The Importance of Break Rooms & Staff Lounges
Break Rooms and Staff Lounges are an area of opportunity to save money on construction costs. We can do so and still make sure it is a comfortable place for the team to take a breather during the course of a busy and often stressful clinical day.
The Benefits of Simple Upgrades
There are simple upgrades we can make to show our teams we care about providing them with a great work experience (hint hint- it doesn’t require fancy sinks, faucets or cabinetry). Providing snacks (like Addison Killeen, DDS has talked about) or going a little further and buying a massage chair for the break room (like our buddy Dr. Taher Dhoon) can actually make a difference.
During any build out or renovation/expansion there is always a slow steady creep of additional expenses we didn’t plan for. I see too many dentists take the amount the bank approved them for and mistaken this for their budget.
Combat Decision Fatigue
When decision fatigue sets in during a construction project there are a couple common & costly narratives we might tell ourselves…
“It’s fine I just have to get to opening day and I’ll figure out paying off the debt later.”
This is the dentist that is busy working as an associate trying to do a startup at the same time. They start to get overwhelmed with all the questions from the equipment rep, architect, contractor. They start making concessions to small add on’s that they “don’t have time to think about”… $1,900 here, $6,000 extra there, $900 somewhere else and before you know it they’ve conceded to tens of thousands of dollars.
“I should have taken some time to do a little more research and save a few more bucks along the way, I knew better, but I was too busy to pay attention.”
This is the doc that is expanding into the space next door now reflecting back on the project, while making monthly payments that are double what they were prior to the expansion. (worth is, yes probably, but there was no need to overspend and cut into their future profitability).
As our Buddy Dr. Mark Costes says – watch out for that dental tax my friends – IT ALL ADDS UP.