Our "modified start-up" dental practice is working!

We did it! We started our office, and things are going great! Things are also EXTREMELY busy, but they're starting to slow down, and all of our plans are working. Isn't it nice when things work out?

By the way- if you have no idea what I am referring to, then go back and read the last few posts on this blog. Here's a short recap- I just quit my job and bought my own dental practice. It is small, and in many ways it is like a start-up. In fact, a start up may have been easier, but we didn't have the time to do that. Also, the price we paid for this practice was less than we could have started one for, so that was nice.

Here's a brief timeline of the past couple of weeks:
September 12th: Sign the papers. The practice is officially ours. I am officially a Post Falls Dentist! (And yes, that is a shameless backlink to my web page).

September 13th: Painter starts tearing down the wall paper and getting things ready. I was still working with Loftus until the end of this week and it was hard to keep my head in the game. It was just as well though, since by this point they had pretty much transferred all of my patients over to one of the other doctors. I basically went to work and worked on my computer all day on stuff for my new practice. At lunch time I drove down to check on the progress. Also, we took the boy scouts rock climbing that night.

September 14th: I went to unlock the door for the painter in the morning. PROBLEM! The whole waiting room was a very bright shade of yellow. Like, put-on-your-sun-glasses bright. This would not do. That day during my lunch break we went down and got new paint. He would have to paint over everything he had just done. We had just wasted a day. Not good, since the painter needed to be completely finished on schedule in order for our floor guy to start working. Also, I hired another assistant.

September 15th: The office was looking much better after the new paint shade. I spent most of the day buried in my computer trying to get paperwork set up. At the same time, the paint guy and the computer guy were working around each other setting things up. I went in and helped where I could.

September 16th: The paint guy finished. Paint looks great. We allowed ourselves a quick sigh of relief so that floor guy could come in the next day.

September 17th: I went to open the door for the floor guy. He wasn't there. PROBLEM! An hour later he still wasn't there. Several phone calls later, he still wasn't there. He had completely stood us up. Even though I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt here (emergencies do happen), I can't say I wasn't frustrated at him. While I continued with my paperwork stuff, Rachel made all kinds of calls trying to get someone in. We finally found someone who looked, said he could do it, but then called an hour later and said that he didn't have enough time. She found someone else who did the same thing. We were starting to panic when the third guy came in to look. He said he would have to work long hours, but that he could get us up in time. This guy was awesome. He started ripping up carpet early the next morning. In the meantime, I built a wall.

September 18-20: These days went by in a blur. We had computer guy and floor guy doing cartwheels over each other while at the same time I was meeting with all kinds of people trying to get the business side of things set up. On the 19th our first ad went out in the newspaper, which is great except that we had nobody around to answer the phones. This was bad. Also, between paint guy, floor guy, computer guy, and myself, we had managed to put the office into an incredibly impressive state of disarray as we scrambled to complete our various tasks.

September 21: I had a big staff training day in our conference room. It went pretty well. Mostly. At lunch time the new assistant I had hired left and then sent me a TEXT MESSAGE that she was quitting before she even got started. I'm guessing she was scared away by all the work that needed to be done. We didn't want her anyway if she was going to be like that- but it did force us to open short-staffed. Also, our sign got installed.

September 22: We had another ad in the newspaper, and a feature article in the annual "family" magazine that the local press distributes. Our schedule still wasn't totally up by this time so we had a rough time handling phone calls. Also, our internet page was in a pretty sad state, although we did finish installation of all the computers in the office.

September 23: Carpet guy finally finished (kudos to him for working so hard) by mid-afternoon. The problem is that our office was in complete shambles. Stuff was EVERYWHERE and we were supposed to open tomorrow. A wonderful girl in our ward who knew what we were going through (she had done a LOT of babysitting for us this week) came up and volunteered, on her own accord, to watch our kids so that we could go finish things up. Also, her mom volunteered to come help. We stayed at the office pretty much all day, decorating and putting things back together. By the end, things actually looked pretty good. As far as advertising goes, we had yet another ad in the Sunday newspaper, as well as a feature article about us on the front page of the business section. We were ready to open the doors- or so we thought!

September 24: Opening day! I ran around the office like a mad man putting out fires as they came up. We quickly identified several glitches and other small items of business that required my attention. We had 5,000 mailers go out to the surrounding neighborhoods and we started receiving calls from those.

September 25: Day two- I was still wearing my "fireman" hat more than my "dentist" one, but we knew it would be this way. Last week I put in over 90 hours at the office, and this week was looking like more of the same. Basically, I go to work all day to identify the problems that I work on fixing all night, only to repeat it the next day. It's fun, but I am starting to get exhausted.

September 26: Day three: First day of new patients (never been to the practice before). Of course we identified a hundred ways that we could improve upon the new patient experience, and of course I stayed up all night again trying to make it happen. We are still looking for another assistant, and that will definitely help. The good news is that the team is starting to feel more comfortable with our systems.

September 27: Day four- I am beat. I slept for 3 hours the night before. We had 2,500 more mailers go out today, as well as another newspaper ad. It was all worth it though at the end of the day when I ran my weekly report. The results? We had scheduled more new patients in the past week than they had in the past 2 months combined! Our plan was working! All the work was paying off! Also, I sense that our team, who was a little bit hesitant in the beginning, is starting to come on board (mostly). They are beginning to trust me and to understand what we are trying to do. They are excited about it.

September 28: I ran the financial reports- the one saying how much this "modified start-up" actually cost us. Results? We are about $30,000 UNDER budget! Woo-Hoo! For this,  I think I have Rachel to thank more than anyone. She is the toughest negotiator I have seen when it comes to contracted work, and she finds amazing deals when it comes to stuff we have to buy. As an example, she did ALL the interior decorating (furniture, paint, floors,decorations, and labor) for under $3,000. If you have done much of this then you realize that this is absolutely incredible. She has also been the driving force behind our advertising, and she pretty much single-handedly designed the decor of our office. She is amazing.

September 29: I only worked for a few hours today- I was home by breakfast. I know it's Saturday, but when I'm used to working pretty much every waking hour this seems like a vacation. I think this is my first non-12-hour-workday for the past 3 weeks (actually, most days I've put in 16-18 hours). It also means that things are starting to fall into place. I'm looking forward to next week. We have 20,000 more mailers going out on Monday in little coupon packets, as well as another newspaper ad. It's hard work, but things are working, and in a little more time I think we will be able to cut back to a normal 40 hour work week. Also, this stuff is FUN! It's fun to see your plans turn out even better than you were expecting. It's fun to overhear you staff telling their friends on the phone how cool their new boss is. It's fun dealing with problems and coming up with innovative and creative solutions. It's fun being the guy in the driver's seat, for better or worse.

I've said it before, but it's even more true now than ever before- I love my job!

Here's a few pictures. Most of the "before" pictures are the ones that the practice broker used to sell the practice. We took the "after" ones on my phone- but I think it still shows the difference.


The outside of the office- not much changed here except for the signs on the door:

The sign- Before

 And After:

Waiting Room- Before:

 And After:

The big empty wall to the right of the door is reserved to be used as our "Real People" wall. We'll have a sign here across the top that says "Real People. Real Smiles." Then we'll showcase some of my work. The thought is that we'll have 2-3 8x10 studio quality photos (that we'll pay for, of course) of patients after they finish their work. We'll also have a small 2x2 inset in the photo of the "before" picture (which we take for all patients). These pictures will be in a nice, matted frame. On the matte will be a little bio about the patient, their testimonial about us, and a plug for whatever it is they do (free advertising for them). I like the message it sends. Real People. Real Smiles. That's what we're all about. For now, obviously, we don't have any work to show off- but we do have some in progress!

Front desk/reception area- Before:

 And After:

The Hallway- Before:

 And After:

Treatment rooms- Before:

 And After:

The journey:

(Dinner)

And finally, here's a little video tour:

Check out this video.  Look for the fun kids room wall that Rachel created.  We didn't get a picture of it, but it is worth looking at.  Also, the treatment rooms are decorated with winter, spring, summer, and fall themes.  They each feature photography (that Rachel painstakingly found) of Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene.  The coolest photos are in the winter room.  These pictures are all of Post Falls in the 1930's.  Pretty neat.