THE ENTREPRENEUR DENTIST VS THE SO-SO DENTIST
Mandated continuing education is seen by some dentists as an expensive waste of time whereas the wise dentist that envisions their practice as a marketable asset looks for opportunity and growth from their training.
Perhaps more dentists today would be wealthier if they had first taken courses in entrepreneurship before attaining a basic dental education. Sadly, that’s not what happens in the real world. Students just about everywhere unsuspectingly are encouraged to get whatever education loans they need to graduate from dental school with the assurance that this temporary inconvenience of debt will be paid off quickly in the future because of the gobs of money they will make from their practice. At most institutions of higher learning, very little consideration is really given to how to successfully and profitably run a practice; in essence, how to be an entrepreneur.
There are many a dentist that bought into the line of thinking that merely having a dental practice would be a panacea. Regrettably, some dentists are shell-shocked, wondering why they continue to carry so much debt and why their practice feels so much like drudgery. Could it be that they scarcely considered the costs involved with starting and managing a practice?
Office space. Equipment. Dental products. Services. Staffing. Marketing. Insurance. Taxes. Mandated continuing education. Debt, debt and more debt! The list of costs goes on. Conversely, the seasoned dental entrepreneur takes every one of these challenges into consideration just about every day of the week.
It should be pointed out that the subject of this discussion is really not about debt at all. Rather, it’s about investment. Take for example continuing education. Is post-graduate education a plus or minus? The uninspired, so-so dentist may sign up for a continuing education course only because it is state mandated, not necessarily because it could enhance their practice. The thought of paying more money on additional education may seem repulsive considering how they already spent a fortune and got into debt up to their eyebrows.
You know who they are. The so-so dentist sits in the back row of a CE class, stealthily hiding their smart phones under the table from the instructor, texting a buddy, checking the scores on ESPN or browsing for the next toy they are wanting to buy. So-so dentists invest time and money on things with no long-term value.
The entrepreneur dentist on the other hand attends CE courses because he or she is on a mission to be the best. They want to be the most well-known dentist in their area. They recognize that drawing as many patients away from the so-so dental practice down the street is an enjoyable sport. They are constantly looking for a competitive advantage. They are optimistic. They are happy. They invest in their practice. They invest in their retirement. They invest in the future and all of the opportunity that the future presents. The entrepreneur dentist invests in continuing education because they are investing in themselves and they view their practice as a cash flow machine.
When dentists begin to see themselves as true entrepreneurs and not just slaves to their own dental practice and can take a more optimistic approach to the time and resources that are invested in their practice, they can find opportunities because of their sensibility. The pursuit of excellence and entrepreneurship leads the driven dentist toward becoming the most authoritative and profitable dental practitioner in their community.
