**Challenges of Practice Ownership – PART 2**
In part one, I covered some of the things you need to know if you are considering ownership.
In this part, I continue with more of what you need to be prepared for from the get go.
4. Unless you have a strong ability to delegate, work doesn’t end after your last patient of the day.
I’ve stated this in many posts and articles over the years. Learn to delegate. Doing everything yourself is not business ownership – it’s basically just buying yourself a job (albeit possibly a higher paying one with a little more autonomy). There is no need for you to be doing tasks that you can pay someone else to do at a fraction of a dentists hourly rate.
Some people argue that they can do the job better. Really? You think you can do bookkeeping better than a qualified bookkeeper?
5. Failure to take breaks and burning out.
Again, leading off the above point, and something I’ve written about extensively, new owner’s work ridiculous hours sometimes and go long periods of time without taking holidays. This will lead to burnout (it did for me). There was a time I was doing 50 and 60 hour clinical weeks. Nowadays I’m lucky if I can work 30 days in a year.
My wife and I also agreed to get on a plane and go somewhere every 6-8 weeks and up until we had kids, we were quite consistent with doing this.
6. Equipment issues
When the compressor goes down on a Saturday morning and you have two full books of patients and approx $6,000 of turnover, this is your headache now. These issues are always worse when you first become an owner. Overtime, you won’t even bat an eyelid.
If you have enjoyed this post, please like share or comment below.
We are only 6 weeks away from my next practice ownership course in Brisbane where I will cover everything you need to know to buy or start a practice in detail. https://www.practiceownership.com.au/seminars/