In today's episode of The Millionaire Dentist, we talk to one of the most successful oral surgeons in Indiana, Dr. Larry Falender, about why he prefers to work with dental-specific financial planners, why he became an oral surgeon, and he gives excellent advice for a younger dentist.
Announcer:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Millionaire Dentist Podcast brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry finances, and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to be. Please be advised, we do speak with an honest tongue and may not be safe for work. Now, here's your host, Alan Berry.
Alan Berry:
Welcome back to another episode of The Millionaire Dentist Podcast. On our last podcast, we talked to dental partners, Dr. Todd Christy and Dr. Eric Balsis. We got a lot of good feedback and comments, so we decided, hey, let's make this a thing. So now whenever we have dentists stop by the Four Quadrants headquarters, we will try to sit them down and see if they will share some of their dental wisdom with you, our faithful listeners.
Alan Berry:
That brings us to today's podcast with Dr. Larry Founder, who is a board certified oral surgeon and doctor of dental surgery. Dr. Founder operates his practice, Indianapolis Oral Surgery & Dental Implant Center, out of, you guessed it, Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Founder, thank you for coming by today. I know time is short for you, so let's get into it.
Alan Berry:
The first question I have is how did you get into dental practice? How did you decide to go down this career path? Was there any family members involved? Take me and our listeners back to kind of your mindset and thought process when you decided to become an oral surgeon.
Dr. Larry Founder:
Well, the reason I became an oral surgeon is a interesting story. My dad graduated high school in three years, and went to college to become a physician. And he was young, and his fraternity brother said, "It's too hard. Don't do it." He went into business and he ended up working for people. He was successful, but ended up working for people. And he instilled in me, from as long as I can remember, to be my own boss. In addition, growing up when I did, there was great shows on TV, medical dramas, including Medical Center, starred Joe Gannon, who was charismatic. He, in surgery, saved lives and everyone adored him. And I always wanted to be a surgeon. I spent many summers working in hospitals. I even moved up to being a surgical scrub tech. And the thing that struck me was most of the physicians, the surgeons did not have a great life. They were at the hospital all the time. A number of them were getting a divorce. And that just was not something for me.
Dr. Larry Founder:
Along that same time, my wife was studying to be a dental hygienist and said, "You know what? You might want to give dentistry a look at because you can do oral surgery." When I had my wisdom teeth out, I remember that as being the best sleep of my entire life. And I said, "Okay, I'm going to do that." She hooked me up with one of her professors up in Fort Wayne who had a great practice, took me to the OR, and I was hooked. So, I went back and decided instead of med school, I would go to dental school. I went to dental school with the idea of being an oral surgeon. And everything's worked out.
Alan Berry:
Everything has worked out for you is kind of an understatement. You've had a successful practice for more than a couple of decades. With that success though, I'm guessing, you've had a few lessons learned. And I'm curious, what advice would you give a younger you, knowing what you know now?
Dr. Larry Founder:
If can give a younger me advice as oral surgeon, or as a dentist, I would try to live within your means, save as much money as you can. And start to work with a qualified advisor, like Four Quadrants, as early as you can in your career. The thing I tell dental students that I teach at the IU School of Dentistry is for the first few years you get out into practice live like you lived in dental school. Don't go make the big purchases. Don't buy the new fancy car. Start putting money away, paying off your student loans. Back in my day, my student loans was 20,000. Today, student loans are 200,000 or more. So, you need to get with somebody at the beginning that can tell you how to plan your retirement. They say your first day of work is the first day you start planning on your retirement.
Alan Berry:
When I talk to other dentists about who they do business with to alleviate some type of pain point in their practice, they usually say, make sure whoever you work with that they are dental specific. And I know you have the same philosophy. So, why is working with other dental specific companies important to you?
Dr. Larry Founder:
I had been in practice since 1989 in my own office, and we were a successful practice. I had a accountant who was the head of one of the top accounting firms in town, friend and neighbor as well. I had a investment advisor who handled the Simons and people of that same level of wealth. I had a company that did my retirement plan. I had a payroll company. And we were just not getting results over the last number of years that I thought we should be getting. There was not attention to what I needed. I was just another person that they plugged my data in, that they had a meeting once a year, then they offered no suggestions, no advice.
Dr. Larry Founder:
Day-to-day business of dentistry is one, we're all small businessmen. We're like any other small business. Well, we have some different obstacles in dealing with insurance companies, dealing with patients, dealing with vendors, and we pretty much run our own show. We don't have a CEO. We are the CEO. And the thing I always joke about is we're the front office and the back office. And so, you have to be able to find somebody that can take some stress and pressure off you to say, "You know what? We can help with these things." Even from, I don't even have to save all my receipts anymore. I just give them to Four Quadrants and they scan them in and I'm done. That's a little bit of a load off.
Alan Berry:
Yeah, I bet. Talking about this idea of working with only dental specific entities does make a lot of sense. I'm guessing that it's probably most important when you're buying some expensive piece of equipment for your office.
Dr. Larry Founder:
It is important when we get ready to consider purchasing equipment. Talking to somebody who understands exactly what I may use that piece of equipment for makes sense. I pride myself in practicing state-of-the-art oral surgery. I was the first oral surgeon to have a CO2 laser in my office over 20 years ago. I was actually the second oral surgeon in the United States to have a website. And so, I've always been on the cutting edge only when it made sense to treat patients. Sometimes people buy things because they feel good about it. And it gets put in a closet. I have nothing in any closet that I bought and never used.
Dr. Larry Founder:
So, it's nice when I look at buying a new piece of equipment, or investing in some piece of technology that I can call up Four Quadrants, talk to Brogan and say, "Hey, does this make sense for my practice?" We are currently looking at an intraoral scanner. We've talked about it. They said, "It doesn't make sense yet, but let's think about it in another year." And that means a lot to me. In the past, it was just me making a decision. You get a lot of pressure from the reps to purchase things. My old accountant probably would have said, "Uh, if you want to buy it, buy it."
Alan Berry:
Looks like I'm getting the high sign to wrap it up. I guess, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, and I know this is a bit of a plug for the company I work for, but I got ask. What does Four Quadrants do for you and your practice?
Dr. Larry Founder:
Probably the biggest thing that they do is every month, I know where I stand. They handle everything. We make one phone call. And if I'm not talking to the right person, the next person gets on the phone, and takes care of that need. Whether it's taxes, whether it's investing, whether it's cashflow. They've really helped us with our financial plans and with our retirement plans.
Dr. Larry Founder:
One bit of news today was just that we've done better this past year than we thought we did. When you're in a practice day to day to day, you don't sometimes step back and look at the big picture and see what you're doing. And they opened my eyes today. And it's been a great experience.
Alan Berry:
That sounds like a perfect place to end.
Alan Berry:
Thank you so much, Dr. Founder for coming on the podcast today and sharing some of your knowledge and wisdom. It's really appreciated.
Alan Berry:
Before I go, I'd like to say, if you like The Millionaire Dentist Podcast, please give us a review or rating on iTunes. It really does make a difference in getting the word out about the podcast.
Alan Berry:
Until next time, hey, thanks for listening.
Announcer:
That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to you, the listener for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. To see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice. Going over to fourquadrantsadvisory.com and see why year after year, they retain over 95% of their clients. Thank you again for joining us. And we'll see you next time.
