Ask George – How Aspiring Dental Practice Owners Can Build a Real Business, Not Just a Job
Shared Practices | Your Dental Roadmap through Practice Ownership
Dr. George Hariri | Shared Practices Network
4.9 • 559 Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to the Shared Practices podcast.
In this episode of Ask George, we’re diving into a question we hear all the time from aspiring owners: How do you build a real business instead of just buying yourself a job? Whether you’re preparing to purchase your first practice or thinking about expanding into your second or third location, this conversation will give you a clearer, more honest picture of what ownership really looks like today.
Dentistry has changed a lot over the years. With more options like DSOs, choosing private practice is no longer the default—it’s a decision. And for many, that decision means stepping into the role of an entrepreneur. That comes with real challenges: managing rising staff costs, dealing with insurance reimbursements, and navigating tighter margins, especially in a post-COVID landscape. But at the same time, it creates an opportunity to build something that can grow beyond your own clinical work.
So what’s the difference between a job and a business? If everything depends on you being in the chair day in and day out, it’s still a job—no matter how successful it looks on paper. A true business is built to operate and generate income even when you’re not there. That shift in mindset is what separates operators from owners.
George breaks down a practical path to get there, including how to build around multiple providers, improve efficiency, and create systems that support long-term growth. From bringing on associates to optimizing your space and team, it’s all about creating a structure that doesn’t rely solely on you.
Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey?
Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the shared practices podcast. |
| 0:10.7 | This is another episode of Ask George. |
| 0:12.9 | And in this episode, we are catering towards the aspiring owners. |
| 0:17.3 | So anybody who is wanting to get into ownership. |
| 0:20.7 | And, you know, aspiring owners, I would like to broaden the horizon a little bit to, |
| 0:24.0 | yeah, obviously, primarily this is going to be people who want to get into their first practice. |
| 0:28.1 | But there's also this segment of the audience that's growing is a lot of the people that have |
| 0:32.7 | been with shared practices for a longer period of time have a lot of them maybe have graduated |
| 0:37.0 | to multiple locations. And so there's also this segment of the audience that this episode could apply to if you're thinking about a second. And so either way, something that we've been hearing a lot from dentists who have been reaching out to us and talking. And you know, just to be clear with everyone, right, we do what's called a free look. Anybody who is interested in looking to buy a practice, we offer a free complimentary look where you can send it to us and we can kind of go from there. |
| 0:59.4 | And a lot of those conversations, what happens is people, they have this question or this comment about, I want to be sure I'm building a business, not just creating a job for myself. |
| 1:09.0 | And I think that this speaks to what is a greater trend. |
| 1:12.7 | And I want to highlight the trend, right? |
| 1:15.6 | So when I started dental school 12 years ago, wow. |
| 1:21.0 | I mean, to me, that's like, |
| 1:22.9 | I like to think of myself as young. |
| 1:24.5 | And it's just, it's getting harder for me |
| 1:27.1 | to talk to an aspiring owner and feel |
| 1:28.9 | like, you know, I started to do a dental school 12 years ago. So like, it's been a while. And a lot has |
| 1:33.4 | changed in dentistry since I started. And when I started, I would say that private practice was |
| 1:38.9 | kind of making that transition from an assumption that everyone would do to, you know, private practice has changed. It used to be |
| 1:46.9 | for everybody. And I would say that when I was going to school, it was like, DSOs were still kind of like |
| 1:52.8 | the big bad wolf in the dental industry. And there was still a lot of like private, like most people |
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