The 3-Day Work Week – Can It Work in Dentistry?

Narrator: This is The Thriving Dentist Show with Gary Takacs, where we help you develop your ideal dental practice—one that provides personal, professional, and financial satisfaction.

Gary Takacs: Welcome to another episode of The Thriving Dentist Show. I’m Gary Takacs, podcast co-host. We have an awesome episode for you today. Uh, the episode is titled The Three Day Work Week: Can It Work in Dentistry? Well, I hope I have you intrigued to listen to this podcast and find out. Uh, excited to share some cool information with you.

But before we get to that podcast episode, a couple of announcements to make. First announcement we have is, shortly after publishing this episode, we have a Thriving Dentist Live workshop. It’s coming up on July 8th, and this one is titled Delivering Next Level Patient Care: Creating Positive Experiences That Keep Patients Coming Back.

I’ll have a short opening—it’s gonna be a two-hour live workshop. I’ll have a short opening, Naren will have a short opening, and then we’ve got panelists that’ll be adding their commentary, all about creating positive experiences to keep patients coming back.

Gary Takacs: Uh, it’s two hours. It’s happening on July 8th, starts at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. So go ahead and do the time translation—8:00 PM Eastern, 7:00 PM Central, 6:00 PM Mountain, 5:00 PM Pacific. There is no charge. We are waiving the tuition for this workshop. Uh, we’re doing this for your benefit in appreciation for your listenership.

Uh, go to thrivingdentist.com/events where you can register. You do need to register for the event, but it is no charge, and you get two hours of CE along with it. Thrivingdentist.com/events.

The next announcement I have is we have a marketing tip from Naren—Naren Arulrajah, my co-host of the podcast. And his marketing tip is a question: Does organic social media still work in 2025? Well, give it a listen and think about how that applies to you.

No further ado, here’s Naren: Does organic social media still work in 2025?

Naren Arulrajah: Hello, everyone, this is Naren, uh, the founder of Ekwa Marketing and the co-host of this podcast, The Thriving Dentist Show.

Um, today, the question I’ll be answering as part of my marketing tip is: Does organic social media work for dental practices? It’s a great question, and it’s a question that a lot of practices are grappling with. And the answer is—absolutely, it does work, but it depends on, you know, are you the right kind of a practice for it to work?

Let me explain what I mean by the right type of practice. As you know, social media is not about a business—it’s about a human being, right? We don’t like businesses; we like people. So the key for social media is, um, you know, if you want to get free traffic, what you have to do is you have to be in the 1% who are called influencers.

I mean, in the old days, we had an influencer—Oprah—we all know who she was, or, uh, you know, one of those famous people on TV, Dr. Oz, for example, right? Depending on if you were interested in watching their shows, there were millions and millions of fans for that particular personality. Same way today, there are hundreds of thousands of these personalities thanks to social media.

Again, when I say social media, I’m referring to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube—those are the top three platforms. Each one of those platforms has, you know, these influencers, celebrities. And the idea is that they are creating content that people love. Just like Dr. Oz created content that millions of people liked, these individuals are creating content that those hundreds of thousands of people love.

Now, unfortunately, Dr. Oz or any of these people on TV didn’t just overnight become who they became. Rather, it took years and years and years.

Same thing here. Typically, what I find, having worked with, you know, 500+ practices consistently for the last several years, um, you know, 1% of my doctors—1% of my practice owners—love being, you know, influencers. They spend 15 to 20 hours a week. They are creating, uh, typically, you know, two to three pieces of content a week, and they have a single objective in mind: they want to get to 100,000 followers. And it usually takes two to three years of consistent work over, you know, 15 to 20 hours of work—of understanding the audience, creating content, and kind of putting yourself out there.

So some of the content could be educational. Some of the content is, "Hey, this is what I did with my kids today," and, "Here’s my trip that I just recently took." It’s—you put a lot of time and effort into it, and eventually you become that celebrity influencer.

And once you’re that influencer—let’s say you post something, and let’s say you have 50,000 or 100,000 followers—your videos will get 100,000 views. Why is that number important? Why do you need tens of thousands or 100,000 views? Because unlike Google, which is local—because, you know, they won’t show a dentist who’s a thousand miles away—social media doesn’t work like that. Social media is showing your information to a global audience.

Remember, it’s all about video. It’s all about, you know, enjoying that video. So if somebody in, you know, Africa likes your video, there’s a decent chance somebody in Asia would like your video. So, after 100,000 people who see you—once you pass that, you know, let’s say 50 to 100,000 follower mark—perhaps, you know, 0.1% will live in your neighborhood.

So out of the 100,000, a hundred people will be in your area. So now you can really attract a hundred people in your neighborhood organically, without spending any money.

Um, so I really feel like if you want to get free social media traffic—that’s called organic social media—you need to lean into it. And I don’t want you to outsource this, because nobody can be you. Like, you know, there’s no body double for Dr. Oz or, you know, Oprah. You are it. So you have to lean into it.

And also, if you pick an employee, what happens when the employee leaves? The brand, the goodwill, leaves with that employee. So you’re in a bind.

So definitely, if this is you, lean into it. If this is not you, look for other options. Of course, organic SEO is a great option because you don’t have to do the work—somebody else can do it for you. Again, there you have to be in the top 5%, and your team—if they’re good—can get you there.

How do you know you’re in the top 5%? You’re ranking for 100 or more keywords and phrases.

If you want to study more about all your digital marketing options and kind of understand your situation, book a free marketing consultation. The link is ekwa.com/td. And when you book this meeting, you will learn a ton about where you stand with regards to your competition, and, of course, based on your goals. And we’ll also give you a blueprint on how you can get there.

Of course, you know, there’s not one way to achieve an objective. You can do it in multiple ways. And I would recommend—either you lean into organic social media if you’re in that 1%. If you’re not, I recommend you lean into organic SEO, which can be done by another team—at least most of the work.

Till I meet you again—once again, that link is ekwa.com/td.

Naren Arulrajah: Welcome back to the Thriving Dentist Coaching and Action Segment. This is Naren again. Hope you enjoyed that marketing tip I shared about Does Organic Social Media Still Work for Dental Practice Owners in 2025? If you need any help, book that marketing strategy meeting at ekwa.com/td, and we would love to help.

Gary, this topic—The Three Day Work Week: Can It Work in Dentistry—is a really, really important topic, and I know many patients have, or clients have, written to us and asked about it.

Um, you know, I think dentistry is a long game. And when we are young—and, uh, you know, I’m also, you know, 49 now—we have a lot more energy, and we love working even six days a week. But as we get older, we want to enjoy life and take a little bit, you know, just do better things at a much higher level.

So working six days, five days—our productivity goes down, our quality goes down, and we don’t—we are not enjoying life. So, so many people are looking into this. I mean, that’s why it keeps coming up, especially people in their forties, doctors in their forties, even fifties.

Now, can it be done? How can it be done? What are the different options? So these are the things, Gary, people have been asking us about, and I would love for you to—I mean, you have been helping clients go through this process, if and when they choose to do so, for the last 45 years. So I would love to pick your brain on this, Gary.

Gary Takacs: Yeah, Naren, I felt like it was timely to talk about this.

Um, I personally think that dentistry is experiencing what I would call nothing short of a crisis. And the crisis is the lack of work-life balance—the lack of work-life balance. And, uh, I think it’s something that we can strategically design a practice to create a practice that provides an effective work-life balance.

In fact, I feel so strongly about this, Naren—if you’re a regular listener to The Thriving Dentist Show, you know that we’ve talked about the six goals that we have for dentists. And recently, in the last year, I’ve added a seventh. And the seventh goal is to achieve an effective work-life balance. So I’ve actually changed that—I’ve evolved that—to include seven goals.

I’ll rattle those off really quick, just so, if you’re new, you haven’t heard those:

1. I want overhead no higher than 60%—no higher than 60%. And that includes all your expenses, if you’re an owner dentist, except for your compensation.

2. Enough revenue from your practice so that you can ultimately create financial independence—so that you can go to work because you want to, not because you have to.

3. A state-of-the-art practice with all the technology you love—and still control your overhead to 60% or less.

It just got harder, didn’t it, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: It definitely did, Gary.

Gary Takacs: 

4. Number four, a high-performance team you truly love and enjoy working with.

5. Number five, patients you enjoy taking care of. You don’t have to love them, but I hope you enjoy taking care of them. If any of them cause you to lose heart muscle and stomach lining, they need to be somewhere else.

6. Number six, a treatment mix that gives you satisfaction. Dentistry comes in lots of different flavors. Do the stuff you like to do—it’ll make your days more enjoyable. You’ll be better at it.

And now, those are the six—and I’ve had those since I started my consulting firm in 1989. However, I’ve added a seventh: 

7. To create an effective work-life balance.

Which of those is most important of those seven goals? It’s academic—it’s literally a question without a specific answer, because it depends. But I’m going to argue that number four is the most important: a high-performance team you truly love and enjoy working with. Because without that, you don’t get the other six.

But I’m going to say, right behind it—right on its tail—is number seven: creating an effective work-life balance.

Naren Arulrajah: I mean, you know this, Gary, because you have experienced it, and so have I.

We all ask the question: Why am I here? What am I doing this for? What’s my purpose? Am I enjoying myself?

And it gets harder and harder to answer if you don’t have effective work-life balance. You know what I mean? If you just—

Gary Takacs: Well, and you have to start with the mindset that you know it. So let’s answer the question—yeah, can it work in dentistry? Right?

The answer is yes. Can a three-day work week work in dentistry? The answer is yes. And I can say that extremely confidently because I can point to a vast number of clients that I’ve helped achieve just that.

But you’ve gotta believe it’s possible. You know that Henry Ford quote: “Believe you can, believe you can’t—either way, you’re right.” Right? And I believe in it. So it has been done. If it’s been done before, it must be possible.

Now, let’s talk about how to do it.

Naren Arulrajah: Now, I would say—don’t try it at home without someone like Gary helping you. That’s just my disclaimer. [laughs]

Gary Takacs: I appreciate the kind comment. But let’s talk about how.

There’s a number of different ways to do that. And I’m talking about three normal days. A three normal—not three twelves. Dentistry is hard work. Newsflash: it’s hard work—physically, emotionally—it’s hard.

At the end of an eight-hour day, there’s no gas in the tank for a lot of dentists. And you put heart and soul into it every day. It’s hard. I think people coming from outside of dentistry may not understand that—but it’s hard.

So, the idea of three normal days—I think the model I like most is to do that with a combination of having a practice that can support two dentists, each working three days a week.

Gary Takacs: So, if we’re open Monday through Friday, perhaps one dentist would work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the second doctor that you bring into the practice would work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That way, both doctors have a four-day weekend—one way or another. See how that works, Naren?

Each—yes—each doctor is getting a four-day weekend. So maybe you work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the second doctor in your practice works Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. That second doctor could be an associate or could be a partner. I’ve done both formats—very successfully.

And before I go any further, before anyone blocks it out—you absolutely can produce just as much working three days a week as before when you worked four. You absolutely can.

Now, I know there’s going to be some listeners that think, “Wait a minute, how does that funny math work?”

Well, we’re going to work a lot smarter. We’re going to have more discipline around your schedule. We’re going to have a mix of services that lend themselves to you being just as productive working three days a week as when you used to work four, right?

And, you know, one of the things that works against you in all of this is being a PPO provider. When you’re participating with PPO plans, you’re giving away 45% of your revenue. You know, the average PPO practice, Naren, has 85% of their patients as PPO patients.

Naren Arulrajah: Right.

Gary Takacs: One way you could immediately go to three days a week by yourself is successfully resign from those PPO plans. Because now you don’t have to produce $1.5 million to collect a million.

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly.

Gary Takacs: Now you can produce a million to collect a million. Right?

Gary Takacs: And there you go. Now you did it in three days instead of four. Now, I know I covered a lot in that statement, but absolutely you can do that. You can do that.

But I think the two-doctor practice is the one that makes the most sense with this—each of you working three days a week. You can continue to grow hygiene. You can have the practice covered five days a week with hours.

I’d recommend that Friday be a short day. The doctor that gets the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday schedule—I recommend, for example, I like the idea of 7:00 to 4:00, Monday through Thursday.

Now, I know I lost some people right there when I talked about morning huddle starting at 6:45. Some of them checked out—"Oh, you mean you want me in the office at 6:45?" Uh-huh—not just in the office, but ready to go.

I know not everyone’s a morning person. I am, but not everyone is. But those hours work really well for your patients.

Naren, think about that. If you work 7:00 to 4:00 with patient hours, I’ve got a 7:00 AM appointment, 8:00 AM appointment—before the traditional 9:00 to 5:00. So I now can accommodate people who have trouble making dental appointments outside of 9:00 to 5:00.

I love the idea of finishing at 4:00 because most team members in dentistry are women. We’re seeing more men in roles in dentistry—absolutely—but most team members are women, and many are moms. And it’s great to get mom home in time for dinner with her family.

Gary Takacs: Make sense? 

Naren Arulrajah: Yes.

Gary Takacs: And be fussy about getting ’em out at 4:00. I was talking to a client of mine today, and I said, "How are you doing getting your team out at 4:00?" He said, "Gary, I’ve been tracking this. We want our team members out of there at 4:00." And he said, "I have a couple of admin team members that have to do some posting, and they’re done by 4:10—4:10, 10 minutes after four—and we’re getting them home in time for dinner too."

I think that needs to be a priority. If you want to attract and keep the best team, that needs to be. How do you think moms who are in the workforce feel about getting home in time for dinner?

Naren Arulrajah: I think it’s very, very, very, very important to them. I mean, like, I was just thinking of a client of mine who has been with me for like 14 years now. And I remember, you know, 14 years ago, I had young kids and he had slightly older kids, but his office manager had kids my age. You know, she loved the fact that she could go home—I think they closed, they stopped working around 4:00 or 3:30 or something—and so she loved the fact that she could take them to their practices and be there with the kids. And now she’s still with the practice 25 years later because…

Gary Takacs: I don’t think that’s an accident.

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. He created something that made her really appreciate him, you know?

Gary Takacs: It was mindful. He created something that was mindful to his team. Right?

And the idea of Friday—I like 7:00 to 2:00 on Friday, because statistics show that people like the idea of making a Friday afternoon appointment. Notice I said making the Friday a morning…

Naren Arulrajah: Not showing up. [laughs]

Gary Takacs: But showing up is another story. That’s true. What happens on Friday afternoon if the weather’s good?

Naren Arulrajah: We’re going to the whatever. I’m gonna…

Gary Takacs: …the lake, I’m going to the beach, I’m outta here. And you’ll have a higher number of cancellations and no-shows on Friday afternoon.

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely.

Gary Takacs: 11:00 to 2:00 works fine. Yeah. So I like that. I like that model. That model works really well with the idea of you producing just as much three days a week as you were when you were working four days.

And we do that through very, very disciplined scheduling—around scheduling your ideal column using scheduling blocks, fully utilizing a by-your-side column as well, and then an appropriate mix of services.

You know, one of the advantages of bringing on an associate or a partner is you may be able to push some things downhill, depending on where the two of you are in your skillset. If you’re a solo dentist and the patient only needs a two-surface filling on one tooth, who’s doing that, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: The dentist.

Gary Takacs: And that’s not very productive, but you need to do that. But now, if you have a younger doc that maybe is earlier in his or her skillset development, you can push those fillings downhill—allowing you to be more productive.

And then we can make room for that associate to develop their skills based on choosing high-value services that complement yours.

So let’s say you don’t have an interest in cosmetic dentistry—maybe you’re more interested in surgery and placing implants—but your associate has an interest in cosmetic dentistry, then we can pursue parallel paths there to bring more services into your practice. There might be some crossover, but you’d somewhat stay in your lane.

Now, I think that is the best model for doing that. But I also want to state—for those that really like the idea of practicing solo—it absolutely can be done as a solo dentist.

Gary Takacs: It can be done on a three-day-a-week scale—normal, three normal days. Let’s say 7:00 to 4:00, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Right? If that’s your decision, and I completely respect it.

The reason I can tell you that can be done is that I have a number of clients in my client base that have that model very, very successfully implemented. We’ve created that. And these doctors have told me in different ways.

I had one that told me very directly—she said, I asked her, “Would you consider having an associate or a partner? ’Cause I think that might be an easier way to do this.” And she looked me right in the eyes in a Zoom meeting and said, “Gary, no. And let me tell you why.”

And wait till you hear what she said, Naren. She said, “I don’t play well in the sandbox with other dentists.”

Gary Takacs: [laughs] Fair enough! And you know what I said? “Wow, your self-awareness is amazing.” And she laughed and said, “It’s a fatal flaw. It’s a flaw.”

I said, “No, it’s not. You’re aware of it. You get it.”

The last thing in the world any doctor wants is a revolving glass door of associates or partners. Talk about eroding the value of your practice—that’ll do it in no time.

Exactly. So she knows herself. And you know what? She’s actually very charming. But she wants to be in control.

And you know what? We can do that. The consequences—you know, decisions have consequences. The consequence here is: we may not be able to provide enough hours for your patients. If someone can only come in on a Friday, well, they’ll choose another office.

And you know what her attitude was? “There are other fish in the pond. I can find other patients that don’t need a Friday.”

But you could even do an alternate schedule. You could get creative with it so that some weeks you work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and other weeks you work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That could be done.

I have that in place in a client office where he wanted to be able to provide Friday hours because in his area, a lot of the employers do a four-day work week—Monday through Thursday. So Friday is a great time to make dental appointments.

So he alternates the schedule—working only three days a week. Some weeks will be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; other weeks will be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Gary Takacs: Makes sense, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely, Gary. Absolutely.

Gary Takacs: The other possibility—the consequence here—is you may not give your team members enough hours, right? If you’re working three normal workdays, your team members are going to get 27, maybe 28 hours a week. And for some people, that may not be enough.

And there are some creative ways to solve that—with performance-based incentives. So they could earn it through an incentive.

But I had a client say, “Well then, my office may not be the right place if someone needs 40 hours a week.” And that’s, again, just awareness and recognition.

But there is a larger universe of the workforce that would like to work part-time—if it was available.

Do you see that, Naren? Are you seeing that?

Naren Arulrajah: Yes.

Gary Takacs: I mean, you have over 200 employees. Do you make provisions for people to work part-time?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. I mean, um, like many of our writers, they work part-time, you know? Yeah. Just because, you know, that’s just a personality type. They wanna be able to work when they’re feeling creative, and they don’t want to work when they’re not feeling creative.

Gary Takacs: Yeah, hey—so it can be done. It can be done as a solo dentist. You could work three days a week. You pick your schedule. And I would suggest that the best thing to do is start to reduce your insurance dependence. Because you could produce as much in three days a week as you’re producing in four—when we’re not giving away 45% to the fat cats at Delta, right?

If any of you would like help with that—reducing your insurance dependence successfully and getting on the path to an effective work-life balance—I’m going to invite you to schedule a Coaching Strategy Meeting with me. Just go to thrivingdentist.com/csm. It stands for Coaching Strategy Meeting.

That would be a one-on-one Zoom meeting with me, where we’d talk about your practice and create a plan that would help you:

• Achieve an effective work-life balance,

• Produce as much in three days a week as you are in four,

• And reduce insurance dependence in the process.

I encourage you to schedule that.

Well, Naren, I want to close with a thought. And this is a thought I literally shared earlier today with a newer client of ours. This client has three kids—and his youngest is a two-and-a-half-year-old son. So, younger dentist.

And I told my client—I won’t use his name—I said, “I’m going to tell you something that happened to me, and I want to help avoid it for you.”

It didn’t happen this way, but it felt this way: when our youngest daughter was born, I felt like she was born… and then I blinked my eyes—and the next thing, I was driving her off to college.

Now, it didn’t happen that way. But that’s how it felt.

And I told my client, “Your two-and-a-half-year-old son—just stick with me on this—you’re going to figuratively blink your eyes, and you’ll be driving him off to college.”

His eyes got really big and he goes, “Oh my gosh, you’re right.”

And I said, “Well, we need to achieve work-life balance now—not then. We need to achieve it now-not then. ”

It lit a fire under him. I could feel it in his emotions. He needed that now. It’s not someday I’m going to get to it.

The truth is, the reason I’m so driven about this is: I did not create an effective work-life balance for myself. By choice—I did not. I could blame my boss? Naren Arulrajah: It was you…

Gary Takacs: It was me! But I can’t go back and change it for me.

For me, I was very fortunate to have an amazing partner in life—my wife—and amazing kids. She was largely raising them. I’m not proud of that. I have a regret around that.

I can’t go back and change mine, but I can help you. And to me, that gives me some consolation.

Well, with that in mind, let’s hit pause here and head over to the Q&A segment and add some more depth to this conversation.

Naren Arulrajah: Welcome back to the Thriving Dentist Q&A segment. This is Naren, your co-host again. The topic we are discussing today is: The Three Day Work Week—Can It Work in Dentistry?

Pretty much, people wrote in and asked us: Can it work for me?

And Gary gave us a lot of tips on how to make it work and why this might be a good option for you.

So if you’re interested, I would strongly recommend booking a coaching strategy meeting with Gary—just to kind of think this through. Because we also know a lot of people who have fumbled this and made a mess of it. So make sure you think it through and do it properly.

Because there is a method to this madness as to how you transition—if that’s your wish.

Naren Arulrajah: Gary, I have four questions for you. And let me start with question number one:

How do I ensure production doesn’t drop with one less workday?

Gary Takacs: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think it’s naturally on every dentist’s mind, ’cause you’re thinking in a linear fashion. You know, "If I used to work four and now I’m working three, I’m gonna produce less," right?

Yes.

And, you know, really it comes down to—I learned this years ago. Back in the day, a lot of dentists worked five days a week. A traditional workday for dentists was considered Monday through Friday, like every other job—Monday through Friday.

And I started earlier in my career to encounter a lot of dentists who said, "You know, I wanna start taking Fridays off. I wanna reduce my Fridays. I want to go from five to four."

And in the beginning, I remember my first client I did that with. He said, "But Gary, I don’t wanna lose production."

And I’m thinking, "Well, let’s see how we can do that." And we worked it out.

Then we kept adapting it and modifying it. But it was the idea of getting some discipline around your schedule and honoring your production blocks—having those in the schedule—and then simply engineering productive days.

And I got to the point where a dentist would say, "I really wanna go to four days a week," and I’d say, "Well, I can help you with that, and I can assure you we’ll do it—and you’ll produce just as much in four as you used to in five."

And now the same thing has happened here, Naren. We can get you down to three days a week and, just as surely, you can be producing just as much as when you were working four days a week.

It has to do with:

• Scheduling discipline

• The right mix of services

• Adding more high-value services that occupy more of your time

• Allowing your assistants to do everything they’re allowed to do under the practice act—as long as they can do it to your standard

And when you put all those things together, and you have a scheduling coordinator who isn’t just putting names in the schedule—not just names in the appointment book—but is, in fact, scheduling to goal… Maybe that’s the most important thing: schedule to goal.

Then it happens.

And you produce just as much in three days a week as you used to produce in four—and you’re thinking, “Why didn’t I do this sooner? Why didn’t I do that sooner?”

Now, you need a patient base. You need the right types of patients in your practice. Marketing comes into play. But all of that—in a complicated web—comes together to have you working a three-day week.

And again, I like the model of having a second doctor in the practice, so we’re covering the five workdays.

Remember, that’s a schedule that also works well for your team, right? Because those that need or want 40 hours a week can get it. Those that want to work four days a week—they can get that across the schedule. Even if you have part-time team members who want to work three days a week—that can work as well.

So it works for everybody.

But the idea is to do it—and not reduce your production.

So I hope I’ve given you some tips there that can help you decipher that a little bit.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Let me get to the next question.

What do you think about converting to the three-day work week with three long workdays? This is question number two.

Gary Takacs: Also—earlier in my career, I had a client who really wanted to go to the three-day week, but she could only think in a linear fashion. So she decides she’s gonna work three twelves. Three twelves. So do the math, Naren—that’s 36. Yeah, that’s 36 hours. You can work three twelves, right?

Before, she was working four eights, so she was working 32. Mm-hmm. So she said, "Now I’m gonna work three twelves and get to 36."

It lasted for a month, Naren. Yeah. I tried to talk her out of it. She said, "No, I’ve just gotta do these hours. I’m not gonna like it, but I have to do it."

It was like 8 till 8—8 in the morning till 8 at night.

It lasted a month. And she said, "Gary, I am so burned out. What were you saying about three normal workdays?" [laughs]

And I was able to take what she had and adapt it. She said—when she did that, she did it for a month—and she said she literally had to recover the entire day on Thursday from working three 12-hour clinical days.

Naren Arulrajah: Right

Gary Takacs: So she really wasn’t gaining anything in terms of free time or quality of life. 

Naren Arulrajah: Right.

Gary Takacs: And you know, she had…

Naren Arulrajah: She probably had to make sacrifices. Let’s say she had kids—she probably wouldn’t see the kids till 8 PM.

Gary Takacs: You know, and she did have kids. And that was another consequence there, right?

And she said, "I should have listened to you earlier, but I had this linear thinking, and I couldn’t see it another way. Now I see it. Now I’m ready to hear the message."

And I said, "Okay, then here’s what we could do."

But I would not recommend that—for quality of life reasons—at all. Not at all.

Dentistry’s hard. I’m telling you—dentistry is really hard. And you’ve got to recognize that.

An eight-hour day is a hard day. You’ve put in a quality workday when you’ve worked eight hours.

Great question, though.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary.

Question number three: You’ve seen many different hours that dental practices use. What do you think are the best hours that work for the practice owner, the team, and the patient?

Gary Takacs: Well, this is an interesting discussion because there’s a debate. I’m involved in a number of private Facebook groups. In fact, I’m part of a leadership team in some of these private Facebook groups where they often list me to comment. And, you know, doctors will say, "Hey, I’m thinking of being open evenings and weekends as I’m building my practice. What do you think of that?"

Now, Naren, this kind of goes against what might be considered conventional marketing wisdom, right? Conventional marketing wisdom would be: create friendlier hours for people. Most people work during the day—create evening and weekend hours, right?

But then guess what? Someone has to work those evening and weekend hours.

I was speaking in Seattle many years ago, and the question was raised by a young doctor. He said, "Gary, what do you think about me being open Saturday to be more available for people that can’t make dental appointments? I’m building my practice. What do you think about that?"

And I said, "You know, I’m against it, doctor, because you don’t want to work Saturdays." And he shook his head—"I really don’t."

And I said, "Your team members don’t want to either." And he said, "Yeah, but it would help me grow my practice, right?"

I said, "I’m against it. I would rather have you open early morning as a way to accommodate those people."

Anyway, a dentist raises his hand. So I called on him, and he stood up and said, "Gary, I’m going to politely disagree with you. Just for the record, I do not work Saturdays—because I don’t want to. I work Monday through Thursday. I do not work Saturday. However, when I started my practice, I did work Saturdays."

And you’ve made the comment that one of the problems with Saturdays is people don’t show up. You have a much higher cancellation rate on Saturdays. And he repeated what I said. He said, "You said that."

He said, "Gary, we did not experience that in my practice. And there’s one reason why we did not experience it." And I said, "What’s that?"

He said, "Ruth."

Now, I didn’t get it at first. I said, "Excuse me?"

He said, "My office manager, Ruth, is what made it work."

And I said, "Well, how did she do it?"

He said, "Well, here’s how she did it. She would tell the patient, ‘George, I’m going to give you a Saturday appointment, but I want you to know that every single patient in the practice wants Saturday hours, wants Saturday appointments. I’m going to give you one.’" And the doctor started pointing.

Because Ruth would point—and Ruth would point at the patient and say, "However, you either need to keep this appointment or give me 48 hours’ notice if you need to change it. If you do not keep the appointment, and if you do not give me at least 48 hours, you will never, ever, ever, ever get another Saturday appointment. Is that clear, George?"

And the whole audience was roaring, laughing at this. And the doctor—I’ll use his name, he’s now retired—Chuck was laughing. And Chuck said, "That’s exactly how she did it."

He said, "The first time I heard it—remember, I was a young dentist—the first time I heard it, I thought, ‘I’m going to need to talk to Ruth about better verbal skills, better friendliness.’" And then he realized, "Wait a minute—I don’t need to talk to Ruth. She had it figured out."

She intimidated these patients into keeping their appointments—and she did one heck of a job.

Chuck became a client of mine many, many years ago. We worked together, and we still get together and talk about Ruth and how she kept patients in line with her discipline.

But if you’re going to do evening hours or Saturday hours, that’s what it takes.

But I think the real reason to stay away from it—it doesn’t give you quality of life. It doesn’t give your team members quality of life.

So I think the best hours are 7:00 to 4:00.

Now, I know I’m an early bird—I get that not everyone is. But I like 7:00 to 4:00 because I like the finish line. We get our team out in time for dinner. And if they’re moms, they appreciate it.

I think if they’re anybody, they appreciate it, right? But especially if they’re moms, they appreciate it.

So that would be my suggestion.

And if you do have team members that can’t make a 6:45 morning huddle because they’re maybe a single mom and latchkey isn’t open yet and they don’t have family support—make an exception. Allow them to start at a different time. That’s absolutely, in my book, the appropriate thing to do.

But most people—now if it’s a single assistant and she can’t get there at 6:45 because she was out late the night before, that’s not a permissible excuse.

Make sense, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: Yes, Gary.

Gary Takacs: That’s not permissible. But if, for family reasons, you can’t get the child into latchkey because it’s not open at 6:45, and you negotiate a different start time for them—then that’s how it works.

And those are what I think are the best hours—because we are providing some accommodation. Those 7:00 to 9:00 hours work for a lot of people that have more traditional work hours.

So that’s my answer to that: 7:00 to 4:00.

Naren Arulrajah: Really appreciate it. Let me ask you question number four, Gary—this is the last question I have for you.

I believe I can produce just as much in three days a week as I’m currently making in four days a week. If I could add more high-value services, what is the best way to achieve this?

Gary Takacs: Well, that’s a great question. And I like the fact that the doctor started out with a positive mindset. He or she believes, uh, that, uh, that they can produce in, in three days what they’re currently producing in four. They believe it. You know, it starts with that belief, right?

Naren Arulrajah: Right.

Gary Takacs: Henry Ford said it: "Believe you can, believe you can’t—either way, you’re right."

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly.

Gary Takacs: Now I’m gonna flip it to you, Naren. It’s a marketing question. How—

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, absolutely. It’s a great, great, great question. And, um, I’m gonna get really tactical because this is a Q&A segment. So I’m just going to dive right in.

So you wanna attract new patients who are looking for high-value services. I’ll give you two tips. And these two tips are at the crux of what you need to do.

Number one is, um, you know, when someone is spending money they don’t need to spend with you, we have to convince them. Uh, you know, they could go to you, they could go to 10 other dentists who would claim they can do as, you know, as high quality of a service that you can provide, right?

So that’s where landing pages come in. So make sure you have landing pages—meaning I Google "Invisalign dentist near me," or I Google "Invisalign dentist [city name]," assuming that’s the high-value service we are talking about.

When I go to that landing page, I want to see cases. I want to see four or five, six cases. And typically, a case would include before and after, and most importantly, a full-face after picture. And then even kind of like a small write-up—what the patient wanted, why did they come to you, what did you do? And of course, the pictures do most of the talking, but the write-up kind of tells a story.

Imagine having four or six of these, and there are people of different ages, different skin colors, male, female. More than likely, the patient who’s considering the service is gonna find someone that looks like them or sees the outcome that they are imagining for themselves. And that’s really, really powerful.

Having amazing landing pages—and more importantly, having cases on those landing pages—is important.

One more thing you can do when it comes to landing pages is you can make it really welcoming. We do business with those we like. Dale Carnegie taught us this almost a hundred years ago.

Imagine having a short video—45-second video clip—saying:

"Hello, I’m Dr. Smith. I’ve been helping patients create the smile of their dreams with Invisalign for the last 17 years. Look at some of my cases. Look at, um, some of the reviews and feedback that I have gotten from patients. Call my office. I would love to help you. Here are my credentials."

Imagine having a tight video that’s so friendly, so welcoming—you know, and also credentials you—and invites them to come in. That gets people to like you. So it doesn’t matter what time the patient ended up on your website—they kind of like you, versus your competition hasn’t done this.

So those are the two things I would do, Gary, when it comes to landing pages.

But the other thing is: how do you get people to the landing pages? You can run ads. The challenge with ads is people know it’s an ad, so they don’t trust it. So now the burden of convincing goes up significantly.

The other challenge with ads is it’s six times more expensive than, you know, organic search engine optimization, for example. So you’re gonna spend a lot more money to acquire the same patient.

So my preferred strategy would be to dominate organic SEO for those high-value services.

What do I mean by "dominate"? For every high-value service, there’s gonna be like 30, 40 keywords—city name in those keywords, zip codes in those keywords, "near me" in those keywords or phrases. And you wanna make sure, you know, regardless of how the patient is trying to learn about Invisalign—some might type in "braces near me," and somebody else might type in, you know, "crooked tooth solutions near me." It doesn’t matter what they’re typing in—you want to show up.

So there are fundamentals to SEO, and that’s where I think really having a strong marketing campaign and a plan really makes a difference.

I can go into all the fundamentals of SEO, but it’ll take, you know, at least half an hour. So I would recommend: book a marketing strategy meeting with my team. It’s ekwa.com/td.

Gary Takacs: I’ll add one, I’ll add one comment to that, Naren.

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah.

Gary Takacs: In addition to having a great website and great landing page—or great landing pages—with cases, start taking after photos on patients that have experienced the high-value service.

So, patients you’ve done implants for, patients that you’ve done cosmetic dentistry for, patients you’ve done Invisalign for—get really nice after photos. Put those up in your back office.

Get the patient’s permission, of course, to use the photos for marketing and educational purposes. Don’t violate that—make sure to get their permission.

Put those up on the wall, and then your team members can say to patients:

“Although we love doing everyday general dentistry and helping patients with everyday general dentistry, our doctor—or our doctors—also have advanced experience in things like dental implants, cosmetic dentistry, complex restorative dentistry, adult orthodontics like Invisalign."

Gary Takacs: The pictures you see here in the office are people we’ve helped have the smile of their dreams through those types of services. And now they know you do ’em—in addition to seeing it on the website. So that could be something that is kind of internal marketing to let your existing patients know you do those things.

Well, this has been a fun podcast episode, and I hope it’s one that you take to heart: The Three Day Work Week—Can It Work in Dentistry?

The answer is: Absolutely. If it’s been done before, it must be possible.

Naren, do you remember when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile?

Naren Arulrajah: Yes.

Gary Takacs: That was before your time and my time. But he did that on May 8th, 1954. It was believed that a human being could not run a mile in under four minutes—physiologically impossible.

However, he did it. It was literally 1:59—barely beat it.

Closing Thoughts

Gary Takacs: Uh, but he did. But is it any coincidence that within three months, three other athletes broke the four-minute mile?

Now, in the history of time, those three months were nothing in the evolution of, you know, physiology. But why were they able to do it? Because they realized: It was done before—it must be possible.

Well, I can tell you that there are many dentists experiencing the benefits of the three-day work week—and the benefits of achieving work-life balance through that.

So yes—it’s been done before, and it is possible.

Well, on that note, thank you all for the privilege of your time. Naren and I look forward to connecting with you on the next Thriving Dentist Show.