Host Track: : Welcome to Shared Practices 2.0. This is our second client update since the
Host Track: : podcast has relaunched.
Host Track: : And I'm excited because I think we get in trouble when we share the success
Host Track: : stories because we set a fairly high bar for ourselves and for our listeners, unfortunately.
Host Track: : People are like, I've only had 50% growth in the first year after buying a dental
Host Track: : practice because they've heard too many of these episodes.
Host Track: : So I apologize to our audience ahead of time. We have a pretty awesome journey
Host Track: : from pre-purchase, finding the right practice, and first year of growth.
Host Track: : So the jealousy, it's okay. But if you buy right, if you buy with growth in
Host Track: : mind, it unlocks quite a bit of potential and is pretty incredible.
Host Track: : So I'm going to introduce my co-host today, Danielle, one of our amazing coaches.
Host Track: : Danielle, how's it going?
Track 3: It's going good. Yeah. It's always good on a Monday morning.
Track 3: I'm not in a hotel. No, I'm in my home office.
Host Track: : Finding Wi-Fi and weird corners. So tell us a little bit about our guest today.
Track 3: Okay. So this is Dr. Jim Simpson.
Track 3: He and I went through the buyer rep program together.
Track 3: And then he jumped into this journey of coaching with me.
Track 3: We've been on this journey for just under a year together and his office is amazing.
Track 3: His growth has been tremendous. We've implemented and done a whole lot of things.
Track 3: And I don't want to share too much about his story or his office because he's
Track 3: sort of in this really weird situation right now, which is kind of a cool thing.
Track 3: So I want him to be able to share what all of that is. But he's an amazing doctor.
Track 3: He's an amazing boss to his team.
Track 3: And I think that that, I'm going to say leader, he's a leader in his office.
Track 3: And so he's been amazing to work with.
Host Track: : Awesome. Jim, welcome to the show.
Guest Track:: Thanks for having me. And thank you for the great words there.
Guest Track:: You're welcome. Appreciate it.
Host Track: : She's great at being a hype man. I'm just like, okay, a little pump here at
Host Track: : the beginning of the session. So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Host Track: : When did you graduate? What area of the country are you in?
Host Track: : And just a smidge of kind of your pre-ownership journey.
Guest Track:: Yeah. So I am from a somewhat more rural area in Northern Kentucky,
Guest Track:: not too far outside of a big city, but graduated dental school in 2015.
Guest Track:: And then I started working as an associate for larger group practice with a
Guest Track:: doctor that I actually kind of mentored with.
Guest Track:: He mentored me while I was going through school and even before I got into dental school.
Guest Track:: And I stayed with him for pretty much close to eight years in the city. So...
Guest Track:: That's towards the end. Yeah, go on.
Host Track: : Well, I was going to say class of 2015. So, you know, first off,
Host Track: : very good, very good year.
Host Track: : But I eight years at one office.
Host Track: : I remember in the original season one of shared practices, we had someone on
Host Track: : who talked about the fact that if someone is an associate for more than seven years,
Host Track: : the likelihood of them making the jump to ownership drops off more drastically
Host Track: : because it's just like making good money.
Host Track: : Life is good you're settled you're comfortable so
Host Track: : you know i think that's awesome that you made the jump despite
Host Track: : having a good thing going and having a good relationship and it sounds like
Host Track: : an opportunity that was worth sticking around for eight years what was the moment
Host Track: : for you if you remember that you decided okay like it's time i want to do my
Host Track: : own thing or was this just something you always knew and it was just now now you're ready yeah.
Guest Track:: So i actually remember that episode. And I knew I was approaching that timeframe too.
Guest Track:: And originally, obviously in dental school, I think everybody has the goal of
Guest Track:: ownership at some point.
Guest Track:: Because I had this established relationship already, I knew I definitely wanted
Guest Track:: to at least go get some experience with them.
Guest Track:: And it was a great associateship. I had a lot of really good experiences,
Guest Track:: got to learn a lot of as far as from dentistry and from the business aspect.
Guest Track:: I would say towards the end, within the last two years of being there,
Guest Track:: I started to... I don't know, I guess I just wanted more and got tired of like,
Guest Track:: I don't know, clocking in essentially and doing the same thing,
Guest Track:: like the lack of responsibility almost.
Guest Track:: And then there were, you know, there were some other changes that were happening
Guest Track:: and it was kind of like, I think it's time to, for the next step.
Guest Track:: And then oddly enough, I was out of town visiting one of my friends and we had
Guest Track:: just been like talking about the whole situation.
Guest Track:: And I'd been looking a little bit for a practice and a hygienist I knew messaged
Guest Track:: me about a doctor from my hometown.
Guest Track:: And that was kind of the start of it. Yeah.
Host Track: : Did the hygienist know that you were looking or was it almost like out of the blue?
Guest Track:: She didn't know I was looking. Yeah. It was kind of out of the blue.
Guest Track:: She's, she messaged me a few times in the past. We never worked together or
Guest Track:: anything, but we were pretty good friends from college.
Host Track: : Okay. Okay. Nice. So I love that.
Host Track: : You know, I think that oftentimes there's just this sense of like, I want to call the shots.
Host Track: : I love that you're just like bored. You're, you're, you were sitting there,
Host Track: : this is a good gig, but at the end of the day, I want to do things my way.
Host Track: : And that's part of the essential...
Host Track: : Drive behind ownership is not only is there financial benefits,
Host Track: : but you can have your own thing and really make the decisions.
Host Track: : And there's something about making the decisions, even if they don't go the
Host Track: : way you want them to, but you made the decision and you get to own the consequences,
Host Track: : good and bad, and reach your potential.
Host Track: : So super exciting. That's awesome that you didn't really have to grind for years
Host Track: : to find this good opportunity.
Host Track: : How early on did you start working with us on on the buyer's representation
Host Track: : services versus like kind of knowing is this a good opportunity or not what
Host Track: : was that timeline for you.
Guest Track:: So well so early on so i would say like two years before i had the the call
Guest Track:: i was like i was casually looking but not not very aggressively and so i was
Guest Track:: kind of looking at a couple different places trying to decide what i wanted
Guest Track:: i was used to i don't know producing i guess a decent bit and i was deciding,
Guest Track:: do I want this practice that are harder to find that already has that annual
Guest Track:: revenue or do I want something that I can help grow?
Guest Track:: And then when this came along, looking at the numbers, I'd met with the doctor
Guest Track:: a few times, actually, before contacting you guys.
Guest Track:: Went through schedules and just talked to him. He really wanted to find somebody
Guest Track:: that was particularly from the area, hometown.
Guest Track:: And so going in, seeing his schedule and looking through the numbers with him, he was very open.
Guest Track:: Then I would say it was probably like three, four months after kind of talking
Guest Track:: to him. It was very, very casual in the beginning.
Host Track: : Well, and the relationship building of this, of like, you're from the area,
Host Track: : there's an inherent trust and desire.
Host Track: : You've got to leg up on anyone interested in this practice.
Host Track: : And I think that's the way that you have to treat these off-market deals where
Host Track: : it's a relationship with the dentist.
Host Track: : Sometimes our listeners get into this mode of like, I need to know the numbers
Host Track: : before I pursue anything further, before I really talk with this dentist.
Host Track: : But just being patient and building a relationship and being open to that possibility,
Host Track: : it might take an extra month or two.
Host Track: : But if you're kind of courting them the correct way, and they're open and transparent,
Host Track: : every time you ask for a little bit more, they're not withholding information or guarded,
Host Track: : then eventually you get to the point where like, okay, let's get serious about
Host Track: : this. So you start working with us,
Host Track: : When you got that report back, the full detailed analysis of the practice, what stood out to you?
Host Track: : And then I'll ask Danielle if she remembers anything from that after you respond.
Guest Track:: I would say just as far as some of the numbers go, his overhead was pretty fantastic.
Guest Track:: He had about 60%. And then revenue was good.
Guest Track:: I'd say he was doing, I don't know, close to 700,000 or so. And his schedule
Guest Track:: was fairly light, four days a week.
Guest Track:: And the area, I already knew the area, obviously. it's it's rural but it's it's
Guest Track:: developing very rapidly the only dentists that are out there are the same like
Guest Track:: three dentists that were there when i was a kid.
Host Track: : Nice um.
Guest Track:: So i knew that i knew the potential was definitely there.
Host Track: : I i love the developing edges of large metros where it's like you like the suburbs
Host Track: : are expanding and you're like the next town out and and so it's like there's
Host Track: : only one place that growth is going to go and you know that like over the next 5 10 15 20 years,
Host Track: : there's just like a net influx of people who are building, who are commuting,
Host Track: : the community is getting built up, like new stores are going in.
Host Track: : And so being like, it's that perfect storm of like, okay, I know what is here,
Host Track: : the competition here, and the growth that's possible here.
Host Track: : That's awesome. Danielle, do you remember anything from that early,
Host Track: : kind of looking at the practice before purchasing?
Track 3: Yeah, so I truly love looking at the demographics of a specific area because
Track 3: I like knowing what type of person are we going to have in this area?
Track 3: What is the growth going to look like?
Track 3: And then to the practice information, how many patients are actually there right
Track 3: now that we have to work with?
Track 3: System-wise, like what systems are we going to put in place right when we walk
Track 3: in the doors that maybe haven't been in place in the practice that we can see
Track 3: just from the reports that were given to him.
Track 3: So I think for me, those are the things that I look at right away.
Track 3: And that's a little bit of the special stuff that I want him to share with you
Track 3: guys about what's going on there. It's pretty cool.
Host Track: : Well, one more anatomy piece, Jim, how many ops was the practice?
Host Track: : Did you buy the real estate? Is it freestanding? Is this in a complex visibility,
Host Track: : that kind of stuff? Tell us about the actual physical practice.
Guest Track:: Yeah. So I wasn't unfortunately able to buy the real estate off the bat,
Guest Track:: hopefully down the road, but it is a five op freestanding building.
Guest Track:: It's right next to a little strip mall and it's off basically the main road
Guest Track:: that goes straight through town and connects it to all the major highways.
Guest Track:: So as far as visibility goes, it's fantastic.
Guest Track:: I have a sign that's fairly close. The city won't let me put it actually on
Guest Track:: the road, but it's close enough.
Guest Track:: We cleaned up a lot of the landscaping and the amount of people early on that
Guest Track:: were saying they didn't realize it was even a dental practice was kind of mind-blowing.
Guest Track:: His sign was kind of his name and the script was all kind of goofy.
Guest Track:: Couldn't really read it from the road.
Host Track: : So it's amazing how like the emphasis on like fancy font was like,
Host Track: : you know, that that's what was important 30 years ago when when that sign went
Host Track: : went up and it's like, no, I want this like cursive, you know, like I'm a dentist.
Host Track: : Give me the cursive versus can someone tell I respect and also hate the signs
Host Track: : that are just like dentist.
Host Track: : Like yes they commit to like no i'm
Host Track: : not going to like pretend that i'm anything other than
Host Track: : a dentist and it's like dentist and phone number and just like pure utilitarian
Host Track: : sign for for a dental office i i couldn't do it but i i respect those who have
Host Track: : like the gumption to just put it out there that way um so you know upgrade the
Host Track: : landscape upgrade the sign you're you're on the,
Host Track: : Would you have the ability to expand if you wanted to?
Guest Track:: That's something I've been looking at. And I think it would be pretty difficult
Guest Track:: when the current layout, which is one of the current issues we have is we need another operatory.
Guest Track:: And there's just not really a good way to even add one, like feasibly, I think.
Guest Track:: So that's something for future thought as far as what I'm going to do building
Guest Track:: wise, because my end goal would be to have something a little bit larger where
Guest Track:: I can have another full-time doctor with me as well.
Host Track: : Well, and I don't know if you've listened to the new episodes on on SP 2.0.
Host Track: : One of the things we're talking about is some some different pathways to the
Host Track: : million dollar practice.
Host Track: : And one of the practices is that, you know, new avatar that we're talking about
Host Track: : maximizing for income, the smart solo.
Host Track: : So how can I get to a million dollars take home in a five op ideally situation
Host Track: : with a low overhead and doing that like on cruise control? It's like,
Host Track: : okay, I can sustain this for as long as I want to.
Host Track: : It sounds like this practice would be well set up for that.
Host Track: : And in fact, one of the Facebook questions was like, what do you think is faster,
Host Track: : doing a startup to that million dollar smart solo or doing an acquisition?
Host Track: : And I mean, my default is that like the right acquisition, I think is going
Host Track: : to give you the faster path.
Host Track: : So we're not going to press you and ask if you're at that million dollar take
Host Track: : home number. But I do want to talk about your growth over the first year.
Host Track: : So you take over the practice.
Host Track: : Tell us a little bit, how nervous were you and any bumps in that early first couple months?
Guest Track:: Definitely nervous coming in because being an associate for so long,
Guest Track:: I was definitely part of some of the business aspect, but I didn't know a whole lot.
Guest Track:: I did have a lot of resources and people I could reach out to,
Guest Track:: though, along the way, aside from just having Danielle, which was fantastic.
Guest Track:: Coming in was a little bit slow, for sure. It was probably...
Guest Track:: So when I started, he had one assistant.
Guest Track:: And so hiring somebody right off the bat was obviously needed.
Guest Track:: But the first few weeks, we were doing a lot of the background,
Guest Track:: front desk paperwork, dealing with some of the insurance plans.
Guest Track:: There weren't even a whole lot of those to deal with, thankfully.
Guest Track:: But it was probably a good three to four weeks before I started seeing patients.
Guest Track:: Because we were... And then we started... I would work two days a week and he
Guest Track:: stayed on. He's still actually with me practicing on Monday and Tuesday.
Host Track: : Oh, cool.
Guest Track:: Which has been fantastic to have. But we were basically splitting that one assistant
Guest Track:: until I could hire somebody, which was another just like the hygienist reaching
Guest Track:: out to me about the practice for sale.
Guest Track:: I had one of my old assistants contact me one night about another dentist in
Guest Track:: town she was going to go interview for.
Guest Track:: She got out of dental for a little bit. She was doing some other stuff,
Guest Track:: but she wants to go back to hygiene school.
Guest Track:: And so when she messaged me, it was like right after I had posted for an assistant.
Guest Track:: So I was like, well, how about me? Do you want to come in an interview with me.
Guest Track:: And so she came in the next day, pretty much. And I started the following week.
Host Track: : That's, I mean, when you can find good people early on, I think that's another big accelerator.
Host Track: : It's like when you inherit a team that's not on board, that's like resistant
Host Track: : to changes, and then you can't, you know, it like takes a while to turn them
Host Track: : over and find new people to replace them. That really impedes your growth.
Host Track: : So it's like to have someone who's already highly competent,
Host Track: : bring someone on who's also great and that you can kind of train up and there's
Host Track: : no resistance to the new stuff and the growth, I think is a big deal.
Host Track: : So you mentioned that the old doc is staying on Monday, Tuesday.
Host Track: : Are you then working Wednesday, Thursday, Friday?
Guest Track:: I am there Tuesday as well. I just run one column. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Guest Track:: We added a half day on Friday. He wasn't doing any Fridays before.
Host Track: : Okay. Beautiful. Because I mean, that's once again, we're talking about the
Host Track: : low overhead that you know, you inherited with this practice,
Host Track: : adding one day does not add anything to your fixed costs, you know,
Host Track: : other than the AC bill that you're running that day or whatever,
Host Track: : but you can add a significant amount of revenue.
Host Track: : So between you and this other doctor, sounds like you've got a pace that is
Host Track: : very sustainable for you.
Host Track: : Was there any resistance on his part of like, if he was used to running one
Host Track: : assistant, you know, having a little bit busier of a Monday for him, how has he handled that?
Host Track: : Has he liked it? Or is he just like, hey I'm going to do my pace I'm going to
Host Track: : do my thing on Monday you do your thing Tuesday through Friday.
Guest Track:: Yeah, I pretty much let him keep his schedule the way he wants it.
Guest Track:: And Monday, he still just has his one assistant and two hygienists.
Guest Track:: So when I came in, there was eight hygiene days. Every day was two hygienists.
Guest Track:: And then within three months, I think it was January, I brought in another full-time
Guest Track:: hygienist and we opened up the Fridays, which then allowed me to add basically
Guest Track:: four and a half hygiene days because one of the other hygienists wanted to work Fridays as well.
Guest Track:: But as far as his schedule, yeah, he comes in Monday, does his thing normal.
Guest Track:: Tuesday is the same thing. I'm just there. I kind of keep a lower schedule.
Guest Track:: I try to keep it more productive.
Guest Track:: And then I help out with the hygiene so he's not too swamped having an extra
Guest Track:: hygienist than he's used to.
Host Track: : I mean, I love this. This is like immediate eight to like 13 hygiene days or
Host Track: : maybe even more because if one of those added the Friday as well.
Host Track: : Danielle, what are your recollections of this first six months and any of the
Host Track: : bumps, the early successes, coaching moments that you wouldn't mind sharing?
Track 3: Yeah. I like that Jim laughs because he knows probably what I'm going to say.
Track 3: We have had a lot of conversations and they happened early on up until last
Track 3: week about what do we want to do next?
Track 3: Because he has this really great organic growth that a lot of offices don't have.
Track 3: And when I say organic growth, I mean like 50 to 70 some new patients a month.
Host Track: : With no marketing spend, I'm guessing.
Guest Track:: Zero marketing.
Host Track: : Oh my goodness. How incredible. Yeah.
Track 3: It's so great. But then we're sort of like, you bring up that new avatar.
Track 3: And Jim is really in this position where he wants to be this producer doing different dentistry,
Track 3: but we can't get him out of the chair with like fillings and we can't get him
Track 3: out of the chair with these other things that are taking up a lot of time and all of the exams.
Track 3: And so it's really trying to figure out what the next step is.
Track 3: And then we're talking about a new space or expanding into this other op.
Track 3: So there's so many choices around just the fact that he has this like huge organic
Track 3: growth and we've had it since the beginning.
Track 3: And it's something that we can't shut off.
Track 3: It's just people keep coming, right?
Host Track: : It's a problem. You're just like, this is our biggest problem is the new patients
Host Track: : like pounding our door down.
Host Track: : I can't imagine how many of our listeners are just like, shut up.
Host Track: : Like, I don't want to listen to this.
Track 3: But the vision really is to cut back clinically, to be able to do the dentistry
Track 3: that he wants to do, to do more implants, to to implement sedation cases, to do things like that.
Track 3: And so it's really hard sometimes to, we talk a lot about that,
Track 3: like, how do we get here with what we're,
Track 3: currently doing at the office? How do we get to that goal when we currently
Track 3: have just tons of people coming in in the space that we have?
Track 3: So that really has been an issue from the beginning.
Track 3: And then getting the team involved
Track 3: with what it looks like to make that dentistry a possibility for him.
Track 3: So there's a lot of working parts in his office.
Track 3: And like I said in the beginning. Everyone is so amazing, but we're really trying
Track 3: to make his vision a reality for him.
Host Track: : Well, and the question I'm going to ask here in a minute is about,
Host Track: : you know, you mentioned that you didn't have to deal with too many insurances.
Host Track: : So Jim, tell us about the insurance mix. How much is fee-for-service?
Host Track: : How much is insurance driven?
Guest Track:: Yeah, I would say probably 60, 40, 40% being fee-for-service.
Guest Track:: The insurances are all PPOs. There was five plans when I came in,
Guest Track:: and then one of them was not paying any out-of-network.
Guest Track:: And so during the credentialing process, we ended up just dropping them anyways, which didn't hurt a lot.
Guest Track:: A couple people left, but quite a few of them ended up trying to find new insurances
Guest Track:: because since it's such a small town, everybody's so attached to the hygienists,
Guest Track:: which was one of the good things when I came in.
Guest Track:: They were pretty much fully booked out for six months, every single one of them.
Guest Track:: If somebody had to call to reschedule, we couldn't get anybody in for you know
Guest Track:: three four months at least which is was part of the driving factor for bringing
Guest Track:: in the the additional hygienist okay.
Host Track: : So a great mix to start off with and then you dropped insurance and saw very
Host Track: : little drop in demand or patient flow,
Host Track: : So this is such a great opportunity that if you want to, to renegotiate with
Host Track: : insurances, possibly drop insurances.
Host Track: : Danielle, what's been the conversation on that front?
Track 3: So we've certainly talked about that. We are not quite there yet that that seems
Track 3: to be an option. We have talked that maybe come the new year,
Track 3: that conversation would come up again.
Track 3: And I don't think it's the patient flow that we're afraid of losing.
Track 3: Jim could step in here and say what that is.
Track 3: But I think it's more the security behind it that if we do want to grow into a larger space,
Track 3: which could mean purchasing something outside of where he is and not just expanding
Track 3: that space, then having that comfort of what this looks like and the people
Track 3: that are going to go with you needs to be there.
Track 3: And so I can understand that hesitation and fear.
Track 3: And so there's just working through this process. Like I said,
Track 3: I think coming the new year, we have decided to have that conversation again
Track 3: on what this would look like.
Track 3: If we don't have availability in the office, it's really hard to say, okay, what do we do next?
Track 3: We're jam-packed with people. What do we do?
Host Track: : Yeah. Yeah. And with that, I think the episode drops this next Monday,
Host Track: : a conversation between George and I, or maybe it's the Monday after,
Host Track: : about this moment of you have a decision point.
Host Track: : You've reached what is possible in one office.
Host Track: : And do you push for growth now or do you push for overhead and income now?
Host Track: : And so raising fees, dropping insurances, renegotiating insurances before you grow is
Host Track: : Um, it does slow your growth because part of the reason you get so many new
Host Track: : patients is that you are a network.
Host Track: : And so if, if growth, rapid growth to the, your eventual size is your number
Host Track: : one goal, then staying in network and just adding capacity is the way to go.
Host Track: : If you're okay with slower growth and you want to optimize for income along
Host Track: : the way, this is the moment to optimize, to drop insurances,
Host Track: : renegotiate, raise fees.
Host Track: : I know raising fees, like some people, there's like zero resistance to being
Host Track: : like, okay, I'm going to raise fees.
Host Track: : But there's also like a part of being a dentist and maybe this is only some dentist.
Host Track: : I'm this way where it's like, sometimes you feel bad raising fees.
Host Track: : Like, you know, it's a small town.
Host Track: : There's a lot of dental needs. Like you don't want to have the reputation of
Host Track: : being the greedy dentist.
Host Track: : And so is there any of that coming up for you in this decision-making to get vulnerable on air?
Guest Track:: Yeah. I mean, there's definitely the hesitation just because of being in the first year still.
Guest Track:: And I am so set on wanting to see the consistency to make sure there's no,
Guest Track:: I don't know, some false growth from the beginning. I don't know why.
Guest Track:: The insurances I would definitely like to take a look at at the end of the year.
Guest Track:: And there is one in particular that I am definitely not opposed to getting rid of.
Guest Track:: As far as fees go, I think our fees are pretty reasonable for the area.
Guest Track:: I wouldn't say they're low by any means.
Guest Track:: There are a few services I offer because I enjoy doing them and I just want
Guest Track:: to make it more accessible for the area.
Guest Track:: And again, the area is growing. There's a lot of really nice neighborhoods coming
Guest Track:: in, but we're still... It's somewhat rural and we're very close to even more
Guest Track:: farmland and stuff where a lot of people are coming in.
Guest Track:: So I like to keep that growth going for now.
Guest Track:: I know there's going to be a bottleneck, which is one of the problems that we're
Guest Track:: going to face, in which case, we'll readdress and see what we want to do at that point, I think.
Guest Track:: Definitely want to stay where I'm at and maximize what I have and be as efficient
Guest Track:: and productive as we can before we start going elsewhere.
Guest Track:: But I think the goal would be in the next two-ish years, two to three years
Guest Track:: to start hopefully looking to build something close to maybe twice the size.
Host Track: : I think if that's the goal...
Host Track: : You will have time where you will have excess pressure for longer than you want.
Host Track: : And renegotiating insurances takes time. You kind of often have to drop out of network.
Host Track: : And then like while it's renegotiating and people are getting letters of like,
Host Track: : your dentist is no longer in network and your team's kind of got to like reassure people.
Host Track: : So like that's a great thing to do in the interim is it doesn't cost the patient
Host Track: : anything for you to get higher fees from the insurance.
Host Track: : So it'd be a good use of the excess demand that
Host Track: : you have and i also think raising fees on the
Host Track: : procedures that you don't love you know you've said i want to do
Host Track: : more of these but there's also all the procedures that you're like
Host Track: : man this is filling up my schedule maybe sometimes i'm
Host Track: : annoyed at this these back-to-back mod's and you know
Host Track: : whatever it may be raising the fees on those procedures
Host Track: : that are tending to kind of fill up your schedule and prevent you from
Host Track: : doing more of the stuff you want to do feels good
Host Track: : because then it's like okay well at least i'm getting paid more to do
Host Track: : the stuff that i don't want to do as much of so that
Host Track: : would be you know an area for for you to like think about and consider as
Host Track: : you look at what to do with that excess demand so so now i do want to ask about
Host Track: : actual growth and jim was more modest and danielle was more forthcoming on the
Host Track: : call beforehand as we were just talking but tell us about you know where our
Host Track: : collections at now and like what are the what are the months that you're seeing these days jim yeah.
Guest Track:: So for the i'm I'm coming up on my 12 months in basically a month even,
Guest Track:: and we're at about 1.3, I believe, for the last 12 months.
Guest Track:: We just hit the million for the actual fiscal calendar year.
Guest Track:: So hopefully we'll be close to 1.5, if not a little bit over.
Host Track: : Yep. This is why these types of episodes are dangerous. Because in the book,
Host Track: : we talk about 37% growth or, you know, we have that record of like,
Host Track: : hey, we're going to get everyone growth and it's going to be good.
Host Track: : And then you come on air and it's like, well, you know, I bought a 700k practice
Host Track: : and now it's going to hit 1.5 within the first year.
Host Track: : And people start expecting more out of us. So this is a problem.
Host Track: : Danielle, you know, what do you see as a driver of this kind of growth?
Track 3: Yeah. So like I had said in the beginning, we recognized really quickly that
Track 3: there were some things that just weren't in place with systems, with the office.
Track 3: So right away, we started putting people in the right seats in the front office
Track 3: specifically and putting systems in place like re-care and reactivation for
Track 3: our hygiene patients and filling up our hygiene seats.
Track 3: And we did some schedule optimization to make sure that we were truly optimizing
Track 3: our doctor's time and that we were putting the right things in the appointments
Track 3: at the right time when we needed to.
Track 3: So exams and x-rays and things like that. So we were really kind of looking everywhere.
Track 3: We had a whole team meetings and we really talked about why pre-appointment
Track 3: was so important from hygiene because we're looking into the future and we don't
Track 3: want to be circling back and chasing people to put them on the schedule.
Track 3: So collections protocols, we really went through everything that was really
Track 3: important to the growth of the practice and to each individual seat in the practice.
Track 3: So not just the growth of the practice, but the growth of Jim's team.
Track 3: And it's paid off. It's really shown.
Host Track: : That's incredible. And I love that it's like so
Host Track: : many dentists are sitting on these opportunities they don't realize that
Host Track: : if they'll just optimize these little things and focus
Host Track: : on growth and be willing to add team members and train them appropriately like
Host Track: : you can double your practice you he you know the the opportunity was here and
Host Track: : they're great dentists they're at a pace they they want to be at but if you've
Host Track: : got someone with a motor who wants to go and wants to grow and is willing to
Host Track: : really take the reins and and,
Host Track: : do it a lot as possible. So that's incredible. Jim, what do you see as some
Host Track: : of the big drivers and the things that you're most grateful that you implemented
Host Track: : with Danielle as you grew?
Guest Track:: Definitely the systems, because when I came in, it was kind of like one of those
Guest Track:: autopilot type offices where they were all kind of just doing their thing that they've been doing.
Guest Track:: And it was working for them, which was great.
Guest Track:: Everybody was very, they were attentive and ready to change and grow as well.
Guest Track:: As more people started coming in and we were seeing more volume though,
Guest Track:: they were quickly realizing some of the things they were doing that weren't working anymore.
Guest Track:: So I think that was more motivation to take in some of the change that we were
Guest Track:: in systems that we were putting into place.
Host Track: : That's awesome. It's that order of operations.
Host Track: : You got to get the systems in place as you grow. Otherwise the wheels fall off
Host Track: : just due to growth and chaos and not having that in place, your team breaks,
Host Track: : the systems rake, you lose patients.
Host Track: : So you've been able to grow both. You grow your patient base,
Host Track: : you grow your systems, you grow your team all at the same time.
Host Track: : And that's how you get this opportunity that you have in front of you.
Host Track: : So I love this. I'm super excited.
Host Track: : I'm excited to hear if you are able to find another space.
Host Track: : It's hard when you're right on Main Street, you've got great visibility right in the middle of town.
Host Track: : And you're like, man, it's hard to give up the demographics of my specific location.
Host Track: : But with the new growth, I'm sure there's going to be shopping centers,
Host Track: : there's going to be new neighborhoods, new developments, and opportunities for
Host Track: : you to kind of take your pick and build where you want to build.
Host Track: : What other challenges do you see in the next three to six months that you're
Host Track: : looking to overcome? Jim, I'll start with you and then go over to Danielle.
Guest Track:: Honestly, just the biggest thing is keeping, I guess, everyone on track as far
Guest Track:: as maintaining the goals, but then also the volume.
Guest Track:: Because we're still, it definitely ramped up from the beginning.
Guest Track:: The first five months or so was about 70, 75 new patients a month.
Guest Track:: We've kind of calmed down to around 45, 50.
Guest Track:: But maintaining that and making sure the schedule stays manageable from all aspects, I would say.
Host Track: : Okay. Danielle, how about you? What do you see on upcoming challenges?
Track 3: Yeah. I don't necessarily think it's a challenge. I think it's something that
Track 3: we face in almost every office is that we're constantly having to do...
Track 3: We have to check in with our team and we really have to check in with the systems
Track 3: that we've put in place just to make sure that we're all still good.
Track 3: And that's something that we've really had to make sure has been a thing with
Track 3: Jim's office is just saying, hey, are we feeling good with this?
Track 3: How's everything going here?
Track 3: We recognize when things aren't necessarily...
Track 3: You know, on the up and up on something. And so we, we do some training again,
Track 3: and we get everyone excited about the importance of something.
Track 3: And so I think it's not just his team that we're going to struggle with.
Track 3: I think it's all teams that we have to always have these constant reminders
Track 3: of the importance and why we're all working towards these goals.
Track 3: But it's, it's fun.
Host Track: : Well, and especially when you add, you add a lot of systems.
Host Track: : So it's like you've added, you know, this and this and this over the course of this three months,
Host Track: : next three months, next three months you add a couple systems every
Host Track: : three months and all of a sudden you're a year in and we're
Host Track: : like okay we have to audit all of this and we have to be checking up
Host Track: : on all of this otherwise as you get
Host Track: : busier as the chaos hits as your short staff temporarily
Host Track: : it's just natural like this is not ingrained into the dna quite yet of this
Host Track: : practice it's like you're we're still building that like pattern recognition
Host Track: : that muscle memory of all of these systems um so that that's what we all have to do.
Host Track: : And auditing sometimes isn't fun and you get pushback and people feel bad and
Host Track: : guilty and they hide and all those things.
Host Track: : But if you can just do it in the right attitude of like, hey,
Host Track: : no, we just want to make sure that we're able to take care of our patients and
Host Track: : we want to make sure we're organized.
Host Track: : We want to make sure you're not stressed as a dental assistant,
Host Track: : as a front desk team member.
Host Track: : Then I think people are on board with, okay, we got to circle back.
Host Track: : We've got to make sure that we're doing things the right way.
Host Track: : So anything else, Danielle, and then Jim, that you would say of this whole journey
Host Track: : and this opportunity before we wrap things up today, Danielle, I'll start with you.
Track 3: Yeah. Gosh, it's been great. I cannot wait to see what happens next.
Track 3: It's a huge amount of growth and I know more to come.
Track 3: So I'm truly excited to see what the next moves are in the game of this office.
Track 3: It's truly cool. I know, Jim,
Track 3: you laugh, but it's so fun figuring out what we do next to see the vision come
Track 3: to reality and working with the team to make all of this happen and working
Track 3: directly with Jim to make all of this happen.
Track 3: It's just fun. It's a fun little adventure.
Host Track: : Jim, how about you? Anything to wrap us up here?
Guest Track:: Yeah, it's just been a whirlwind of a year. That's for sure.
Guest Track:: The constant evolving has been fantastic. And I really appreciate the team that's been there.
Guest Track:: I was very lucky with who I brought in with the acquisition and the new people
Guest Track:: that I brought in as well.
Guest Track:: Everybody's been very receptive and definitely been a big part of the success
Guest Track:: as well as obviously Danielle and everybody at Shared Practices that's been able to help.
Host Track: : That's awesome.
Guest Track:: I appreciate it.
Host Track: : Yeah, I if people want to extrapolate because I keep thinking back to this like
Host Track: : conversation we've had on air, especially the surprise,
Host Track: : not surprise, but like George and I were like, OK, we didn't have this as an
Host Track: : avatar of the million dollar take home solo.
Host Track: : And if people put together like your early overhead, maybe it's changed,
Host Track: : maybe it's gotten worse or better what you're projected to do,
Host Track: : they can start to like come up with their own conclusions of what's possible in your office.
Host Track: : But I'm going to count this as a win for what Suzanne said, which is,
Host Track: : Richard, we're already doing this.
Host Track: : We just don't have this as a specific avatar.
Host Track: : And also a win for acquisitions as a pathway to having a great take home and
Host Track: : having options of, do I now optimize for growth?
Host Track: : Do I now optimize for overhead and what production can be done in one office
Host Track: : with one doctor sustainably?
Host Track: : And I just love that you've added a doctor day, you've added hygienists,
Host Track: : like you've done all the right moves to be able to expand what is truly possible
Host Track: : out of this five op practice in a phenomenal growing semi rural area.
Host Track: : So this is just, if we could copy and paste your situation for people like we would all day long,
Host Track: : hopefully some of our listeners who are pre-owners maybe are thinking about
Host Track: : like, okay, can I find this growing edge of a major metro, semi-rural type situation?
Host Track: : And if they can stomach not living in the downtown of some major metro,
Host Track: : there's a lot of opportunity.
Host Track: : And then you just drive into town and spend a lot of money downtown anytime you want to.
Host Track: : So this was awesome. And Jim, thank you for coming on the show.
Guest Track:: Yeah, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
Host Track: : Danielle, this was great. Thank you so much for helping Dr. Simpson out over
Host Track: : this year and helping him buy the right practice. I really appreciate everything you've done here.
Track 3: Yeah, thank you as always.
Host Track: : Awesome. Well, we will talk to you next time on the Shared Practices Podcast.