At the AAE 2023 Meeting Career Fair earlier this month, we had the opportunity to talk with a lot of endodontic residents and new endodontists. Many of them had questions about whether the path to practice ownership was doable considering their educational debt level and the current financial climate. And, even if it was doable, is it worthwhile? Would the advantages of practice ownership outweigh the startup/buy-in costs reasonably soon (versus taking decades to “break even” on that decision to invest in practice ownership)?

Our answers to them are always a resounding and enthusiastic “Yes! Yes! and Yes!” Practice ownership continues to be the greatest opportunity an endodontist has. Owning your practice brings incredible benefits into your life, and the most overlooked advantage is hidden in plain sight.

The key advantage of ownership

Every business requires effective leaders who are responsible for keeping the business operational, growing, and achieving its goals. That’s a given no matter what the business is … from the smallest Mom-and-Pop shop to the largest multinational conglomerate. The key question is who decides the vision and goals of the business? The answer to that is typically differentiated by the size of the business:

• In a small owner-operated business like an endodontist-owned practice, the owner/doctor’s family and lifestyle goals are inextricably linked to the business’s operational goals. It’s very personal.
• As you move up to larger sized businesses, the scope of the business evolves, and goals tend to depersonalize from the owner in order to focus on what drives continued business growth.
• In the largest businesses (any business with a Board of Directors and multiple owners or stockholders), there is a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value, which means that every operational factor eventually gets evaluated and prioritized by economic value and return on investment.

The ability to completely influence and control your work environment and goals is an incredibly important and overlooked advantage. You can choose how much you want to work, how much income you want, what lifestyle you want, the experience that clients/patients have, the experience the team has, and how you feel when you are in the practice.

Successful on your own terms

The wonderful thing about endodontics is that it is possible to do very well financially while creating an exceptionally personalized work environment that empowers your lifestyle with freedom rather than dominating your life.

This is our vision at Endo Mastery for our clients, but more importantly, this is the vision of our owner Dr. Ace Goerig. Our approach to coaching is driven by Ace’s love of endodontics and desire to help our clients in a way that they feel their life has been transformed and improved far beyond any expectations.

For Endo Mastery, we deliberately choose to remain personalized and client-focused as a company where Ace can meet one-on-one with every new client for a full-day Freedom Summit. He digs into every client’s challenges and opportunities, and gives them genuine and highly personalized advice.

Doctors learn to connect the dots of practice ownership, to create a meaningful vision and practice goals, and quickly achieve success on their own terms. For many clients, this in-depth meeting with Ace inspires them to new levels of personal growth and practice success.