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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.
Michael Dinsio: Okay, guys, welcome to another
episode today. I'm super excited to introduce Josh
Arnone. This guy is a legend in the industry as it
pertains to IT, information technology.
He works for a company, a little company called
Darkhorse Tech. Not so little. They help 1000
dentists across the country. That's how big their
portfolio. So needless to say, that these guys
understand the whole IT tech
that's the topic today. Let's, get into it. Josh,
welcome to the show, brother.
Josh Arnone: Thank you. Great to be here. Thanks
for having me on. Appreciate the kind words,
Michael Dinsio: Heck yeah, man, heck yeah. No.
It's, it's been, it's been fun. We've shared some
clients in the in the past here, and it's been
great experiences. And it's just interesting
because as a startup coach, I get lots of
questions right from from my clients, and
it's all over the place. And to be honest with
you, I don't have all the answers. I'm not the IT
guy. I I know a little bit about connecting a
printer with a computer and getting the right
drivers. I know a little bit about making sure
that the phone has the app and you can pick it up
before we've even started, like, there's strategy,
things that are really important to me, but as far
as, like, the mechanicals... No, I got nothing.
And so this is very "dark" for me. And so that's
why experts like you are so important to the
process. So Josh, tell me a little bit about your
company. Tried to do the best I could there to
intro you, but quickly tell me, Darkhorse, what
are you guys all about?
Josh Arnone: Yep, our main in the plane is being a
dental MSP. So we're supporting private practices,
micro, Mini and DSOs in their IT needs on a month
to month basis, and just taking care of all the
problems that come up, taking care of compliance
factors, just cyber security in general. And as
another part of our business is helping startups
build out their offices, you know, choose their
software stacks. And we're doing about 100 of
those a year, so about two a week that we're
installing. So it's a big part of things, and
being in from the ground level, it's just a really
exciting time. You know, we love working with
startups. It's just fun. It's a It's always fun
for everyone.
Michael Dinsio: Yeah, it is. And nationwide,
nationwide. I mean, I know that I as a dental
start that works coach, that works with folks all
over the country. It? It? You know, I always get
the local guy. And There absolutely are local
folks in every market. But it's interesting how
you're you guys are very competitive nationwide
and competing against those local folks. You know,
I don't always know what I'm getting with the
local and, there might be some amazing local firms
out there, but it's really easy for me to refer
you guys and because you I know that you know
dental and you're competitive, flying all over the
country and doing these installs.
So from a price perspective, I know it works. But
with that being said, this conversation could go
in all kinds of directions. I'm going to jump
right into it. We'll lose our audience if we
don't. And so my big question to you today, and
let's see where else this goes. But oh my gosh, I
am so sick of the cloud software conversation and
trust me, like I'm all about cloud technology. We
use Google Docs, and I've got team members all
over the country, and we're uploading and that's
all super cool. But for for dentistry, I'm not
entirely sold on the whole cloud situation, and
for folks that work with me, they know that I'm
very cost conscientious when it comes to
budgeting. So if there was a way to cut a really
expensive server out of the project, I'll be the
first one to say, hell yeah. But I am not sold on
cloud and and there's a lot of reasons for it. For
that in my mind, I'd like to hear your take, and
maybe you're a big cloud guy, I don't know. I
don't know what we're getting into. Let's just
have that conversation cloud versus server. Let's,
let's go with this.
Josh Arnone: Yeah, it this is probably the most
common conversation that I have regarding
startups,
Michael Dinsio: yes,
Josh Arnone: and it's not. It doesn't even have to
be just with with clients, one on one, but just as
moving forward, it's going to be more and more
prevalent, you're going to see more and more
things going cloud. That's just where the
development dollars are going from these platforms
that are the most popular in the industry. Okay,
so no one's going to be investing heavily in just
the legacy hardware and locally based softwares.
So we're ready for the cloud. We, you know, take
care of a ton of people who are utilizing it,
fully embrace it. We are not scared of this. It is
going to be something that we know that we can
service. And the sticky point around it, usually,
when it comes to dental, is imaging. And what am I
going to do there if, you have to leave your
imaging locally based? So you you know that needs
to be a locally harness software system
Unknown: that's going to make things not as
efficient as if you had a cloud based imaging
platform as well. Because if you're if you're
going to go cloud, I almost see that as like a
critical piece of things that you have to let your
imaging be cloud as well.
Michael Dinsio: Isn't that kind of the point?
That's kind of the point of this conversation is
because every everything's going cloud. You just
said it, all the dollars are going, everybody's
talking about it. But what you just said with
imaging, multiply that by dental softwares that
are trying to connect, Weave, Swell, Dental Intel,
Practice by Numbers, imaging, all of these things
aren't compatible, really yet. And my experience
here, I get clients. Oh, I really love the the
ASCEND and I really love the Care stack, and I
really love the Oryx I heard the other day. And I
like Fuse and this, it's like, Okay, guys, if you
have to remember and and Josh back me up on this,
you have to remember that there are some really
fantastic programs out there that help you do what
you need to do every single day. From a system
perspective, it might be collecting money, it
might be auto confirmations, it might be
scheduling online. It might be all these really
cool systems that were all built for a server
based technology, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental,
and now we've got Fuse and Care Stack and all
this, and none of that integrates. And so, ahh!
like it's a mess. It's a it's a mess. Sorry for my
language. So this is why I'm not on cloud yet.
Because, okay, so let's, let's, let's talk about,
how do you handle that?
Josh Arnone: Yep, it really is. We don't steer our
clients any kind of directions. You know, we work
with everybody, and it doesn't matter if they want
to use Dentrix Ascend or Dentrix locally. We
really want to find out, what is it going to make
your practice successful? And if it's like, Hey, I
have to use a Dexus imaging platform, because I
think that's going to let me provide better
treatment plans. It's going to be more accurate,
and it's just going to be, let my office be more
productive. Well, then we say you're, you
shouldn't be cloud based. You can't, you can't be
cloud. Yeah, right now, and now, if it's someone's
like, Hey, I just came for an office and we're
using Oryx there. I love it. I love their imaging
module, then we would say you could be fully
cloud. And we have no worries about that
whatsoever.
Michael Dinsio: So your job is to really make
connect the dots and make sure everything's
working. It's interesting though, Josh, because
every startup client that we work with has a
different preference. They came from an office,
and they really love this system, but maybe they
didn't know that this system existed, but their
office, they love it. It's the system that they
know, let's go with it. A lot of their decision
making process about like, what systems and add
ons that they need and like are totally like based
on where they came from, or maybe some Facebook
forum. And I think that's where they get into
trouble, because they're just they haven't really
experienced it. They're not looking at the demos.
They're so exhausted at the point that they are
talking to you in the process. I mean, at this
point, folks, business plan, budgeting, banking,
construction equipment, marketing, a lot of these
decisions were made and you're like, just wiped
out. It's been like, almost nine months of just
decision making in your phase, and then these last
little 60 day conversations before open need to be
made. And it like raises a lot of concern, and
then, and then they, like my clients, just kind of
get wiped out. So they just go with what's easy.
So I kind of trust that you guys are going to walk
them.
Through, like all of the possibilities, I heard
you say, not steer, but a lot of cases, I think my
clients do need some direction on what's the best
scenario for them.
Josh Arnone: Yeah, and I think that's a point of
clarification too. If, if a client comes to us and
said, Hey, I'm using Eaglesoft, I'm using Schick
sensors, I'm going to have a 2d panoramic machine
to me, I say, Great, let's do that. If a client
comes to me and says, I want to do X, Y and Z,
what do you think the platform I should look at
is?
And from a from an ease of integration standpoint
and from an ease of use standpoint, cost value
perspective, most of the time, that's leading to
an Open Dental. If you haven't seen it, please go
do it. And if you, if you need to set that up,
just go for it. Because that we know that's going
to be the, the most flexible platform to integrate
with everything you'd need. It doesn't matter
imaging. Doesn't matter what kind of other third
party integrations you'd want. Yeah, it's going to
Michael Dinsio: Their name is open dental for a
reason, and it might not be the sexiest, but it
definitely makes your life easy once you once you
open your practice. And the thing folks to
remember is is you're not going to know everything
when you're making these decisions with Josh, and
so you're going to be like, Well I wish. I wish I
would have known this, setting this whole system
up, because now I can't have whatever Dental Intel
or whatever like it's frustrating. So what you
work.
don't know today can haunt you later. So to me, I
want to, I want to stay as "open", no pun intended
as possible, so that it so I have more options.
But yeah, so with that being said, if someone does
go server, which is kind of the way, I quote,
unquote, push my clients for the for the reason of
just having flexibility in the future, for for a
lot of different reasons. And by the way, these,
these cloud softwares I mean, they, they're
expensive over time you start adding in all of the
different things. That's how they that's how they
got you right? Isn't that the way the models are
kind of shifting to,
Josh Arnone: yeah, just subscription based, and
it's kind of universal, and going to be universal
having that server based program, you know,
there's, costs associated with that too, if, if
you're going to be using a Dentrix, well, you have
to have a Dentrix support plan too. That's going
to be an ongoing cost, and those aren't going to
be static over time, but yes, it is going to be an
expense. That is, it's going to be a real thing.
Obviously, you don't have that hardware. And this
is coming from a person who, if, if you buy a
server, it's better for me. You know, we do, we do
sell hardware and computers and servers. So I am
not against servers in any regard, but trying to
get ready for that future transition where we know
it's going to go, I always get the question, if I
get a server now, well, can I just go cloud based
later? Answer is, yes! You could definitely do
that, so you would have that flexibility.
Michael Dinsio: But which then you're flushing a
server cost a little bit down the toilet, but if
you but I guess my thought is, is, if you have
multiple practices, I could totally see why cloud
makes a ton of sense, right?
Josh Arnone: Oh, yeah. Or a lot of remote
employees, you know, lot of people like that that
those are all, these are all factors that
influence the conversation we're going to have
around your IT choices,
Michael Dinsio: but you led into, like you do, a
lot of private practice and a lot of DSO. So that,
to me, is the DSO conversations, like, there's a
solution for this huge empire, third party
billing. I've got multiple offices. Let's just
manage this thing all on cloud. That makes a ton
of sense to me. Just, but when you're a startup,
you have zero patients, zero sales, you're getting
up off the ground. I understand that your future
vision is 3, 4, 5, 10, practices, great, but you
need one to be successful before you can have two.
So you know, let's say that you need to be in your
startup for six, seven years before you could even
entertain the idea of a second office, unless you
just dominate. You know, the cost, the cost of the
server over six years and then flipping over to
cloud later. It's probably not so bad.
Josh Arnone: Yeah, that's a general lifetime of a
server. Is right around that year mark too, near
five to seven years. So you'd be going through the
lifetime of that server. But having a server also
does increase costs in other ways.
Michael Dinsio: Okay, so let's talk about that.
Josh Arnone: If you have that local server in your
office, it's going to need to be backed up. Just
for HIPAA compliance, you're going to need to have
backup services, both locally and remotely in the
cloud, which is an expense. And if you're a cloud
based and you're using cloud imaging, you never
have to worry about backups again.
Steve Anderson: again.
Michael Dinsio: I thought, I thought you did have
to back up some things if you're cloud
Josh Arnone: some things. But it is the it's much
less intensive, much less costly, to do that with
a cloud based system,
Michael Dinsio: I see.
Josh Arnone: So there are expenses associated with
that server that you don't have in the cloud. So
those things still tend to balance out on a
monthly basis, a cloud program would be more
expensive, but it's not as cut and dry as there's
no... nothing ongoing with the server and then
all ongoing with the cloud. There is ongoing
things that would need to happen with the server
as well, that those costs
Michael Dinsio: so in general, over time, would
you say they're probably equal, no matter which
decision you go over time, over time, because,
because the cloud, you got to remember two way
texting, that's a that's a must in today, in
modern dentistry,
Josh Arnone: oh yeah,
Michael Dinsio: Scheduling online, that's a must.
Forms online, that's a must. I mean, covid changed
everything. So if you have all of these extra
bells and whistles that cloud services are
offering, you're getting into some of those higher
expenses subscription based, as you called it. So
that's more expensive than server, but server
investment initially is higher. Am I? Am I
explaining that right?
Josh Arnone: Yes. So the you're explaining exactly
right, and depending on the software stack you're
using, like, let's say you're bought a server.
You're using Open Dental, and you're traditionally
running that office, as usually happens. But then,
you know, you tag on using Flex and Flex books,
and let's say you're using Weave, and then you
have your your software's cost has just gone up,
you know, three or four fold. Yeah, yeah, okay,
what would that have cost with something that has
a lot of those solutions built in if you're using
a Curve hero, let's say yeah. What is that going
to be per month versus what your software stack
is?
Michael Dinsio: Yeah.
Josh Arnone: Plus you have one platform. So
there's pros and cons, and if you're running a
tough decision, if you're running a slim shop that
you know, you don't have to have those third party
(softwares). But to your point now you kind of do
you need to have your paperless forms and texting
and these services are a expectation and a must.
So I am weighing those costs out. And honestly, if
someone asked me, Hey, how much does Fuse cost a
month? I don't know. I'm not sure how much it
costs a month.
Unknown: And so you're gonna
Steve Anderson: find
Michael Dinsio: And by the way, over time, there's
gonna be more and more and more and more and more.
There's gonna be, like 100 options on the cloud
eventually.
Josh Arnone: Oh yeah.
Michael Dinsio: And there's like three options
today, in my opinion, that are good. And we both
know what those three options are, Dentrix
Equalssoft, Open, Dental.
Unknown: You know, it's it's good. It's gonna
change everything. It's gonna be super
interesting. But all right, let's pivot. I feel
like we exhausted that one a little bit. We only
have so much time. But thank you for breaking that
down. It's a very complex conversation. I don't
think the Facebook forums folks or even just this
podcast today is going to give you the answer that
you're looking for. Bottom line, it's very it's
very specific to your needs. You have to
understand what you're trying to do with your
patient experience. You have to understand the
biggest picture possible for the future and today,
and then you got to weigh all those costs. But I
just get startups, clients, that are just get so
myopic about cost, and they think that cloud's the
option, and it's funny, because it's that's not,
that's not a simple answer for from a cost
perspective. So that's actually, that's the flip.
That's the next question. Okay, so cost, costs
have gone up, man, in the IT world, and it's not
because of, oh, maybe it's your labor. Everybody's
labor is more expensive. But that's probably a
small factor. What the hell is going on like the
the quotes two years ago, for a startup straight
out of the out of the woodwork.
Michael Dinsio: Today, it's a solid 5,000, maybe
even $8,000, more a total project, computing the
whole the whole gamut. What's going on? Why?
Josh Arnone: I think that there's a couple things
that impact that number one, there is soft costs
like travel that right now are just so high., and
having that specialized labor that, like we have
to fly in, which we, you know, we have traveling
techs that travel the country every week of the
year. And God bless the guys. They just bust their
backs every day.
Michael Dinsio: But you guys are competitive. You
guys are competitive with local versus not. So
Those those costs still add up, you know? Yeah,
let's say a 20% increase in travel costs. Hotels
are really expensive right now too, and we're
spending a full week that we're going to be at a
startup just building out the practice. Other
things that I think are driving up costs are
things like an expectation of entertainment
throughout the office. Now, if I have a worth and
if I have an ortho client come to us and just say,
Hey, I'm not doing any TVs. I have workstations.
They're going to be a cart side, Chair side, and
we have to do very little entertainment. That's
going to be a really effective use of dollar.
Josh Arnone: Or they're going to have all the
technology, but they don't have the bells and
whistles of entertainment that are kind of
expected now. What I want is two TV's, TV on the
ceiling. I want a TV at the toe of the patient. I
want to be able to have all these connected to my
computer so I could pull up imaging on the on the
toe and on the ceiling. I want to show, let's say
one movie simultaneously, out throughout the whole
office. These are things that increase costs.
Yeah, okay, so the energy, they're coming more and
more expected.
Michael Dinsio: Okay I think they're expected, but
I don't think they're necessary for startup folks,
I think you need to have some entertainment. But
folks, you're not going to compete with with the
corporate, the corporate groups that have more
money than God, and frankly, your patient
experience is going to be so much better than a
corporate so you have to weigh that. I mean, in a
world where, when we talk about this folks, where
lending is constant being stretched, construction
dollars are out of control, equipment has been
everything is going up. And that's why I'm asking
Josh, like, why his costs are going up. It's a
perfect example. But just like, you have to cut
some places. And so that's really good. So
entertainment. So would you say that the average
startup, well, give us, like the perfect world,
and then give us, what if you had a tight budget,
what would you slim down to but still offer some,
some entertainment? Does that make sense? Yeah,
what's the what's the middle ground?
Josh Arnone: I think that a good middle ground is
that, if you're a startup, you're outfitting two
or three ops begin with that you do one front desk
station, you have your imaging computer, your
doctor's office, your two or three treatment
rooms. You do one television in each of those
treatment rooms, just at the toe of the patient.
But it's important that prepare for the future,
you want flexibility. So when you're wiring out
your office, you have all the infrastructure
there, where, if you want to add those TVs down
the road, boom. Wait till you have some cash flow.
Wait till you have a good vision of how you want
to implement that, and then you could pull the
trigger down the road.
Michael Dinsio: Yeah.,
Josh Arnone: That's a very competitive cost wise,
when it comes to a startup, your technology stack
is not going to be a huge cost burden. And if you
said, oh, yeah, oh, I want to do my consult room
right from beginning. I want another station and
sterilization for ordering, those things are going
to multiply and add up really quickly.
Michael Dinsio: So yeah. So cut sterilization
desktop. You don't need it. Go to the OP that
you're not using. You have three ops. You probably
only need one op in the first or two ops in the
first year, technically. So you have another op a
workshop to so to your point, six desktops is kind
of what I heard. I always say somewhere between
five to seven is where I want my my guy, my guys
and gals to be
Josh Arnone: Yes, absolutely
Michael Dinsio: I get these quotes. It's like,
nine. It's like, bro, how many computers do you
need? And right out of the gate, what are you
doing?
Josh Arnone: Those are things that like, and I'm
not against implementing these things, but budgets
are a reality. That's having, having a television
that's, you know, a huddle station in your break
room for going, you know, having to schedule up
and doing educational things. I get how useful
that is, and we implement them all the time, but
that's a soft cost that I think that you can cut
from the beginning and just say this is going to
happen later. I've got the bones there to do it,
but why don't I wait a couple months, have some
cash flow, and if I really need it, I could get
that within a couple weeks, and it'll be done
Michael Dinsio: Couple of weeks. Did you hear
that? Folks, like, literally, you could call Josh
and say, I need another app, I need a TV, I need a
desktop, I need this. But boom, Josh puts it in.
It's done. Like, why put on that extra expense
when you don't need to. The name of the game?
Folks, ex banker talking is to break even as fast
as possible. So if you're going crazy on your
expenses, with your wants and versus needs, you're
not going to break even until maybe 18 months. So
then you're not going to be able to quit your
associate position as soon as you want, and that's
what you really want to do. My startups break even
in in four, four to five months, because I we are
lean and mean and and by the way, some of that is
the subscription stuff. Everybody brings me the
subscription, subscription subs. And I'm all about
efficiency and streamlining, the follow ups and
the confirmations and this, that and the other.
I'm all about that that's super and fun, but your
front office person and your dental assistant are
literally gonna be sitting on their hands waiting
for patients to come. What are they doing all day?
Have them confirm, have them call so you know. And
by the way, a personal touch is always better than
a text message, always 100% All right, I'm getting
into stuff.
So, so I love that. What to cut some TVs. Don't go
crazy with the desktops. What about sound? This is
always a conversation? Sound like awesome music
versus or not? Versus sound and and security,
those are two things that are really important.
You're based out of New York. I'm assuming if I
had downtown New York, I'd want security cameras
everywhere, you get what I'm saying. Security and
sound, those are two places that people cut if
they have to. Walk us through the dangers of that.
Or is that a good idea? I think that sound has
evolved to a point where there's some just really,
really value driven solutions out there that can
make your life easier, rather than having your
traditional you know, I have a volume control nub
on the wall. It turns my music up and down in the
spaces where I want it to that's going to take, no
matter if you have 10 speakers throughout the
office or three, it's got a minimum requirement of
the stuff that you need, you're going to need a
receiver, no matter what an amplifier, no matter
what you're going to need, volume controllers.
These things are a minimum cost, and they all have
to be wired, which is going to be a cost as well
in your in your pre wiring phase, which is just
going to add to the overall number where there's
really great options out there that you can get
with smart speakers that might not look that but
they're super flexible.
Josh Arnone: They are just controlled through your
desktop or your phone. They have great sound
quality, but you could just add or subtract them
and move them around the way you want to. As long
as you have the proper infrastructure, you can
have a great experience, and it's a fraction of
the cost for a full Office.
Michael Dinsio: And you could, you could
technically put, like, walk me through, like,
short term, long term, if someone wanted to go
there eventually, is there a way to set up the
behind the scenes for some of this wiring, or the
empty hubs or whatever, like, is there a way to
get there eventually, if you went Sonos or
something, and then, and then later on, wanted to
wire in. How do you walk people through that
Josh Arnone: for sure? All that could be done in
the pre wiring phase, you know, we get prepared
for a hardwired sound system later on down the
road, and hopefully you have drop ceilings in your
space as a startup for that flexibility, where
that wiring can kind of just be tucked away and
waiting to be implemented down the road,
everything is there to where you just need some
hardware to implement it later on. That this
happens a lot with security cameras, where we'll
put the necessary wiring in place with a little
bit of flexibility and a little extra length on
wires to make sure that we can put that camera
just where you want it, so that way you're not
running into that initial cost of, let's say it's
$1,000 to get a security camera system with three
or four cameras, you could hold off on that $1,000
but you know, later on, let's say you had a great
month and you want some cameras, you can pull that
trigger, and those cameras can be implemented at
that time pretty easily, just like we talked about
the TVs.
Michael Dinsio: Yeah
Josh Arnone: So those are two things that you
could really prepare for. It's just going to be
getting those bones of your system ready, which it
should be done the right way from beginning
anyway, so that's going to be part of just a
proper pre planning of incur a little bit of
expense during that wiring phase to give you
maximum flexibility later on.
Michael Dinsio: And I think that's the danger of
your industry, for for my clients, is that you
could get a slick salesperson to just talk you
into all this stuff, and pretty soon you're
spending, frankly, 35,000 and and and, you know,
it's all it's all warranted stuff like, it's all
stuff that you could be talked into. But with
proper planning, with Josh and his team, you can
get in at a much lower price point and prepare for
the future. When you have cash flow and folks,
it's a startup. You have zero patients, zero
sales. Why are you building a Taj Mahal? As if you
have a million dollar practice, and everybody
wants to have a million dollar practice, but the
the reality is, if it was that easy to hit a
million bucks, don't you think everybody would be
doing it? And trust me, they're not and so. And so
there's winners and losers in this life, and and
absolutely there's, there's, there's losers, and
just these little practice hacks I call that Josh
is giving you here. Take that route, but plan for
the future. A Josh who works for a credible
company, does a great job. Can prepare you for the
future so that you don't have to go crazy on your
budget, on the initial, but plan for the future.
Okay, last topic, I'm actually running out of
time, but we're having a great conversation, and
honestly, this could be an hour conversation
because of the.
The emails and the calls and the texts and the
questions from my clients about all this stuff,
and half the time I don't have the answer, but the
the next question I kind of want to take us to is
maintenance. So let's go there. I think
maintenance is what you really want, Josh, let's
be honest, right? You want that client on a
maintenance program. Why does Josh want a
maintenance program? Because it's residual for
him. It's a it's a nice little business to manage,
and if the installs, right, it's fairly easy. I'm
just, I'm just going to be super transparent about
it, right? That's, that's his business, but it's
essential that you have someone on retainer in
case an OP goes down, so you have to do it. And
there's different pricing models out there. We
don't have to get into cost. But like, what are
some things to be aware of about maintenance?
Educate us on maintenance. This is like geek squad
on retainer. The computer's not working. Josh, get
me up and running. I have patients all day today.
Go. Josh,
Josh Arnone: yep, this is our, like I had
mentioned the beginning. It's our, made in the
plane. This is how we have a business. It is
monthly support. It was. It's a big need,
obviously a growing need, and it's something that
just more and more top of mind every day that you
see in the news ransomware attacks that before I
got into the industry, I didn't think we're a real
thing, but we get, you know, probably a call a
week of a client that does not ours, saying they
were attacked by ransomware. What can you do to
help me? And it's always a really difficult
conversation, so that's just the cybersecurity
part of it, but following along when you're
dealing with technology needs for HIPAA
compliance, obviously, those things need to be
taken care of, and they can be automated to some
extent, with, you know, proper management that
always comes along with that.
Unknown: That is. And we have plans that just
outline that, that, hey, we're going to do the
minimum, and it's going to be really cost
effective for you. But if you need help fixing
things, it's just going to be a per 15 minute kind
of thing. And if you need that help, because we'll
get we'll get clients. Oh, you know what, my my
dad handles my it in the office. Well, we only
work with dentists, and every one of our
technicians are dental specialists.
Josh Arnone: So they know all these softwares,
they know they know how to every how everything
plugs in that. I'm just gonna say your brother
doesn't, I promise exactly, and it could save
hours of downtime, which for a dental office,
that's a lot of revenue. So having that much
experience and limiting downtime is something that
we really pride ourselves in. But I think a big
misconception out there is, hey, I went cloud,
your favorite topic, and I went cloud, I don't
really need IT anymore, do I? Well, actually, yes,
you still do. The only thing that you really are
not needing as much or those backups for your
server that are typically needed 100% of the time.
So if you go cloud, don't think that I don't need
anything now, because I'm cloud based, you know, I
have a, I have a support plan of Dentrix Ascend. I
should be fine. I don't need it. That is not true.
Michael Dinsio: That's just, that's just Dentrix.
That's not everything else that you guys handle.
And give us a rundown real quick of what you
handle, like phones,
Josh Arnone: yeah, typically fixing the voiceover,
internet phones, sensor issues, CBCT and
panoramics, intraoral cameras, you know, things
like iteros, doing the all the networking. So
that's all your switching and patch panels, your
servers, your PCs, sound, sound security, security
cameras, your your scanners, your printers, your
signature pads, credit card readers. These are all
things that are day to day.
Michael Dinsio: So Dentrix is one of those things.
He just listed 15 ish,
Josh Arnone: So we become your vendor managers at
that point too. So your front desk isn't
scrambling saying, you know, how do I get in touch
with mango voice? Our phones are down and I can't
call what do I do? What's the number? Just call
us. We manage all your vendors. You don't ever
have to sit on hold the Dentrix again. You don't
have to find out who the point of contact is, that
so, so and so, it's just called Darkhorse. They'll
be on it.
Michael Dinsio: If only you could sit on the phone
for Delta Dental and get a fax back. Everybody
understands that that works at the front desk. So,
yes, so perfect. So what's the strategy around
cost. What's a normal thing people should think
of? I I've seen people do it by desktop. I've seen
people do it by other things. What's the what's
the philosophy? And we'll end it on this
particular conversation.
Josh Arnone: Yeah. So for startups in particular,
since we're, you know, gathered around this
subject here, we just try to make it really easy
and say it's going to be a flat, predictable fee
every month. And this is what it's going to be a
very good deal. It's going to be very value
driven, but it's going to be that way for your
first 12 months, so you have, you know, a
predictable, uh, cash flow, and that hopefully by
the end of that 12 months, you're ready to grow
your your business is doing well. We've been
supporting everything that we need to and it's,
and we try to outline very transparently, this is
what's included, which is going to cover the vast
majority of everything you need. Could there be
outside costs? Yes, if you call me and you need
another front desk computer that's not included,
obviously.
And then the rare instance where we need someone
that would be on site, in your office, that would
be something that's just an extra cost, but it is
not something that you have to budget for month to
month. Yeah, so, and if we try to just be
reasonable,
Michael Dinsio: and if the install is done
effective, then you're going to have less issues
later on, too. So there's probably the install and
support conversation, which, if you didn't do the
install and did the did the service plan, that's
going to be probably an interesting conversation,
or vice versa, but, but that that's really
helpful. So
folks, I, I think I say this a lot on the on the
program you want to work with people that
understand what you're getting into and have
created a program around your success. And I say
that because Josh just said he gives you a
maintenance plan for the first year that's heavily
discounted because he appreciates that you're a
startup and that you're trying to break even. You
have to align yourself with the right partners
that understand what you're going through and not
just selling you what they want. That's that's a
super cool thing, and I'm going to tell you right
now, like everybody deserves the full price that
works with startups. I say that nicely. You guys
need so much help, and in a lot of ways, we should
be charging double, whatever the prices are. We
should be charging you guys double, because it's
three times the calls, three times the energy,
three like, if a, if a, if a dental office that's
been going for 1015, 20 years, they got it. You
don't have to have the same conversations. They
already have a system. You just kind of need to
fix it. Josh, it's way less time right? Way less
time startup. It's like, you guys know nothing,
and that's okay. We love you. It's a passion of
ours, and and it's, uh, it's, I love it. I love
startups because it's just that that's my passion.
But I want you all to know that when someone gives
you a break like that, that means something that's
not a sales pitch. It means something he he should
probably charge double literally, because they're
going to have double the calls throughout the day.
Because you're not sure how things work, where an
existing practice has been existing for a long
time. So understand that, folks, because I, I feel
like sometimes my startups just feel like they're
spending so much money. Everything's just whirling
around them, and they get a little resentful at
the vendors out there that are helping them. Oh,
I'm paying him so much money. What the heck.
I promise you, you're a lot more demanding than
the average client. I want you all to understand
that, and so just treat your vendors really
respectfully. Sidebar without Josh here, just just
understand that it's a love language for us, that
we love you guys and we want to support you. So
that's really cool program that you're giving,
that 12 month program, any last minute words or
plugs or things that you want folks to check out.
Guys, as always, in the show notes, we're going to
give you Josh's contact information. There's going
to be a website down there. If he wants to offer
up a white page or a discount or some promotion,
it's going to be down below. But anything else,
Josh that you would like, like to bring to my
audience?
Josh Arnone: You know, we just try to cater to
what your specific needs are not going to like. I
said, not pushing anybody in any directions. And
if I could offer just a piece of advice for
anybody, no matter if you're working with a vendor
like myself, one of our competitors that are just
quality, reputable businesses, don't take it on
yourself to try to procure your own hardware
Unknown: you're going to pay for it later on. And
it's not coming from a bad place. There's just so
many, there's so many intricacies to it. So, you
know, don't, don't just look at a quote and say,
Hey, I found this for $100 cheaper on Amazon. I
could save myself easy $1,000 but then you find
out when you go to install things that, Ah, man,
this does not have the proper operating system. I
need Windows Pro. This came home, and then I and
it just totally scuttles you, and then you wind up
paying more every time.
Michael Dinsio: That's like the we should have led
with that Josh that if people get through this
whole episode, that's the nugget of the show. I
get that a lot to add, some to add before I close
this down, to add a little bit. of credibility to
that, because you're not, you're not a greaseball
sales guy. To add some credibility to that, if
there was one thing that that that a client could
buy and handle on its own that wouldn't burn them,
what would that one thing be?
Josh Arnone: I think there's two things all your
televisions and if you like the esthetic of a
monitor, your computer monitors that are really
that what people see. Okay, he said, Go. Go for
it. Go for it. Just let us know what it is, so you
can properly plan,
Michael Dinsio: plan that. See, guys, that's what
I mean. Like, don't he gave you a golden nugget.
Don't go crazy and do all your hardware. But if
you were going to and wanted to save the money,
it's not gonna save you that much. But if, you
were to do it. Those were the two things he gave
us, too. We got a little bonus. Let's shut it down
with that. Josh, it was a pleasure. My friend,
Darkhorse Tech nationwide, great guys understand
dental clearly and have a nice program for
startups that ease you into that maintenance plan
to help you break even quicker. Josh, thanks so
much for being on the show, brother. We'll,
cherish this one and get it out to the community.
Josh Arnone: Of course, really enjoyed doing this,
and thank you for having us on and you know,
looking forward to speaking the future.
Michael Dinsio: Right on, brother. All right. With
that being said, let's, let's shut this down.
Thank you guys. Talk to you soon.
Unknown: You