The End and the Beginning

*Disclaimer: this is a long post meant mostly as a journal entry for myself. Please feel free to read it, I just don't know how interesting it will be to anyone else

Last October I traveled to Albuquerque with my friend and classmate, Chris. On that trip we spent some time with one of the managing partners (Bruce) of a dental franchise called Comfort Dental. The trip went well by all measures. Chris and I talked, analyzed and over-analyzed the professional option of "buying" a Comfort Dental franchise together. We got back to Wisconsin and within a few weeks we both mailed off cashier's checks to secure our spots as franchisee's with Comfort Dental of New Mexico. That decision was essentially the culmination of 3 years of researching and planning my dental career. I am not trying to toot my own horn here, but I honestly don't know anyone who put in as much time and effort as Chris and I did into researching the "best" professional pathways in dentistry. I went from wanting to scratch-start a practice, to thinking of buying an old dying practice and re-vamping it. I spent about a year and a half of dental school convinced I wanted to become and endodontist. I did research, signed up for extra programs, ran for class president etc... all in an effort to boost my resume for a post graduate program. Finally, when the allure of endo faded, and I got back in to the mindset of general dentistry, I started re-weighing those options I had previously considered. Part of that decision making process was based on where in the country we wanted to live. So, we narrowed it down to Calif, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, possibly Colorado and maybe New Mexico.

Our decision would be based primarily on a few factors:

1. We want to be "out west" to be close to family

2. We don't want to be freezing (or wet) for a significant part of the year

3. We want a temple nearby

Uncle Pat and Aunt Wendy moved to New Mexico two summers ago and have had great things to say about it. I also found out around March of 2009 that Comfort Dental had spread from Colorado down to New Mexico and was looking to grow. So, we investigated New Mexico, found that it fit our 3 basic criteria. Sara and I went down in April 2009 and took the grand tour of Albuquerque. After that trip I initiated contact with Comfort Dental and got the ball rolling to meet with them in the Fall.

So, that is where I was at as of October 2009. I was fully committed to Comfort Dental of New Mexico. I had put in a cash deposit. Bruce was emailing us with updates on how the other partners were doing. He was actively looking at real estate to set up our future office. I had mentally and emotionally settled in to the idea of becoming a Comfort Dental partner.

Several months go by, over the course of which, I have some second thoughts regarding my desire to go ahead with Comfort Dental. A small part of me felt like I could do better. I don't just mean better financially (the CD partners do very well) but I mean that I could do something more personally satisfying than simply signing up for a franchise and settling in to play by their rules. Those thoughts came and went. I finally got over them and went ahead with the plan as outlined. Then Spring Break happened.

For our Spring Break, Sara, Lily and I traveled to Utah to see Ashleigh, Kyle and Cami (who drove out from Calif). It was a great trip and we spent most of the time trying to sell Ash and Kyle on the idea of moving to New Mexico after they finish school. We explained to them the job I had lined up and how great it would be etc. My classmate, Pako, also took a trip out West. He is considering starting up his own practice after he completes a 1 year residency. It just so happens that Albuquerque was on his list of places to look at for his startup. So, I hooked him up with Bruce so he could take a look at the Comfort Dental offices and learn about their arrangement.

Pako went on his trip, visited Bruce, as well as some other offices I am familiar with and came back to Wisconsin safe and sound. I caught up with him at school after Spring Break to ask him how how trip was and he made a comment that went something like this, "Well, you can spend 350K to buy into Comfort Dental, where you get a crummy looking office and you play by their rules. Or, for about the same amount, you can start your own office, make it look nice, and do whatever you want with it. I just don't see the upside."

Everything Pako said is indeed factually correct. Comfort Dental places little emphasis on designing and building offices to look beautiful. and they most definitely set up the rules on how you practice dentistry; including where you are, how often you are open, what procedures you can and can't do, etc...

I already knew all of this, but as I said earlier, I had gotten over it. What do you need a beautiful office for when you are making as much money as those guys in crummy offices? Why do you want to add more procedures when you can make so much with just a few simple ones? Why do you care about when your office is open if you are only there about 32 hours a week anyway?

I had asked myself all of these questions before, and hesitated to ask myself the one question that is clearly more important, "Is this what you want to do for the rest of your career?" Or, the same question, phrased differently, "Can you do better?"

That conversation with Pako happened last Thursday morning at about 10:30 AM. By late afternoon on that same day I started seriously exploring what other options I had.