Hi Fastlaners,
I’m new to the forums but have had fun reading through a few threads. I’d like to share some of my goals and my progress up to this point. I hope that people can learn from my experiences (successes and failures) and I can learn from others.
I’m 26, married, a father of two awesome daughters (1 and 3) and I’m starting my 3rd year of dental school (4 years total). I’ll finish dental school in May of 2019. I’ll graduate with $170,000 in debt (well below the average for dentists, but I know you are all still thinking, “holy crap!” . . . or other 4 letter words).
While earning my bachelors degree I got excellent grades and was able to get into a competitive dental school. I watched the occasional Netflix, played the occasional phone game (Clash of Clans usually) and was cruising my way through life.
About a year ago, I had a life changing moment. I was a year and a half into dental school and I spent most of my free time watching TV and playing phone games. I was driving home from school one day and had a strong thought, “you’ve been playing Clash of Clans for 3 years now, and you’ve wasted SO MUCH TIME. You’ve spent 3 years building your fake village, earning fake gold, and winning fake battles that mean absolutely NOTHING in real life. If you would have spent as much time preparing for your dang future as you have playing this worthless game, you could have already done amazing things! It’s time you stop playing your piece of crap game and get to work.” I instantly (yes, while driving) deleted the game.
I had already tried to quit playing the game before and failed. It was fun and addicting. I was good at it, I had a *fake* responsibility to my *fake* clan. It’s embarrassing for me to even write this. I have to admit, my wife HATED the game and hated when I’d play it. I would try to play it when she wasn’t around, but occasionally she’d see it and I could tell it made her upset . . . and rightfully so! Worthless POS game.
When I had that moment in my car, everything changed—everything. It was a moment like MJ’s limo snowstorm experience. After that moment, I dove in head first. I started listening to dental business podcasts, and one thing kept leading to another. I found an online forum for dentists and found a specific private group that was for ambitious students who wanted to learn business and be ultra-successful. That group led me to find a few threads started by an incredibly bright business-minded dentist who blew away the status quo and documented his entire experience, much like some of you guys here in these forums. I read all of his experiences and holy crap, I learned a ton! I made a list of every business book he recommended and have been adding to the list whenever someone would mention one. To spare you all some details, I’ve now attended seminars, listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts, read more than 20 business books (and continue to read every day), and made some INCREDIBLE connections. I started a FB mastermind group last month for dental students to help them learn business and now have over 2000 people in the group (growing every day). I’ve been interviewed on 2 different podcasts now because of the group, and because of the podcast interviews I have developed even more relationships.
Now for what I plan on doing in the future. I wanted to hear your opinions on my options. My ultimate goal is to have sufficient income rolling in, disconnected from me working, which allows my family and me to spend our time doing whatever we want.
Option 1 - Right after dental school, move to an area with a big need for a dentist (my wife and I are willing to move just about anywhere) and purchase or startup a dental practice in that area. Grow the practice to the point where it’s profiting $500-800k. This will take 1-2 years. Continue making $500-800k for a few years, living simply, saving, paying off student and practice loans, and have a large chuck of money which I can then use for entrepreneurial pursuits of my choosing (build/buy more dental practices, real estate, build other businesses, etc.)
The downsides -
-This model revolves around me being there, doing dentistry.
-I can’t step away from the business and still have it produce that much.
The upsides -
-$500-800k per year is a lot of money.
-This option is less risky than the other option and less stressful.
-With this option, the dental practice equity will grow significantly and will be worth at least $1,000,000. I could sell the practice after a few years.
Option 2 - Right after dental school (and even before I finish), start building what’s called a Dental Services Organization (DSO). It’s a large company made up of multiple dental offices that are centrally run and operated.
The downsides -
-Potentially more stress and harder on my family
-This takes MUCH MORE coordination and focus than the previous option. Relationships with lenders, attorneys, consultants, other dentists, CPAs, dental practice brokers, etc. are so important, and it’s hard for people to take you seriously as a student. It takes a lot of work.
-It’s more difficult, but like MJ has said, opportunities that are harder produce better results.
The upsides -
-Being able to negotiate lower supply and equipment costs
-A higher valuation of each individual office compared to a single office that’s not part of a DSO (like in Option 1). If the practice in Option 1 was part of a DSO, it would sell for around $2.5 million instead of $1 million.
-Having more passive income opportunities that aren’t dependent on myself doing dentistry.
-Building a company which I could sell for a lot of $. I almost definitely wouldn’t own the entire company, but even if I owned 25% of it, and it was made up of 20 dental practices, each valued at $2.5 million, the company would sell for $50 million and I would walk away with $12.5 million.
Neither option will be easy. With both options I will be providing value to patients . . . I’m going to ensure that over-the-top customer service is the top priority in each dental practice.
I’m not looking for someone to tell me which option to choose, but I’m curious . . . based on the upsides and downsides, which would you choose?
-Daldad
PS - The Millionaire Fastlane and Uscripted are the best books I’ve read on business and entrepreneurship. They changed my mindset completely. Thank you @MJ DeMarco
I’m new to the forums but have had fun reading through a few threads. I’d like to share some of my goals and my progress up to this point. I hope that people can learn from my experiences (successes and failures) and I can learn from others.
I’m 26, married, a father of two awesome daughters (1 and 3) and I’m starting my 3rd year of dental school (4 years total). I’ll finish dental school in May of 2019. I’ll graduate with $170,000 in debt (well below the average for dentists, but I know you are all still thinking, “holy crap!” . . . or other 4 letter words).
While earning my bachelors degree I got excellent grades and was able to get into a competitive dental school. I watched the occasional Netflix, played the occasional phone game (Clash of Clans usually) and was cruising my way through life.
About a year ago, I had a life changing moment. I was a year and a half into dental school and I spent most of my free time watching TV and playing phone games. I was driving home from school one day and had a strong thought, “you’ve been playing Clash of Clans for 3 years now, and you’ve wasted SO MUCH TIME. You’ve spent 3 years building your fake village, earning fake gold, and winning fake battles that mean absolutely NOTHING in real life. If you would have spent as much time preparing for your dang future as you have playing this worthless game, you could have already done amazing things! It’s time you stop playing your piece of crap game and get to work.” I instantly (yes, while driving) deleted the game.
I had already tried to quit playing the game before and failed. It was fun and addicting. I was good at it, I had a *fake* responsibility to my *fake* clan. It’s embarrassing for me to even write this. I have to admit, my wife HATED the game and hated when I’d play it. I would try to play it when she wasn’t around, but occasionally she’d see it and I could tell it made her upset . . . and rightfully so! Worthless POS game.
When I had that moment in my car, everything changed—everything. It was a moment like MJ’s limo snowstorm experience. After that moment, I dove in head first. I started listening to dental business podcasts, and one thing kept leading to another. I found an online forum for dentists and found a specific private group that was for ambitious students who wanted to learn business and be ultra-successful. That group led me to find a few threads started by an incredibly bright business-minded dentist who blew away the status quo and documented his entire experience, much like some of you guys here in these forums. I read all of his experiences and holy crap, I learned a ton! I made a list of every business book he recommended and have been adding to the list whenever someone would mention one. To spare you all some details, I’ve now attended seminars, listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts, read more than 20 business books (and continue to read every day), and made some INCREDIBLE connections. I started a FB mastermind group last month for dental students to help them learn business and now have over 2000 people in the group (growing every day). I’ve been interviewed on 2 different podcasts now because of the group, and because of the podcast interviews I have developed even more relationships.
Now for what I plan on doing in the future. I wanted to hear your opinions on my options. My ultimate goal is to have sufficient income rolling in, disconnected from me working, which allows my family and me to spend our time doing whatever we want.
Option 1 - Right after dental school, move to an area with a big need for a dentist (my wife and I are willing to move just about anywhere) and purchase or startup a dental practice in that area. Grow the practice to the point where it’s profiting $500-800k. This will take 1-2 years. Continue making $500-800k for a few years, living simply, saving, paying off student and practice loans, and have a large chuck of money which I can then use for entrepreneurial pursuits of my choosing (build/buy more dental practices, real estate, build other businesses, etc.)
The downsides -
-This model revolves around me being there, doing dentistry.
-I can’t step away from the business and still have it produce that much.
The upsides -
-$500-800k per year is a lot of money.
-This option is less risky than the other option and less stressful.
-With this option, the dental practice equity will grow significantly and will be worth at least $1,000,000. I could sell the practice after a few years.
Option 2 - Right after dental school (and even before I finish), start building what’s called a Dental Services Organization (DSO). It’s a large company made up of multiple dental offices that are centrally run and operated.
The downsides -
-Potentially more stress and harder on my family
-This takes MUCH MORE coordination and focus than the previous option. Relationships with lenders, attorneys, consultants, other dentists, CPAs, dental practice brokers, etc. are so important, and it’s hard for people to take you seriously as a student. It takes a lot of work.
-It’s more difficult, but like MJ has said, opportunities that are harder produce better results.
The upsides -
-Being able to negotiate lower supply and equipment costs
-A higher valuation of each individual office compared to a single office that’s not part of a DSO (like in Option 1). If the practice in Option 1 was part of a DSO, it would sell for around $2.5 million instead of $1 million.
-Having more passive income opportunities that aren’t dependent on myself doing dentistry.
-Building a company which I could sell for a lot of $. I almost definitely wouldn’t own the entire company, but even if I owned 25% of it, and it was made up of 20 dental practices, each valued at $2.5 million, the company would sell for $50 million and I would walk away with $12.5 million.
Neither option will be easy. With both options I will be providing value to patients . . . I’m going to ensure that over-the-top customer service is the top priority in each dental practice.
I’m not looking for someone to tell me which option to choose, but I’m curious . . . based on the upsides and downsides, which would you choose?
-Daldad
PS - The Millionaire Fastlane and Uscripted are the best books I’ve read on business and entrepreneurship. They changed my mindset completely. Thank you @MJ DeMarco
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