, and it's something like you said was particularly common, I think with a lot of the COVID backlogs and stuff, and I know it's 2023, it's the end of 2023, but this stuff takes time. There are backlogs. That is just sort of a reality of where we're at right now and getting into practice ownership is still worth it. It just means that you might need to compromise
34:27
on some things and that's really the nature we think it's kind of a bigger lesson. We're at the beginning of practice ownership journey a lot of times. You got to make compromises. It'd be awesome if you could get an A rated this and an A rated that and an A rated that. But it's sort of like, okay, I could get a B rated this one and an A rated that one. And we hope you find the best combination of what's available to you at any point in time. just because it's not best of best of best of best of best does not mean that you're not going to have successful
34:56
startup or successful business. That being said, I do challenge folks that if you're not liking the data to re-approach Kent and Kevin and say, hey, it looks like I was a little narrow-minded. Austin seems to be a little bit more tapped than I thought. so, Kevin, what areas can we push out?
35:26
I just, you know, if you know what you want, then go find it. But the reality is I always find folks, they struggle with the decision, I want to be by Austin, but they're not willing to live outside of Austin in the area that nobody else wants to be in because that's where the quote unquote gold mine is because no one's gone there yet. And so some of those demand for dentistry is so big.
35:53
we just worked with a client that we were discussing before the program here in Washington. She went right on the outskirts of where everybody wanted to be. And I think it was close to eight or 9,000 to one and she had a $60,000 a month her first month. So, and, and she was okay living out there, quote unquote out there. Right. And so, so we can find those areas. It's just, you have to be willing to have that lifestyle. And I think, you know, I hope people are
36:23
could get more open minded to that. Do you guys find yourselves in those same situations where someone comes back to you and says, don't really love these numbers? Can we push out Kevin? How do you handle that? mean, above all, I think I would tell a doctor like you have to be fond of an area. So we looked at this and we tapped out and you know, the findings weren't great.
36:49
Are you open to looking at more? Let's look at more. But, you know, above all, at end of the day, if you know that you wouldn't enjoy your life and your professional life and practice ownership in the areas that we're now talking about looking into beyond what we've already looked at. mean, I wouldn't push somebody to do that, but yeah, we do have people that come to us. Hey, we struck out. Let's open this up a little bit more. And then maybe we can uncover some opportunities from there. And then just to go back on the process of it all.
37:18
You guys sort of talked about, don't need to obsess over getting a practice location in one, in the one area, the two areas that can't talk to you about on the consultation call. You know, it's a report that a lot of times we'll look at like 50 little sub markets. If we're in the top half of where we're in the top quarter, that's still what I would consider good. And then on top of that, after that report has been done and you're now working with the real estate agent to find properties. We, we always offer, Hey, when you do find a location,
37:48
you don't need to jump right into the site study, which is that final report I talked about earlier. Send us three locations. We'll give a quick overview, hear our thoughts, kind of in a little bit more of a casual setting. That could be a phone call. It could be a quick email. I've done that with your clients, Mike, like, hey, here's three locations we have in mind. What do you think about them? Because those are the more like real life. You went out there, you worked with a real estate agent, you find what was available. Maybe it...
38:15
falls slightly outside of where we did the initial report. So let's take care of you there and make sure that you have an understanding of the property that's actually available. How does that stack up relative to the market analysis as a whole? Yeah, guys, I want to communicate that these guys just aren't a company that sits behind a computer and generates reports and that's it. I think of them as partners to the process.
38:45
You just, uh, Kevin just described, uh, Kevin helping folks compare it, you know, comparing three different locations and having conversation in real world situations. And I think that's, that's the meat and potatoes there. You can look at all this data and can't, you can't find what you're looking for. And sometimes it's just jumping on a call Kevin and having a cool discussion about what you're looking for and where we missed or, maybe where we got it, you just can't see it through the data. So I think.
39:15
That's the company you're listening to today is it's more of a partnership, not just a report and data. And I think that's the best part of Dentagraphics. I feel like I'm selling you guys today. I'm not meaning to, but it is so important to partner with the right people and also understand how they're getting their data and how they're analyzing it and how they're verifying it. And all this stuff matters. Don't just randomly get a demographic report. Understand the meat and potatoes behind it.
39:41
Final comments guys, as we wrap this episode up, any last minute things that you wanted to throw out there about the demographic process and how it all works for the audience?
39:56
I think this is one that surprises a lot of people. So I'll just sort of throw it in as a fun fact to twist everybody up here at the end. Just for fun. Yeah, just for fun. So we find that the thing that people overweigh the most, and that's why wanted to get in here, is population growth. So growth is great. Like we truly prefer areas that are growing as opposed to not growing. That said,
40:23
If an area grew by 5 % versus 3%, who cares, right? That's not a huge difference. Not to mention a lot of times we're talking about 2025, 2030. If anybody could predict the future, you know, that would be a great superpower to have. Things can and do change. So don't put all your eggs in the basket of what an area hopefully looks like in 2030. COVID might happen, 2007, 2008, that might happen. All kinds of things can happen. The developer might say,
40:52
healthy economy, but you know what? I ran out of money. I'm not doing that project anymore. just, you know, the future is great, but you want your practice to be successful day one, year one, not twiddling your thumbs, waiting for the people to move in in 2030. So that's my biggest piece of advice that I think I like people to hear. I love that. That's a great last minute tip. Folks, as always, the description below and YouTube and all of the podcast channels that you all are listening to.
41:22
We're going to have a Dentagraphics information below. Make sure you mention next level. These guys might give you a break on some stuff. Might, And, you know, just reach out to them. Again, I think these guys are great and their company's great and they're more of a partner than just a report in my opinion. And thanks again, guys, for being on the show as always showing up and
41:50
given us great information and yeah, I guess until next time. Yeah, obviously we appreciate it and just anybody who's listening, wanna throw it out like, you don't have to buy something to get on a phone call with us. You can shoot us an email, give us a call, set up a time to do a demo, run through on our website. It all kind of starts with a conversation. I'm on the phone constantly with doctors or even people that are a ways out from needing us, but kind of just talking through
42:19
what it's going to look like in a year when they might. So keep it in mind and don't let's put let's put that contact below specifically Kevin's personal cell phone. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. But we will put the phone number to to call and have that conversation. Thanks for that, Kevin. That's that's pretty cool. Well, again, guys, thanks. Thanks for being part of it. And until next time, we will we will sign off. Take care. Thanks again. Thank you, Mike. Thank you.