WHERE IS THE RIGHT PLACE FOR YOU TO BUILD YOUR DENTAL PRACTICE?
When choosing a location for a new dental office a lot of dentist get too caught up in the lease and price, but overlook other important factors. It’s important you do your research when it comes to choosing the location for your dental practice and get it right first time. The location could make or break your practice.
In this post, DMD Center would like to arm its readers with some tips in choosing the best location for establishing a dental clinic.
DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE PLACE
Pay close attention to the type of patients on the nearby dental practices that they are marketing to because these people will likely become your patients too. Some things to make note of are the following:
➢ Average Household Income and Estimated Disposable Income - By knowing this information you will be able to assess what kind of dental services you should focus on in offering in your clinic and the price range you may charge them. For example, if you are in a high income area, you may offer more of your cosmetic dental procedures since in your area the residents will have more discretionary income that they can spend. This will greatly influence that type of dental practice you may run your dental business.
➢ Population Size and It's Statistical Growth - Is the population of you area increasing or decreasing or stagnating in population size? Are more people moving in or moving out of the place? This will allow you to assess the growth as well of your practice. Of course, the more residents in your area, the better is the number of pool of your possible clients.
➢ The Average Age of the Population: The age range of the residents or population in your location is also very important because this also allows you to assess the probable treatments they may need in their oral health. For example, if your specialization is Pediatric Dentistry, it is great if you have your dental practice in a location wherein there is a growing population of families with children.
THE DENTAL GOALS
In anything we do, setting some specific goals is very important. How can you arrive in your destination if you don't even know where are you going, right? So, in your practice, you need to know your goal/s as to where you want to concentrate on your field of practice. Thus, if you have a specific dental specialization in mind, then, find a location that will have a market that have a high probability of demand on that specialization. It is true that there are patients who will come far from your location who will seek for you to have your specific services because you maybe great at it and have earned a good reputation, however, sustaining patients too far from your location will be a challenge. People tend to choose convenience first before anything else.
STUDY AND LEARN FROM YOUR COMPETITION
In any marketing research, one must know and understand their competitors as well. You need to check out what kind of dental services generally being offered by dentists who are already established on that area. You may opt either to do the same or offer something that's lacking but there might be a demand for it.
True, the best way to be great with one's work is to compete with oneself and not with others, however, the starting point of what you want to do comes first. Figuring out what you want to concentrate in your practice goes with the demand and its availability in your location, thus, knowing what's being offered, how it is being offered and the availability of these services from your competitors are important information you need to know, so, you can fully assess if your specialty and dental services you will offer will jibe with the location you would like your clinic to be.
ACCESSIBILITY DRAWS MORE CUSTOMERS
Foot traffic is very important whether online or offline. We know that with the current situation, majority of the businesses are going digital. But, the location of your clinic is still critical as after all, our actual business cannot be converted to online. Thus, convenience, comfort, visibility and access of your clinic to your market are very important. Even with social distancing and the need not to be in areas where there are so many people, our clinic still need to be in an area where there's high chance of visibility. This means it is ideal that our clinic is located near businesses where people cannot help but go and visit them, such as banks, groceries, stores and other businesses that are necessary for all of us to still do to continue living. Besides visibility, convenience and comfort to access your dental clinic are also relevant like is it near public transportation or have parking service, so, they can go to you with not much hassle.
ASSESSING YOUR NEIGHBORS
Choose a location close to businesses that compliments your practice. These businesses should have the same clean-cut and professional appearance. This will help provide your patients with a positive experience before they even walk through your door and increasing the odds of them returning back for your service.
It’s also important to study the services and products your neighboring businesses offer to see if they will work with your target clients. For example, if you’re planning on opening up a cosmetic dental office, being next door to a hardware store or tattoo parlor isn’t an ideal move. However, if you choose a location next to a spa or a derma clinic, you’re more likely to be visible to your target type of patients.
GROWTH PRACTICE POTENTIAL PREPARATION
When you plan any type of business, the plan must always include the capacity to expand otherwise you may encounter certain difficulties or challenges when that happens. For example, does the place you want to rent or buy to have your clinic situated have another space or place for you to make your clinic size bigger to accommodate a growing dental practice? When you set a location and be successful to that location, it is very challenging if you will need to move out of that location just because there's nothing nearby to expand your space. Sometimes a move to another location in order to accommodate your business growth can affect your actual business. Your patients may end up changing dentist because you are not geographically convenient for them already. Thus, keeping in mind the chance to expand when the time comes must be possible when you choose the location to start and build your dental practice.
CONCLUSION
You have heard the saying, location...location...location. That's very true in trying to build a dental practice. Let's face it, no matter how great you are as a dentist if nobody can't find you, or even want to go to your clinic because of location problem, then, your dental practice will have a hard time to flourish. Thus, studying, assessing and doing your research on the market and other factors that may affect the building and growing of your dental practice on the actual location of where you want to establish your dental practice must go beyond just knowing the price of the place you want to build your dental business.
CONTRIBUTORS:
Dr. Mary Jean Villanueva - Writer | Editor
Dr. Bryan Anduiza - Writer
