From associate to three offices
I'm Dr. Forest Ratchford, DDS. Today I own and operate a three-office dental group on California's Central Coast. But like most dentists, I graduated knowing how to do excellent clinical work — and almost nothing about how to buy, build, or run a business.
My first practice purchase taught me more than any CE course ever has: how to read a seller's P&L with appropriate skepticism, what a lease can quietly cost you, why the team you inherit matters more than the equipment you inherit, and how quickly the numbers stop being abstract when your name is on the loan.
The second and third offices taught me the other half — that a practice you don't personally hold together every day requires real systems: block scheduling that protects production, KPIs reviewed monthly, a hiring process instead of hiring luck, and a team culture strong enough to survive growth. Our clinical teams train continuously, and we run our practices on the same operational discipline I now teach.
Doctors Inc. exists because I kept having the same conversation with associates and new owners: smart, capable dentists making expensive decisions alone, with advice only from people who had something to sell them — a broker's commission, a lender's loan, a supplier's contract.
I'd rather you skip the expensive lessons. My only incentive is that ownership goes well for you.