What is Demographics and How Can it Help You START A DENTAL PRACTICE?

MD: David, tell us a little more about you, your company, and what you stand for.

DJ: I got approached by somebody in the dental industry that was frustrated with the fact that location is so important to the whole (practice startup) process for dentists.  As a matter of fact, it’s probably the most important factor that’s going to determine how successful a practice is.

I did my research on the industry and realized there weren’t many tools available that were easily accessible, web-based, and could actually bring the technology down from these massive fortune 500 companies to the small business owner like a dentist… who could access it affordably, and have access to the best data.

Start with Demographics

DJ: What I found when I was talking to dentists who were going through the process, most of them would either call a commercial broker right off the bat, or they would get in their car and they would just drive around, looking for a busy corner or an intersection. But there’s a research process that we can go through in order to find the right pockets to focus on upfront. Rather than just driving around and looking at buildings.

5-Step Process

MD: What are the top 5 things you look for when you’re picking a good location

DJ: To me, the ratio is the first step (the number of dentists relative to the total population).

Step number two we’re going to be looking at is based on household income. You don’t want us to get a result of the top 10 locations where 9 of them are in the slums.

The third step, Is this area a good fit for the dentist? Does he see himself living there, working there, does it (have) the right kind of schools, is it the right kind of families, that sort of thing.

Only once you pass the first three steps you go to the fourth step, which is then a deep dive on demographics, because there is NO REASON to pay for a full demographic study if the competition is terrible, the doctor doesn’t want to live close by.

You can overcome poor demographics if you find an area with low competition ratios, or even mediocre demographics. But on the flipside if that competition ratio is 800 people per dentist, you are going to struggle. That affects your business plan because in those areas you’re going to have to allocate 2, 3, 4-times the amount of marketing just to compete in that market.

Lastly, the fifth and final step, you go to your commercial real estate broker to find a property.

Use Data to FIND THE PERFECT LOCATION

These snippets are just scratching the surface of demographics. They discuss more specifics on how good data determines the viability of specific locations for dentists to startup in. With a demographics study, much of the guesswork is taken out of how successful a practice will be. thanks to data-driven insights it’s easy to find areas that will make our investment less risky and more profitable.

With Next Level Consultants, getting access to resources like demographics studies is just one of the many tools we offer. Before you invest your time, money, and effort into buying, building, or renting a practice, we help guarantee success before any contracts are signed.

Reach out to learn more about everything we discussed on in theis podcast and how it could apply to your situation. You can reserve a time to have a one-on-one conversation with Michael Dinsio by contacting us today.