When Is it Time to Start Thinking of Partnership as A Dental Entrepreneur?
When my partner, Jack Bayramyan, was ready to start looking for funding for his vision for scaling his previous organization, Kids Dental Place, he ended up “kissing a lot of frogs.” But the challenges didn’t start there. Let’s back up. Dr. Jack had reached the capacity of what he was capable of delivering as a leader. How did he know that and what gave him the ability to be that honest with himself about next steps for his dental practice organization?
He had looked around, realized the ground was fertile for a partnership and he was inspired to meet the challenge of creating and collaborating within the boundaries of a true partnership organization, one that put the dental entrepreneur at the center of his vision and strategic plan for growth.
When he began to build upon his vision, he soon realized that growing his vision to scale was beyond his capacity to do it alone. He needed a partner. So, how do you know it’s time for a partner?
Jack Bayramyan in his own words –
Designing Your Vision to Scale Your Dental Practice
How did Jack know it was time to bring a partner into the process? He started with a vision. Jack took the time to write his vision out, fully fleshing out his ideas, his goals and his current Point A, where he was starting from and what he was starting with.
Once he had fully engineered a vision for his company, seeing on paper the list of assets he currently had, seeing the challenges he faced in scaling, and seeing exactly where he wanted to go, his Point B, he had the realization that he couldn’t do it alone.
This was a big realization. Assessing your business, while also assessing your own talents, leadership capabilities and skillset takes a certain amount of courage and humility. It’s very easy, as an entrepreneur, to get into an “I can do it by myself” mentality. But this flexion point, where your business is growing slightly beyond your capacity to continue to shepherd that growth is where many entrepreneurs get stuck and then they get overwhelmed.
The risk of not being honest with yourself and trying to keep doing it all alone is that in your state of overwhelm you may take on a partner that is not the best fit for your practice.
Realizing you need a partner only comes after assessing your true point A, the assets you have access to and where you want to go. Once those questions have been answered and you can soberly look at the state of your company or vision on paper and you’ll know whether you need a partner to help you scale. You gotta write it down to make an honest assessment.
A Vision for Scaling Your Dental Organization. Now What?
Jack had the vision, but he knew he needed more. He was facing 1.5million a month in payroll alone. He needed capital, leadership, as well as business systems. You can’t just pop down to the corner store for that shopping list. He started meeting with investment bankers and private equity financiers. As meetings progressed, he realized there was no one serious. They were “flirting,” hinting at a possible “second date” but nothing concrete. But he also realized something else, no one he was meeting with was matching his values or his leadership style, nor were they interested in or open to even discussing those types of subjects. There was one discussion on the table, money. That wasn’t good enough for Jack.
So, he actually stepped back from taking meetings with investors to reassess his goals. Jack told his banker not to take any more meetings unless the discussions were going to go in a different direction. This sparked my curiosity. I had learned a bit about Jack’s organization and wanted to know more. But the thing that excited me the most was the very thing that everyone else was not talking about with Jack. And that is part 2 in this series about the power of partnership. Stay tuned!
Are you interested in partnership? Have you given thought to scaling your dental practice organization? Do you have the resources to make those changes? Our assessment will give you a clear-eyed view of the state of your organization and how it fits into your vision. Take our free assessment to find out how to get from point A to point B with a partner that wants for you what you want for you. We believe the future of dentistry belongs with dentists.