"In December 2003 I bought a dental practice in Oceanside, California. It is a middle-class practice, no cosmetics, nothing extravagant about it. We treat the whole gamut of patients from kids to 90 years old.

"The previous owner was only working two days a week and the practice was not in good shape. There were only about 700 active patients.

"My wife and I wound up putting in ten to twelve hours a day trying to get the place turned around. But after five months the production was only around $35,000 a month, sometimes dipping down into the twenties. Money wasn't the only problem. The office was very chaotic. There were staff issues. It was very stressful. Going back to being an associate was looking more attractive all the time since I could make the same amount of money with far less work and stress.

"Well, instead of that, I contacted Sterling and started turning things around right away. That is one of the great aspects of the Sterling program. It has simple actions that a busy professional can put in place and get immediate results. Our numbers went straight up and haven't plateaued since.

"Six months later, the production was up to $50,000 but I knew we could do a lot better. Getting in the basic items like statistics and conditions formulas was easy for me to do. But we would do a lot better if the staff understood why they were doing certain actions rather than having to take my direction. To do this I needed to have someone come in who was an expert in training staff. So in February, I had a SPEEDO.* This moved us up to a whole new level of operation.

"We closed the office for two days for the staff training and were only open about five hours a day for the next three. Despite putting in three half-days, we still produced $14,000 that week. We followed this up with $77,000 in March, by far the best we have ever done. I am writing this in the middle of April, just as my wife and I are getting ready to leave for a week in Cancun. We already produced $50,000 in the first two weeks of the month so even though I am taking a week off for vacation, we will still make at least $60,000 to $70,000 this month. That's twice what I was making this time last year when we were working 12 hour days with no vacation.

"The staff really took charge of their own posts after the SPEEDO. Before I could implement the stats and they would track them because I told them to. Now they know why they need to do it and they just do it without question. They write up their own condition formulas and they seem to improve each week from that.

"Playing games has also made a huge difference. Maybe you have seen staff who don’t want the practice to grow. They think that more patients will just mean more work for them and add to the confusion in the office. Well, I have the exact opposite situation in my office. With the systems we have in place now, more patients translates into more income, not more insanity. As a result, my staff are adamant about hitting a million dollars in production this year.

"In the consulting section of the SPEEDO, we addressed everything. Each post. The personalities of each staff member. How to make an efficient schedule. How to collect money. The biggest win for me was becoming more confident in my communication with the patients. The consultant went over with me how to get patients to want the treatment program. Once they want it, they will find their own way to accept the treatment and there was definitely an improvement in treatment plan acceptance.

"The patient referral program we put in place during the SPEEDO has also given us a huge boost. The first week after the SPEEDO we had about three or four and it increased each week since then. Last week we had sixteen new patients from it, and I already have sixteen lined up for the week I get back from vacation. We are getting so busy that I need to buy a chair and open up a fourth operatory.

"The SPEEDO is the perfect complement to the rest of the Sterling program. It gets you where you want to be far quicker than doing it all on your own, and the benefits go far beyond just the finances. I now work four days a week, and I am out of there as soon as the office closers. Instead of working late nights I can spend those hours with my family. My wife, who is expecting our first child, no longer needs to work in the practice but can be a full-time mom. With the staff trained and the office running smoothly, I am free to take time off. The employees are managing themselves so I don't need to worry about them. I am not stressed about the office or about paying the bills.

"And the future looks even better, I am not burned out with dentistry anymore. In fact I am looking to do more, including opening a second office. But despite opening that second office, I still expect to cut down even further on my hours. Too many people regret not having spent more time with their children when they were young. I won't be one of them."

Calvin Yang, DDS

*SPEEDO = Staff Production Enhancement and Establishment by the Debug Officer