Is dentistry worth it if the end goal is opening your own business?

[JakeSill]

I want to open my own business in the future, but don't want to take the risk of using borrowed money if I can't pay it back. So wanted to make some money in the health professions to support the business. I work as a Pharmacy Tech and I've shadowed a Dentist and I can see myself being in those professions. But then later on in my college years, I figured out that the loan was just to much. People do pay off the loan eventually though, so is dentistry worth it if the end goal is opening your own business?

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[ncide]

You can most definitely pay off a practice loan. I think somewhere around 2% of dentists file for bankruptcy so it is rare to not be able to.

 

[Cold Front]

I want to open my own business in the future, but don't want to take the risk of using borrowed money if I can't pay it back. So wanted to make some money in the health professions to support the business. I work as a Pharmacy Tech and I've shadowed a Dentist and I can see myself being in those professions. But then later on in my college years, I figured out that the loan was just to much. People do pay off the loan eventually though, so is dentistry worth it if the end goal is opening your own business?

Dentistry is a safe and recession proof profession. That alone makes it uniquely high caliber profession. Then you have the business side, which is relatively easy to start, but the success depends on the owner dentist and his/her vision.

I own a non-dental businesses, which I opened after my dental offices, and they account 30% of my current income. My goal is to make dentistry as my secondary profession in the long term. It's all upto you how you cash out from dentistry. You can't just be in it to pay off debt and stack your savings into retirement accounts. You can also invest that money elsewhere and utilize those investments equally like a dental practice - if you can.

 

[Roy Williams]

Dentistry is a safe and recession proof profession. That alone makes it uniquely high caliber profession. Then you have the business side, which is relatively easy to start, but the success depends on the owner dentist and his/her vision.

I own a non-dental businesses, which I opened after my dental offices, and they account 30% of my current income. My goal is to make dentistry as my secondary profession in the long term. It's all upto you how you cash out from dentistry. You can't just be in it to pay off debt and stack your savings into retirement accounts. You can also invest that money elsewhere and utilize those investments equally like a dental practice - if you can.

What kind of business is it that you want to be your primary profession? (if you don't mind me asking)

 

[ThoracicGuy]

I want to open my own business in the future, but don't want to take the risk of using borrowed money if I can't pay it back. So wanted to make some money in the health professions to support the business. I work as a Pharmacy Tech and I've shadowed a Dentist and I can see myself being in those professions. But then later on in my college years, I figured out that the loan was just to much. People do pay off the loan eventually though, so is dentistry worth it if the end goal is opening your own business?

Why are you posting this multiple times in different forums?

 

[Cold Front]

What kind of business is it that you want to be your primary profession? (if you don't mind me asking)

Real Estate. No as an agent, but as an owner/landlord. I work 4.5 days now at my offices, 0.5 day a week on real estate. I hope to shift that to half and half in 2-3 years.

 

[ncide]

Real Estate. No as an agent, but as an owner/landlord. I work 4.5 days now at my offices, 0.5 day a week on real estate. I hope to shift that to half and half in 2-3 years.

The income from dentistry allows you to invest.

There's a guy on dental town that has management companies handle all of his properties. He's 45 years old and trying to retire. He's making 150-170k a year from his properties passively if I remember correctly.

 

[Cold Front]

The income from dentistry allows you to invest.

There's a guy on dental town that has management companies handle all of his properties. He's 45 years old and trying to retire. He's making 150-170k a year from his properties passively if I remember correctly.

I'm not him. But he is on these forums too.

 

[ncide]

Ah, I didn't know he's here. Have you ever entertained going through the hands-off management route? Invest in any commercial properties?

 

[Cold Front]

Ah, I didn't know he's here. Have you ever entertained going through the hands-off management route? Invest in any commercial properties?

Right now, it's easy to maintain my 2 commercial properties which I'm owner-occupant on both. So I manage them by myself - a 10% savings on the annual building cash flow (which I currently pay myself). There are a total of 7 tenants between the 2 buildings, including my 2 offices.

I'm in the process of trying a different real estate concept this year... Truck/Semi's parking lot within my city, which is in very high demand in my state (2nd largest truck service industry in the nation after California).

 

[romoxx23]

This is an interesting topic. In my opinion it is worth it. However there are some free videos on dentalmaverick.com that I watched and in summary anything is possible if you think it can be. I would suggest watching the free student videos and reevaluating.

 

[Typical Average Student]

If y'all are interested in this thread, DentalTown has a thread: "OFFICIAL PASSIVE INCOME" where they discuss this stuff in more detail.

 

[Cold Front]

If y'all are interested in this thread, DentalTown has a thread: "OFFICIAL PASSIVE INCOME" where they discuss this stuff in more detail.

I spent about 15 mins reading 10% of that thread so far... I would take that dental town topic with a grain of salt. Beside the real estate investments, all the other passive income ideas have reported high failure rates or way too risky and out there for any investor to consider it. Still a worthy read for a newbie to learn from other people's experiences.

 

[StumpMT]

Right now, it's easy to maintain my 2 commercial properties which I'm owner-occupant on both. So I manage them by myself - a 10% savings on the annual building cash flow (which I currently pay myself). There are a total of 7 tenants between the 2 buildings, including my 2 offices.

I'm in the process of trying a different real estate concept this year... Truck/Semi's parking lot within my city, which is in very high demand in my state (2nd largest truck service industry in the nation after California).

I've read lots of your posts and you're in a position that I would like to be in a fee years after school. Are there any dental-related business books that you would recommend I read while in school to get a head start?

Sent from my D6708 using SDN mobile

 

[Cold Front]

I've read lots of your posts and you're in a position that I would like to be in a fee years after school. Are there any dental-related business books that you would recommend I read while in school to get a head start?

Sent from my D6708 using SDN mobile

I started a thread a year or so ago... Dental Business Book Club. It's a good place to start.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/dental-business-book-club.1117844/

 

[jeffk805dent]

Right now, it's easy to maintain my 2 commercial properties which I'm owner-occupant on both. So I manage them by myself - a 10% savings on the annual building cash flow (which I currently pay myself). There are a total of 7 tenants between the 2 buildings, including my 2 offices.

I'm in the process of trying a different real estate concept this year... Truck/Semi's parking lot within my city, which is in very high demand in my state (2nd largest truck service industry in the nation after California).

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the stress level on managing properties? Parents did this and were stressed out the wazzu but every person handles property management differently.

 

[Cold Front]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the stress level on managing properties? Parents did this and were stressed out the wazzu but every person handles property management differently.

Right now I would say 4. The buildings are both new; built in 2013 and 2016, so there are no major maintenances the buildings need from time to time.

Building #1: 2 tenants - my dental office and T-Mobile wireless.
Building #2: 5 tenants - my dental office, Jimmy John's, Wingstop, Asian/Sushi Restaurant, and Great Clips.

I'm not sure whether your parents did commercial properties, but the tenants in my buildings are national tenants with multiple locations. 80% of them signed 10 year leases, with guarantees from the parent company if the tenant/franchisee defaults.

 

[jippyslim]

Right now I would say 4. The buildings are both new; built in 2013 and 2016, so there are no major maintenances the buildings need from time to time.

Building #1: 2 tenants - my dental office and T-Mobile wireless.
Building #2: 5 tenants - my dental office, Jimmy John's, Wingstop, Asian/Sushi Restaurant, and Great Clips.

I'm not sure whether your parents did commercial properties, but the tenants in my buildings are national tenants with multiple locations. 80% of them signed 10 year leases, with guarantees from the parent company if the tenant/franchisee defaults.

That is a nice list of tenants, Cold Front. How did you finance this large a commercial property? How did you market to these national companies to lease from you?

 

[Cold Front]

That is a nice list of tenants, Cold Front. How did you finance this large a commercial property? How did you market to these national companies to lease from you?

For Building #1: My office was actually part of a strip center that had multiple national tenants. The anchor store is a large grocery store, Giant Eagle. At the end of my 5 years lease, I decided to purchase an outparcel that is on the main street, which the traffic to the plaza is using. I purchased 0.6 acre lot, financed it with 0% down at low interest rate (4%) with LiveOak bank. The building size is 4,000 sft, half of which is the dental office, the other half T-Mobile wireless. During the construction period, I had a "coming soon" sign with a rendering of the building on it. T-Mobile came along and committed to the lease.

Building #2: Most of the tenants, including my office was leasing the spaces from a previous owner. I did acquisition purchase through United Community Bank, also 4% rate. The cap rate was 7%, plus I saw myself in this area in the long term, so it made sense to buy the building with high other quality tenants already secured. The previous owner of the building didn't want to sell the building. He was very reluctant at first, but after being persistent and using a good agent, the deal came through at a fair price.

 

[jippyslim]

For Building #1: My office was actually part of a strip center that had multiple national tenants. The anchor store is a large grocery store, Giant Eagle. At the end of my 5 years lease, I decided to purchase an outparcel that is on the main street, which the traffic to the plaza is using. I purchased 0.6 acre lot, financed it with 0% down at low interest rate (4%) with LiveOak bank. The building size is 4,000 sft, half of which is the dental office, the other half T-Mobile wireless. During the construction period, I had a "coming soon" sign with a rendering of the building on it. T-Mobile came along and committed to the lease.

Building #2: Most of the tenants, including my office was leasing the spaces from a previous owner. I did acquisition purchase through United Community Bank, also 4% rate. The cap rate was 7%, plus I saw myself in this area in the long term, so it made sense to buy the building with high other quality tenants already secured. The previous owner of the building didn't want to sell the building. He was very reluctant at first, but after being persistent and using a good agent, the deal came through at a fair price.

Thanks! I definitely want to get into commercial real estate when start practicing.

 

[TrevorG2221]

I want to open my own business in the future, but don't want to take the risk of using borrowed money if I can't pay it back. So wanted to make some money in the health professions to support the business. I work as a Pharmacy Tech and I've shadowed a Dentist and I can see myself being in those professions. But then later on in my college years, I figured out that the loan was just to much. People do pay off the loan eventually though, so is dentistry worth it if the end goal is opening your own business?

I know a dentist that owns 4 of his own dental practices, he makes about 1 mill a year. He pays his dentists who've just started to work with him about $300,000. My father, owns 3 of his own dental practices and makes about $890,000 a year and pays his new dentists about $250,000 as well. And, as the dentists that work for him gain more experience, they can make up to $400,000. A dentist usually works for someone else for a few years, then opens up their own practice. If you work at a busy, good dental practice you can make a lot. Even, if you work for a low-average dental practice, you still make good money.

 

[Axiomatician]

I think it is definitely worth it, but I personally think it is unethical to use Dentistry as a means to an end to become a rich and still have a safety net... If money is your first priority, please stay out of dentistry.

 

[Deblessed]

Hey guy's i enjoyed the info, i have a question my gf is in medical school im an entrepreneur plus im going back to school. I'm not sure what kind of practice she wants but we both would like to have real estate in the future.

 

[peRsEVERENCE]

This might give you some perspective on your question.

 

[DrFenton]

I think most people are starting to think of the courses they pursue because of the money they could earn. That is being practical but unbecoming, precisely the reason why there are a lot of poorly treated people today. I mean, if you want dentistry then pursue it, love it and it will definitely love you back. You know, every person you treat becomes a free advertisement so you have to keep your patients really happy and contented. I hope this helps.