DentistryWhat You Need To Start A Successful Dental Clinic

Setting up a dental clinic can be a daunting task, however it can also be the gateway for you to launch a successful career running your own business. According to recent studies a dentist in the USA makes an average income of about $150,000 a year, and this is only expected to rise over the coming years.

Your success will be largely determined by how well you plan ahead, calculate costs and expenditures in advance, the quality of your marketing and customer outreach and of course, the location of your practise.

Know what your budget is before you get started!

This sounds like an obvious point, but having a good idea of your budget and what you can expect to get for it will help you begin to narrow down where you will be able to establish your practise. Calculate your own assets and if needed, investigate the types of business loans that are available to you.

Just as with any business, starting out with a well written and carefully costed business plan will set you off on the right path from day one! You don’t need to have a completely finished business plan before you start, but at least have the basics written down which you can then add to as you progress through the process of setting up your own dental clinic.

Your business plan should include a financial plan and the details of the types of liability insurance that you can secure for your dental practise.

Location is Crucial to the Success of Your Dental practice.

One of the most important things to get right when establishing a new dental practise is the location of your office. Selecting a great location for your business will help to guarantee you a successful future while allowing you to serve the needs of the community.

Remember that as your business goes forwards you can always renovate your office, upgrade the waiting room and outdoor signage but it’s far more difficult to move to another location, so research and good knowledge of a potential site for your dental clinic is 100% essential.

Some of the most significant factors that you must consider before selecting a location for your dental clinic include, but are not limited to:

• Competition and Markets. When choosing a location, you will need to consider if there is already a lot of dental practises in the area, what kind of services they specialize in and what the local market demand for the kind of services you want to provide are. Solid market research will be your first step towards choosing the right location for your new business.
• Local demographics. Find out all you can about the local demographics. If you want to set up a cosmetic dental clinic then finding a location with relatively high levels of disposable income is important, or if you want to establish a pediatric service, then finding an area with young families will be key to your future success.
• How easy is the location to access for your potential patients? Finding a good location means that it will be easy to get to for the demographic you are planning to serve. People have to be able to get to you quite easily, so somewhere near the centre of the community is usually the best choice for a new dental clinic. If you want to start a good and modern digital dental clinic you need a good  Cloud orthodontic software to track your patients from anywhere and up to date.

Marketing and Community Outreach

Letting people know that you have set up a new dental clinic is hugely important so that your future patients can find you! You can do this in traditional ways, such as billboards, Television advertising, and of course, word of mouth; but in the modern age, it is essential for your success that you also have a great website with an easy-to-use interface that provides all the details someone might need. You want people to access your website and connect with your practice with ease, so it may be wise to look into Dental IT support services, for example, to help keep it running smoothly and efficiently. Below are some other points as to why setting up a website is the right way to go.

• A Website will allow new clients to find you, keep your current patients informed and promote your services in the online marketplace.
• A well designed, user friendly website that is concise with all the information that you need to convey is no longer an optional extra for most businesses, and dental clinics are no different.
• A good website is the centre of your online presence and will allow you to market effectively, reach out to new patients and stay in touch with your current ones using mailing lists and other promotional material.
• Your website can also be a place to receive any feedback and comments from you patients which can be invaluable for you to learn from but also for other customers who have just found your website and want to see some reviews.

As well as a functional, attractive and useful website you should also consider creating a social media account for your business, which you can link to your website. This will let you market to your local community with offers, your latest news and other topics of interest to both existing and potential clients.

Creating a strong social media presence, combined with your website, will create a stronger bond of loyalty between your customers and your business, allow them to get to know your principles and keep them informed with all the latest information that is relevant to the future of your clinic.

Medical Equipment – a central aspect of setting up a successful dental clinic.

You will of course need the correct medical equipment for your dental clinic to operate successfully. The precise types of equipment, tools and accessories will depend to a large degree on the clientele you wish to serve. If you are a paediatric dentist, then you will require different equipment than if you open a purely cosmetic clinic.

There is a wide range of tools that are used for examinations, procedures and daily check ups that will be a regular part of your business. There are also the larger lab appliances and equipment that you will need, including X-ray machines, Washer Disinfectors to safely sterilize the equipment to a medical grade, drying cabinets and of course the dental surgery furniture.

You will need to take all of this into account while costing your dental clinic in the early stages as part of your business and financial plans. Don’t forget to include the costs of a comfortable and inviting waiting room for your patients and a professional, high quality reception area as well.

Setting up a Dental Clinic is a Rewarding way to serve your community.

Once your clinic is up and running and you are getting customers through the door you’ll soon feel that all the hard work and planning that went into setting it up was worth it! Running a dental clinic that you have set up from scratch is extremely satisfying, financially rewarding and the help you give to members of your community will really improve their lives.

This post has been sponsored by Dekomed Limited