Is Practice Ownership worth the stress?
What’s the most difficult thing you have to do as a practice owner?
Thinking about starting your own squat practice?
How long does it really take before you see profit, and what sacrifices do you need to make along the way?
In this episode, Jaz is joined by Dr. Shabnam Zai to unpack the real highs and lows of running a dental practice. From the loss of control as an associate, to the resilience needed during COVID, to the challenges of leadership and managing a team—nothing is sugar-coated here.
They also tackle the big money question: when does a squat practice finally become profitable, and is it worth the grind in those first few years?
If you’ve ever wondered whether practice ownership is for you—or why it might not be—this episode will give you the clarity (and reality check) you need.
https://youtu.be/Tf1bgOWMA2AWatch PDP237 on YoutubeProtrusive Dental Pearl: “DO NOT COMPARE YOUR WORK TO WHAT YOU SEE ON SOCIAL MEDIA”
Most cases shown online are the very best results, done under perfect conditions by clinicians with thousands of hours of experience.
Instead of letting that trigger self-doubt or imposter syndrome, use it as inspiration: respect it, aspire toward it, and occasionally achieve it — but remember that real-world dentistry is different.
Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below!
Key Takeaways
Highlights of this episode:
Enjoyed this episode? You might also like Treatment Co-Ordinators – Are They Right For Your Practice? – IC043
Connect with Dr. Shabnam:Website → shabnamzai.comInstagram → @drshabnamzai
This episode is eligible for 1 CE credit via the quiz on Protrusive Guidance.
This episode meets GDC Outcomes:
B: Effective management of self and working with others in the dental team.
AGD Subject Code: 550 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT AND HUMAN RELATIONS
Aim: To provide dentists with an honest, practical insight into practice ownership—particularly squat practices—covering the challenges, rewards, financial realities, and mindset shifts needed for success.
Dentists will be able to –
Explain the main motivations for becoming a practice owner versus remaining an associate.
Describe the key challenges of practice ownership, including compliance, leadership, and financial planning.
Outline the realistic financial commitments involved in setting up a squat practice.
Click below for full episode transcript:Teaser: Sometimes when you take a step back, you can actually take a bigger step forward. When people say, how much does it cost to set up a spot, I laugh because it's completely the wrong question to be asking.Teaser:The reason I say that is, is because how much your practice is gonna cost depends on, but I did it by reducing clinical day, but I cut down from five to four. What was interesting, my income didn’t change. You know, you have to be honest. Sometimes practices don’t work out. You know, and that’s okay, but–
Jaz’s Introduction:Practice ownership, it makes a lot of sense. In fact, in a lot of countries that is the culture. You qualify, you buy a practice, you do your own brand of dentistry. You are never truly fulfilled until you are a practice owner. In fact, in some countries, the associates are rare. Now, here in the UK, US, Australia, there is a big associate culture, if you like. There are many associates out there.
And you know what? As an associate, myself, there are so many good things, but there are also some bad things, the lack of control. What if tomorrow a corporate takes over the practice completely changes the culture? It’s what happened to me. And then you have to jump ship and start your patient base all over again. You lose that security, you lose that control and security control are too major reasons we explore today and why one may consider to become a practice owner.
And particularly we’re talking about a squat practice. A squat practice is when you buy a building and you turn it into a dental practice. So whilst the themes we cover in today’s episode with Dr. Shabnam Zai, it does apply to buying an existing dental practice because we talk about leadership, we talk about being the boss, being the principal.
A lot of our advice, especially when we talk about money towards the end, is about when you are doing a startup or a squat. Hello, Protruserati I’m Jaz Gulati, and welcome back to your favorite Dental Podcast. You’ll find out why I don’t think owning a practice is right for me at this stage of life. And maybe never, maybe you’ll never be right for for me, there are a few really good and really important reasons why I hate the idea of running my own practice. So you’ll get to hear about that later, but then you get to hear about so many benefits and good things and why it might be the best thing that ever happened to you, as explained by Shabnam.
The kind of themes that we cover are: Is it right for you to be a practice owner? What are the sacrifices you have to make? What’s the most difficult thing you have to do as a practice owner? How long would it take for you to make a profit? Does it mean that you may have to give up your clinical dentistry? What’s the most challenging thing about being the boss?
Dental PearlAnd so many other themes explored in this one hour podcast. Now this episode is eligible for CE credits as Protrusive Education is a PACE approved education provider, and so when you answer the quiz at the end on the app, you’ll get your CE and CPD. Talking of the app, the app has inspired today’s Protrusive Dental Pearl.
I’d like to give you a quick win at the start of every PDP episode. So, as you know, we built this community of 4,000 of the nicest and geekiest dentists in the world. It’s absolutely magic. Waking up and seeing all these notifications and all these cases being posted, and all the advice that’s being given and all the, just camaraderie and kindness.
Now, I’m very careful about promoting the app outside of the podcast. We have a very niche audience here of either the most engaged and caring dentists in the world, or dentists who want to be more engaged with what they do, and they’ve all found a home in Protrusive guidance. So if you’re not part of it, check out Protrusive.app that’s the website, www.protrusive.app. Make your account at the time of publishing, it is free to make an account. There are paid plans available if you want amazing value that we offer, but you can just join the community and meet your tribe. You can then download the app on iOS and Android.
But recently Hannah Cooper for a dentist student in Slovakia posted a case and she said deep breath this is my first anterior case, and she felt really beat up by it. Okay. And I thought she’s being very critical of herself bless her. Okay. So she did some good work. And what I love is that Hannah, she made herself vulnerable. She really put it out there as like, guys, can you help me? And the advice that was given, the reflections by the Protruserati, shout out to the usual suspects.
Okay, Mohammad Mozaffari, an absolute legend on the ap...