Losing Everything
... A sad , but true story
Stephen D . Muench , DDS PARAGON Dental Practice Transitions
Dr . A just had his fifth consecutive year of increased practice growth . In fact , he has averaged 36 percent growth in each of the past 2 years and 31 percent growth the year before that . Of course , he still must work six full days each week , but the growth is coming on strong . He hired a hygienist six months ago and is really starting to see great growth in that phase of his practice . Finally , on the third try , Dr . A has a great receptionist . Practice growth is good and his staff is solid . Dr . A is actually starting to put a little money away in savings and paid off the second mortgage on his home three months ago .
Dr . A should be very happy , right ? Wrong !
Dr . A ’ s annual practice production is still 62 percent less than his practice grossed only 6 short years ago . And oh , by the way , Dr . A is 63 years old and has only funded about a quarter of what his financial advisor says he needs to be able to retire at age 65 . The truth of the matter is that Dr . A will probably never be financially independent enough to retire . But only 6 years ago , Dr . A was on pace for early retirement at age 60 !
What happened to Dr . A ?
An associate without a contract happened ! And , to make matters even worse , the associate was his own flesh and blood !
Dr . A always wanted children , but due to medical reasons his wife was unable to have kids . Back about 30 years ago , Dr . A ’ s sister had a son . Dr . A loved his nephew like a son and did everything he could with the boy . Football games , baseball games , hunting , fishing … they did it all together . When his nephew was only 11 years old , the boy ’ s father was killed in an accident with very little in the way of life insurance . From that point on , Dr . A became even more of a father figure to his nephew and , in fact , began funding the boy ’ s private school tuition and putting money aside for his college education .
May / June 2010 • Pennsylvania Dental Journal
29