Starting up your own dental practice can be an exciting time. You spend years in school learning how to solve your patients’ dental care needs. Then you graduate and the reality of having to start and grow your own dental practice sets in.
Before you take on your first patient, you need to do all the usual procedures that a new business has to do. You need to rent office space, hire employees, train staff, and purchase health care supplies to treat your patients with.
You will need a large variation of supplies like antimicrobial soaps for your hands, face masks, saliva covers, dental bibs, exam gloves, Sani-Cloth wipes, and sterilization pouches. There are many supplies that you will probably miss and run short on when you first open your practice. That is why you want to go to a website like USA Medical Supplies to double check that you didn’t miss any of the supplies you need for your big launch day.
Even after all of the bare minimum preparations are completed, most still fall short of not doing enough pre-opening day promotion to alert potential new patients that they are open for business. Some new dentists believe that just by opening their doors that they will be flooded with new patients. This couldn’t be further from the truth. For your new business to succeed, your advertising must be cost effective enough to get new dental patients into your office, and you still need to make a profit after all your expenses are taken into consideration.
Below are just a few creative and low-cost ways to promote your new practice and have a successful opening day:
Car Magnets
This method is simplicity itself. Order some car magnets with the name and location of your new practice printed on them and place them on your car. They are extremely cheap to purchase, and they are a one time expense that will continue to bring in new patients forever. The beauty of the magnets is that they will only attract patients from your local area since that is where you drive your car, and that is exactly what you want, local patients!
Leave Flyers In Community Hubs
A simple flyer can work wonders for getting new patients. The key to making flyers work is to get them posted in places where most people will see them. Plus, don’t forget that they are nearly a free form of advertising. Many communities want to help small businesses get the word out that they are opening a new business and will happily post your flyer in their establishment for free. Some of the places to check for possible flyer posting are libraries, grocery stores, recreation centers, local schools, and colleges.
Business Cards
An attention-getting business card can do wonders to get the calls coming in. Business cards can work wonders for you if done correctly. The secret is to make certain that your business card doesn’t just look like all the other cards floating around out there. Something simple like embossing your business card or making it all one color will get the attention that other plain cards don’t.
Joint Venture With Local Businesses
This is a completely free method that can flood your business with new patients if done in enough quantity and with regularity. Just contact local businesses in your area and ask if they would want to cross-promote their business with yours. If they say yes, then leave flyers that they can leave in their lobby for their customers to see, and you put fliers for their business in your lobby for your patients to see. The beauty of this method is that everyone needs dental work so you can swap fliers with just about any business out there. Even other dentist offices! You may specialize in something they don’t, and they may specialize in something your office doesn’t. Perfect! Swap fliers and start attracting more customers today.
The dental practice outlook for now and the foreseeable future continues to be strong. You can launch the opening of your new dental practice without it costing you a fortune in advertising to do it. By using your creativity, instead of your money, many new dentists have built successful practices that sustain them and their families with a comfortable living for the rest of their lives. There are many creative low budget promotional ideas available to you. You just need to decide which ones are best suited to grow your business.