Orthotown April 2020 - 8

embrace progress

7 Habits of Effective People
by Dan Grob, DDS, MS, editorial director, Orthotown magazine

One thing that I've noted over the years
is how many large and small businesses
capture the orthodontic market as their
own. For one reason or another, many of
us are impressed with companies claiming
to be orthodontic-specific.
Occasionally I come across a book or title
that interests me (and perhaps other Townie
readers) that addresses this issue. In fact,
more than once I've mentioned or featured
a title in this column that highlights the
fact that general business readings or books
apply not only to big corporations but also
to small dental practices and groups as well.
Take, for instance, e-Myth Mastery by
Michael Gerber. The main point he makes is
that when building or working in a business
of your own, you need to be working on the
business, rather than in it. To achieve this,
you need lists, procedures and scripts to
scale the business or, in the simplest term
to understand, to franchise. Orthotown and
Dentaltown founder Dr. Howard Farran
uses these principles in his guidebook
Uncomplicate Business: He says people, time
and money are the three ingredients that
are required for one to grow, maintain and
ultimately sell one's practice or business.
Over the years, I've come to realize that
when it comes to business and fi nancial
principles, there's nothing particularly
special about orthodontics or dentistry. We
tend to get to focused on our specialty and
techniques, and are so used to purchasing
and learning within our fields, that we fail to
realize that general, not specific, principles
guide the way things are done.

8

This fact can be validated by the various
consultants and marketers who sell and offer
their services to us. If you peel behind the
skin, most of them are business coaches who
have decided to focus on our specialty, while
the lists, procedures and prescriptions are
usually variations of ideas that permeate the
business community and can be utilized in
any industry that focuses on customer service.
Another example of the universal application of business principles is the widespread
practice of DSOs purchasing private and
group practices. These organizations evaluate

businesses, run the numbers, and make a
decision based on the underlying strength
and health of the practice. It doesn't matter
if the business in question is a brake shop, a
doughnut stand or a dental practice.
Business is business. If you investigate
the private equity companies that ultimately
buy practices, you'd see that they hold a
portfolio of varying or diversified companies
and enterprises. We know that some of these
private equity firms do more due diligence
than others, and some are successful while
some are not, but again, business is business.

APRIL 2020 // orthotown.com

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3/26/20 11:21 AM
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Orthotown April 2020

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