16 W I N T E R 2 0 1 2

Practice Management

From Broke and Burned-Out To Millionaireby Dr. Mike Kesner

Did you know that dentistry has one of the highest burnout rates of all professions? Are you there yet? Do you feel yourself getting there? I know about burnout first hand.

The good news is

there is a cure and a way out!

Before I tell you my story, let’s first talk about why burnout happens in the first place.

Dentistry is a very high-stress and high-risk profession. As you know, it takes years of higher education to become a dentist. It then takes years of experience and continuing education courses to become good at what you do. Being able to deliver excellent dentistry requires a very high level of talent, skill, focus and experience.

We also work on fearful patients providing restorations that will succeed or fail based upon microns. In addition, we all have a few of those “difficult” patients. You know the ones…you see their name on the schedule and wish you could go back home.

If you own your practice, then you are also a business owner with all the associated risks and responsibilities. You have the stresses that come with employees, capital expenditure decisions, marketing decisions, overhead control, bank notes, lease payments, dental insurance headaches, supply bills, lab bills, etc. We also have the ever-present professional liability risk.

Bottom line… clinical dentistry and the business of dentistry are very difficult and both come with high risks. Therefore, you deserve a financial reward that is equal to or greater than those risks you are assuming.

Many dentists don’t make the income that a doctor or business owner deserves to make. Your friends and neighbors think you are wealthy because, after all, you are a doctor with your own business. This just adds to your stress and feelings of burnout.

When the risks you assume consistently outweigh the rewards you receive… the result is burnout.

In 1997, after 13 years of solo private practice, I experienced burnout. My risk-to-reward ratio had been out of proportion for years. I had used consultant after consultant, gone to all kinds of clinical seminars and practice management

seminars. I even twice moved my practice to different areas of town thinking that would fix the problem. It didn’t.

I focused on TMJ, then orthodontics, then large cases, then cosmetics. I was trying anything and everything I could think of to be successful, but nothing seemed to work. By 1997 I decided to give up trying. I figured that I would make more income and have less stress working for someone as an associate.

So, in 1999 I sold my practice to an orthodontist who was buying several practices. I worked in the practice I sold to him, plus 4 more that he owned. I was seeing lots of patients, my income tripled and my stress level went down.

I didn’t really like being an employee, but it felt much better than the stress of being the owner.

This went along great for three years until the orthodontist’s wife, a general dentist, caught him at a hotel with another woman. She waited for him to walk into the parking lot and then ran over him three times with her Mercedes… killing him!

I am sure most of you remember seeing this on the news. It made international news for months. She was also on Oprah twice from prison, there was a “made-for-TV-movie” and a couple of books written about the story.

So, long story short… I bought the practice back from his estate with a renewed determination to do whatever it took to be successful in dentistry. I learned how! I grew the practice from $675,000 to the $10 million we will do this year.

I finally figured out how to be successful in dentistry!

Dentists ask me all of the time… How do you do it? Before I tell you, let me ask a couple of questions that will help clarify where you are today.

1. Do you see yourself as a practicing dentist that has to run a business?

or...

2. Do you see yourself leveraging your dental skills into the business of dentistry?

There is a big difference between these two. I find that most dentists identify more with question #1 than question #2. Most dentists went to dental school because they enjoy helping people and fixing things, not because they are entrepreneurial.

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How then, can you become successful at the business of dentistry if you are not an entrepreneur?

Here’s how.

First… decide what you want. Do you want less stress? Do you want more time off? Do you want more income? How much? Do you just want a respectable income, or do you want a thriving business that you can sell at some point? Be specific. If you don’t know exactly what you want, then that is what you will get… not exactly what you want.

Second… make the decision to do whatever it takes. Financial success in dentistry takes hard work and commitment. If it were easy, then everybody would be doing it. Your desire for success has to be stronger than your fear of going through the pain of change to get there.

After the orthodontist was murdered, my fear of going back to being a poor dentist was greater than my fear of doing what was necessary to be successful.

Where is your “pain meter” right now? For some dentists, they have not gone through enough pain yet to motivate them to change. If you stay the same then you know what your outcome will be. This is much more painful and scary than change!

Third… believe that you can do it. What you believe determines your thoughts. Your thoughts determine your actions and your actions determinate your results. If you want to change your results, you must start at the beginning and change your beliefs.

Whatever you believe is right because that is what will happen! If you believe that you can’t build a multi-million dollar

practice… you’re right. You can’t! If you believe that you can build a multi-million dollar practice… you’re right. You can! Choose to believe that you can!

Fourth… get some help. You can’t make this transformation by yourself. If you could do it yourself, then you already would have. I had help from many dental consultants and business consultants over the years. As a result, I developed a practice model that works in any economy and in any area of the nation… but there is no way I could have done it by myself.

Most dentists are do-it-yourselfers and a little arrogant…which you really need to be! If you are going to peel back patients’ gums, drill a hole in their bone and screw in an implant… you’d better be a little arrogant about your ability to be successful at the procedure.

Just because you know how to be successful at the clinical aspect of dentistry, doesn’t mean you know how to be successful at the business aspect of dentistry. The two are totally different.

You will need help from someone who has “been there, done that” to help take your practice to the next level. Yes, a good consultant is a large investment of time, energy and money. But, the return on that investment is well worth the costs!

Dr. Mike Kesner is a practicing dentist and author of Multi- Million-Dollar Dental Practice. He is founder and CEO of Quantum Leap Success in Dentistry; a consulting company that helps dentists build the practices of their dreams in 24 months or less…Guaranteed! Dr. Kesner speaks nationally on topics related to mastering the business of dentistry. 480-282-8989 www.QLSuccess.com drkesner@QLSuccess.com

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