Operating any medical practice as a profitable business creates an added layer of complexity to your role as its owner because the two terms appear incompatible.
On the one hand, you have a responsibility to care for your patients and make the barrier to entry as low as possible. However, on the other hand, you need to create healthy profit margins in order to maintain and grow your business.
You can’t keep the lights on with goodwill alone, after all. The answer lies in organized, profitable expansion.
In other words, franchising.
At first glance, this sounds like the worst approach. If you are struggling to turn a profit with only a single practice, how can you possibly expand to another, or three, or ten?
In reality, it works the other way around. The larger your market share, the larger and more reliable your customer base, and the more efficient training and supply chains you set up, the healthier your business will become.
Here’s how you can franchise your dental practice in 2021:
Table of Contents
Make sure you have an efficient supply chain
One of the most important aspects of franchising (and indeed any business) is the supply of equipment. In dentistry, this means a range of high-cost medical equipment, medicines, tools, and even banal items like gloves and hand sanitizer.
If you can’t establish a cost-effective, reliable, and consistent method of sourcing these supplies, your business stands no chance of surviving, let alone expanding. This is why buying from an online supply wholesaler like Kent Express makes your life so much easier and your day-to-day business more cost-effective.
Up your marketing game
Although marketing is likely far from your mind when it comes to running a dentistry, good PR is one of franchising’s core pillars.
It is imperative to establish you and your brand as market leaders – the trusted source for consultation and practice in your local area (or even nationally). Using methods like sales letter copywriting, digital marketing, paid advertising, and even establishing yourself on industry podcasts, websites, and television shows can boost awareness for your practice and cultivate a stronger customer base.
Create one basic work system
When it comes to franchising your dentistry, this is huge. Without a universal work and management method, you can’t hope to run multiple branches simultaneously.
Analyze the way you operate your current branch. Decide what works, what could be improved, and what can be thrown out. This is effective on many fronts. Firstly, it is the only way you can start another practice, and secondly, it forces you to take a hard look at your current business model and continually streamline and improve it.
Establish a clear line of command
There can only be one boss. Without clear and respected leadership, your franchise will soon collapse in on itself.
Create a clearly delineated line of command, down from you to a manager, dentist, and so on, so that everyone knows what they are doing and who to answer to. It will also help you keep track of progress at your various branches going forward.
