This one's for the business owners out there! Kiera discusses all things overhead — what's normal, what's high, how to lower it, and what overhead even means in the first place. She then goes into specific tips of what it takes to lower that overhead quickly and responsibly.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and oh I hope you're ready for today's podcast today's podcast is one that I Love but you might not love it But guess what after today you're going to love it and you're going to know why because this is an episode for the business owners out there and office managers and team members guys, I

Love, love, love, love, love talking about overhead. What's normal, what's high and how to lower your overhead and what does overhead even mean? And I know that this is something where maybe you've heard it in the past and guess what? One of the greatest tools to learning is remembering. And so today I'm gonna walk you through how we get overhead and how we're able to lower it fast. ⁓ I have found when consulting hundreds and hundreds of offices, the number one pain point is cashflow. We actually just created ⁓ like,

amazing little graph and document of how offices are looking at things and how we, this is like just a pyramid. And if you guys are watching, we're going to see how good I do. Gosh, I'm not, okay, Paul, it's not pretty enough. I won't share it yet, but we actually built this like pyramid to show kind of a proven path from chaos to control and how we go.

Like what is the base layer that causes offices the most amount of stress and how it goes up. so base layer of this triangle is cashflow and profit stability. Then after that, it's time delegation or removing the doctors a bottleneck. Then we go up to systems and consistency. Then we do leadership and CEO transition, and then it's legacy and optionality. So, and this was like really fun because I like put it all together and I was like, okay, guys, I figured out what causes Dennis the most. Like we're talking hundreds and thousands of offices and putting it together.

And then our marketing team was amazing and Paul, shout out to him, he took it and he was like, all right, here, here you go. This is what it is. And what I looked at is so many people come in and like, here, we need systems, like, because we don't have cash. So they think that the systems will get them the cash, but knowing the right system. And this is oftentimes where it feels like whack-a-mole is we're putting in the wrong system, trying to get the outcome. And so it's like putting in the correct lever to be able to move. And then you're like, well, I need a leadership team.

But if you're on cashflow row, you're not thinking about a leadership team. You're like, I gotta get out of the burning bush. But if you're on cashflow positive, you're like, gosh, I'm just like stuck in all the weeds. Well, great, we need like to build you a leadership team and we need to get systems in place for you. And we need to look at which systems are not working. And so that's why I wanted to go into overhead for you today of how, like what is overhead and how is it working for me or against me? And how do I get this down fast, AKA more profit for you. And that's not because we wanna be rich and like,

whatever, I want you to actually be very wealthy. You like put in a lot of time and effort, but we want you to be making profit as a business. If you're not making money, it's a hobby and it's a liability and it's stressful. And we need to get you out of that stress zone so you can do the best dentistry, the best care. So when I look at offices, a lot of times they're not under producing, they might be overspending. And when I look at profitability, there's three levers. We need to produce more, collect more, or reduce our spending. are the three ways to get there.

And so that's how we're gonna look at these. Those three make more profit. So when I look at this and when I look at your biggest pain point that most offices are struggling with is cashflow. And why? Because you were taught to be a dentist, you weren't taught to be a business owner. So you're like, great, I made money, but I don't know how to spend the money and I don't know what I'm overspending. I was talking to someone and ⁓ this is a dear friend to me and she's running her business and this is like leading me into a possible other business idea that's been percolating for me. She was like, Kiera.

She's not in dentistry. She's in a different industry. she's like, Kiera, I made 200,000 this last year. And I was like, dang girl, I'm super freaking proud of you. And she's like, I took them 48,000. And I was like, what? She's like, yeah. And I said, well, hold on. She doesn't have employees. She's solo. And I was like, but why? Like, okay, 200,000, let's take taxes out of there. Even if you're sitting at 37%, which you're not, let's just.

we'll chunk 40 out of that, okay? Like let's do 40%. So was like, that's like 80. That's like really high. You probably are like 60,000 out for taxes. So we'll put you at 200,000 minus 60,000. We're at 140. Where did you spend like a hundred grand? And she was like, Kiera, I don't know. I don't know. And I thought to how many business owners feel like her? How many people feel like, but I made this money, but I don't have it and I don't know why.

Like gosh, 200,000 only taking home 48. Like you might as well go work for someone else. She's like, I worked more. I'm not with my family. I've done all these things. And I feel like that's how I feel so many dentists feel. They're like, I'm working harder than I was as an associate. I have all this stress. I'm not sleeping. I'm not with my family. And I'm not even making the money that I want to be making. And so I'm just really pro of like, Hey, there are solutions and there are ways. I think understanding what overhead is, understanding how business works.

and using it within your dental office is going to help. So, Dental A Team, I'm obsessed with helping you guys have your best lives. ⁓ Our job is to help you hit profit goals, control costs, not always have to produce and work more. Like let's work smarter, not harder. ⁓ And really it's just to positively impact the world of dentistry. We call it the Yes Model. So focusing on you as a human, earnings and profitability, and then systems and team development. Your business should truly serve your life, not the other way around. And so, ⁓

Let's just like dive into what is overhead. I don't want any of you to be like my friend and honest. I'm going to get that friend out of that dilemma. I'm like, I think this is how I was. I think that it comes from, right? Like, why do we build companies? We build them out of like necessity for ourselves. We build them out of like things that we had. We build them from like, I'...