The light at the end of the tunnel!

When I set out on my journey to start my own pediatric dental practice, I had no idea how rewarding (and challenging!) it would be. Finding the balance of running both the clinical and business side of the practice, while also having enough time to spend with my family, is a constant struggle; and one that we as pediatric dentists are – truthfully - ill-equipped to handle.

Full disclosure: I was very fortunate to have my husband as a business partner from the very beginning. I happened to be married to someone with an International MBA and decades of experience running businesses. Even then, the struggle was real, and I was working 5 days a week clinically while he ran the business side of things.

It took both of us working 60+ hours per week to get our first practice off the ground. It wasn’t until then that I truly realized how difficult it is for doctors to start and manage their own practices – there simply isn’t enough time in the week to do everything well. I would speak with friends who owned their own practices and were working as an associate most of the week just to pay the rent on their new location. Just this week I saw several iPedo posts about doctors leaving the profession at 35 because the burden of ownership was just too much. Struggles with their team, insurance and billing, banking, and marketing were all too real and affected their everyday well-being and happiness.

As we continued to grow in locations and started to put enterprise-level systems in place, my life started to get easier. I almost felt guilty. My good friends were still going through the same struggle day in and day out. One of my friends went back to work 2 weeks after she gave birth because she had no other option. Another friend spent over a year trying to find good people to join his team, with little to no success.

Unfortunately, as owner-doctors we have limited options when it comes to getting help on the practice management side of things. We can either go it alone and constantly struggle with work-life balance, or we can sell out to a DSO, lose our clinical autonomy and give up what we worked so hard to build. This is why my husband and I founded Alcan Dental Cooperative. We are a direct alternative to a DSO. We are a Dental Partnership Organization (DPO) that functions as a business partner. An organization that does not require you to give up control and majority ownership to support your business operations. You need help and you shouldn’t have to give up your dream, your majority share equity and ownership, or your clinical autonomy to get it.

Alcan Dental Cooperative is uniquely qualified to be your trusted partner. Owned by practicing dentists, we can relate to the challenges of pediatric dental practice ownership. Defending the dream of being an independent dentist and owning your own practice is what we are all about. As independent practice owners ourselves, we’re devoted to protecting the profession of pediatric dentistry to preserve the legacy of our specialty for future generations.
 
Alcan Dental Cooperative is focused on providing world class support services for pediatric dental practices. Those include Operations, Accounting, Procurement, Compliance, IT, HR, Marketing and Training. Imagine having the freedom to focus on being the best pediatric dentist you can be and leaving your business operations to a long-term trusted partner.

We are playing the long game at Alcan, not looking to turn a quick profit by flipping practices in a few years (like DSO’s are) or to give you superficial feedback and leave (like consultants do). If you are in it for the long run as well, you might want to give us a call. We are creating something that improves quality of life for members of our organization while at the same time creating wealth and long-term financial prosperity for our partner doctors. Whether you are just starting to think about ownership or have been going at this for decades, there is no better time than the present to discuss your future. Together we can create the ownership experience you’ve always dreamed of; one with a manageable (dare I say enjoyable!) work-life balance, and proven systems that add value to your practice, team, patients and community.

You can call our director of business development, Randy Smith at any hour- 630- 549-5509

Best Wishes,
Alcan Dental Cooperative Founders
Dr. Alex Otto, Board Certified Pediatric Dentist
Tim Otto, IMBA

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