Ownership Update #2: Balancing Frustration & Patience

What happens when your "grand opening" timeline shifts from months to years? In this episode, Mike talks about the frustrating "hurry up and wait" phase of building a practice from the ground up. From the "telephone game" of communicating through brokers to the stress of watching bank pre-approvals expire before construction even begins, this is a candid look at the delays and hurdles nobody warns you about. Whether you are currently stuck in the middle of a build-out or just beginning to scout locations, this update is a raw reminder of why a solid Plan B is just as important as your dream floor plan. 

Transcript

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What does it really mean to go into business for yourself? Is it a leap of faith? Calculate a plan? Or a bit of both? My name is Dr. Mike Lundy. And after several years of working as an associate, I'm starting my very first dental practice. Join me on the ups and downs of this journey as we uncover dental practice on our dental. One step at a time. Welcome to Ownership Awakened, the dental party. Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of Ownership Awakened. I'm your host, Dr. Mike Lundy, and I'm excited to be back chatting with you guys, giving you another update about my practice. So it's actually been a little over a month since I've chatted with you guys, and to be honest, there hasn't been too many exciting updates. This has been a hurry up and wait kind of time. And so yeah, there's just I've been feeling a lot of frustration. I've been feeling like I'm not getting this progress that I'm hoping for, feeling like I'm doing things wrong. And when I go back and talk to people, it's just part of the process of doing a brand new startup, especially because I have a landlord that I'm depending on to get permits and find their own contractors and start breaking ground. That there's a lot to that process that I don't understand. For those of you that build your own practices from the ground up, I'm sure that's a whole nother avenue that fortunately for me, I don't have to go through that somebody else is going through that with actually building the site, but it's taking an incredibly long amount of time. So just a quick recap. I did some demographic research, and in a place in southern Colorado, I found a site that's not built yet. That is going to be fantastic for a new practice. Demographics lined up, it's further away from other practices. Love the location, growing developments. It just checks off most things on the list. And then they told me that this summer the building would be ready for me to move into and to start my build-out process. Well, they've now come to tell me that it won't be ready until December, and that they are haven't even broken ground yet. So that makes me a little less optimistic that things are going to work out within the timeline that I'm hoping. I just personally feel that I need to build in just safeguards for myself and just anticipate that this build is going to take much longer than I'm expecting. So I am mentally preparing myself to not be able to open my doors until summer of 2027, which just when I say that, it just it's like, man, I was expecting this process to move a little more quickly than that. And I was, I did tell myself at one point in time that this process could take that long, but I just was worst-case scenarioing it. And I was like, there's no way that that's gonna happen, but it's happening to me. And yeah, it's just there's so much beyond my control. It's frustrating because I I don't talk directly to the landlord, I'm speaking through my broker, and so my broker speaks to their people, that's then speaks to the landlord. So there's all of these different barriers and degrees of separation between me and the person that I truly want to talk to. And it's just making communication very cumbersome. If I have any questions about my about my space that I then email my broker, who then, once again, like I said, emails them, which then they wait for the landlord, and then it just telephones itself right back to me. And yeah, I've had questions about my floor plans. I don't have exact floor plans because they're still working on some things on their end. I have a generalized outlook on what my space will look like. But the reason why that's challenging is because I want to go to contractors, I want to go to architects, I want to go to other contractors and show them my floor plans and get actual reliable estimates on what my space is going to look like, so that way I can figure out how many operatories, what they're gonna look like, then allow me to go to the supply companies and get accurate estimates on my chairs and cabinetry and all of the things so that way I can get accurate numbers, so then I can go to the bank and make sure that I'm requesting enough money. So all of this is trying to happen simultaneously, and I feel like I'm I'm waiting on the landlord to get their part figured out so then I could move forward. And then I've just been told that they're it's not that they're doing anything wrong per se, but it's just this process is taking a frustrating amount of time. So I guess I've been asking, hey, what should I be doing in the downtime? And really I've been advised a couple of things. One school of thought is just to enjoy the downtime, that you're going to be losing the you know, the simplicity of your life as you know it. And it's just I just charge up, watch movies, I just read a book, play some video games, just do something to to relax and enjoy the time. And so, you know, part of me is like, well, you don't gotta tell me twice, let's let's relax a little bit. But as I do, you know, relax and try to take advantage of the time, just in the back of my mind, I just feel like I should be doing more. And so then that brings me to when I was asking what else I could do. Well, dialing in my mission and vision, what I want my practice to look like, what my marketing will be as we open doors, what the patient experience will be like, just dialing all of that in, getting paperwork, consent forms, all of this busy work that at the moment I don't feel like I have enough information to really dial that into the level of detail that I'm eventually going to need. But I guess starting is going to save me a ton of time, and I'm gonna have so much busy work here soon that even if it's not perfect, I think I'm really going to thank myself for not starting from ground zero in a lot of these places. So it's another one of those things where I just need to start and just do something and find work, but at the same time, just enjoy life as I know it. So I don't feel like I'm doing particularly well at that, but I'm trying. The other thing that's happening is so in the beginning of this process, I got pre-approved by banks for you know my loan amount. And so then now the banks are reaching out to me saying, Hey, are you still interested in owning a practice? You've been pre-approved for a loan, but that pre-approval is going to expire within a certain amount of time, and so then I'm going to have to re-apply all over again. So I went through this whole process with the banks to get pre-approval, and I'm just gonna have to do it all over again now that time is passing by. So those pre-approvals just know that they only last for a certain period of time, and in my situation, I'm gonna have to do it again. I'm thankful that I didn't officially choose a bank just yet. That yes, they were asking and trying to move forward, and of course, why wouldn't they? They're trying to secure the business, but I just felt that hey, I'm not needing to spend any money right now, even if I know what bank I'm going with, why commit at this point in time? My finances may change, I may be able to qualify for more, or you know, it just there's no reason to solidify that at this moment since I have nothing that I need to spend. So I I just haven't signed any documents on anything. I just am wanting to wait until things are a little bit more clear and then move forward so that way I just want to have the minimal amount of skin in the game as possible until I I absolutely need to. So yeah, just another frustrating thing that I'm going to have to do over again and uh hopefully everything works out just as good, if not better. But um, you know, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. So a very, very interesting time, a very slow time, and in all honesty, I I feel like a time like this is just making me question everything, which isn't bad, but I'm also questioning my quote unquote ideal space, that is this a a sign that I need to look at other areas, and I think in part it does. I personally think that I I need to keep looking. And although I'm not worried that this deal is gonna go through and that the the practice is uh I believe the practice is going to be built and everything's going to be just fine, but with the setbacks, I I don't want there to be another six-month setback, and now I'm looking at 2028 with opening up my doors, and I I just need to make sure that I have a solid plan B, plan C. So during this time, I'm I'm not going to stop continuing to look at practices. I'm going to keep looking at options and keep everything open. So as I mentioned in my previous episodes, that hey, I'm definitely going the startup route. Well, I'm going to go with the route that makes the most sense. And I'm realizing that that is just continually evolving until I really put money down and make that final decision. So, you know, we'll we'll see. Hopefully, you guys find this helpful that I am sharing this part of my experience. I I just I wish I had better information to give you guys, but honestly, just things are moving slow and they're going to be moving slow, and I'm going to just continue to work on what I can while I'm waiting for things beyond my control to move forward. So thank you guys for tuning in. I appreciate you and looking forward to next time. Hopefully, I'll have some more exciting information to give you. But until then, thank you for joining me. Thank you for listening to this practice update. And we'll see you guys next time. Thank you for listening to today's episode of Ownership Awakened. Subscribe to hear the next part on my path to practice ownership. Follow Ownership Awakened for show updates or connect with me personally at BreeBt Dentist on all social media platforms. Wherever you're at in your ownership journey, you're not on this walk alone. Until next time, keep carving out your own path.