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Dr. Steven Guelff: Financial Mistake
62 Plays5 months ago
Discover the power of a strong professional team, continuous training, and valuable mentorship.
Get essential tips on managing debt and finding the right workplace for growth.
About the Guest:
Dr. Steven Guelff is a seasoned dental professional with nearly three decades of experience in the field. Known for his profound expertise and dedication to patient care, Dr. Guelff has excelled in dental and orthodontic practices. His career is distinguished by continuous learning and mentoring, which has deeply impacted the dental community. He is recognized for his ability to foster strong relationships within the industry, contribute to professional development, and advocate for balanced personal and professional lives.
Episode Summary:
In this enlightening episode, Tanya Sue Maestas engages with Dr. Steven Guelff, delving deep into the financial aspects of scaling an orthodontic practice. Dr. Guelff emphasizes the importance of being well-educated about business and finance, sharing his personal experiences and the critical role of having a trusted network of professionals, including attorneys, accountants, and financial planners. His philosophy underscores the significance of continuous improvement and the impactful role of a dedicated team.
The discussion also touches upon the pressing issue of debt among new dental graduates and the hurdles they face in securing practice ownership in today's financial climate. Dr. Guelff advocates for mentoring as a pivotal solution, drawing from his own beneficial experiences as an associate and mentee. He urges new practitioners to prioritize mentorship over immediate financial gain when choosing their initial career placements, highlighting the long-term benefits of growth and learning.
Key Takeaways:
- Importance of a Professional Network: Building a team of reliable professionals such as attorneys, accountants, and financial planners is crucial for making informed business decisions.
- Value of Continuous Improvement: Striving for continuous improvement, even by just 1% each day, can lead to significant enhancements over time.
- Financial Burden on New Graduates: High debt levels and rising interest rates pose substantial challenges for new dental graduates looking to start their own practices.
- Power of Mentorship: Seeking out mentorship from experienced practitioners can provide invaluable guidance and pave the way for future success.
- Beyond the Money: Evaluating potential job opportunities should go beyond salary considerations, focusing on team culture, technological use, and growth potential.
Connect with Ignitedds: @ignitedds
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Learn more about Well Received: wellreceived.com/ignitedds
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Dental Fuel, the podcast that focuses on what no one else is talking about. Mistakes. The dental world is full of before and afters and no one is talking about the middle. Dental Fuel brings you the unspoken in-between. Welcome back to another episode of Dental Fuel. This episode of Dental Fuel is brought to you by Well-Received. Did you know 69% of patients say they would switch providers for a better experience?
Enhancing Patient Experience
00:00:26
Speaker
To level up your practice, you need to ensure your patient experience is better than your competitors. So where do you start? From the very first hello. While received is a 24-7 answering service for dental practices. Their team of professional receptionists are on hand 24-7 to support your callers. That's day and night.
00:00:46
Speaker
365 days a year. Set your practice apart by guaranteeing your patient's calls are answered quickly and by a real person every single time. Ready to level up your patient experience? As a dental fuel listener, you can enjoy an exclusive 50% off your first three months of service. Head to wellreceived.com slash IgniteDDS to get started. How sweet is Dr. Gelf? And he's back this week with some more advice and another mistake.
Financial Insights with Dr. Gelf
00:01:14
Speaker
In this episode, he deep dives into the financial aspect of scaling an orthodontic practice and the importance of being business savvy. He also talks about the importance of having a trusted network of professionals surrounding you. And of course, we have our next mistake, a financial mistake. Let's tune in. Um, leaning into our our next mistake.
00:01:35
Speaker
Tell me a little bit about a financial mistake that you've made and how you work through that. And I'm curious if you had any have had any financial issues as you scale your practices. ah Yeah, so ah first of all, I have a PhD that means I'm poor hungry and driven Okay, and i I have been broke before and I think that gives you a certain edge Okay, where you're gonna learn as much as you can about business and money and things like that um
00:02:09
Speaker
I think it's really important to surround yourself with ah ah with a group of great professionals, okay? That you need to have a ah super attorney, you need to have an excellent accountant and a great financial planner. um And I think that is really, ah really critical, especially as you're sizing and scaling your practice, okay? And you're gonna lean on those people for great information. but ultimately mentally the decision, whatever decision you make is yours, okay? And so you yourself have to become as educated and as informed as possible. um I would also say that um
00:02:49
Speaker
And this kind of leads into another, ah maybe another question later.
Maximizing Team Assets
00:02:52
Speaker
But you have to realize that you're the greatest asset that any business has is their team, okay, and our team. And we don't call it our staff, we call it our team. So it's the G team in my office. And you're always training, you're always getting better. You have to have you have to be willing to to tweak things and, ah Just have the continuous, continuously strive to improve, okay? And try to get better 1% every day. And if you get do that for 100 days, you're gonna be greater than 100% better than where you started. So, but your team is so important. and And it actually makes a big difference with your finance financially of how you're teamed in your office, okay? So, it's actually in any dental office, it's the probably the greatest expense that you have is your team, right?
00:03:43
Speaker
Were there any courses or have there been any courses that you've taken that really have been influential on the finance side of things?
Mentorship and Growth Opportunities
00:03:52
Speaker
Yes, I think, first of all, I think there's a great power in mentoring. okay So if you if you surround yourself with other people that have been successful, I think that's a really great place to start, especially for a younger orthodontist. I would try to seek counsel from an older orthodontist and see what they've done. ah But also, I was a member of ah of a orthodontic study group called the Shulman Group.
00:04:18
Speaker
And the Shulman Group was an orthodontic business group ah created by Bud Shulman back in, I think, the mid 1980s. And I had been a member of that since 2016. And I'll tell you, the the relationships that I developed in that ah group were instrumental in the way that I run my practice today. Yeah. And their motto is success through sharing. and what a great business group and great people.
00:04:53
Speaker
In your opinion, with students coming out with so much debt and maybe not having the knowledge about how to run their personal finances but also run the finances of a practice, what do you think is the Biggest struggle for new dentists now coming out and looking to start their own practices?
Financial Challenges for New Dentists
00:05:16
Speaker
I think the biggest issue for them is debt. I think the average dental student's probably carrying ah probably somewhere around four or five hundred thousand dollars of debt. OK.
00:05:26
Speaker
And interest rates have continued to go up. And so that's definitely a thing. And banks really aren't lending money like they used to. And then you also have the DSO thing where some of your larger practices, of course, they're not going to be able to buy because those folks are probably looking towards a DSO kind of thing. So I think it's the perfect storm right now. and And I think think one of the best things that I can recommend is get some great mentoring. When I first came out of orthodontic school, I came on and I i was an associate for one year with a doctor named Dr. Richard Carlson here in Sebring, Florida. And the next year, he sold me the practice, okay which was which was great for me. and But I think there's fewer opportunities like that right now than there were
00:06:18
Speaker
years ago, unfortunately. But I think there is, in the right situation, you want to get, I think the young doctors that are graduating need mentoring more than anything. That's what they need. And, you know, when you graduate from dental school, you just have a license to learn. Okay. I remember I was, been there, did that one. And I worked at a VA hospital for a year as a GPR and did private practice for a short period of time. And but that was great experience. And then also being with Dr. Carlson for a year, great, great experience for me. I learned lots of things from him and I'm eternally grateful to him and his wife, ah Mary, and they treated me like one of the kids, so.
Mentorship Considerations
00:07:01
Speaker
What will your recommendation be for new dentists coming out who are looking for a mentor? What should they be looking for?
00:07:08
Speaker
I think that they you know when we get when we look for someplace to work, ah you know money is really an important thing because you know you need to pay your bills, you have to pay your student loans, and you need a home and a place to live and everything, but it shouldn't be the number one reason why you're going to go work someplace, right? There's a whole lot of other things. You want to look at the culture of the business that you're working with maybe as an associate. You want to look at their team. You want to look at ah the mentoring that you're going to get and the patience and the location where you're going to be at and the technology that's being used in the office. And is there an opportunity to grow? you know is it you know Am I going to be able to grow in this place? And I think these are all really important questions that
00:07:54
Speaker
young doctors should ask themselves. So it's just not about the money, you know. so Great
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:08:02
Speaker
advice. Are you ready to level up your patient experience? Be sure to visit wellreceived.com slash ignite DDS to find out how you can master patient communication and offer exceptional service 24 seven 365 days a year. while getting valuable time back to focus on growing your practice. Are you enjoying our conversation with Dr. Gelf? Well, tune in next week with another mistake. If you're enjoying the Dental Fuel Podcast, make sure that you like and rate our podcast on all major podcast platforms. And check us out on social media. You can find us on Instagram at DentalFuel and at IgniteDDS.