Shared Practices | Your Dental Roadmap through Practice Ownership

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  Feelings vs. Facts: Dental Practice Management with Practice by Numbers 07.09.2026 38min

  In this episode of the Shared Practices, host Caitlin Embree sits down with Dr. Aditi Agarwal, co-founder of Practice by Numbers, to discuss how analytics can completely transform your dental practice management. Dr. Agarwal shares how she evolved from pouring over confusing spreadsheets to creating an all-in-one dashboard that allows dentists to instantly diagnose bottlenecks, monitor team performance, and maximize their dental practice profitability.Relying on "gut feelings" is a dangerous way to run a business. Effective In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, host Caitlin Embree sits down with Dr. Aditi Agarwal, co-founder of Practice by Numbers, to discuss how analytics can completely transform your dental practice management. Dr. Agarwal shares how she evolved from pouring over confusing spreadsheets to creating an all-in-one dashboard that allows dentists to instantly diagnose bottlenecks, monitor team performance, and maximize their dental practice profitability.Relying on "gut feelings" is a dangerous way to run a business. Effective dental practice management requires a fact-based approach that empowers your team with clear, actionable metrics rather than overwhelming them with unnecessary data.Here is your guide to using KPIs to drive sustainable dental practice growth:Track the Pre-Appointment Rate: The most holistic indicator of practice health is the percentage of active patients who have a future appointment. Aim for an 80% pre-appointment rate to ensure your retention, scheduling, and case presentation systems are actually working.Balance Your Production: A healthy hygiene department should account for 30% to 35% of your total practice production. If hygiene exceeds that threshold, it reveals a severe breakdown in your doctor-driven restorative diagnosis or case acceptance.Analyze Treatment Rejections: When a patient declines treatment, your team must track the specific reason (e.g., finances, fear, timing). Reviewing this data allows you to tailor your case presentation and better train your financial coordinators to overcome common objections.Master Insurance Metrics: Do not drop a PPO plan based on a single low reimbursement code. Use your insurance dashboards to analyze the overall profitability of each plan and identify patterns in claim denials to drastically reduce your reimbursement cycle.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.requires a fact-based approach that empowers your team with clear, actionable metrics rather than overwhelming them with unnecessary data.
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  Ask George: How to Survive Burnout in Dental Practice Ownership 31.08.2026 32min

  In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri addresses a critical issue facing the industry: selling your practice early simply because you are tired. While the administrative and HR burdens of modern dental practice ownership drive many doctors to sell to DSOs, doing so prematurely cuts off your greatest wealth-building vehicle. George explains that burnout is not just a qualitative issue—it is a massive quantitative financial threat because the highest return on your investment in dental school comes from operating your cash-flowing practice for the longest possible time.If you are feeling overwhelmed in your current stage of dental practice ownership, you haven't failed—you simply haven't "nailed" the systems required for that level of success yet. By proactively identifying and solving the specific bottlenecks causing your exhaustion, you can secure your equity, reclaim your time, and maximize your income.Here is your guide to extending your career and maximizing the financial return of dental practice ownership:Audit Your Exhaustion: Track exactly what drains your energy over a two-week period, whether it is a specific type of demanding patient, a stressful clinical procedure like surgical extractions, or daily HR headaches.Delegate HR Burdens: If managing staff causes you severe stress, hire an office manager to handle schedule requests and team accountability. The cost of their salary is a small price to pay for the longevity it brings to your career.Design a Sustainable Schedule: Restructure your clinical days to prioritize rest, such as working an alternating three-day week that allows for a six-day weekend every two weeks without dropping your operational hours.Find Outside Outlets: Once your practice stabilizes and no longer needs aggressive growth, channel your entrepreneurial ambition into hobbies or fitness rather than constantly disrupting your business.Protect the Cash Cow: While outside investments like real estate are important, never fund them so aggressively that it ruins your personal lifestyle and causes you to burn out of dentistry.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.
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  Dr. George Hariri's Dental Business Strategies: A Roundtable with Pre-owners 24.08.2026 1t 3min

  In this rare and highly anticipated episode, Dr. George Hariri sits down for an exclusive roundtable with pre-owners Elijah Dunlap, Ben Vickery, and Josh Ward from the Business-Minded Dentist podcast. If you are a dental student or associate looking to transition into ownership, this conversation is packed with proven dental business strategies to help you avoid the common traps that cause 30% to 40% of new owners to make less money than they did as associates.George unpacks the exact dental business strategies Shared Practices uses to help clients achieve 37% to 39% growth in their first year of ownership. This roundtable with pre-owners dives deep into the realities of the modern dental market and why the days of simply "hanging a shingle" are over.Here is what you will learn from this essential conversation:Target "Neglected" Practices: The most explosive growth happens when you acquire a clinic from a retiring doctor who has underdiagnosed their patient base for years. These established patients essentially become a goldmine of new, high-value treatment needs.Prioritize Facility Size: A single-doctor, three-operatory practice is a dying model. You must buy a facility with at least six (preferably seven to twelve) operatories to successfully implement group dental business strategies.Leverage Access to Care: The easiest way to succeed without spending a fortune on marketing is to open a practice in a rural or semi-rural area where patient demand vastly outweighs the supply of dentists.Master Speed and Specialty: Before buying a practice, use your first four to six months out of dental school to build clinical speed and master endodontics and surgical extractions. Referring these cases out kills your profitability and damages patient goodwill.Don't Fear Staff Turnover: Retaining a legacy team is important, but not if it prevents you from establishing your own modern clinical culture. Establish your expectations on day one and let patient retention fund the transition of staff who refuse to adapt.Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.comto 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.
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  Generic IT vs Industry-Specific Dental Support with Josh Wallace of IT Harbor 17.08.2026 32min

  In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, host Caitlin Embree interviews Josh Wallace, president of IT Harbor, to discuss why specialized IT support is a critical component of any successful dental organization. Josh shares how IT Harbor naturally transitioned into the dental sector after assisting with new practice builds, choosing to remain vendor-agnostic to provide the best, most future-driven recommendations for their clients.Because modern dental practices rely heavily on nuanced technology—such as 3D modeling, CBCTs, and specialized scanners—relying on a generic IT company can lead to mismanaged data cabling, outdated systems, and massive operational overwhelm. Josh breaks down how a remote-first IT approach can resolve 98% of backend problems before the clinic even notices, while still offering robust, nationwide on-site support.Here is your guide to protecting your practice and leveraging the future of dental technology:Defend Against Phishing: Humans are the biggest vulnerability in any network. Protect your dental practice by utilizing high-end firewalls and conducting ongoing training to prevent staff—and doctors—from clicking on masked emails or fake login prompts.Leverage AI for Productivity: Stop letting your technology gather dust. Implement AI-assisted charting and voice-dictated perio notes to speed up your workflow and save your clinical team hours of administrative frustration.Build Trust With AI Imaging: Patients can sometimes be skeptical of a doctor's treatment plan, but utilizing AI software to analyze radiographs provides an objective second opinion that builds instant patient trust.Prioritize the Patient Experience: The modern consumer expects high-tech, fast, and frictionless service. Failing to update your dental technology over the next five to eight years will likely cause patients to leave for a more advanced, spa-like competitor.Demand Better Support: Ensure your IT provider offers a dedicated engineer (e.g., IT Harbor assigns one engineer per 30 clients) so you are not forced to call a random 1-800 number every time your dental systems crash.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.
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  How the World's Most Ambitious CEOs Think — And What It Means for Your Dental Practice 10.08.2026 35min

  In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, we explore what it truly means to step into the role of CEO of Your Dental Organization. As a dental provider scaling from a solo operation to a multi-practice group, your leadership leverage increases significantly as you multiply your impact across a larger team. However, elite dental leadership requires shifting your mindset away from strictly clinical work and focusing on three distinct horizons: long-term vision, medium-term strategic planning, and short-term execution.To achieve sustainable dental growth, your business vision must be rooted directly in your personal life goals. Because the CEO of Your Dental Organization ultimately serves the practice owner, every strategic decision should align with your desired income, clinical schedule, and vacation time.Here is your framework for mastering dental business strategy and leading your practice:Design Your Life First: Define your ideal schedule, target income, and preferred dental procedure mix (such as focusing heavily on surgical implants). Let those personal goals dictate your dental practice's long-term destination.Focus on the Bottleneck: Adopt an Elon Musk-style approach to daily dental management by identifying and spending your administrative time solving only the single biggest constraint facing your business each week.Play the "Whac-A-Mole" Game: Understand that solving one dental growth constraint—such as hiring a third hygienist to improve patient flow—will immediately trigger the next bottleneck, like needing to fill that new hygienist's schedule.Translate Vision to the Team: Convert your personal dental ownership goals into a team-centric mission. Emphasize how adding an associate doctor improves patient access to dental care and provides the staff with more flexible schedules.Enforce Core Values: Establish a shared set of actions to define your dental practice culture. Use these core values to ensure your team's behavior stays on course, allowing you to quickly identify and correct toxic team members.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.
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  Are You Missing the Clarity of Vision Needed for Sustainable Dental Practice Growth? 03.08.2026 29min

  In this solo episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Dr. Andrew Clingan tackles one of the most insidious threats to sustainable dental practice growth: a lack of clear vision. Using a real-world example of a highly successful but directionless young practice owner, Andrew explains how relying purely on talent and willpower eventually leads to spinning in circles. When you lack clarity, it becomes impossible to make sound decisions about marketing, PPOs, or multi-practice expansion, ultimately stunting your long-term success.To excel as a dentist today, you must understand that the "floor" has risen; succeeding requires more intentional business strategies than it did a decade ago. Andrew emphasizes that you cannot simultaneously optimize for elite clinical mastery, aggressive scaling, and perfect work-life balance. Achieving sustainable dental practice growth requires picking a path and maintaining a disciplined clarity of vision.Here is your guide to finding focus for your practice:Ignore the Extremes: Do not let social media highlight reels push you into building a 30-practice DSO or becoming an elite cosmetic dentist if those paths do not align with your true desires. The "middle of the road"—such as a profitable group model with two doctors and four hygienists—is often the sweet spot for sustainable dental practice growth.Audit Your Time: Regularly sit down and write out everything you do throughout the week. Identify the tasks you hate (like managing staff drama) and delegate them to leadership, while doubling down on the things that actually fire you up.Build Optionality Early: Be highly conservative with your personal finances early in your career. Living below your means and aggressively investing in your clinical and business skills provides you with the freedom to pivot your career path in your 40s or 50s.Read "Traction": Implement the principles from Gino Wickman's EOS framework to align your team and ensure everyone in the practice is rowing in the exact same direction.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.
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  Ask George: Is a Fee-for-service dental practice Right For You? 27.07.2026 30min

  In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri breaks down the pros, cons, and brutal truths of running a fee-for-service dental practice. While dropping insurance is a dream for many in dental practice ownership, George explains why going out-of-network is often like "swimming upstream". It becomes significantly harder to attract new patients and retain existing ones when they face higher out-of-pocket costs.However, if you are committed to this model, it can be incredibly rewarding when executed correctly. To achieve sustainable dental practice growth without relying on PPOs, you must deliver an experience that justifies the premium price tag.Here is your blueprint for operating a successful fee-for-service dental practice:Simulate the In-Network Experience: The best out-of-network offices are extremely insurance-friendly. You must submit claims on behalf of the patient and avoid charging extra for preventative care whenever possible to reduce friction.Leverage Rural Markets: The most predictable path to fee-for-service success is in rural or underserved areas. When there is a severe lack of access to care, patients have no choice but to tolerate out-of-network fees.Create a Unique Value Proposition: If you are operating in a highly competitive, urban market, your patient experience—from the doctor-patient relationship to the physical office environment—must be undeniably superior to the in-network clinic down the street.Transition Slowly: If you are acquiring an in-network clinic, do not abruptly transition into a fee-for-service dental practice. Build your patient base first, establish goodwill, and then gradually drop the lowest-paying plans one at a time.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.
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  The Dental Menu Factor: Elevating Patient Retention and Practice Profitability 20.07.2026 36min

  In this episode of Coach's Corner, Caitlin Embree interviews Paul Lowry, co-founder of Dental Menu, to solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in dental practice management: failing in-house membership plans. While dropping insurance is a common goal, data shows that unmanaged cash-pay patients only have a 12% retention rate over five years, compared to 64% for insured patients.To achieve sustainable dental practice growth, practice owners must treat their membership programs like true subscriptions (e.g., Netflix or Amazon Prime) rather than one-off "Groupon" discount bundles that cause renewal gaps. Poorly administered plans not only create massive administrative headaches but also artificially lower your practice valuation by forcing you to zero out production or write off massive adjustments.Here is your blueprint for upgrading your dental practice management through a properly structured membership plan:Stop the "Discount" Mindset: Shift from selling a bundled package of cleanings to an auto-renewing subscription model to prevent patients from lapsing for months at a time.Fix Your Accounting: Stop adjusting membership preventative care to $0, as it destroys your KPIs. Dental Menu uses a separate bank account to process monthly fees and generate internal EOBs so production flawlessly matches collections.Protect Provider Pay: Proper dental practice management requires accurate ledgers so associate dentists and hygienists receive their correct collection-based bonuses when treating membership patients.Incentivize Your Team: Drive dental practice profitability by offering your front office staff bonuses (e.g., $25 per sign-up) to consistently present the membership plan to cash-pay patients.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.
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  Ask George: Maximizing Profitability Through Solo Dental Practice Management 13.07.2026 34min

  In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Dr. George Hariri answers listener requests to strip away group practice bias and focus entirely on elite solo dental practice management. Many practitioners mistakenly believe that a multi-provider clinic is the only route to high-level profitability, but optimizing a solo model can create an incredibly low-stress, high-income asset. George outlines the precision growth pathways and details how transitioning from a standard solo dentist to a "productive solo" or "smart solo" can elevate your take-home pay to $400,000 and beyond.To break out of the low-revenue trap, you must learn how to manipulate the core levers of dental practice management.Implement these critical solo growth metrics and systems in your practice:Build the 2-2-2 Operational Balance: Scale your patient base to seamlessly support two full-time hygienists, two front office team members, and two dental assistants to perfectly balance your diagnostic and administrative workflow.Master Hygiene Benchmarks: Understand that there are roughly 200 active patients per day of hygiene. Target a base of 1,600 active patients to completely fill two full columns of hygiene working four days a week.Hit Case Acceptance Targets: Elevate your presentation style to consistently achieve an 80% patient acceptance rate (patients saying yes to at least one treatment item) and a 30% to 40% total dollar value treatment acceptance rate.Lock In Diagnostic Consistency: Develop clear, research-backed clinical diagnostic protocols so your hygiene team can confidently co-diagnose and tee up treatment plans before you even enter the room.Maximize Time Efficiency: Unlike group practices that focus heavily on analytical data points, a solo practitioner must treat their personal clinical time as the most valuable asset in the building by delegating every legally allowed task to auxiliaries.Transforming your solo office requires moving past basic survival and adopting highly intentional dental practice management strategies.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.
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  Sitting Down with an Office Manager - Uncovering Dental Practice Pearls 06.07.2026 38min

  In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Caitlin Embree interviews Max Dempsey, the rockstar office manager for Dr. Jaspreet Parmar’s two growing practices. Max provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at dental practice management from the perspective of an elite team member navigating an ownership transition. With 29 years of experience, she shares how she evolved from a lead dental assistant into a multi-practice manager by mastering front-office billing, insurance communication, and team leadership through targeted coaching.For any dentist evaluating dental practice acquisitions, this episode highlights how crucial it is to establish a unified culture from day one.Here is your masterclass in team-driven dental practice management:Establish Core Values Early: Do not let your team wallow in uncertainty during a transition. Dr. Parmar took his team out on day one to collaboratively define the clinic's core values, instantly proving his commitment to structured leadership.Master Fee-for-Service Verbiage: Running an out-of-network practice requires flawless communication. Train your team to respond to insurance questions by offering to verify benefits and calculate estimated copays, ensuring a "wow factor" patient experience.Delegate and Trust: True dental practice management scaling requires the owner to step out of the daily administrative weeds. Dr. Parmar built trust with Max to the point where she now handles major HR issues independently, allowing him to focus strictly on clinical production.Hire for Personality: Never make desperate hires. Prioritize candidates who fit your culture and exhibit a strong desire to learn, as technical skills can always be taught through effective dental practice management systems.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.
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  Ask George: Unlocking Dental Growth Strategies with 4 Levers That Make a Difference 29.06.2026 35min

  In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri shatters the industry myth that achieving more than 10% same-store growth is impossible. For the modern dentist, transitioning from an exhausted clinician to a strategic CEO requires executing targeted dental growth strategies. Rather than forcing generalized systems onto your team, true leadership means diagnosing your clinic's unique bottlenecks. To scale efficiently, stop treating every operational issue equally and focus your administrative time on the constraints that generate massive dental practice profitability.This episode serves as your survival guide for mastering dental practice management. George reveals the four operational levers that guarantee sustainable dental practice growth:- Patient Flow: Implement the Retain, Open, Fill method. Lock the back door by mastering hygiene reappointment rates, then open new columns.- Case Acceptance: Empower your staff to co-diagnose. When the team leads patient education, doctor production becomes completely predictable.- Consistency: Close the performance gap between your best and worst clinical team members to instantly elevate the practice floor.- Efficiency: Play "Whac-A-Mole" with your metrics. Identify massive operational leaks, like a high missed call rate, and resolve them immediately.Elite dental business strategies require you to leverage your time. If you only spend a few hours a week working on the business, you must direct that energy toward your weakest links. Customizing your dental growth strategies to target these precise inefficiencies guarantees predictable expansion year after year.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.
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  Maximizing Efficiency: Implementing Virtual Dental Assistants for Success 22.06.2026 40min

  In this episode, Caitlin Embree and Cory Pinegar, CEO of Reach, dive into integrating virtual support to elevate your dental practice management. With operating costs rising roughly 87% since 2001 and insurance reimbursements remaining stagnant, the modern dentist is getting squeezed. To maintain dental practice profitability, owners must rethink their traditional staffing models.Cory explains why conventional outsourcing fails and how embedding a dedicated virtual team member transforms your dental practice management. By delegating repetitive front-desk tasks, your in-office staff can focus exclusively on the patients directly in front of them, driving sustainable dental practice growth.Here is your blueprint for implementing elite dental business strategies using virtual support:Capture Missed Revenue: Over 60% of Reach's clients start by delegating inbound phone calls because the industry average for missed calls is 33%.Define Success Metrics: Before hiring, clearly outline whether your goal is saving money, buying back time, or driving revenue to ensure a measurable ROI.Customize Your Training: Provide the final 20% of practice-specific training, such as exact verbiage and software nuances, to fully integrate your virtual assistant.Embrace AI as a Tool: Combine the efficiency of AI technology with the empathy of human virtual assistants rather than treating them as opposing forces.Treating virtual assistants like actual human team members is the missing link in modern dental practice management.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.
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  Ask George: How to Transition from a Job to Dental Practice Ownership and Profitability 15.06.2026 35min

  In this Ask George episode, we tackle the ultimate debate in dental practice ownership: have you built a highly profitable business, or just a high-paying job? Dr. George Hariri breaks down the reality of "key man risk," proving that if your office relies on your personal clinical energy to generate revenue, you are acting as an employee. For a future owner, making the shift to CEO requires mastering advanced dental practice management so your team performs efficiently without your oversight.This ultimate survival guide for mastering dental practice ownership shows you exactly how to shift from a stressful owner-driven clinical model to an autonomous, team-driven powerhouse. To achieve sustainable dental practice growth, implement KPI accountability:Missed Call Rate: Track front office metrics to capture inbound leads.Reactive Retention: Consistently monitor your overdue recare efforts.Proactive Retention: Push daily hygiene reappointments past a 90% target.To cement your dental practice ownership, delegate case acceptance entirely. When hygienists are calibrated to co-diagnose, they educate patients before you arrive, massively boosting dental practice profitability. We also highlight why the associate to owner transition fails without an Office Manager handling HR and payroll, ensuring scaling does not create more work. Embrace entrepreneurship for dentists by building systems that leverage your team's time.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.
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  Being Clinically Busy vs True Dental Practice Profitability and Sustainable Dental Practice Growth 08.06.2026 34min

  The "Busy" Trap in DentistryFor Future Dental Practice Owners, a packed schedule feels like success. Yet, a booked day lacking strategic production leads to clinical burnout. Dr. Andrew Clingan and Caitlin Embree reveal why being merely "busy" destroys dental practice profitability. Moving from clinician to empowered CEO means stopping the cycle of stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. This requires mastering dental practice management through intentional scheduling.Your Scheduling Survival Guide:If your days are chaotic but collections are stagnant, your systems are failing. Allowing patients to cancel restorative work without consequence is why dental practice profitability drops. You cannot achieve sustainable dental practice growth if your team scrambles for supplies instead of prepping same-day treatment. To implement elite dental business strategies, engineer your operations:Implement Block Scheduling: Define daily "rocks" and "boulders" to hit goals before filling gaps.Enforce Front Desk Protocols: Separate doctor time from assistant time to end bottlenecks.Demand Accountability: Stop absorbing no-shows by collecting upfront deposits for major cases.Optimize Back-Office Systems: Standardize inventory so your team can add same-day treatment.Dr. Clingan shares how these systems turned a routine limited exam into a prepaid $17,000 case in ten minutes. This operational mindset lays the foundation for scalable dental business ownership and predictable dental practice profitability. It is vital for the associate to owner transition.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.
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  Ask George: Why Hiring an Associate Can Hurt Dental Practice Profitability 01.06.2026 34min

  In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri breaks down the common—yet avoidable—trap where adding an associate leads to a massive drop in dental practice profitability. George shares his own Dental Moneyball cautionary tale: how he went from a thriving income to making zero dollars after hiring his first associate. This episode serves as a survival guide for any dentist moving from clinician to CEO, ensuring that your associate to owner transition actually results in more freedom, not just more expenses. George explores the "perfect storm" that kills dental practice profitability: rising overhead costs paired with a less efficient provider seeing your patients. You will learn specific dental business strategies to mitigate these risks, including the "two-to-one" hygiene-to-restorative ratio and how to expand your office capacity by modifying your schedule. We discuss why owner doctors are typically more efficient and how to train your team for co-diagnosis so that your associate walks into a well-oiled system of case acceptance. Whether you are looking to work fewer days or simply want to scale your net worth, George provides the roadmap for delegating lower-level procedures while keeping your high-production hourly rate intact. Stop guessing and start using data-driven insights to ensure your next hire is a catalyst for dental practice profitability rather than a drain on your bank account. 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.
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  Bridging the Gap: Financial Management for Dentists and the Role of CPAs 25.05.2026 43min

  Caitlin Embree and Morgan Hamon from EAG Dental Advisors bridge the gap between daily operations and proactive financial management for dentists. Transitioning from clinician to CEO requires deep financial clarity. Most owners only speak to their CPA during tax season, but advanced financial management for dentists transforms raw data into insights that fuel long-term dental practice profitability.  If your goal is sustainable dental practice growth, this is your survival guide. Morgan explains how specialized CPAs act as your financial radiologist—diagnosing cash flow bottlenecks—so your dental practice management team can perform the operational surgery. We explore why standard profit and loss statements hide critical metrics like debt service.  Here is your blueprint to master dental business strategies and dental practice ownership:Master the Rule of Threes: Hygienists must produce three times their total pay to sustain dental practice profitability.  Calculate Cash Reserves: Keep one to two months of break-even capital, combining operating expenses and debt service, to eliminate stress. Optimize Distributions: Implement structured monthly or quarterly distributions to maximize personal wealth.  Demand Strategy: Stop accepting tax-season surprises. Demand year-round communication to track liabilities as you scale.  Proactive financial management for dentists protects your revenue. Contact Morgan Hamon at [email protected] or visit https://eagdentaladvisors.com/.  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.
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  Ask George: Revenue vs. Cash Flow: The CEO’s Guide to Real Dental Practice Profitability 18.05.2026 30min

  Transitioning from a clinician to a CEO requires a fundamental shift in how you view your bank account. In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri reveals the "survival guide" for mastering dental practice profitability. If you’ve ever felt the frustration of a packed schedule and high production that never seems to translate into a growing bank balance, you are likely missing the "Moneyball" discipline required for true dental business ownership. George shares his personal journey from a revenue-only focus to becoming a disciplined CFO, providing the roadmap for every future owner to follow.The core of dental practice profitability lies in understanding three financial pillars: the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet, and the Cash Flow Statement. George explains why your practice management software might lie to you about your revenue and how to reconcile bank deposits with collections. By mastering financial management for dentists, you can stop guessing and start leading. This episode breaks down the "one month break-even" liquidity rule, ensuring you have enough cash on hand to weather the volatility of dental practice management without the stress of payroll cycles or credit card bills.For those looking to scale, George explores dental growth strategies that prioritize cash-on-cash returns over "paper wealth." He discusses how to utilize a quarterly distribution schedule to accumulate cash before deciding whether to reinvest in the practice or take a personal draw. This approach to sustainable dental practice growth ensures that every dollar you spend—whether on a new operatory, marketing, or coaching—acts as a soldier sent out to bring more soldiers back.Don’t let your practice be a high-revenue trap. Learn the dental business strategies that separate struggling associates from wealthy owners. By focusing on dental practice profitability through the lens of cash flow and disciplined reinvestment, you can build a business that generates consistent, predictable wealth.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.
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  Unlocking Group Practice Opportunities For A Solo Dentist - Part 2 11.05.2026 30min

  Transitioning from a clinician to a CEO is the ultimate hurdle in dental practice ownership. In this episode of Practice Underwater, Dr. George Hariri and Elizabeth navigate the "logistical nightmare" of scaling an eight-month-old practice that is already bursting at the seams. With 3,000 patients and only six operatories, Elizabeth faces a pivotal choice: stay in a challenging second-floor space or chase a "shiny object" real estate deal with mismatched timelines.George reframes the traditional dental business ownership mindset by challenging the urge to move too soon. They break down the ROI of a $43,000 construction project to add two operatories versus the capital-intensive trap of buying a building that doesn't fit the long-term vision. This is a survival guide for any dentist wrestling with dental growth strategies and the fear of patient attrition.The conversation pivots to the "Mega Group" concept, where George introduces the power of the 12-operatory model. For those pursuing sustainable dental practice growth, reaching 12 operatories allows for a three-doctor rotation, providing the owner with the "school schedule" flexibility they crave without sacrificing dental practice profitability. Elizabeth gains clarity on why settling in her current space—for now—is the fastest way to hire an associate and preserve her patient base. Ready to scale your dental practice ownership?Visit https://sharedpractices.com/ for our "Free Look" service and follow our social channels for roadmap updates. Join the community and turn your clinical skills into a thriving business.
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  Unlocking Group Practice Opportunities For A Solo Dentist - Part 1 04.05.2026 28min

  In this episode of Practice Underwater, Dr. George Hariri sits down with a dentist, Elizabeth, to discuss the initial hurdles she faced following an associate to owner transition.They analyze her impressive growth as a new dentist, jumping from a projected $1.2M to a $1.4M finish within eight months, while exploring dental business strategies to manage a bursting 3,000-patient base with only 11 hygiene days.The core strategic debate centers on whether to simplify the schedule via a fee-for-service model or expand into a multi-doctor setup by hiring another dentist, a dilemma complicated by real estate constraints discussed through a Shared Practices framework.This is a must-listen for any dentist weighing the long-term flexibility of group practice against the streamlined profitability of staying solo.In this episode:• Scaling production from a projected $1.2M pace to over $1.4M.• Managing a bottleneck of 3,000 patients with only 11 hygiene days.• The strategic debate: dropping insurance versus hiring an associate.• Evaluating real estate options for a growing team.• Balancing clinical autonomy with family flexibility.Whether navigating an associate to owner transition or vetting acquisitions in dentistry, this is your survival guide. Ready to scale your dental practice ownership? Visit https://sharedpractices.com/ for our "Free Look" service and follow our social channels for roadmap updates. Join the community and turn your clinical skills into a thriving business.
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  Ask George – How Aspiring Dental Practice Owners Can Build a Real Business, Not Just a Job 27.04.2026 28min

  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.