The Thriving Dentist Show

Dental practice valuation has changed, and the old rule of 75 to 80% of collections no longer holds. Gary Takacs explains what buyers and lenders look at today: owner compensation at about 30% of collections, then profit valued at five to six times EBITDA. He covers add-backs, why the lender may set your price, and the five areas every buyer studies. A practice that is 82% PPO is worth far less than one at 30%. Naren Arulrajah shares the marketing that keeps its value at sale time, including 10 or more five-star Google reviews a month.

Most dentists believe their dental practice overhead is under control. Gary Takacs scrubbed the P&L of a two-doctor practice that said exactly that, and found $7,000 a month going straight back to profit. He walks through where it hid: software subscriptions still billing after they were replaced, merchant services fees that had never been shopped, supplies bought on Amazon, and a $169 bouquet that now costs $29.95. Gary also sets the benchmarks for team compensation, lab, and supplies and puts a number on PPO write-offs: $44,750 a month in one office. Naren explains why social media rarely brings new patients. Book a free marketing strategy meeting: thrivingdentist.com/msm/ Book a free coaching strategy meeting with Gary: thrivingdentist.com/csm

Dental patient financing is in nearly every practice, and Gary Takacs says very few offices use it to grow. On The Thriving Dentist Show, Gary and Naren Arulrajah compare dentistry with the car market, where 83% of new cars are financed. Gary makes the case against in-house financing and puts CareCredit's 9.9% discount rate next to the real cost of a lost case. He also shares the treatment coordinator question that improves case acceptance. Naren explains why affordable implant keywords backfire and why paid ads need landing pages with real proof, starting with dental video testimonials. Reserve your complimentary marketing strategy meeting: https://www.thrivingdentist.com/msm/ Book a free coaching strategy meeting with Gary: thrivingdentist.com/csm

Should your practice hire offshore dental team members? Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah take the question on. Gary's 2018 test put a trained remote team member on his phones when the office was missing close to 30% of calls during business hours. The standard today is 10% or lower. They cover dental insurance verification, revenue cycle management, rising staff compensation, and the 28 to 30% wage target. Naren, who hires 1 in every 100 applicants, explains why remote staff need buttoned-down systems.

Is a dental practice partnership the right practice model for you? Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah cover the benefits of the partnership model, from lower associate turnover to a 3-day doctor week. They also explain how to vet a potential partner before any equity changes hands. Learn why partnerships don't have to be 50/50, the $5,000 decision-making rule that replaced a 98-page legal agreement, and why too few patients is the number one reason partnerships fail. Plus, Naren shares how to futureproof your dental marketing in an AI-driven world. Book a free marketing strategy meeting: thrivingdentist.com/msm Book a free coaching strategy meeting with Gary: thrivingdentist.com/csm

Should you run Google Ads for your dental practice? Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah settle paid search vs organic SEO: why ad patients cost 5 to 10 times more, the four cases where Google Ads make sense, the 15% cap on ad management fees, and the five ways dentists waste ad budget. Book a free marketing strategy meeting at ekwa.com/td or a free coaching session with Gary at thrivingdentist.com/csm.

Two thirds of dentists in the largest private dental Facebook group said they would not advise their own son or daughter to become a dentist. Gary Takacs reads that as a work-life balance problem and argues balance may be the wrong goal. Gary and Naren Arulrajah separate work-life balance from work-life integration: a practice you enjoy so much you have no reason to escape it. They work through Dan Sullivan's three-year question, and Gary makes the case that three clinical days can produce what four produces now. Plus Dr. Kristin Yont's 30-second chairside reset and Naren's marketing tip on Google reviews and call conversion. Marketing Strategy Meeting: https://ekwa.com/td Coaching Strategy Meeting with Gary: https://thrivingdentist.com/csm

Dental practice scheduling is the difference between a $2,000 day and a $7,000 day in the same eight hours. One solo dentist saw 41 patients and finished feeling like he'd been run over by a Mack truck. Gary Takacs gives five specific scheduling recommendations - a defined daily production goal, a dedicated scheduling coordinator, rock production blocks, new patient blocks, and protected time to fill the schedule - then walks through the two-column template hour by hour. Naren Arulrajah opens with the three-marketing metrics every dentist should check monthly.

Dental practice cybersecurity is a patient-retention problem, not an IT problem. Health and Human Services counts a ransomware infection as a reportable breach, and Dr. Lorne Lavine has watched practices lose a quarter of their patients after mailing that notification letter. He and Naren cover why an out-of-date operating system is a HIPAA violation by definition, why patient information can never go into ChatGPT, and what AI search is doing to how patients choose a dentist. Dr. Lavine is offering listeners a complimentary security audit, no cost and no obligation: https://thedigitaldentist.com/call See how your practice shows up in AI search — book a Complimentary Marketing Strategy Meeting (Gift for our listeners) : https://ekwa.com/td Gary is taking new coaching clients (Reserve Your Free call): https://thrivingdentist.com/csm

Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah on the startup vs acquisition decision that shapes a dental career. The three situations where a startup actually makes sense, and why most dentists do not qualify for any of them. A real coaching client who was collecting $700,000 on $1 million in production, replaced $300,000 in annual PPO write-offs with $15,000 in Ekwa SEO marketing, and grew collections to $1 million in year one. The 35-year client story on why you connect with patients before you renovate. The financial comparison: organic SEO at $60 per patient versus paid ads at $300 to $400. Plus Dr. Darryl Burke on the three essential CBCT views for every implant case.