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Tag: Orthodontic Trends

Orthodontic Partnership Seminar Announced

Bentson Clark & Copple Partnership SeminarPartnerships are on the rise. They are one of the fastest growing practice types throughout the United States. However, creating a successful partnership between two dental professionals isn’t easy – it’s more than just a handshake. Clear expectations and a solid financial plan are the keys to a smooth transition. Establishing effective and inclusive partnerships takes time. It is important to create the right framework from the start and review both the structure and process of the partnership on an ongoing basis.

If you have considered adding an orthodontic partner or even a pediatric dentist to your practice, we invite you to attend a full-day lecture, hosted by Bentson Clark & Copple, which will focus on the key elements of partnerships from a panel of distinguished experts with first-hand experience.

Building a Lifelong Partnership is scheduled for Friday, June 19th from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the O. Henry Hotel, located in the heart of Greensboro, North Carolina. This educational lecture will focus on the business of building a lifelong, successful partnership. From the legal aspects of creating a partnership to the physical building requirements needed for a partnership, our guest speakers will offer their first-hand experience of long-term partnerships with both orthodontists and pediatric dentists. Many topics will be discussed, including the different types of partnerships, considerations in building a partnership and how to locate a partner.

The lecture will close with an open forum, panel discussion, where you may pose questions to the Bentson Clark & Copple team and guest presenters regarding anything partnership-related. Scheduled to present are Chris Bentson; Doug Copple, CVA; Dr. Jeffrey Johnson; Joyce Matlack, RDH, ASID; Dr. Michael F. Nelson; Shannon Patterson, CPR; Dr. Ronald K. Risinger and Daniel Sroka, JD.

Bring your potential orthodontic partner, future pediatric dental partner and/or your spouse to this event. Registration is open now. Early bird rates of $499 are available before March 1, 2015. Registration fees will increase to $599 after that date.

 

Reasons an Orthodontic Practice Cannot Grow

As valuation and transition consultants, we have the duty to analyze a practice for sale or purchase with great scrutiny. When performing a practice valuation study, we analyze the last three years of a practice’s financial performance and operational performance for each practice. This provides us not only the revenue and expenses, but the patient flow, the conversion ratios from new patient exams to starts, the fee structure, the marketing plan, etc. More importantly, when visiting each practice, we observe the physical facility, fixed assets in service, staff, location within the practice’s drawing area, competitors’ location(s), and so on. We also perform a detailed demographic analysis of the patient drawing area. Needless to say, we end up with a great deal of data on each practice; having the opportunity to see practices in every geographic region of the country.

Taken together, we see practices that are declining at various rates, practices that are maintaining a relatively flat “status quo” with regards to growth, and practices that are growing at various rates. We see these practices in all areas of the country, in all environments, generally battling a similar competitive and economic environment. However, there are situations that cause a practice not to grow.

There are many contributing reasons as to why a practice cannot grow: competitive environment, demographic environment, geographic limitations, and so on; however, our observation of the number one reason practices cannot grow is because they do not currently operate with efficient systems. Systems are perhaps the key foundation to growth and without them, a practice in chaos will experience greater chaos as it makes decisions and tries to grow, ultimately imploding under the weight of poor systems. Some examples are:

• If patients are not seated on time, adding growth to a practice will only exacerbate the problem.

• If cases are not finishing on time, growth presents real problems as chairs fill up with unhappy zero contract balance patients.

• If the highest level of customer service cannot be currently offered, then providing the same average, predictable, run-of-the-mill, mediocre service inhibits growth.

• If the staff is turning over at an accelerated rate, and there is gossip, backstabbing, and an ununified team that is just getting by, growth is not in a practice’s future.

• If there is poor direction and leadership from the owner, counting on the staff to pick up the leadership role and grow the practice is likely not going to occur.

To learn more, read Chris Bentson’s article, Observations on Growing an Orthodontic Practice, published in Orthodontic Practice US January/February 2013 issue.

Partnering with the AAO

We are always honored when approached by the AAO to participate in an opportunity to educate the orthodontic community. Over the winter months, Chris Bentson along with a handful of other industry experts recorded the AAO’s The Business of Orthodontics Webinar Series. It is a 9-part educational webinar series that consists of lectures addressing the core competencies for starting and managing an orthodontic practice. Chris presented three lectures in The Business of Orthodontics Webinar Series:

• The Pathway to Ownership, Partnership, Associateship
• Growing A Practice
• Overhead Management – Industry Norms and Understanding Market Segments

These learning lectures are now online and available via the AAO member website at no cost to members. To view one or all of the lectures in this series, log onto AAAinfo.org, go to the “Education” section and click “On Demand Learning,” then on the upper right tab, “View all On-Demand Lectures.” One hour of continuing education credit is available for each Business of Orthodontics lecture. For a full list of webinars included in The Business of Orthodontics Webinar Series, check out the Feature Resources section (page 22) of the AAO’s The Bulletin April 2013 edition.

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