What Do You Look for in A Partner as A Dental Entrepreneur?
Do you own a dental practice? Are you looking for a partner? Keep reading…I knew that Jack Bayramyan’s organization was a cut above. I would be lucky to partner with him. His organization had the chops: standardization, the organization, teamwork, team culture and optimized systems. No other company we looked at was even near the level of optimization and expertise that Kids Dental Place was providing to its patients.
What I didn’t know about Jack was his level of commitment to that optimization, service and culture. I didn’t know until I got into a room with him and sat down and spoke with him. From his telling all I wanted to talk about was his team culture, how he built it, the values he used to guide his team building efforts, etc. And that tracks. As the CEO of several healthcare companies, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about these very subjects for myself and my teams. It’s a very important piece of leadership for me. But it isn’t for everyone.
Many leaders, CEOs and executives don’t give a hoot about those questions or intricacies of an organization when they start talking about partnership to outside investors. And that’s fine. But a word of warning, don’t go into partnership with one of them if they don’t match your values, interests or commitment.
When looking for a partner for your dental practice, look for someone who shares your values, your leadership style and your interest in team building as a priority and a commitment. So, how do you do that and is that enough?
The Power of Partnership – Part 2
Are Shared Values Enough for a Dental Practice Partnership?
But are shared values and an interest in team culture enough for a partnership? As you heard in the video, they are most definitely not. I went in, excited to meet Jack and find out more about his company. Then almost like a first date, we just started talking and couldn’t stop. I could tell we shared a lot of the same passions around cohesive team structure, service excellence, leadership style. But during the interview I found out he wasn’t expecting to stick around. That came as a shock to me, and I needed to dig in and find out more.
So, we sat in that room, and I got to the bottom of what Jack’s plans, goals and ultimate vision for his life and organization actually were before taking the next steps. And that’s my advice to you. Don’t stop talking to prospective partners. Find people that match your interests, goals and passions. Discuss all those fun topics, but don’t stop there. Dig into the hard conversations. It’s important to ask hard questions to gauge and know where they’re at and what they want and be honest with where you’re at and what you want. Here are some great examples of hard questions to ask your prospective partners:
Questions to Ask As a Dental Entrepreneur:
- What are your 3-5 year goals for your company?
- What are your 3-5 year goals for yourself, personally?
- Are you interested in scaling your business?
- What does your personal and executive calendars look like?
- How many hours a week do you work?
- How many hours a week do you want to work in the future?
- What are your professional values for your company?
- What personal values overlap with your company values?
- What is your leadership style?
- Who are your business heroes?
- Who are your personal heroes?
Some of these questions will come up naturally during the course of your conversations and some of them will need to be prompted and pointedly asked. But that’s ok. It’s kind of like going on a date and gauging whether this will be a person you will spend the rest of your life with. Will you have kids with this person? Do they want kids? What values will you instill in them? Etc.
If you’re looking for a partner whose only value is the money they can put on the table, then honestly, that’s not a terribly hard search. They may or may not accept an offer from you but finding those kinds of partners is not difficult. What’s difficult is meeting and connecting with someone who shares your vision, values and commitment to building something that becomes a legacy, not just a cash cow.
When Is it Not Enough for Your Dental Practice?
But shared values, as I stated, is not enough. You need to figure out if you’re a right match in terms of vision and getting to Point B. What is their Point B? Where do they want the organization to go? Honestly, it wasn’t until Jack and I met and clicked that he saw an alternative future where he was more involved and excited about the future because he knew he had a true partner. So, take your time, ask the hard questions, not just of them but yourself. Get clear on what you want, and just as importantly, what you don’t want. And then start dating. 😊
Are you actively looking for a partner for your dental practice? Optimize Practice Services is a full-service DPO and consulting organization whose mission is keeping the future of dentistry within the hands of dentists. What does that mean? It means that we believe in designing partnerships that are led by your vision and we lend our leadership to making that vision your reality.
Take our free assessment to find out if OPS is the right partner for you.