Dr. Katherine Bracy swore off pediatric dentistry on the first day of dental school, but down the road, she had a change of heart. Dr. Bracy fell in love with the quirkiness and unpredictable nature of her younger patients. She admired their ability to work through problems and fears. Dr. Bracy is now five years into her journey as a practice owner, and pediatric dentistry is her focus.

Prepare to Learn as You Go

One of the drivers behind Dr. Bracy’s success is a strong partnership. She and her partner have a similar practice philosophy and complementary strengths, which enables them to solve problems more effectively as they grow. Dr. Bracy is a natural entrepreneur, but by no means has it been an easy road. The dentistry work takes time, but it is easy in comparison to running her business. Dr. Bracy was trained for dentistry work—she was not trained in business management.

Be Resourceful

Dr. Bracy leverages all of the tools and resources available to her. She remains open to growth and refuses to look at change as a failure. And the more her business becomes a reflection of her; the more things fall into place. It means staying on top of finances by working with a CPA and avoiding the common financial pitfalls that many dentists overlook.

She notes that a lot of dentists don’t put enough thought into the investments they make in equipment and infrastructure. They don’t adequately plan for taxes. It sounds simple, but you need to look at your business as a business, and all of those things will fall into place. If you haven’t already, I would recommend sitting down, creating a mission statement, and articulating your core values with all of this in mind. Dr. Bracy says that it will build the scaffolding for the other parts of the business.