How Do I “Start” A Dental Startup? (Part 1)

About This Episode:

In this episode, Jayme will welcome Stephen Trutter, the President of Ideal Practices and an experienced startup dentistry expert who has been a part of 650+ startups. Stephen has been instrumental in the acquisition of half a billion dollars in dental financing for dental startups all over America. The two will start off by diving into the two things an associate dentist should avoid when they want to start a dental startup, and that is banking and real estate.

A lot of consultants in the startup space advice potential startup dental practice owners to engage their banks for financing and look into the real estate opportunities available to them, but these are the last things that an aspiring dental practice owner should be looking at because they amount to “Putting the cart before the horse” Jayme and Stephen will share the proper first steps one should take to start a dental startup, and how one should focus mainly on vision. When it comes to dental practice ownership, vision is critical for success. And there are both tangible and intangible aspects of vision.

The tangible aspects refer to the real estate (inclusive floor plans), the equipment, the money to be made, and others, while the intangible aspects refer to the fulfillment that a dentist will get from the practice. The intangible aspects are what one should focus on first, by first of all envisioning the kind of reputation they will want to have in their town (where the practice will be located). With that, they can be able to plan out everything else with regard to the successful operation of the practice and the positive impact it can have on the lives of patients. Jayme and Stephen will also share real-life examples of dentists who applied that and succeeded in building million-dollar dental practices. Stay tuned for that and more.

Key Points Discussed:

The two pieces of advice that are horrible for a startup (01:19)
Pointing your compass down a customized path for you (04:44)
Guiding half a billion dollars of dental financing into dental practice startups (09:21)
Having a practice that is fulfilling to get to the top of the Mount Everest that is your startup (13:37)
The intangible vision foundation for your first step (16:45)
Pre-planning your reputation and writing down what that looks like (26:47)
The danger in leaving things to chance and not getting clear on the vision (29:55)
Getting the clarity to get from the idea to the grand opening (39:02)
Having potential clients understand what you stand for even before you have a sign on the building (40:08)
The importance of having a team that will mirror your reputation (43:16)