BY DR SIMON HOCKEN
Not everyone wants to (or can afford to) shop in John Lewis and yet many practice owners position their practices at this level with fees to match.
Recently, I’ve visited several practices that have found considerable success by positioning themselves as a more affordable private practice (with a complete private journey, not just up-selling private options to NHS patients).
They have created a group of private patients (1,750-2,250 active patients per dentist) who are willing to pay around £140-£170/hour for their dentistry, creating an average patient value of £120-£150/year.
The dentists relish working with a very high throughput of between 40 and 60 patients a day, booking short, sharp appointments (five or 10-minute check-ups) and they create a gross of between £220k and £280k/dentist/year.
These practices are generally located in amongst the population they serve (a suburb or large housing estate) and are highly valued by their catchment who consider their excellent service to be remarkable. The owners operate at a low cost base and reliably produce a profit of circa 30 per cent of gross.
There’s a great business to be had by positioning your practice at this level, providing you can create a hard working team. Don’t believe the coaches who tell you that the only place to hang out is boutique…
What do you think? Share your thoughts and connect with me on LinkedIn or drop me a line if you’d like some help setting up a high volume, low cost model 0845 299 7209.