After dental school, you went on to practice with your clinical tutor, Dr Hector, How was that experience?
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Hector was the most amazing dentist that I’ve ever met- he was an amazing practioner and became a maxillofacial surgeon by experience! Those were the days where he simply went to the orthodontic consultant and asked to be a clinical assistant- thats how he became experienced in orthodontics. It was literally monkey watch, monkey do.
His only shortcoming was that he didnt have the slightest idea about business.
How did you then end up working for an American company in the Middle East?
I always wanted to go out and see what the world was offering and then randomly this guy came in with a tan in January and I was like I want that haha. This guy surprisingly was working for a company in the middle east that was building dental hospitals. I then applied and went to work as a general dentist in the hospital in udhailiyah which was in the middle of no where.They were building the town and I ended up gaining alot of exposure to the American style of dentistry.
You came back to the UK for a year before you went back to Dhahran for 11 years! What made you want to go back there?
I came to the UK where I found the NHS at that time completely limiting. It was at a time that the NHS was in crisis and the board didnt pay for over 4 months. Having said this, I am a supporter of the NHS and when I look at the american system, I understand the need and place of the NHS. However, back then you couldnt work NHS and private and these limitations made me drawn to the Middle East.
After 11 years, it was time to come back to the UK, how did you end up finding a clinic.
I already knew the type of clinic I wanted- i wanted it to be 50/50 where I could do NHS and private. Therefore I contacted the main dental rep for all equipments and asked them if they had heard whether a practice was selling. In 1993, I got a call that he had a practice that was small practice of 2 chairs. I spent all my life saving that I got from middle east buying that practice.
What was the state of the practice when you bought it?
The practice at that time was actually only operating for 2.5 days and there were very few patients.
How did you manage to grow the practice from there?
Word of mouth- I began opening the doors and it was slow, I started getting booked for a week and then it moved up to 3 weeks. However, because I was on my own, there was no time off.
I worked 48 hours a week (8:30- 6:30) and was on call Saturday and Sunday.
If patients came in by word of mouth, you would try and personalise the treatment as much as possible.
I also believe that if its not broke, dont change it so I didnt change the name of the practice but I added a logo.
Initially, what was your costing structure like?
I managed to charge much much less than the private clinics at that time and still managed to make a decent profit.