2017 New Grad Edition - 34

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2 Young, New Grads Do a Startup
A husband-wife dental team learn the ups and downs of lease negotiations

adstartup
Member Since: 10/07/13
Posts: 1 and 4 of 84

We're sure several people are wondering: Why would two new grads do a startup? We are a
husband-and-wife team, graduated in 2015 with a combined $720,000 in student loans. We've
moved around the country and have worked at six different offices, between the two of us, since
graduating. We've seen corporate, Medicaid, community clinic and private practice models.
We've been high producers, barely having a minute to catch our breath in between patients, and
low producers, with nothing to do all day.
After experiencing multiple offices and a failed trial partnership, then looking for practices
to buy, we decided to do a startup. We tried moving to a more rural, "less desirable" location and
hated it, so we're going to do a startup close to where we want to live.
We wanted to document our process and share with others our successes and failures. (We're
sure there will be plenty of both.) We by no means have it all figured out, but this is our story.
Demographics:
After our long demographic search, we landed on one area that has what we believe to be
solid demographics. It's a nice area that we can see ourselves living in comfortably and is close to
family (which is very important to us). A few details:
* Growing suburban area of a major city
* Three-mile radius: 40,000 people, three dentists, mean family income of $90,000.
* Three dentists within that three-mile radius have mediocre websites, very few Google
reviews, standard Monday-Thursday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. hours, and bad locations with little to
no visibility.
We would be in one of the most visible buildings on the road, close to the busiest intersection
in the area, with a traffic count of almost 70,000. (Later we found out it's one of the top five busiest intersections in the city.) We ordered a single-site demographics report from Dentagraphics
($349) to confirm our location and make sure there's nothing that we missed.
Once we open, my wife will continue working as an associate part time until she's busy
enough to work at our practice full time. I will continue to associate full time. We plan on her
being the primary doctor in our practice and refer very little out. The plan is for a one-stop shop,
PPO office.
This seems overwhelming and is a huge decision. We're set on this building for few reasons:
1. There aren't any other options in our target area.
2. Great visibility from the busiest road in the area.
So, we have a couple of questions we'd love to get some input on.
* Is 2,600 square feet at around $22 per square foot per year a reasonable starting place?
* Lease negotiation: I know there are some lease negotiators on Dentaltown who have some
great insight. I'd love to get some input on using someone like George Vaill, or an attorney,
or both, as opposed to using just a local real estate guy to negotiate, followed by an
attorney reviewing the lease. ■
6/4/2017

George Vaill
Member Since: 10/31/03
Post: 10 of 84

"No other options in our target area" is not a good reason to settle for a location. Be patient.
Things change in the market every day. Great visibility from the busiest road in the area is
terrific!

NEW GRAD 2017 // dentaltown.com

http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2017 New Grad Edition