It happens to the best of us. We grow up dreaming, being creative, living into the future of all of the possibilities we want. We know that everything is going to be just perfect; exactly the way that you want it.
It’s easy right, lifestyle design, start fresh, from scratch, and have it your way. And then slowly but surely life happens, one year at a time, our vision gets blurred, our expenses go up, profitable dentistry goes down and we cycle through a few years or a decade of unpredictability just working to help sustain what we have created.
So many dentists love to brag about their multi-million dollar practices and then you ask the important and obvious question “How much do you take home?” … “What is your percentage of net profit or overhead?”
Most don’t have a clue. Most dentists do not even know what their paychecks are every month. How much is allocated to go directly into your pocket?
At what point do you start – actually – making money?!
Wow. Crazy. Just seems so nuts doesn’t it.
Working for…what?! Not much.
When you have a million dollar practice and your net is 30%, it really just means that you have a $60K overhead, that’s about it. It means at the first of every month you are looking straight into the eye of a $60K bill. That’s all it means.
$2,000,000 at 30% (which should be a piece of cake) $120,000 of monthly bills. That’s what you really have, not a $166,000 month practice, no you have $120,000 of bills…overhead to keep up with…the profit is by no means whatsoever guaranteed.
Let’s up the ante to $3,000,000 at 30%… which by now you should be at 50%, without breaking a sweat. You can’t have an extra million dollars and it not be 50-60% profit unless you are a complete idiot doing nothing but crap dentistry.
So, now here we are at a $3,000,000 … oh you think you are so special. All you own is a $175,000 in overhead. You own a lot of expenses, which is a big stress because you are starting at zero on the first of every month.
There is no glory in big, there is only glory and pride in profit.
The bigger the weight of production, the bigger the burden of stress. I don’t care who you are, you can lie to anyone you want but you can’t lie to me. I see, talk to, meet more dentists in a week than you’ll ever know in your lifetime.
Facts are facts. You get to define your own success and choose what your life and practice look like; but make no mistake about it, the larger your practice the larger your overhead. You don’t own profit, you must create profit. You don’t own people, patients, or even dentistry, you own expenses, bills, obligations.
All that matters is what you get out of the deal. What do you keep?
Brag all you want about how big you want to be – but at the end of the day – you’ll be judged by what you keep, by the icing on the cake, by the possibilities of wealth that you earn, not by the burden of expenses you struggle to keep up with.
Get your priorities in order, that’s what I say. That’s what matters.
So, why do so many dentists stop believing in the possibilities of getting rich, of following their dreams, of living out their practice vision that they have had since day one?
The reason is simple, we stop believing because we become conditioned to expect things to be difficult, we expect to be disappointed; because we lose focus on what we want and listen to what others say it’s suppose to be like, what others say is possible.
You know what I say – Make your own reality. Don’t be dissuaded, distracted, or discouraged – go for it – do what you want – live out your vision. Stop pigeon holing yourself into some ‘industry standard’.
Live with fortitude, imagination, determination, real commitment to success, own your own vision and don’t let others get in your way or suppress your expectations.
Ever.
One of these “industry standards” is the idea of selling out. Really?! You work your whole life for what, some income, nice cars, fancy vacations, and you wait until one day you give up everything you have ever worked for to cash in on a few hundred thousand or at best a couple million dollars that you are going to pay half in taxes and then suppress your lifestyle to some ‘ordinary persons’ wage and standard, and just be okay with it.
No great dentist sells cold turkey…they just don’t. Sorry.
Great dentists, entrepreneurial, passionate, committed dentists with significant careers, they hang around and sell out pieces or parts of their practice to associates they choose, groom, and create as successors to their legacy who carry on their vision of their practice and evolve it into the enterprise they have always wanted.
Every smart, rich, amazing dentist I know has kept their hand in their practice (or maybe even still owns part of it after they sold) because they cared about more than the money.
This is exactly why I say the greatest decision you will ever make is who takes it over, what the associate is like that you bring into your practice family, your business empire, your professional legacy.
The greatest decision is who, how, why, when, and what you are going to do while it happens and after it’s done.
I believe that every great dentist aspires to have some one come in and be their protégé or student under them to be respected by and learned from, so their patients and community benefit from their practice transition and evolution.
For the majority of every dentist I talk to, the ability to ease out, keep control, ensure success and extend financial viability of the practice they have scarified their life to create is the single most impactful, critical and important decision they will ever make.
It deserves careful and expert consideration.
