Ask Yourself If You’re Earning Money for Yourself or Someone Else By Chris Baker, RN, DMD Are You Working IN or ON Your Business? ental school prepares us to be technically capable. Just how capable and outstand-ing is up to us. With time and work in our practices and with continuing education, we can all grow, learn and sharpen our skills. However (and this is a big deal), we do not get an MBA in dental school and we do not even get so much as a course in business. Dental school is not designed to teach us how to run a business; rather, dental or medical school is designed to train doctors to care for patients. And, the vast majority of us end up in private practice. Guess what that is? A business. A dental practice is a business yet most of us don’t look at it as a busi-ness. We see it through our eyes as caring for our patients, and as a place to “do” dentistry and make a living. That is what it should be. Still, without the dentist having some training and education in how to run a business, the practice can become: b An overwhelming amount of work for a doctor who has to work to manage the business-end of things after hours and on weekends. Some of you are spending 60 or more hours a week total, trying to get it all to work. b A siphon for the practice’s hard-earned money to flow to insurance companies, dental suppliers, patients who do not pay promptly or at all, landlords, banks and the government. b A job for you that takes most of your free time away from your family, not to mention your emotional well-being and peace of mind. b Stress, stress, stress. Most dentists do things back-wards. We are first, technical experts in our profession; second, a manager of our business; and third, an entrepreneur. We need to switch that around, but our passion lies in the first item as technical experts. We went into dentistry to “do” dentistry. Yet, we can enjoy the dentistry even more when the management and entrepreneurship are upfront, well-handled and flowing. D 14 Spring 2018 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Spring 2018: Page 14
