It used to be that successful dental practices were located close to the practitioners home, in absolutely invisible, windowless, upstairs, collective medical professional office space, open 8:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday – and with restricted pay parking. New patient traffic was driven by referral alone and chair time was booked months in advance.

Times have changed. Like it or not, oral health care is now a retail enterprise.

The current competitive environment requires a different strategy to maximize the sales volume of your practice. Today, practices need to be positioned in a retail context, which really means effectively marketing your services. By effectively marketing your services, your available treatment capacity will be filled. For example, you need to respond to the industry pressure to offer competitive fees for services, prepare to treat prospective patients armed with unrealistic media inspired expectations related to treatment possibilities and costs, and develop alternate modes to supplement or replace new patient traffic formerly provided by loyal referral sources. Without sufficient new patient volume, the practice becomes progressively less and less profitable, and more and more difficult to sell.

Used properly, the most powerful and cost effective marketing tool to address these market changes, and to increase new patient volume, is the physical location of your practice. Your challenge is to identify and implement practice location updates which will make your practice competitive.

Consider the locations of successful retailers and your competition. Their locations:

• are conveniently located close to where their patrons live
• are conveniently located at a destination such as the grocery store or mall
• are able to operate hours of their choice enabling early, late or weekend appointments
• offer free, unrestricted and convenient parking
• are located at convenient public transportation stops such as bus or subway
• are directly visible to large numbers of potential patients
• are located at street level in the correct real estate type
• are associated with highly visible, tasteful; and appropriate signage
• are designed to meet the expectations of patrons who are influenced by television, internet and print media to expect:

• efficient and appropriate premises size and appearance
• convenient premises layout
• modern premises decoration
• state of the art consulting facility, which performs an equivalent function to a sales office

If you think the cost of relocation is too expensive, compare these costs to the losses you will experience by your current and future reduced practice sales volume and reduced price when you sell your practice. Spread over a 15 year period, the combined construction and increased rent cost is very roughly $25 per square foot which for a 1,500 square foot practice equates to $2,500 per month. If new patient traffic equals or offsets this cost, then the cost is an investment with a positive return. Typically, clients report a permanent increase of 20 to 50 new patients per month following a move from office to retail space. At a net gain of 10 patients per month, the practice would grow by 1800 patients increasing sales to roughly $500,000 per year, over the same 15 year period.

Understand that investment in your premises location is an investment in the future of your practice, not an expense. Successful retail chains employ dedicated professionals whose only job is to look for and secure the best locations on the best possible terms and conditions.

Take control of your future. Book a consultation with a knowledgeable real estate professional to identify:

1. realistic opportunities to adjust your current practice location to become more competitive until you relocate

2. a realistic time line and the budget required to relocate your practice into more suitable and competitive premises, and

3. alternate practice locations which will improve your strategic position.

Based on more than 20 years business experience Mr. Toms, B.Sc. (Hons) acts as a tenant advocate on behalf of select retail and professional tenant clients primarily in the Greater Toronto Area. Mr. Toms is licensed as a Real Estate Broker and can be reached at (705) 743-1220, by e-mail at iantoms@pipcom.com , or through his web site at: www.iantoms.com

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