Office autopsy time! Kiera and Dana review a “practice” that went from broke to success in a handful of months, and how tracking their numbers saved them. Every single office will go through a cash flow crunch at least once, so it’s important to understand the right flotation devices to utilize. This could mean pulling overhead apart, identifying production and collections percentages, analyzing fixed costs, and more.
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a special day. I have the one and only Dana Morsell on the podcast today. And prior to this, asked her, she's gone through a few nicknames and Dana, believe it or not, I was actually thinking about this last night. No joke. I was thinking like, there's Spiffy Tiffy and there's no BS Britt. And I was like, Dana, you've been with me for a long time. Like, why have I not gotten like a good nickname for you? And like, Britty Gritty.
And I was like, okay, I just like throw wise on the end of these names like Tiffy, that is their TT DM does not sound quite right. Like that's like DMing on Instagram. And so I thought like, it's just Dainey. And now you told me I to do it with a Southern draw. So it's going to be like Dainey on the far. So well.
Dana (00:44)
Yep, it has to
have it. I feel like it reminds me so much of my dad and like it just has to have that.
Kiera Dent (00:51)
Well, it's my dad. grew up on a dairy farm for all the listeners. Don't worry. We have like a really good podcast today. It's an office autopsy that Dana has taken these three incredible practices, like one owner, like they went from just stress and chaos and burnout to complete an absolute just like freedom, which and Dana has done it so quickly. So we're going to get there. I'm just going to tell you about this dairy farm real fast. ? my dad grew up on a dairy farm and he used to say his mom would always like, Ricky, like that's how he would call him.
imagine myself on this like beautiful estate and like sweeping my porch and having this like big white porch out there. And I'm like, Dainey!
So that's how I envisioned this so, you know, that's that's the vision over here So whether you like it or not, otherwise we can go back to donuts with Dana. What do you prefer?
Dana (01:38)
? I actually love you standing on your white porch shouting that, so we'll take it.
Kiera Dent (01:41)
I think
it just fits and if you haven't heard other podcasts, if you haven't been with us as long, Dana has the most random stories like running her bicycle into a deer. She has so many animals. She's got kids like Dana will always come to the table with the most random stories and she whoops everybody on trivia. We play games in our company and it's always like team trivia. Dana will whoop them. So, you know, here we go Dana. Welcome to the podcast. How are you over there Dana? Special Dana?
Dana (02:09)
doing pretty
good. Yeah, doing pretty good. think all of my wild stories and my trivia comes from like, I don't know, I just have this like weird memory thing where I can like memorize things very quickly. Even like applying for a car loan, they're always shocked that I know all of my account numbers, all of my balances down to the penny, like just off the top of my head. And so I think that that's kind of where some of that comes from.
Kiera Dent (02:28)
No.
I didn't
even know that about you. So that's also a really interesting thing to note. All right, so Dana will remember, mean, is this okay? Is it something where you can remember numbers like past past? Or is it like your banking out is just current right now, but you couldn't remember like a month ago.
Dana (02:47)
No, so it is
past-past, but it's because I don't know, my brain does this weird, like I make a riddle out of everything and I'm constantly like, okay, well, if I run and remember something, like if it's, you know, two, three, six, I'm like, well, two times three is six. And like, I just, I don't know, create like weird connections, especially with numbers in my brain and like riddle it so that I remember it.
Kiera Dent (03:07)
Fascinating. Fascinating. Okay. Well, there's
another random fact about Dana. So Dana is one of my absolute fave humans in the entire world. Dana, truly, I say that on the podcast and I genuinely mean it. And we have talked about it on show, off show. Dana is just a super incredible human and offices who get to work with her are so lucky. So we thought it'd be fun. Office autopsy time. If you're new to the podcast, this is where we kind of go behind the scenes. ?
We mash up a few practices. just so you know, you'll never really fully know exactly who it is just to keep a client patient confidentiality. But we want to highlight of things that we do in real life, because I think consulting can be kind of hard. Like what do you actually do and what are the results you actually get? And so Dana just had some really solid wins with some practices. And I thought, Dana, let's get on the podcast and do our office autopsy, where we lift up the hood and we look behind the scenes. And what were some of the things you as a consultant did for this practice?
What are some of the wins and gains that they've had? ? that I think will just be fun. So Dana, let's take it away. ? kind of like, where did this practice start? What have we implemented and where are they now? Maybe even tell them like where they started, where they got to. And then we'll talk about the how, because that's really fun. I don't like to wait for the like end result. I want to know quickly like, okay, they were like dying, drowning, broke, and then they got like hundreds of dollars and they got it in like a month. How did they do it? So take us away. Where were they? Where did they get to? And then let's go into the house.
Dana (04:30)
Yeah, and I think that this practice is just a really cool example of like the importance of knowing your numbers, especially when you have multiple practices and knowing what each practice is bringing to the table and having really clear separated numbers for those things. And so it was just really fun and I think a cool way to highlight how when you know those things, then you can fix systems that are broken or aren't working to see massive progress. So when this office came, they were at a negative profit.
? each month and
Kiera Dent (05:03)
We're talking like they're losing money, losing sleep, stressed out of their minds.
Dana (05:04)
Yeah, yes.
So stressed, they're pulling personal, you know, they're pulling boatloads of personal cash every month to cover expenses to keep these practices open. ? You know, doctor is going from office to office. And it's truly, truly really stressful time and they don't really know where the leaks are coming from. And they can't put their finger on what's going on that's causing it. And
yeah, stressed out to the max and just really, really wanting help and wanting to kind of pinpoint and give them a clear picture of why they are so stressed and why these practices that feel as if they're booming or are starting to get busy aren't profitable at that point.
Kiera Dent (05:35)
This
And I think this is so common for so many practices, which is why we were talking morning huddle. We share all of our client wins every single day. You guys, we have a morning huddle. It's very fun. We talk about team wins, client wins. And when Dana talked about this, I'm like, Dana, we're podcasting. Like, can you get on the podcast with me? I think this is such a big win because it, yes, it's, it's quote unquote one practice that we've kind of mashed a few of them, but this is like every single office. And so many of them don't realize what's going on with my profit numbers. They feel like it's booming.
but they have no money left over and then they're stressed to the max and they're countless hours. And this isn't just a brand new practice. Like this is a business owner who'd been in business for a long time. Like it's almost that I should with air quotes know what I'm doing, but I just don't know where it is. And Dana, I'm so proud of you for saying like they need to know their numbers. We harp on this like crazy because when you actually can dig in, which I'm excited for you to kind of do like the grand reveal and then the how, but I mean, how many practices, Dana, this is, I hope people realize one,
practices all go through this. So this is not just a siloed to one or two practices. This is every office at some point is going to go through cashflow crunches, stressed out, working all hours and not being able to pinpoint. And just because you're profitable today does not mean you're forever going to be profitable. It is something you have to constantly work at, constantly be vigilant on. And it's not just like, set it, forget it, we're on our way. And so I think for that, but also I think so many people because they don't know what to do.
they spin their wills that creates this cycle of death in my opinion. Like you truly are spinning, you're burning the candle at all ends. I remember when I met, cause I'm, I talked to this office when they were joining our company and I'm like, my gosh, like I can't want this more than they want it. Like they have to make the decision to join us, but my gosh, I see your problem. see your pain and we have got to fix that like an ASAP and get CPR because
the owner was just running frantic and it was impacting family life and financials. And to me, you worked so hard that you should not be living that life this far into business ownership, whatever stage you're in. So I'm ready for the grand reveal. I hope people just realize this is not siloed and it's not something that's permanent. And it's also once you become profitable, that's also not permanent too. No season is permanent, but we want profitability to be more permanent because you're vigilant on it.
Dana (08:07)
Yeah, yeah. And you know, after looking at things, developing systems really honing in on their numbers and kind of what they were telling us, we were able to get them to be on track to hit 16 % profit in August. So going from negative profit to actually having a decent amount of profit sitting there, and they're producing in one less office now too. So.
Kiera Dent (08:30)
Okay. So breaking this down,
how many months are we talking? Is this like five months, 10 months, 12 months? How long of a timeline did we go for? Five months. Okay. Again, why I wanted Dana to come on because consulting is not an overnight diet pill. It's not something that we can just inject and say, here you go. Like you're on your way. It is something. And also I want you to realize that any person listening, getting to negative profit also did not usually happen overnight. Now buying a practice, you might be a little bit negative. So there is a space where that can be negative.
but this was someone who was running multiple offices and Dana kudos in five months, you got them from negative cash. We're talking like broke. There's no money to a 16 % profit. So there is, and we're talking, we're in the multimillions. So you can just do some math that even on 1,000,000 10 % profit is a hundred grand. Okay. You add 16 % that's 160,000 of profit. Now you can do the math for your own practice of a 16 % profit.
and that was done in five months. So can you just imagine this practice going from like, my gosh, I'm broke to having this much slush on the other hand, and you got one less practice. There was multiple practices. You got rid of a practice, which there's strategy behind. Do we keep it not? What do we do there? And this doctor I guarantee you is having way more time, less stress as well. So the numbers, the money is always what people want to hear. Every time I talk to people on like...
sales calls, wondering about working with us. Like what's your ROI, Kiera? How are we going to like make sure we pay for this? And I'm like, well, the numbers will be there. But what I actually care more about is the life you're living. Yes, I'm going to always cover numbers. Like that's the result. People need to have that. But I think the piece that people don't realize and why you're usually reaching out is you're looking for life of no stress. You're looking for your problems to actually get resolved. And Dana, that gift in five months, like, and that's fast. That's a fast turn. Not all practices are this quick.
so I'm really curious, what did you guys do? How did you get that turn? I'm really proud of you. That's why I wanted you on the podcast to highlight dynamite Dana. mean, this one feels a little bit more like Dainey on the white porch. get, but dynamite Dana, being able to get those results in five months. That's impressive. Like that is dynamite to be able to do. So walk us through what were some of the pieces of how did we do this? What did we do? Five months is not, it might feel long to people, but when in the grand scheme of things, that's not even half a year to go from net negative.
to positive 16%.
Dana (10:48)
Yeah. And I think sometimes too, it just helps to translate. Like what that looks like is we really cut expenses, right? Some of the expenses and they on average are collecting about 35,000 more per month too.
Kiera Dent (11:01)
Nice.
Dana (11:02)
? So it really came down to first step was getting them to understand which of the offices were profitable if any of them and you know what each individual office looked like. So we basically did an office autopsy. We pulled apart overhead. We pulled apart fixed costs for every office. We pulled apart their percentages of production and collections over the last year and really created a very clear picture of how each practice was
doing as well as then moving forward what numbers do we need to hit in each practice to hit various profit points.
Kiera Dent (11:40)
Awesome. So breaking this down, I think when people have multi-practices, this is a huge problem that offices do is they bundle it all together and they have no idea where the true cashflow week is. And what I found is in multi-practice ownership, usually it's one practice that is the bleeding child and all the rest of them are doing well, but you don't know that. And so I did this, I had multiple businesses, I had all lumped into one and I didn't know, you have no idea where to fix things, where to move levers.
what needs to happen. And so what we do is we do this like buckshot approach where we try to do everything for all of them, but don't actually know when we can pinpoint. So we're working hard or not smarter on that. So I love that you broke it apart. So basically you got to have separate tax IDs for each practice. I know that seems annoying. It's also annoying to break it down for your insurance companies, but choose your heart. Would you rather know where you are profitable or where you're not? The answer is hard pass. Yes. Like we absolutely want that. And so from there, then you looked at how much it's costing each practice. And this is so fascinating to me and people are like, but Kiera,
Dana, like people travel with me to all the offices and I'm like, fantastic. You have to actually put that salary, that amount for that practice. So we know, and what's wild is that team member technically is working for three different companies. Technically they are, when you break it down this way. So technically they could work 40 hours at each location. That's technically okay. Talk with your, like, we are not CPAs. We're not financial advisors, but you have to look at this. They're separate tax IDs. used to do this at multi practices. So pending upon how it structured.
not to say to work your employees 120 hours a week. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying though is if you've got a regional, you've got dental assistants that are going with you, they need to be clocking in at one location, clocking out, clocking in the next location, clocking out. And if you're paying them like gas or whatever in between, they need to actually be allocated to each practice individually so you can see actual costs per practice per business. This is how you run multi-businesses. You like think about it. If I have a dental practice and I have a coaching business and I have my real estate, they're like,
all the money technically comes to you as a person, but you have to have those separated to see which business is doing well. And when you can look at all three of your practices as separate businesses under one roof of your own, this then helps you. Like you said, Dana, you laser focus and you pinpointed. So I'm very curious when you did this and you broke it apart, what did you find on expenses? Like how, like was one like just so expensive? I imagine it probably was just like cashflow negative. Like it was just gobbling all the money and the other ones were probably doing fine.
Dana (14:05)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's it. Pretty much exactly what we found ? and in breaking down all of those things then secondary to that just like you were saying with with team members We had team members doing various roles depending on which practice they were in and so there was just a lot to really clean up clarify and streamline per practice ?
outside of even just expenses and knowing financially where the practice stood. So that was our second journey kind of after we figured out the finances and you know once they had a reality of each practice then it was really easy I think to hone in on what systems we had to work on and make some tough decisions too.
Kiera Dent (14:48)
And when you said that, I was just thinking it also creates clarity for team members too. I know you've also been helping like with the regional manager and like what system should be in place. So mind you, yes, we're working on profit, but then we're also putting all these systems into play looking at all of them. But I will tell you when I had team members traveling to multi offices, that's hard on teams too. They have no clue. They don't have clarity. So they're just kind of like running with you. So everybody's running at full steam, but actually not making progress. I want you just to imagine like you are literally spinning your wheels. So it sounds like you're making progress.
but the distance you're going is so minimal versus we want less sound, AKA less chaos and way more forward momentum. And so really love that you were able to do that and dial it in, figure it out. Now, how did the conversation go to sell a practice? Cause I mean, five months and selling a practice, like what did that even look like? How do you even have that conversation? How did this practice execute that quickly? Cause I'm actually really proud of them on that too.
Dana (15:42)
Yeah. So honestly and truly when we review the numbers, I think the conversation just naturally happened because you could clearly see, you know, that they're ultimately either we need to pump in a fair amount in team expenses, marketing and things like that to get the practice to where it needed to be or ultimately make the other decision. so I think just reviewing the numbers, the conversation naturally came up because it was a glaring, you know, kind of red light.
? and honestly and truly it just was kind of a luck of knew someone in the area that was looking for a multi-practice venture and like just having a network and connections that it worked out so quickly and honestly it finalized within 60 days so it was a very very quick but it just you know happened to be that it was a very strong network ? and made a local connection
Kiera Dent (16:13)
Mm-hmm.
incredible.
Yeah, which is also incredible to like have good connections and people often say, think it's, think kudos to this office that you worked with of they were willing to execute and take action quickly and not sit here and give excuses and say, my gosh, there's no one that will ever be there. It was great. see the bleed. And what I love when you talk about numbers, and this is why I think we're so passionate in Dental A Team like numbers, numbers, numbers. Like I harp on this day to know that I am like, ladies, what are the numbers telling us? Look at the numbers that's going to tell you.
where you need to go and what you need to get. And like it's literally the treasure map to what needs to happen. But sometimes we're so in the weeds. I do it too. This is why I have coaches for Dental A Team. I'm so in the weeds and I need to get somebody outside of that. But looking at this, there are decisions now to be made. And I think numbers create clarity. So this practice could have like another scenario if we want to choose our own adventure, there are offices that see this practice is bleeding money. So then what do we do?
How can we stop the bleed? Let's look at our costs. Let's look to see where we're producing. And sometimes it's a slow grow. So we're only gonna open up one day, but we're gonna open up on Monday, be closed Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The next week we're gonna be open Tuesday. The next week we're gonna be open Wednesday, next week Thursday, next week Friday. So we can say we're open five days a week, but we're not putting the cost in five days a week. So we're strategic on doing this. We can also have it to where we don't have to staff it as high. So if we know we've got doctors in there that can produce.
bring them in for hygiene, if there's dentistry to be done, do the dentistry, move hygiene over to a Friday where a lot of hygienists are off. You can get a part-time hygienist that can come in as that Friday hygienist. You can stack a whole hygiene schedule so we're not paying a hygienist to be on staff every day. ? There are ways that they can do it. They could bring on an associate. They could look at, like you said, the marketing costs, but when you look at the numbers, numbers give so much clarity and then you can make decisions. And then the decision's pretty simple of,
Do we need money right now? This practice was needing money. They needed to have the bleed stop. They needed to become profitable. And for them time and profit was more important, it sounds like, than growing and expanding. For other people, like, no, we need to grow and expand. So we're to pump money over here. We're going to grow this, but we now know a more strategic path. So I just want you to know, like, you don't have to sell. But I think being realistic, I remember listening in ? early on in my career and it said, like, sometimes knowing when to close a business.
is actually one of the smartest things that a CEO can do. And I remember I listened to that. were doing Dental A Team, tip or no, a Spiffy Tiffy back to dental placement pros days when we used to do recruiting. I should have stayed in that business Dana, like man recruit. I was starting at, I think I charged, I think a thousand, maybe 3000 max to hire and place an associate doctors. should have like hired me. Like I was a hot cake. Like I was so, I mean, now it's like 15 to 50,000 bucks. Like man, but
Dana (19:19)
Yeah.
Kiera Dent (19:26)
I remember listening to that podcast and dental place and pros was taking so much time and was so unprofitable. like we had higher and then people would wait the like 90 days and on day 89 they'd like we're terminating them. I was like, my gosh, I gotta go higher again. That business was consuming so much time, energy and effort when it wasn't the one that was going to, it wasn't my passion. It just was out of necessity. Dental A team was my passion by far. And I remember like it,
as a business owner is actually really hard to admit that a business is failing. I'm not going to lie. Like I remember driving. I remember exactly where it was. It was like a snowy day. It was very overcast. And I just like had to have that hard, honest conversation with myself of you need to close dental placement pros and you need to put all your focus on Dental A Team. That's actually the, like the practice, if you will, the business that makes me excited. Um, and I think swallowing ego, I think looking and learning what I did wrong in that business.
Today, I do that way differently. I'd run it so much differently. It'd be completely separate. I wouldn't be pulling my employees. There were just so many things I did wrong. But I think having the humility and knowing when it's time to close something down versus open something up, I think sometimes it can feel really sexy and exciting to grow. But if we're just growing for the sake of growth, but we're not getting the time and profit that's truly our driver, I think those are great questions to ponder when we're looking at this. So those are kind of my thoughts. Any other thoughts you have? It's such an amazing.
Dana (20:45)
And then.
Kiera Dent (20:48)
like transformation story.
Dana (20:49)
Yeah, and it's been really fun. you know, you're absolutely right. And we spent a lot of time on our calls kind of choosing our own adventure. What would it look like if you know, what's been our average marketing budget? And and and if we spent more and we had this book, what would that timeline look like to get it to what is the active number of patients we need to make it profitable? We did say, okay, if we pull and we add days, what does that pull from the profitable practice if we move the doctor, you know, to the other practice, we talked about expenses
for an associate and what we felt like they could produce as we added a certain amount of new patients each month. And so it's been also fun for me as a consultant to kind of do that choose your own adventure with them and honestly and truly just give them the numbers and give them the timelines that then they can really, really make a decision that I feel like they were super confident in because they had all of that information and kind of made the decision I feel like eyes wide open.
Kiera Dent (21:48)
Yeah, and I think as consultants, this is what drives us. This is our passion to help practices and owners be empowered to make decisions that they want, not ones that they have to make. And so it's a, you're not forced into a decision. You made it with eyes wide open. You had all the numbers. You had all the facts you knew. You knew the pros and cons. And like you said, it is a choose your own adventure. And I think when we can take the, I don't know, it's almost like the stress, the heaviness of business.
and turn it into a light, fun game. like, yeah, pretend we're reading a book and your book is your business. And it's like, I could do this way and end up at this chapter. I could go this way and end up at this chapter. Both endings are great. Both endings are your story. Both are filled with highs and lows and all the way around. But I agree with you, Dana. I think it's a beautiful thing to be able to empower our clients, to help them see, to get them out of the death spike, like, sirel downward and help them actually come to like a space of
I don't know. It's almost like what you, took this. I feel like the way this office probably felt is they were walking in a heavy, dark cloud, like head down, hunkered down, staring at the ground and just trying to figure out how to get there. And you took them into this like beautiful new neighborhood. It's bright. It's cheery. The birds are singing. They're skipping along there with their family. Like they are living their best life. And that was done in five months. And so just really an incredible thing for us to look at. And so I think for you listening, like, where are you at? Maybe you're on cashflow row.
Maybe you're on growth row. Maybe you are on trying to figure out your next adventure. But I don't think this practice even knew that this is their choose your own adventure. think Dana, you are able to be that guiding light shining for them, helping them see, peel apart under all the pieces. And I think really giving them the guidance that they need. So any last thoughts you've got on the choose your own adventure, going from negative to 16 % profit in five months, dang, that's a title and something you should be proud of.
Dana (23:41)
Yeah, this is definitely an office that I'm super proud of. ? And you're right. These are the things that I think we live for. We love, we hope we see, you know, and we want to see for every client that comes our way. ? And I think it just shows possibilities. And when you really hone in and you are able to make decisions with ease and clarity, it just massively, massively changes your stress level and just your entire life.
Kiera Dent (24:11)
Yeah, we say is life and business on purpose. so Dana, just love, love, I mean, Dynamite Dana, might stick girl. That is a dynamite story and really freaking proud of you and proud of the client too. Proud of them showing up. It takes grit, it takes humility, it takes courage. And I think just if you're sitting in that boat, if you're wondering, reach out. ? This office five months ago did not know how to see forward. And now they're able to live a much different life very quickly. And I think if that's you.
if you can relate to this office autopsy. That's why we do office autopsy sharing it. So hopefully you can see yourself painted in the fabric of someone else's story, knowing what's possible, what's real for you. You don't have to have multi-practices. You don't have to have any of that, but it might be you're on cashflow row. You're negative. You don't know how to see out. You're at a spin or you want to optimize you like this. came to us literally. They came in wanting to have help with systems and training a regional manager and look at what was uncovered. So what you might think is your pain point might actually not be the true pain point.
there might be something deeper below. So Dana, real proud of you, real proud of this client. For all of you questioning, wondering, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. This is what we live for. Truly seeing you succeed is what makes us so lit up. Like it's, it is the highlight of our year, our week, our month. So for all of you, take the call, let's, let's chat and let's get you these same success stories. So Dana, proud of you. Love having you on the podcast. Thanks for being here. And for all of you, of course. And for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
Dana (25:34)
Thanks for having me.