What are the various types of cost involved when you start with your dental clinic. This article will provide you the details on the financial expenditure – one-time expenditure &recurringg expenditure.
TYPES OF EXPENDITURES
IN OPENING A DENTAL CLINIC
Hi there, young dentist. How you doing ?
In this article we will give you basic ideas regarding all the basic types of expenditures that you will have to incur once you decide to open your clinic.
Introduction
(Expenditures Before Even Starting Your Clinic)
“Opening a dental clinic of my own” – This is the dream of almost every dental student. Its a long journey from BDS 1st year to BDS final year or perhaps MDS. A lot of effort is put in, all these years. You work day and night to qualify for your degree, complete internship & then MDS.
A lot of time and money is invested in earning the degrees. If you want to study in Govt. seats then a lot of time is spent in preparing to be good enough to clear the AIPG entrance exam. If you do dental education in private then it might be easy to get in but you end up spending millions.
In either case a dental student goes through a lot emotionally and financially before even actually starting to earn his/her first salary.
Any ways, some how after investing your hard earned time money , you are ready with your degree and now you want to open your own clinic. Of course there is a lot of expenditure. So , you need to make a list of all the possible expenditures – write them down in a paper and then proceed further. Trying to open a clinic without first having a complete list of the possible expenditures is like going to destination without knowing the road/way.
This article will give you a very clear cut picture on the expenditures when you decide to start you own clinic.
The Expenditures on a clinic can be divided in to two types –
One Time Infrastructure Cost
Monthly Recurring Cost
In the next slide
See all the details on both types of cost. Go Next …
Dental Clinic Set Up Has
Two Types Of Expenditures
One Time Expenditures
Infrastructure Costs
Cost of Place
If you are planning to buy a space for your dental clinic then it’s a one time cost. The price of the property varies from one state to other. Within a region, it also varies from a prime location or a side location. Its one of the most difficult tasks in setting up a clinic. Finding a place of your choice is like finding a needle in a haystack. So in case you are planning to buy the space for your clinic in one time then be ready with minimum 20 lakhs.
Cost of the Interiors
This is the second one time cost. How much you want to spend on interiors depends completely on how much you want to spend on it & in which area you are starting the clinic.
For example – You are starting a clinic in rural area. Then there is no need to make the interiors very posh. Reason being you can’t charge too much from the rural patients. So you have to minimise your investment in interiors. Just decent design and one AC is enough. That will give you the liberty to keep your treatment prices low (as there is no added pressure on you for investing on costly interiors) and in return you will have a chance to get more number of patients.
Suppose you are opening a clinic in Mumbai or any other state in a prime market location/posh area. In that case, you are forced to spend a good amount of money on the interiors. But if you are having funds to purchase or rent a place for your clinic in such a costly locality then you will surely have money to spend on interiors.
The bottom line the interiors should be soothing to look and comfortable for you to work. Remember you are going to spend hours in your clinic. If you are extra picky you can hire an architecture for designing. Any ways depending on what you can spend on the interiors, this is your second one-time expenditure.
To that list you can also add – TV + Refrigerator + AC + DTH
Cost of the instruments
This is the third one time cost you need to complete. Depending on what type of clinic you are opening instruments can very for you. Of course, there are some instruments that every clinic should have. Then there are specialized instruments. Suppose your clinic is a dental implant specialization clinic then you will need to have the latest instruments related to that. Suppose your clinic is advanced endodontics center, then you will need modern microscopes for minute RCTs. We have prepared a complete list of all the possible instruments that you might possibly need for your first clinic. You can check it here. Of course, you can add or delete depending on your requirements. See the Complete list at the end of the last side.
Dental chairs/ X-ray Unit/ RVG/ Endo motor/ Scalers/ Compressors and many more dental equipment. Search the market for the equipment that best fit your budget. For example, a dental chair can come for a price of 1.5 lakhs to 10 lakhs. You decide which one you want. In case, of buying dental chair always keep a track that the servicing is provided promptly. If you feel any particular dental chair company is not having adequate support – don’t go for them. Ask local dentists regarding this and you will get a better picture.
Some dealers provide a package to provide all the equipment provided you purchase the equipment from them. It’s a good system as you get a good discount. So get information about the dealers from a senior dentist and call all of them and see who is giving you the best deal.
Cost of Approvals
Before you can start your clinic there are some one time Govt. approvals that you need to clear. for example, to run the equipment in your clinic you need to upgrade your electricity connection. You need to apply for that. All these vary from place to place. So do a complete inquiry about all such approvals that is needed by your clinic.
See In The Next Slide:
The Recurring Monthly Expenditures
The most important expenditures
Monthly Expenditures
Once you start your clinic it comes with a set repeating monthly expenditures. By the end of the month, you should be ready with the money to pay out all the bills. So let’s have a look at all the monthly repeating expenditures that you are going to manage:
Rent of your Clinic Place – Suppose you have taken the place of your clinic on rent then by the end of the month you should be ready with the money to pay it off. How much rent it will cost, depends entirely where your are present and what type of locality you are working in. In well located market areas be ready to shell out a minimum of 15K to 20K Indian Rupees. If on rent then make a proper agreement, so that land can’t say you to vacate the space anytime he/she feels like.
Electricity Bill – This is the second monthly bill. This might vary very depending on the usage. In a busy practice the EB bill is high but you can easily pay it from your practice. In a new practice still trying to pick pace it might be a slight irritation. Air conditioner also consumes monthly bill. But now a days AC is must. You will rarely find a clinic without AC.
Phone Bill/ Internet Bill/ DTH Bill – In a city based dental clinic a dedicated LAN phone connection, Internet/WiFi & DTH satellite TV is a must and every month you are supposed to pay for their charges.
Salary to Staffs – In case if you have hired some one to help you out in clinic, then by the end of the month you should be ready with their salary. Choose staffs depending on your needs. For a big set up with lots of funds, a receptionist is fine. But in a modest private set up it is not required at all. At the least you will need to keep a person to help you out in basic dental procedures like cast pouring etc.
Monthly Dental Materials Cost – This is also directly related to how busy your practice is ! In the initial days – practice takes time to get that pace. Most of the days there will be no patients. So you will be indirectly conserving your dental materials. So in the early days keep a check and go slow with the dental products. But as time proceeds and you clinic starts to show pace & growth then its time to upgrade the stock of your dental materials. Keep a track of the new products that are being launched as they will be more user friendly and save you time. In our profession time is money.
You have to keep a balance between the cost you pay for the dental materials and the cost you charge from the patient. Excessive charging from the patients can be bad for your clinic in the long run. For example –
For Extraction you need a Dental Forcep + Cryers + Elevators & LA
The instruments are already one time payment. You are only spending on LA
So, charge the patient depending on the complexity of the dental extraction. Anterior mobile tooth you can charge 100 to 200 Rs but thirds molars/Impacted third molars you can charge Rs 500 to Rs 2000. That still gives you a profit margin of around 80% (as you have only spent on LA) and the patient is also happy as he realizes that you have charge too much from him/her.
Monthly Promotion Charge – In 2015 , marketing yourself is very much essential. Or else among so many dentists – how a patient will know that a new dentist has come to the market. For such promotion you might need to hold camps in schools & colleges on your cost. Promotion in newspapers by writing articles on dental treatment. Promotion by being a speaker in some important health meetings. For all this you will need to spend a little money. But that’s OK as there is nothing like a good promotion. It will get you more contacts and more patients.
See Next The Final Slide –
The Struggle To Make The Clinic Profitable
Investment Vs Profit
The Struggle To Make The Clinic Profitable
Investment V/s Profit
Running a private clinical practice is like a consumer oriented business where you are providing the patients your expertise in solving and managing their dental problems. In today’s competitive scenario starting a dental clinic is real difficult. As you saw in the previous slides the expenditures that are required.
To sustain a dental clinic a dentist needs to recover all the monthly expenditure prices. Any earning after that – the dentist can take home. So the more the monthly expenditure the more stress it creates in the initial years of dental clinic.
But you need to have patience. By the 3rd year, the clinic, if managed properly will start to show good turn out of patients as the population is ever booming. You also got to remember that – dental practice has a profit margin of around of 60 yo 70 %. So once the patient flow increases then you will gradually start making profit. So, as told before you need to play the waiting game properly.
Well that’s it for this article that gave you the basic idea on what are the expenditures if you plan to open a clinic. What we are not saying is not the only information on the topic. Don’t go just by anyone’s words. Not even ours. Get out there in the market and do your research. Until you do that, reading articles will just give you information. But to use the information you need to get out there and experience the dental private practice yourself.
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