📍  welcome back to No Silver Spoons. I'm Sarah Beth Herman, your host for today's episode. If you're tuning in, I already know one thing about you.  You aren't here to settle at what life just happens to throw at you.  You're here because you're serious about growing your business, leading with a different level of confidence and making decisions that put you in control of your future,  and that.

Is exactly what we're here to do today.  Today we're getting into something I know firsthand growing a thriving dental practice without giving up control to outside investors.  For those of you who might not know, I've been in the dental industry since I was 17 years old.  I didn't start as a CEO. I started in the trenches.

I worked every admin position you can think of in a dental practice from front desk. Insurance eligibility, dental billing, office management, regional director of operations, director of operations, chief marketing Officer, chief of Training and Talent Development, chief Operating Officer. I have done it all and I've seen it all.

I saw how teams operate. I've seen how practices succeed  and I've seen where they fail. I've seen firsthand how staff sometimes think. The dentist is just made of money. They'll figure it out. They can afford it.  But here's the reality.  We are here as entrepreneurs to be profitable. We're not here to lose money, and if we don't start running our businesses better, smarter, more strategically,  that's exactly what happens. 

 We end up being here to lose money.  Fast forward to today.  I'm the founder and CEO of five companies, three of them are in the dental space. I built my businesses from the ground up and I did it without taking on investors who wanted to say exactly how I should operate, what I should do, how I should develop my teams.

So when I tell you that you can grow your practice without corporate backing, I don't just believe it. I've lived it.  Let's be real though. The dental industry, it's changed. DSOs are scooping up independent practices. Private equity firms are flooding the space, and solo owners are feeling the pressure. 

They've even entered my space. They come knocking at my door. I probably get three to five emails a day from private equity firms wanting to buy my companies.  Maybe you've even asked yourself, do I need an investor to survive?  Should I plan my exit strategy now?  Let me tell you, you don't need an investor to survive.

You don't need to plan your exit strategy. You can build a legacy lasting business. What you need is a smarter strategy, a stronger business model, a leadership mindset that fuels real sustainable growth. So today I'm gonna break down exactly how you can take back control and build a thriving practice without handing over ownership. 

We're gonna cover how to cut unnecessary costs and boost profitability without actually sacrificing quality and patient experience.  We're gonna talk about key numbers that you need to track so that you stay in control of your financial health.  We're gonna talk about the real cost of outside investors and why keeping ownership might be your best move.

We're gonna talk about how to lead your team in a way that strengthens your business from the inside out.  Because my truth is that I created every business I have today because I wanted to make the world of business ownership and entrepreneurship better, and I know that the best business owners aren't just survivors, they're builders.

They don't just sit still; they don't let the industry define their success. They don't let other people's bad experiences or unfortunate circumstances determine what is going to happen in their life. Just because they heard it happen to somebody else doesn't mean it's happening to them.  I believe that business owners evolve.

I believe they innovate, and I believe they make decisions that serve their long-term vision, and that is what I want for you. So, let's get into it.  If you're here, chances are you're longing for something better in your practice. You're longing something better for your team.  Maybe you want a better patient experience, one where patients feel valued, cared for, and they actually look forward to their visits that dentistry isn't so scary.

Maybe you need better billing systems because let's be honest, chasing down payments and dealing with insurance nightmares is exhausting. And honestly, you don't wanna be doing that.  Or maybe you're struggling with staffing issues, wondering why turnover is so high, or morale feels so low, or the gossip is always chattering.

Or why you just can't seem to build the right team. You have all these dreams, but it's just not coming together.  The truth I've learned is that none of those things will change until leadership changes. You cannot fix your practice from the outside in. Growth starts at the top and it starts with you. 

And here's the best part. You don't have to wait. You can actually rebrand your leadership at any time.  That is the beauty of the life that we live.  There's no actual perfect time, no magical moment when everything suddenly aligns. Your business is your schedule. Your life is your schedule. You get to decide when change happens, and guess what?

That time just happens to be right now.  Rebranding. Leadership isn't about changing who you are. It's about evolving into the leader that your practice needs right now.  It's about breaking free from your old habits, your old mindsets, this scarcity mindset, the old excuses that are keeping your business from thriving. 

Maybe you've told yourself, this is just how we've always done it, or I don't have time to make changes right now. I've gotta practice to run.  I've got loans to pay off. Or maybe you've said I'll deal with this next quarter or next year.  I can promise you that that weight is costing you every day you hold off on making changes is another day of inefficiencies.

Lost revenue, missed opportunities,  the moments that you missed on creating a business that actually serves you instead of drains you.  Have you ever heard of the word your brand's ecosystem?  It is not something that most practice owners think about.  A brand ecosystem is everything that makes up your business's identity and experience internally and externally. 

It's not just your logo, your colors, your website. It's actually the way your patients feel when they walk into your practice. It's the way your team communicates. It's the efficiency of your systems, the clarity of your leadership, the culture that you create.  Think of it like this,  your leadership, it shapes your team.

 So your team mirrors your energy,  your expectations, your level of accountability. If leadership is unclear or stagnant, your team will be. Also,  your team shapes your patient experience. If your team feels undervalued, unsupported, or directionless. That energy translates directly into patient interactions. 

Patients can feel a toxic work environment just as much as a positive one. Your patient experience shapes your profitability. If patients don't feel cared for, they don't come back. If your billing process is chaotic, they won't trust you.  If your systems are a mess, you'll spend more time fixing problems than growing your business. 

This is why leadership is everything. If you're not actively shaping and refining your brand ecosystem, you're leaving it up to chance,  and chance is not a business strategy.  The moment you decide to take ownership of your leadership, you'll see the results ripple through your practice.  First, you'll see stronger team morale.

Employees will be thriving under clear, confident leadership. A strong leader creates a strong team.  You'll see better patient retention. Patients will feel the culture you create. If they sense disorganization or tension, they won't come back.  Operational efficiency will completely change.  You'll notice that as  you take action, inefficiencies, decrease.

Systems get streamlined and workflows improve.  You will have increased profitability. Your practice will be operating with clarity, intention, and strong leadership, and those practices always outperform the ones that run on autopilot.  A Gallup study found that businesses with highly engaged leadership teams see a 21% higher profitability,  21%. 

This is me telling you right now that you don't have to stay where you are.  I get it.  Change is uncomfortable. It's easy to tell yourself I'll work on this later,  but later. Always seems to turn into next year, and next year is far too late.  You don't need permission. You don't need the perfect plan.

You need to decide that today is the day you step into the next level of leadership.  Because the reality is this. You are your practice's greatest asset.  You are the visionary, the decision maker, the driver of its success.

No matter how long someone has worked for you, no matter how long you've been doing things this way,  you get to change it. This is your practice.  You don't need to be scared that changing it means you're losing something.  You need to learn that confidence in changing to be better means that you stay the course even when it's hard. 

And when you commit to rebranding your leadership, you're not just improving your business, you're securing its future.  And that leads us right to our next big section here,  building the foundation of real sustainable growth.  Before you can embark on the journey of expanding your dental practice, it is so important to have a clear, well-defined growth vision.

This vision serves as the roadmap, guiding every decision and strategy you implement.  Your financial strategy should be a direct reflection of your overall business objectives  as Tariq Ally, BDS, partner at Modern Smiles Dental Group. And community dental partners, advisors. When a dentist or dental entrepreneur is evaluating whether to privately fund or bring in external administrator, I always suggest they start with defining their mission, vision, and objective, their goals and strategy. 

You see, before they even get to the part apart 

of evaluating whether to privately fund or bring in an external investor. You start at the mission, vision, objective, goal, and strategy, you start there. That's the foundation.  That alignment ensures that every financial decision supports your long-term aspirations. Whether that's rapid expansion or steady controlled growth,  I need you to understand something right away. 

Growth doesn't happen by accident. No business just stumbles into success.  There is no penny that you will earn. That will be easy. In fact, the other day I was telling my husband I had a really hard week,  and it was like Tuesday by the time I had said that, which we're two days in.  And I was really upset about how the day was just going.

It was getting away from me and there were complaints and I had problems coming left and right, clients that were driving me insane.  And he said,  how did you make your easiest dollar?  What? And I looked at him and I said, I've never made an easy dollar, no matter how much someone was paying me, big or small.

To them it was everything.  There is no easy dollar made.  If you're looking to grow your practice, increase your profitability, or even just create a business that doesn't run you into the ground, you have to be intentional.  That starts with having a clear defined vision of where you're headed.  Most dentists and dental office owners, they want growth, but when I ask them what growth actually looks like for them, I get a pretty vague answer.

Usually they tell me, I want to be more profitable, I want a bigger practice. I want more new patients. Those are all great things. They're not a vision. A vision is specific. It's strategic. It guides every single decision you make from the way you structure your billing to how you hire your team. And if you don't define that vision, someone else will define it for you. 

The industry, your competition, your circumstances, all of them will pull you in a hundred different directions unless you take ownership of where you are going.  One of the hardest lessons I had to learn as a business owner is that not all feedback is good feedback.  Now, you might be disagreeing with me,  right as I'm saying this and as you're hearing it, but sometimes what feels like team input is actually just noise chatter that clouds your vision and muffles what you really need to hear.

Does that mean you ignore your team? Of course not. Your team is valuable, but a savvy leader knows how to separate real concerns from resistance to change.  I've seen practices hold onto broken systems for years. Just because that's how we've always done it. The team prefers it this way, changing. It will be too much work.

They've worked here forever. That's just what works for our office. Our practice is just different.  Here's the thing, growth requires change,  and before you assume that a system is fine the way it is, take a step back and evaluate it methodically.  Does this system support efficiency and profitability?  Does it allow my team to focus on the patient experience or does it create extra work? 

Is this process helping or hurting the patient experience? If I were to start my practice today, would I build this system the same way? This is where an open mind becomes one of the greatest assets you could ever have, because sometimes the best solutions aren't the ones you've been using for years.

They're the ones you haven't even considered yet.

Now I'm really biased when it comes to virtual support because I own dentistry support, and this company has been a game changer for more than just one practice. In fact, I have clients that have been with me for years. My company has existed for 10 years. I still have my very first client I ever enrolled.

Now, I'll tell you, a lot of things happen when you introduce virtual support to your practice. I have seen every scenario  from embezzlement that we've uncovered to people fearing we were taking their jobs sabotage against our company because someone didn't want their job taken and they wanted to feel valued. 

But one of the things I see most commonly  is when we are implemented, and even if everyone's on the same page.  The shift from in-office to virtual support is really hard to understand. It's hard to understand that we're going to get your practice orderly. We're gonna do all the right things to catch up your books and make sure everything has a system in place, but it's going to uncover a mess and that's bound to happen. 

We are going to teach you how you should not have claims aging over 30 days, and how you should really verify benefits. And what fee schedules really mean.  And we're gonna show you a systematic approach.  And are we the most perfect company that ever existed? No, we're not. But we do a great job for our dental practices and we learn from every experience that comes our way.

And we have single handedly transform the futures of dental practices all over the United States.  Now, I know some of you here virtual billers or remote phone support, and you immediately think that won't work for our kind of practice.  But let me tell you that I have built multiple businesses leveraging virtual teams, and I have seen firsthand how the right support system can redefine how a practice runs  instead of having an overworked in-house billing team, or worse trying to manage it yourself.

You can have an experienced remote billing team that post payments  follows up on claims without the overhead of in-office staff. You aren't paying taxes or time off or birthday gifts or bonuses or all the things that come with that, and you don't have to worry that you are offending someone because they didn't do their job.

You don't have to argue with them that they aren't doing their job. You don't have to accept excuses that claims are aging over thirty, sixty, ninety, a hundred and twenty days.  I have a large group practice we support that has nine locations.  That practice originally came to us because across the nine locations, they had $7 million in AR over 30 days, and their team refused to work.

It  refused to work it.  It took us eight months to collect all of that money.  No, we didn't charge them a percentage of collection. In hindsight, I wish we had that model because that would've been killer, but we didn't. We did what was right and we charged them the way that we charge all of our clients based on the staff that they need. 

 We changed that entire trajectory of that business, the entire trajectory.  How many calls does your office get in a day?  Now, how many of those calls actually need to be answered by someone physically in your office?  A virtual phones team can handle scheduling, insurance verification patient questions, rescheduling appointments, general questions about where you're located, freeing up your in-office team to focus on the actual patient experience. 

Now, I'll tell you yes. Some of your patients want to speak to Susan at the front desk. Absolutely, and they should speak to her.  But for other questions, simple things that are taking people away from patients in the office, that can happen virtually.  One of the biggest slowdowns in daily operations is waiting for insurance, pre-approvals, verification of benefits, correcting claims. 

Our virtual team members that handle eligibility verification, handle all of that, reducing HIPAA violations. PHI concerns, eliminating delays. Streamlining case acceptance.  The result of a virtual team is incredible.  That means less stress on your team. In office, more focus on the patient experience, lower overhead costs, higher efficiency and profitability.

And before you say, but my patients want to hear someone here,  guess what?  Patients care far more about getting their dental health needs met quickly and efficiently than about whether the person helping them is in the next room or across the country.  A smart leader doesn't just work hard, they work efficiently.

And a virtual team is one of the best ways to create a practice that runs smoother, makes more money, and allows you to focus on what actually matters.

I wanna talk about one of the biggest mistakes I see practice owners make when they start thinking about growth.  They separate their financial strategy from their vision.  In my opinion, you can't build a strong practice without a financial strategy that aligns with your goals. You wouldn't buy a house without knowing the price.

You wouldn't sign up for a marathon without knowing the distance. So why would you build a business without knowing exactly what financial decisions support your long-term vision 

before you go looking to see if you need funding. You have to decide whether you're going to scale before you make any major moves. You need to ask yourself, what kind of practice do I want? A boutique, high-end office, a multi-location operation, a streamlined, ultra profitable solo practice.  How do I wanna grow rapid expansion, controlled, steady scaling?

Who do I wanna serve? What is my ideal patient demographic? Where is my revenue target? Am I focused on high volume or high margin?  What will my practice look like five years from now? Will I still be the primary provider or will I build a business that runs without me? Your answer determines everything.

Your hiring strategy, your investments, your marketing, even your pricing model. And if you don't take the time to define this, now you're just winging it. And trust me, winging it is not a strategy.

I know far too many dentists that ignore the numbers, and I get it. You went to dental school to be a dentist, not an accountant. But here's the truth, if you don't understand your numbers, you don't understand your business. The most successful dental practices aren't just run by great clinicians.

They're run by great business owners. Owners who know exactly how much money they're making, where their money is going. And what actually is driving profitability for your practice? Revenue is vanity. . Profit is sanity, and cash flow is king. 

If you wanna run a practice that doesn't just survive, but it thrives, here are some numbers I want you tacking, tracking, and taking care of every single month.  Let's talk profit margin. The average dental practice profit margin is 40% for general dentists and 25% for specialists. That's according to the a DA.

That means if you're not hitting those benchmarks, something's off. Either your overhead is too high, you're underpricing your services, or you're not optimizing your schedule to maximize production.  A healthy profit margin means your business is running efficiently. If you're below these benchmarks, it's time to dig in.

Why?  Your account's receivable, what you're owed matters more than you think. Let's get one thing straight. You should be collecting what you produce in the same month you produce it, period. End of story. If you are carrying balances in your 30, 60, 90, or even 120 day aging report, stop, that is a no go.  The industry benchmark for AR over 30 days should be less than 10% of your total outstanding receivables.

Anything more than that and you have a collections problem. And listen, I know billing isn't fun. It's messy, it's tedious. It's the game of follow ups, denials and insurance loopholes. But guess what? If you don't have a system in place, you're basically donating money to insurance companies. Money.

Sitting in AR is not money in your pocket. The longer a claim sits, the less likely you are to get paid.  And if your AR is climbing. You don't have a cash flow problem, you have a collections problem,  and in my opinion, the solution is a virtual billing team.  Yes, I'm biased, but for a good reason.

Outsourcing your billing to a virtual team means accountability. You're not relying on an in-office team that's juggling a million other tasks. You have one throat to choke when everything is handled externally. You have one accountable party managing your revenue cycle.

No finger pointing, no excuses just results. Your team can focus on what they do best. Your front desk shouldn't be chasing claims. They should be handling patient experience, patient care, scheduling, and front office efficiency practices that outsource their billing. See an average of 30% faster claim processing and 20% higher collection rates.

And if you're sitting there thinking. But I trust my team to do the billing. Trust is great,  but accountability, it's better.  At the end of the day, billing is business and businesses that don't get paid, they fail.  Now that we know what numbers track, let's talk about how to make them work for you.

 I want you to cut costs, but cut smart. Too many practices, cut expenses in the wrong places.  In my opinion, the wrong way to cut costs is reducing team's pay or benefits. That leads to high turnover and it costs you more in the long run. Skimping on patient experience. That leads to lower retention and avoiding marketing investments because new patients equal practice growth. 

The right way to cut costs is to outsource where possible. Virtual billing, phone support, insurance verification. That reduces payroll costs while increasing efficiency. The average dental practice has a 49% of their p and l is allocated towards literally just payroll. Just payroll.  Imagine having a full virtual team that consumes less than three and a half percent of your revenue.

Now you need to do your research because there are some third party companies out there that charge you three and a half percent of collections just for dental billing. That I disagree with. My company, we aim to consume less than three point a half percent of your revenue for all of our services combined.

We do that by figuring out exactly what you need for staffing, how many people, how is it based, how many days a week are you open? There's quite a bit. We go over, ask the right questions, know what you're getting into, know what someone is going to produce for you for the dollar amount you're paying.

Because while the money side is important, I think it's more important to know what they're gonna do for you. How is this gonna work for your practice? What are their goals for your office? 

Negotiate with vendors. You should never be paying full price on supplies and labs. Ask for volume discounts.  Analyze your production per hour. If you're producing $300 an hour, when you should be at $500 an hour. Your schedule isn't optimized and your team should know exactly how to optimize for you. If you need help, I can mentor you.

I can help your team understand exactly how to optimize your schedule.  Dentists who optimize their schedule are seeing an average revenue increase of 15 to 20% without working additional hours.  That means you already have the time slot to make more money. You're just not scheduling your patients the right way. 

For the past two decades, I've been working with dentists who are brilliant at what they do, but struggling to make their businesses work for them. And I've seen the same problems over and over again. Overworked dentists who are stretched so thin, they barely see their families. They underpaid practice owners who are making less than their associates and disorganized offices that are losing money on inefficiencies and they don't even realize that they existed. 

And my mission. Is what I've dedicated my career to solving these problems once and for all, because I know with the right systems, the right team and the right leadership  practices literally transform.  All right, let's wrap up this episode and talk about our, that's good moment, the highlights of today,  because this episode was packed with so many things that you've gotta start doing.

So I'm gonna give you a simple list. One, know your numbers if you're not tracking profit margins. Overhead AR case acceptance. You're running your business blind.  Two, stop letting money sit in AR you should be collecting what you produce in the same month. If you have money sitting in aging, it's time to fix it. 

Three, outsource what You can start with Billing, go to insurance eligibility, and then phones. Your in-office team needs to focus on patients not chasing claims.  Four cut costs in the right places. Stop wasting money on inefficiencies and start investing in things that actually move the needle. Number five, you do not have to do this alone.

Growth isn't about working harder, it's about working smarter.  I wanna leave you with this today. You are capable of running a thriving, profitable, scalable practice without giving up control. The key is leadership strategy and taking action. And if you are ready to start making your business work for you, I'm here to help you make it happen.

It's time to make smart choices and take action. Growth starts with a decision. A decision to move forward, lead boldly, and to take ownership of your business's future. If today's episode spoke to you, I encourage you to take the next step for you, for your business, whether that's defining your practice's, growth, vision, tightening your financial strategy, or exploring ways to optimize your operations.

Now is time to act. Your brand ecosystem depends on it.  And if you need support, if you wanna partner in this reach out dentistry support is here to help practices like yours. Scale smarter, not harder. Until next time, keep growing, keep leading, and never forget, you are capable of more than you know. I'll  📍 catch you guys on the next episode.