TYPES OF COST IN OPENING A DENTAL CLINIC
Types of costs in opening a Dental Clinic and How to Manage it ?
Monthly Expenditures
Once you start your clinic it comes with a set repeating monthly expenditures. By the end of the month, you should be ready with the money to pay out all the bills. So let’s have a look at all the monthly repeating expenditures that you are going to manage:
Rent of your Clinic Place – Suppose you have taken the place of your clinic on rent then by the end of the month you should be ready with the money to pay it off. How much rent it will cost, depends entirely where your are present and what type of locality you are working in. In well located market areas be ready to shell out a minimum of 15K to 20K Indian Rupees. If on rent then make a proper agreement, so that land can’t say you to vacate the space anytime he/she feels like.
Electricity Bill – This is the second monthly bill. This might vary very depending on the usage. In a busy practice the EB bill is high but you can easily pay it from your practice. In a new practice still trying to pick pace it might be a slight irritation. Air conditioner also consumes monthly bill. But now a days AC is must. You will rarely find a clinic without AC.
Phone Bill/ Internet Bill/ DTH Bill – In a city based dental clinic a dedicated LAN phone connection, Internet/WiFi & DTH satellite TV is a must and every month you are supposed to pay for their charges.
Salary to Staffs – In case if you have hired some one to help you out in clinic, then by the end of the month you should be ready with their salary. Choose staffs depending on your needs. For a big set up with lots of funds, a receptionist is fine. But in a modest private set up it is not required at all. At the least you will need to keep a person to help you out in basic dental procedures like cast pouring etc.
Monthly Dental Materials Cost – This is also directly related to how busy your practice is ! In the initial days – practice takes time to get that pace. Most of the days there will be no patients. So you will be indirectly conserving your dental materials. So in the early days keep a check and go slow with the dental products. But as time proceeds and you clinic starts to show pace & growth then its time to upgrade the stock of your dental materials. Keep a track of the new products that are being launched as they will be more user friendly and save you time. In our profession time is money.
You have to keep a balance between the cost you pay for the dental materials and the cost you charge from the patient. Excessive charging from the patients can be bad for your clinic in the long run. For example –
For Extraction you need a Dental Forcep + Cryers + Elevators & LA
The instruments are already one time payment. You are only spending on LA
So, charge the patient depending on the complexity of the dental extraction. Anterior mobile tooth you can charge 100 to 200 Rs but thirds molars/Impacted third molars you can charge Rs 500 to Rs 2000. That still gives you a profit margin of around 80% (as you have only spent on LA) and the patient is also happy as he realizes that you have charge too much from him/her.
Monthly Promotion Charge – In 2015 , marketing yourself is very much essential. Or else among so many dentists – how a patient will know that a new dentist has come to the market. For such promotion you might need to hold camps in schools & colleges on your cost. Promotion in newspapers by writing articles on dental treatment. Promotion by being a speaker in some important health meetings. For all this you will need to spend a little money. But that’s OK as there is nothing like a good promotion. It will get you more contacts and more patients.
