In part one of this little series, I described the background of the Digital Dental Entrepreneurial Program.
In this blog, I want to go deeper into that and tell you what kind of experience we have as a team to give us the arrogance, confidence, or downright stupidity to try to present a course like this to people from all around the world.
It's worth going back to 2008 when I was working as an associate for a husband-and-wife team over two practices (that weren't particularly nice at all in any way), both of which were running at about 85% NHS, with me being the vast, vast majority of the independent income.
Over approximately 11 years, I built an oral surgery referral business as an associate within that business.
I had my own associates providing oral surgery on a 33/33/33 split with my principal.
I obtained one of the first oral surgery contracts in the United Kingdom and developed a dental implant service providing 250 dental implant placements per year (I also had an associate providing restorative implant treatment for my boss and I).
In 2008, my boss and his wife came to my house under the umbrella of discussions regarding a new oral surgery contract in a different geographical area.
That night, they told me they had sold the business to integrated dental holdings (MyDentist), who would be taking control three weeks from now.
They asked me to sign a contract for IDH for 18 months to maximise the value of the transfer.
I left with basically immediate effect and catapulted myself into a world of complete uncertainty, with a future which was dark and unclear compared to the one which seemed to be so obvious only days before.
I found myself as an associate with a view to buy, and then in 2009, I found myself with two dental businesses, one a completely private practice (very, very small) and one an NHS specialist practice in Derbyshire, which was small but developing quickly.
Over the next 5 to 7 years, I would immerse myself in all aspects of business and dental business, paying (my now great friend and colleague) Chris Barrow £36,000 over 18 months to mentor myself and my teams into a better place of dental business understanding.
I immersed myself in all aspects with different coaches and mentors, courses and reading to come out of the other side (continuing to learn every single day) with a greater understanding of what is required to try to develop a dental business and move forward.
Since I took over as a partner in 2009, my business has grown 20 times.
I have started three new businesses (plus property companies and holding companies).
I have sold one business, and I have developed an £8.5 million commercial property development to house The Campbell Academy.
Moving on from here, we have plans to double the group profit again, but through all of this, I understand exactly what it's like to start from scratch and also exactly what it's like to almost lose everything trying to get to a better place (May 2020 when we were out of time and out of money).
All of this is distilled into the material, the coaching, and the understanding of what it's like for our colleagues on a day-to-day basis to try to be good dentists, kind people, parents, partners, and friends and still run a dental business.
If you want to stop typing letters to patients at nine o'clock at night in front of Netflix, then the start might be the Digital Dental Entrepreneurial Program starting on the 6th of October, 2023.
Blog Post Number - 3540