When I first started my dental office 7.5 years ago (yes I started it from scratch with zero patients) my daughter Nika hadn’t even turned one yet. My biggest concern the first month we set up the office up was to find the best birthday cake for her first birthday. Soon after that my life turned upside down & I went through a lot of personal & life changes. Truth be told I never had a dream of owning a dental office, I was happy associating at the office I used to work at. I know it sounds really bad but all I wanted to do was to be a dentist, create things with my hands, help people & build meaningful relationships. Although now I’m VERY grateful that I do have my own office & feel very blessed.
I never took any business courses & had ZERO business knowledge. Being raised in a family where the emphasis was always placed on love ❤️ & family I had no business muscle if you know what I mean. ⠀
I had to learn how to run a business on my own. There was no manual & at the beginning I truly relied on my receptionists to know what to do. I had no idea what dental insurance was let alone what dual insurance was.
I was very slow to fire & quick to hire. I could honestly write a book about all the things not to do to run a business. It’s taken a lot of hard work, learning, patience, persistence, tears & love to get to this point. I have learnt it the hard way but I can now say that I can sit at the front & book appointments, do preauthorizations, phone insurance companies, do account receivables, collect payments and suction for myself if I have to. At times if need be I will run to the back & help clean up & get the room ready for the next patient. I’ve even shovelled outside the office when it’s snowed.
I can’t say I know it all but that I’m still learning & I’m grateful for every experience along the way & all the relationships that I’ve built 💖. Moral of the story keep pushing forward towards your goal. You will get there!