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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.
00:03
That question is so loaded, John. I don't even know where to start with Well, listen. guess the problem is, and by the way, I love that question. Interesting. Interesting. This is an interesting topic. What's the solution here? Show up, understand your part, and just crush it. Pay per click, social media, we can talk about all this stuff. But what really matters is patient experience, that wow factor.
00:34
Startup unscripted, the questions you have with the truths you need to hear. Now your hosts, Michael Dinsio and Jon Bertagni.
00:51
Okay, guys, welcome, welcome, Startup Unscripted. This is episode 15, John, 15. If you can believe we have gotten through the entire process, we're heading to the finish line. We're at the 15th episode. And I'm super excited about today's guest. He's going to lay the foundation for a lot of the the foundational pieces for a business owner and from financial.
01:19
planning, but just to remind everybody who I am, Mike Densio, founder of Next Level Consultants. And I am so lucky to have my partner and friend, Bertagni. Thanks for being on, brother. Thank you. It looks like you're a detainee right now. So do you need any help? This was my one phone call. I decided to do a podcast instead.
01:49
Michael, good to see you as always. This is a fun one. We've got Stephanie Tseng here from North Star Resource Group. We're going to be talking about insurance, not insurance from the carriers, but insurance that's from a business perspective. Also some benefits. We're going to be talking about, you know, retaining employees through these vehicles.
02:13
I think she's even a tailor. I'm not even sure. She kind of just does a lot of things. She ties a lot of stuff together for the business. And it's really going to be a good roadmap as we start down the journey of opening the doors and making sure they are financially set. She's going to talk about some financial roadmaps. She's going to talk about some fiduciary responsibilities.
02:41
and she could be a long, long-term partner. And that's what we find with these type of individuals. They're with you for a long period of time. So finding the right one out of the gate that you trust is a key, key point. Steph, great to see you. Thank you so much. Welcome to the show. Yeah, thank you. First timer over here. I know, I know. Michael, do you want to jump in here?
03:10
Should we give her like, maybe a minute to tell us who she is? What do you think? 23 seconds. go. Give us an elevator. Since I'm in an elevator booth, give us your elevator pit. So yeah, okay. So starting from the beginning, the nice thing is, is we are fiduciary financial planners. And I think that's
03:36
a big takeaway from a lot of things like the like financial advisors use very loosely. You know, there's individuals that really just kind of focus on the insurance or focus on wealth management. But when you're dealing with a business owner, there's so many different complicated pieces. It's really hard to piecemeal things. So what you're looking for a lot of times if you are is trying to find somebody number one, that's going to be independent. That's not tied to any specific company. So you're not feeling like you're being sold that specific company.
04:06
But also most importantly, I think it's having that comprehensive fiduciary that legally is bound to do its best for your clients. And I think that's what kind of sets us apart from some other individuals from personal planning and business planning is you really want somebody that's all encompassing to be able to kind of help with that. But that's really, you know, I've been doing this for 15 years. Background is actually in tax. I'm a CPA as well. I do not do taxes. That was not fun, but I know how to read them. So you got to, know.
04:35
It's a positive for the business planning. But yeah, think it's overall, it's somebody that you're looking for that's gonna have more of that comprehensive look at everything that you have going on from start to finish. So let me encapsulate that a little bit there. So bottom line is, I think what you're saying is you are listeners and viewers, they can potentially put a bunch of people together to do the things that your firm does
05:05
in totality. And oftentimes what happens there, and we've talked about this, Mike, over and over again, when you have an expert that plays well in the sandbox with individuals under one silo, a lot of times you get the right answers and they're working in concert for the best of you, not for the best of the products that that individual is selling to our clients and viewership. Well, actually, that's a
05:35
great lead in to the first question that I have. mean, who could have planned that? So to me, when we partner with financial planners, someone as talented as Stephanie is, I know what she's going to say to my startups who are heading down the startup path, because there might be a different financial plan and different
06:03
advice for someone that's making $300,000 a year versus someone that's heading into a startup and is maybe an associate making $120,000 to $150,000. So I don't even, I already know what your answer is, but why don't you share Stephanie with us what advice you would give from a financial planning planner with your mind and what you know, what they should be doing with their current situation heading into business ownership.
06:32
especially a startup, specifically a startup. Well, I think the most important thing, and I think that's why we partnered up such great teammates is because you need a really strong team that really can kind of help you in every aspect. Because there's so many different pieces when you're first, obviously, starting to practice and especially, you know, first and foremost, you're starting with your personal situation. You need to make sure that you have cash on hand. You need to make sure that, you know, a lot of people have a lot of moving parts. And we've talked about
07:02
you know, student loans to, you know, typically any type of debt, personal situation, having a good understanding that it's going to take a couple of years to get to the point of being profitable. So we do see some individuals that even continue to work in their own, you know, in a different practice as an associate for a couple, you know, for a couple of days a week as they're continuing to start up their practice, you know, or having a good cash amount to be able to really quit and really get started. But you've got to have a plan.
07:32
And I think that's the most important piece. So there's many different people that you need to be talking to, know, individuals like Mike, that's going to be able to help you kind of, again, help with that roadmap. Having a commercial real estate individual that's going to be able to help find a location that's going to fit. So you're not also next to a bunch of other dentists that are exactly like you, you know, making sure that you can afford it, that you have good credit, because when you have a startup, they're going to be looking at you as an individual.
08:01
when it comes to from a lending perspective. So when you're borrowing money from a bank, there's a lot of different moving pieces that you have to make sure your personal house is in order before you can really start to make those movements. Yeah, it's not only about that diploma or that piece of paper, my father-in-law would say, get your piece of paper. It's more about how to set yourself up right. And it's not only, when banks look at
08:28
you know, a cashflow perspective of a business, whether you're buying it or you're starting it up. It's also that cashflow perspective at home of what your spending habits are and getting that in place. you know, Steph and her team are so important to that. And Mike preaches about that, too, in his process. Let's get your house in order before you build this, you know, this other house where you're going to be spending more time. So.
08:58
I think that's a brilliant mindset there. Talk to me about, know, so obviously we're getting the house in order. Talk to us about some of the aspects of the insurance from a business perspective that these guys and gals are gonna need right out of the gate that you guys can go and help them with day one. And also what loans
09:28
you know, and bankers will require them to have throughout various process, processes of their of their career. Well, and that's perfect that you set up because there's really two big pieces when it comes to the insurance or at least at the very beginning is number one, you need a lender to give you some money to be able to build your practice, to be able to get the equipment, to get the space. So they have a whole set of requirements. I will say the bank
09:57
depends on the bank will determine what that loan amount is going to be before you actually need specific types of insurance. But the ones that you're most likely going to need are disability insurance. So if something bad happens to you, you become disabled, the bank is worried if you're going to be able to pay your loans. So they have to have disability insurance. And there is even a less expensive type when we're dealing with businesses specifically, which is called business overhead.
10:23
Insurance is a lot less expensive than the normal like individual policies. So it's nice because you don't have to spend as much to still get the coverage you need for the bank. And then, of course, if there's something that obviously really bad happens and you need that life insurance in place, they're going to require the amount of loan is going to be the amount of death benefit that you need for a life insurance policy.
10:48
And the length of the loan is also gonna be roughly the length of time that you're gonna need for that life insurance policy. So those are kind of twofold that you have to get typically when you're dealing with any type of lender, they want to have that. And then it's also collateral assigned to the bank. again, you can still have beneficiary as like a family because maybe it's something where you actually wanna keep the insurance after the loan is done, but it does have to have a collateral assignment to the bank during that timeframe.
11:17
And what do you mean by that is named insured? Yeah. So the beneficiary can be a family member, but it's kind of like who goes first, who gets it first of the collateral assignment will always be to the bank. So unfortunately, they're first in line. But say the loan is done, you can actually get rid of the collateral assignments. You don't have to actually get new insurance if you wanted to keep it. You can keep that policy and then kind of move forward from there.
11:44
I'll jump in on that. Everybody needs to understand that when they take the loan out, let's call it 600 grand these days. John, if you can believe it, the startups these days are 650. So let's just say you're at 650 alone and you approach Stephanie and her crew and get, we'll just say life insurance for 650. That's what the bank wants to be covered for.
12:13
remember you're paying your loan down every year. So the difference is going to go to that beneficiary if the bank did actually exercise that. But it's important to talk about that because every year your debt is going down. I did, that's just one note. I did want to hit on something. There are some banks that are not requiring these insurances these days. And I,
12:42
always have this conversation with my clients is just because a bank isn't requiring you to have it. Do you think maybe it might make sense to have these affairs in order? And the answer is always yes, because it's always like, well, what's the minimum I can do? that it's, okay, we're going into business. You have a obligation for 650 grand.
13:12
Like what happens if you did die? What happens if you broke your hand skiing? Like, so Stephanie, what's your play there? Like maybe the bank isn't requiring as much insure or any insurance, but what's the advice there? Well, it's exactly to your point. I think it's interesting because a lot of people feel very overwhelmed by the process of a startup. There's so many different things. They don't know how to maneuver it. And that's why, again, I hate to
13:42
continue to reiterate that, but having a good team that can give you a step-by-step process is going to alleviate some of that stress. Because when they do get to us, after they found a location, they're talking about equipment, they're figuring out their employees, who's going to write up the employee handbook, like all these different moving parts, then they're like, oh, and I have to get insurance. All they're asking for is, I'm overwhelmed. I feel like I have no money.
14:08
And I don't want anything like the cheapest you can get me. And that's fine. But I will say if you look at a longevity, a lot of times we're even even if that's the case at the very beginning, we are going to address it six months in or a year in when things are a little bit, hopefully a little bit more normalized. And then from there, readdressing it, because at the end of the day, it's something extremely important, because if you get disabled, you still have employees.
14:34
It's even worse, you if you're gone, you're gone, there's certain things that will have to liquidate at that point, but then your family might be on the hook to some degree. So you have to be very careful of just going with the bare minimum and really looking at this business and kind of beginning with the end in mind. do you, this is like you said, Mike, this is a business and you want to be able to protect yourself and you want to be able to protect your family and do what's best for everybody else in between. So a lot of times we.
15:01
make those recommendations, but if somebody doesn't want it, we're still gonna bug you about it six to 12 months later, because hopefully at that point, you can start to take a step back and realize the importance of that insurance. Well, can we also talk about the insurance of the business itself, like business interruption, how important that is, how important content, my dad has had friends that have had floods before and where.
15:29
they've been wiped out and they can't practice until that place opens up. And there's periods of time where that business interruption, having the proper coverages and coverage for that is so important. So can you talk about like all, disabilities one aspect, but how the business stays intact through peril also?
15:58
You know, it's kind of twofold in a sense, because we talk about, when I talk about disability, surprisingly, the business overhead, that disability doesn't go to you, it goes to the business. So if you are disabled for a specific period of time, it's actually allocated based upon your projected operating expenses. So you might, it's a short timeframe, so it's usually only about two years.
16:22
but then you're probably getting 15 to 20,000 to pay for operating expenses. So that's on that side. When you talk about the other types of insurance, this is more so you're going to find this in your lease. So when you're actually signing up, signing for a lease, the landlord is going to look for specific insurances and that's where those business insurances really come into play. some of them are called like a BOP. We have, you know,
16:49
a separate department that does that property and casualty. There's a professional liability, workers' compensation, know, all sorts of different things. And a lot of those are actually required. So we actually go through the lease with the individual and say, OK, you need A, B, C, and E. And then we're able to obviously get those things established. The nice thing is those types of insurances can actually be done very quickly.
17:17
So those can be done within a week or something like that. You can get some of those things enforced. I will say, unfortunately for the lender and those personal lines that have to do with you, those could take a month. If you're unhealthy and you're applying for disability or life insurance, there's exclusions, there's health issues. They're gonna look for medical records. So you can, if you're really healthy, you might get it done in a couple of weeks. If you're not, it could take two to three months.
17:44
So when we talk about that, timing of everything, because I've had people be like, where is it at? Where is it at? We're trying to close. And they did it too fast. And it has nothing to do with anything else. But the fact of their own health situation has put them and postponed things. You have to be careful with that, too. I want to stress that timing of of that and those insurance requirements is so key. You all listeners, you all don't realize
18:13
the I mean, the the weight, it's the probably bad way saying it. by the end of this project, you are spent and Stephanie already said this, you are smoked. You've made all of these decisions and have basically spent six hundred grand and made this writing check. you're just like, oh, shit. Right. Like there.
18:42
I get that call as a startup coach all the time, like that freak out moment. And sometimes it hits people a lot sooner. And sometimes it happens 30 days into owning the practice and running it. That's the usual call. But like by the time you hit Stephanie and her team, you kind of just don't want to spend any money and you shrink up. And I totally get it. I would probably do the same thing. It's natural.
19:09
but there are just some things that are so important and the timing of it to your point is you gotta get on this stuff soon. Otherwise you're gonna delay the project and delay the opening. Let me transition to something that I really, really appreciate about the North Star Group. And that is in a world today, and I don't know how long this podcast will be relevant.
19:37
this episode specifically, but in a world today, we're, I don't know, a year and some change almost, is it almost two years since COVID shutdown? One year. One year. One year. God, it feels like five. But the employee market is crazy. In my opinion, it's less than 5 % unemployment. It might even be negative. I think it's, yeah. If it's 5 % unemployment in the country,
20:07
In healthcare, it's negative. It's negative. And so as a dental consult, I can't find anybody to work for us and all my practices. So the thing that we are shifting to is benefits because you can't just pay them a fair wage anymore. Now you have to offer retirement, health, all kinds of perks, bonus programs. So
20:35
The thing that I love about- me ask you a question really quick. Are candidates flat out asking you what can you give me for me to come on board? Yes, they are interviewing me more than I am interviewing them. And they are telling me what they are demanding. Yeah. It's literally role reverse. Is it unreasonable in your mind what some of these people are asking? For a startup?
21:05
Oh, well, yeah, from a startup. For a startup, for sure. But for for folks, for practices that are thriving, it's pretty difficult to take on some benefits when you normally didn't. So you have to the thing about it is the wages are going up, too. So it's the wages are going up and now we're adding extra benefits. So we're kind of getting off topic. But it was it's a great question. It's a great. I think it's I think it's relevant because Mike, here it is.
21:35
The startups are not only competing against, know, everyone says, oh, the DSOs are giving everything away. It's not only them. It's the, you know, the seasoned practice down the street. Where Mary Jo has worked there for 15 years, her salary's up here. And oh, by the way, she has benefits. so it's like, they're competing against two different sectors.
22:01
Yeah, 100%. And if you if you stay on this startup topic, it's not it's almost not even wages and benefits. I mean, that's really big, but it's hours. Yeah, because a startup isn't opening up full time. so if they have a full time position over here and you could only offer hygienist one or two days max or a dental assistant three days or whatever you're as a startup, this is the biggest
22:30
One of the biggest challenges, because wages are so expensive to dentists in general, but for a startup, it's how do I get someone to work for me two to three days a week at a moderately decent wage when they can, like you said, they can get all this other stuff out there. And so I think leveraging a North Star and being creative and we'll give you the stage here, Seventy.
22:58
Oh, I forgot she was on the call. Oh, I thought she dropped. No, but I think that I think one of the greatest benefits you have and your team has is being able to really tweak a strong package that may not be as expensive as you might think. To me, that's huge. So take it away from there. John and I are.
23:26
done for a minute for just one minute. Well, I'm in agreement with you. What else is there to say? And see, I do think again, people get overwhelmed. And you've seen this as you mentioned, Mike, when first it's like you're writing checks here and there and then you're like, oh, and I'm supposed to write more checks and provide health insurance and provide a profit sharing 401k.
23:54
and all these different moving parts and it's just going to be very overwhelming. But I will say it's become more and more important as health care becomes more expensive and so forth that people want that security. so when you think about that, having the health benefits, having the dental benefits, the vision, I do see people at least start with that for startups and then they might add a retirement plan a little bit later on.
24:24
because there are many different types of plans that you can implement as easy as a simple IRA to a traditional 401k with no match. But then there's some rules that actually affect the owner even more so than actual employees. And then there's even the higher end profit sharing 401k where you're providing matches and profit sharing. So it kind of goes in, I'm not gonna say in order, but it does depend on where somebody's at and how comfortable they are.
24:54
with the financial situation on what they're going to be choosing. But I do think that at least starting with that health benefits and stuff like that has been key to really start to continue to bring on individuals and attract people, but also the retaining of employees. when you turn and burn and you don't have that, people aren't going to look for other opportunities about money anymore. Let me ask you this. So especially with startups, right? And Mike, you brought this point up.
25:24
about that those truncated hours oftentimes that we see, know, front desk might be a little bit different, but, other staff, how do we navigate those waters of these benefits qualifying for these part-time employees? How do we make that something that works for them? Or is there a different offering to keep them on board?
25:48
Didn't even think about that. That's why I'm here part time with no benefits. Well, and I can start up on sensor. 70, can we can we set up a plan for John under startup? He's he's feeling no love. He really he really needed that dental. And the key word there.
26:17
Stephanie, the key word was part-time in John's case. He's a part-time employee. Very part-time. We need to give him some benefits. Oh my God. The issue with that, and I'm glad, honestly, I'm glad you brought that up, is you have to be very careful with this because if you are part-time for a lot of things, benefits are limited, if even available.
26:42
So there's ways, unfortunately, because you are the owner, you're trying to keep costs low that a lot of times, you know, people that are part time are not receiving the same type of benefit because usually, and it depends on what it is, retirement plans, sometimes it's based on an hour, sometimes it's based on a dollar amount that they have to hit before they can be offered these plans. When it comes to insurance benefits, you know, that's a whole different.
27:08
type of situation where a lot of this will be based on how much you're working there. So then you see, you know, dentists that are doing deciding whether they should pay W-2 or should they be paying 1099? Right. independent contractor. yeah, I mean, I look at some of the employees that we've, you know, I had hired in my past, right, for those practices. And it was hard finding that individual to work at certain amount of hours.
27:38
You know, and quite frankly, this gal, Lindsay, who was a rock star, you know, she was just coming out of a pregnancy world, right? She just had a baby, wanted to get back into the working world, but also wanted time at home. That was a situation that actually worked great. But it was, you know, when it came to the benefit side, it was hard to navigate that world because the hours weren't there initially. Eventually it became that, but she grew with the business.
28:06
You know, and that's what we need to do, Steph and Mike, is give our viewership the ideas of how to find these individuals or how to create carve outs for these people. What do you think? You can also, you know, as simplistic as it is, we've had individuals that are kind of hitting these different types of limitations where, you know, business owners, practice owners are going to provide them almost like a bonus.
28:35
Here's a monthly bonus as part of your wage that is allocated specifically for benefits. If we- that legal? Is that- It's considered a bonus. It's a wage. know what I mean? So there's times where I've seen practices that offer, you know, we're going to give you $500 a month to be able to allocate towards all these different things, you know, and some of them are inclusive of even like CE and some of these association payments and stuff. It can be all over the place, but-
29:03
there are ways to do wage too. That's, and that's what I've done with folks is because I tend to walk in and, know, Marie at the front once medical hygienist has it with her husband. And it ends up being like one person. Cause you got such a small team. It's like one person wants to contribute or wants to not contribute, but yeah, contributor or whatever. And I usually do stipends like you just said, and it's
29:32
It's like a bonus. It's like, hey, if I would have offered you medical, this is what it would cost. So I'm just going to give you that stipend instead of setting up the plan. That's going to be a bonus. And then you use that towards an independent policy. Yeah. And stuff like that. And you know what?
29:53
One of our contributors, Maladon Crawl from War of Dental, I believe he does that for his practices. He does that exact same thing because you're exactly right, Mike. Not a lot of the guys and gals utilize the benefits in front of them, but they want to know what's there. But their significant others are utilizing it. It's so funny. I just did a practice transition season, season two coming up here. Acquisitions Uncensored, little plug for us, probably starting in January.
30:23
I walked into a transition and they were interviewing me and my client, my doctor, and they were going through their checklist, right? Are you going to offer this? you boom, boom, boom, boom, right? And I'm imagining a startup going through that same thing at a Starbucks interviewing somebody, right? And it's so funny because all the answers were yes. Cause when you're doing a transition that you got to just keep the peace and whatever.
30:51
The day my client took over, walked in and said, okay, who wanted the medical? Not one person. They just wanted to know that they had it. How stupid, how stupid. So do you, do you're right, John, like you almost got to be able to just say yes to everything and then see what happens. Right. Well, you have to at least give the option, right? And the cool thing about
31:20
this interview today or this contribution from North Star Group and Stephanie is their group. It's not only Stephanie, although she's a wonderment to the society and what she does. I mean, their group is able to do it all. And you can see here, she's not trying to land grab. She's walking away from stuff or giving ideas of, hey,
31:48
You can do this if you're not going to do this, but at least be covered. That's what we want. We're not bringing people to the table here that want to sell you. We're bringing alignment partners. Steph and Nordstar, that's what they do, and that's why they're on our show, Graham. Mike, what do you think? That's it. I mean, she just crushed it.
32:17
We covered some really important topics in my mind, like what to do to prepare before when you're in the middle of it and what's required. And then some ideas are coming out. And once you're an owner with benefits like that, one, two, three punch right there. That's a knockout to me. So, Stephanie, thanks. Thank you so much for being a part of the program. Thank you so much for the invite anytime. All right. Well, that that shuts down the episode.
32:45
15. We got like one or two more and we're going to shut this bad boy down. But remember, you have to be following us. You have to be watching us on YouTube. There's a lot of resources. All of our partners are waiting to answer questions on our Facebook group. I don't see enough of you on that and you should be. And yeah, I just want to say thanks for following us this whole season and
33:13
And I guess that's the end of it. Thank you so much. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys.
33:22
Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for another truth-filled episode of Startup Unscripted.
33:33
Check out Startup Unscripted on Facebook and YouTube. Click like, subscribe, and interact with Michael and John.