Thursday, April 10, 2014

New Dental Practice: The Question of Location




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.

For more on choosing a location and The Profitability of Dentistry, download our free eBook!



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