Ideal Dental Care Blog Archive

Burger chains do it. Printers do it. And now dentists are doing it.

Joint venture partnerships (franchises) are growing in popularity helping dentists, good practice managers and even brilliant dental nurses start their own business.

What is franchising?
The British Franchise Association’s (BFA) definition states:

“Franchising is the granting of a licence by the franchisor to the franchisee which entitles the franchisee to trade under the trade mark/trade name of the franchisor and to make use of an entire package, comprising all the elements necessary to establish a previously untrained person in the business and to run it with continual assistance on a predetermined basis.”

Or in layman’s terms it’s buying a business in a box and following the manual of how to run it.

Can dentistry be franchised?
Dentistry is no different from any other business or profession and is therefore relatively easy to franchise.

Every practice will have its own unique selling points (USPs) which make it different from its competitors based on the skills and experience of the dentists, specialisms of treatments, the quality of materials, etc. The level and delivery of clinical care is the ‘secret formula’ in the same way that the blends of coffee and the way it's made is Starbucks’ USP.

These are easy to document, develop procedures for and train dentists to work to that standard which is essentially what franchising is all about. It’s creating a blueprint that others can follow.

Why would someone want to buy a franchise?
It’s simple really. All the hard work has been done establishing the brand, developing the procedures and proving the business model works. All of this is very costly to develop and very time consuming and requires a set of skills most business people don’t possess.

There’s also another reason. Because franchisors have a demonstrable track record and can draw on very detailed and realistic figures, it makes it much easier for new franchisees to come up with a clear business plan with accurate projections that they can present to potential funders.

In the second part of this blog we look at where to start if you’re thinking of buying a dental franchise, where to get impartial advice and doing your due diligence.

Peter Thompson from Ideal Dental Care writes regular columns for magazines such as BDA News and PPD about running a dental business. This is an abridged version of a previously published article.