Angus Pryor the Practice Growth Specialist and #1 Google-ranked dental marketer in Australia will be letting you in on the crucial steps you need to take to grow your business.
Buy or build? That is the question when opening a new practice.
Hi everyone, Angus Pryor here. #1 Google ranked as a dental marketer in Australia and a practice growth specialist.
Now, the truth is this year 2023, and perhaps the late last year for me I’ve never had more inquiries from people about wanting to open a new practice. In fact, in November last year at the ADX, in Brisbane, I spoke about the things if you’re opening a new practice how to minimize the white space in your book, because you definitely don’t want that do you? And that particular presentation was one of the most attended presentations I’ve ever given. And it’s obvious to me that in the dental land at the moment that people are thinking about opening new practices, which begs the question, buy or build?
Now, the truth is, it’s not a case of you know, one is right, and the other one is wrong, it’s if you do this, here are the consequences. If you do that, here are the consequences. So for buying, the big benefit of buying courses, is you’ve got patients straightaway, you’ve got the potential that if the practice hasn’t been optimized, and maybe you’re offering additional services, that you can turn a practice, that’s okay, into a great practice, that’s the big benefit of buying. But of course, you got to pay extra for it don’t you? So that’s the upside there.
On the other hand, if you build, you know, you can sort of choose wherever you like, within reason, you don’t have to pay someone for it. But the downside is, you’ve got no patients on day one, and it’s going to take a lot longer to build up.
And the bottom line for me is really kind of what is your vision. You know, it may be that you’re able to achieve your vision with an existing practice, it may be that you need to build new so that you can achieve that.
And then secondly, frankly, how deeper your pockets are. Let me explain, you know, if you build the reality you’re going to have to invest one of two ways. You either invest heavily in your marketing beforehand, so that lots of patients come in and you fill up the books, and then the businesses, you know, hopefully, get profitable in a reasonably short space of time, maybe six to nine months. If you don’t invest then and you’re marketing, then you’re going to have to invest when the practice is running at a loss for maybe 12 or 18 months time. So that’s really the equation.
So buy or build? It’s not a case of one’s always better than the other but just be aware and go in with eyes wide open so that you can make an informed decision. Now look, this is Chennai in India in the background here, they’ve clearly done some building. And in May this year, I’ve got an event. It hasn’t been announced yet other than to say that this will be particularly for people who are looking to open a new practice. I’ve got some other speakers involved. If you visit our website, which will be on the link below, then you’ll get a chance the details that will come up there. And if you’re thinking about opening a new practice, you definitely want to check that out. Otherwise, catch you next time.