Athena Consulting: Dental Practice Solutions

We are now four weeks into the new year and most people have finally stopped writing the date as “2010” on checks and other documents! There is other good news as well; for about the past 3 months, whenever I’m out driving in some city across the U.S., I’ve noticed restaurant parking lots are once again full of cars, shopping centers are busy and the mood of the people is much improved. Could it be we’re coming out of this “recession” and people are feeling less fearful now? Fear of the unknown can be very paralyzing for people. It causes us to stop dead in our tracks, procrastinate on decision making and enter what I call “the holding pattern.” At my age, I’ve lived through several recessions and this, like all the others I have experienced, will pass and everything will get back to business as usual. The only difference I noticed during this recent economic downturn was the longer time period.

While looking at my monthly website analysis report from Google earlier today, I saw website visits were up over December and previous months (and a few years) before that. Doctors are reading more articles, which means they are interested in doing new things in their practices, wanting to learn how to move up to the next level, and starting new dental practices.

During the month of January alone, three doctors hired me to do their new start practices. After doing all the preliminary work of running demographics, selecting good locations, writing business plans, project budgets and two year projections, the biggest surprise came when we applied for new practice project loans. My favorite dental lender has increased the amounts they are loaning and interest rates are in the low 7’s! All of these economic indicators are wonderful news for those of you who are tired of your associate positions, whether working in corporate or private practices.

Several doctors have asked me if it’s too early to start their projects if they want to open up the 3rd or 4th quarter of 2011. No! There are a few steps we need to take that we have no way of knowing what the time line will be for each unique project. The first one is finding available space within the location we’ve chosen and the second is how long it will take to negotiate a good lease and get to the point of having the first lease draft ready to be reviewed by the attorney. The last issue is how long does your local building permits department take to review your plans and issue building permits so we can get started on the tenant finish. Everything else is scheduled to make the project flow nicely according to the project time line.

If you want to open a new practice this year, start now! It’s never too early.