Every great entrepreneur’s story starts somewhere.
Where are you on your journey? At the beginning, a few years in, or a seasoned owner?
One approach that is very helpful for every phase of the entrepreneurship journey is quite simple: be curious. You can learn a lot about how to successfully grow a business just by listening to the stories of other successful business owners.
That’s why DEO always features growth stories at our Summits. To share the wealth, enjoy the following key takeaways from the presentation “Emerging Group to DSO: 0 to 54+ Locations and Beyond” with Dr. Michael Riccobene, CEO, Riccobene Associates.
(Side note: To see the full presentation, check out our special resource: A Taste Of Summit: 11 Dental Growth Resources From The Most Powerful Event In Group Dentistry.)
Leadership Advice from Dr. Riccobene
→ It wasn’t until I “died to self” and gave my managers real power that I was really able to scale the right way. You have to empower people to lead your company.
→ To grow, you’ve got to surround yourself with people who are going to be honest and push you.
→ The first C-Suite hire I highly recommend is CFO… for me it was because I didn’t like numbers. But he taught me to look at the numbers and understand them in a new way.
→ Letting your team know what your mission is… not only on a large-scale… but, really from an operational standpoint… what you want to accomplish… is important to get buy-in.
Dr. Riccobene’s Thoughts on Patient Care
→ There are a lot of people that preach that if you treat patients right you’ll be successful… I think that it’s more important to treat your staff well because if you treat your staff well it trickles down to the patients.
→ If you can… provide specialty care. I highly recommend it or if you’re not doing that… to have a vision for it, at least.
→ Ask yourself: what do we have in place that makes it possible for people to afford our care? I suggest membership plans.
Dr. Riccobene’s Reminders for Finances and Growth
→ It doesn’t really matter how many offices you have— for example a dental group could have 4 locations and have a revenue of $100M.
→ It’s all inflation… so be conscious of your costs. I really do study the numbers, not because the numbers mean so much to me, but because it teaches me the lever that I need to turn and work on to build a better, more sustainable company.
For more of his incredible perspective see Dr. Riccobene’s entire presentation, plus get 10 more resources in [A Taste Of Summit] 11 Dental Growth Resources From The Most Powerful Event In Group Dentistry.
To being curious!
