One of your
main items in the “pro” column for opening your own dental practice might be
the flexibility to live where you want. Rather than moving yourself to fit into
an existing practice, you can make the decision as to where you’d like to live
and work. Now, that’s not to say you should just plop down a dental practice at
the first location you stumble across—on the contrary, the question of where to
build your new dental practice is one that requires careful consideration.
Maybe you’d like to open a practice in the town where you grew up. Maybe you’re
looking to move somewhere new and exciting. With either option, you need to
carefully consider the choices available to you and how they might affect the success
of your new business.
First Thing First: Who Are
You Marketing To?
Identifying
the who of your dental practice is the first step is figuring
out the where. For instance, if you plan to market to families with
a specialty in pediatric dentistry, you probably don’t want to open your
practice in the middle of a city—in the suburbs and near neighborhoods might be
more your style. On the other hand, if you’re looking to build a client base of
business professionals, a city office would make perfect sense. Ask yourself
these three questions to establish just who your dental
practice is marketed toward:
ü What style of practice am I interested
in owning?
ü What subset of people is most likely to
choose this type of practice?
ü Where does my practice need to be to reach
that certain subset of people?
Once you
answer those three questions, you’ll have a better idea of how to answer the
broader aspect to the question of location. Now that you have a general idea of
where you’d like to open your dental practice (for example, city versus
suburb), it’s time to narrow down a specific location.
Three Aspects to Consider
When Choosing a Specific Location
While there
are certainly more than three aspects to consider when deciding what type of
space you should lease for your dental practice, we’ve compiled a short list of
qualities that will be important to your patients—and are often easy to
overlook.
Can you see the building
and/or sign from the road? Visibility is huge
when you’re starting out as a new practice. You need prospective patients to
notice your information as they pass by, particularly if your building is “on
their way” to somewhere they go every day, such as work or to pick their child
up from school. Proximity is a large consideration for patients when choosing a
dental practice, so make sure they know you’re there.
Does the building have
easy access? Your patients are likely to be
busy people and the last thing they’ll want to do after a dental visit is sit
and wait at a busy intersection to turn out of your office. Ease of entrance
and exit are both aspects of your patients having an overall good experience.
To really ensure that traffic won’t be an issue, try turning in and out of your
building during several different times of day when traffic could potentially be
heavy.
Is there ample parking? No one wants to drive circles around your building
looking for a parking spot when they’re trying to make their appointment time.
Make sure you have enough parking for the daily patient influx you’re planning
to accommodate.
Now that you
have carefully considered the location of your building, we’ll be back later
this week with dental office design tips for your practice.
#jointherevo #dentalpractice #practiceownership
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