If you’re like many dentists, you may have some negative ideas about DSOs. If this is where you’re coming from, you might be in for a surprise today! Did you know that even as a small single practice dentist, you can build your own DSO? This may not work for everyone, but if you are a dentist with a strong vision for your practice that you feel would benefit more patients than you are serving now, you might want to seriously consider opening and owning multiple dental practices or forming your own DSO. So let’s take a look at what DSOs are and where you need to be before you consider building your own.
Different sizes of DSOs
DSOs actually come in a number of different shapes and sizes, so that big corporate giant you’re thinking of is not always an accurate representation. In fact, a small DSO can be anywhere from three to twenty locations, so even a small local dentist who has opened just three or four practices is a small DSO. Beyond this, there are mid-size DSOs which have between twenty and fifty locations, and large-size DSOs have anything above fifty practice locations.
Six goals you need to achieve before opening multiple practices
Before you consider expanding, take a look at your current practice, or your “flagship” practice and take stock to see how you’re doing. Your first practice needs to be in excellent shape, running smoothly, and performing well before you can even consider expanding. I would suggest that there are six goals or checkboxes a thriving practice should be able to tick off before you can move on to owning multiple dental practices.
Overhead no higher than 60% (ideally 50%)
- Enough income from your practice to create financial independence over time.
- All the technology that makes dentistry fun for you and effective for your patients while controlling overhead.
- A high performance team that you truly love and enjoy working with
- Patients that give you satisfaction/
- A treatment mix that allows you to do the dentistry you love.
Does your current practice tick off all these boxes? If so, you might be ready to expand! If not and there are areas that can be improved in your practice now, fine tune those areas first. Get started now by learning some more tips from the rest of the podcast episode here.
