Election Night

First and foremost, THANK YOU. Your response to my previous blog post, “I Tried to Hire an Associate Today,” was amazing. It was by far the post on which I have received the most comments ever. Apparently, I struck a nerve. I truly appreciated the time, thought, and candor that went into your comments. If you have not read them, do yourself a favor and read my previous post and especially the readers’ comments!

It was great to read the perspectives from fellow practice owners, as well as dentists working as associates. I think we all learned a little about each other’s perspective. The Daily Grind is a place for us to exchange ideas, thoughts, and concerns. It does not mean we always agree, but hopefully it means that we always learn.

It was interesting to see the numbers that our colleagues wrote about. As I mentioned, this is a difficult topic since numbers vary greatly by region. I came to the conclusion that whatever numbers work for you and your region are the right numbers. It’s kind of like buying a house. In some parts of the United States $1 million buys you a very nice place. In other places, you get a lot less. It’s the same with practices. In some areas, if you produce $1 million a year you are living like a rock star…in other regions, not so much.

So PLEASE, keep those comments coming for all of our blogs, because it’s nice to know someone is reading what we write. Again, thank you.

Now, on to a completely different subject...

I make it a rule not to place political posters of any kind anywhere in my office during elections—with one exception.

I do place placards/signs for my patients who run for office. They have supported my practice over the years, so I in turn support their efforts. It does not matter which party, if any, they belong to. They have my endorsement if they are my patient. I tell them that my endorsement, along with my influence in the community, should be able to deliver a voting block of about one vote.

 

On March 3, there was an election in our city. Two city council seats were available. One of my patients decided to run. We placed his signs in our office windows. He truly appreciated it, especially since, as I later learned, ours was the first business to ever display his sign. He was grateful for that. Every once in a while another patient would ask about the sign in our window. They were pleasantly surprised to learn of how we support our patients in their efforts. I assured them that if they ever ran for office I would do the same for them!

A cool benefit was that I was invited to the election night party with the candidate.  How many of those have you been invited to? They are pretty cool. Everyone is optimistic, and there is lots of food and drink for everyone. It is the candidate’s time to thank everyone who has supported his candidacy. The only bad thing is that these are usually on a Tuesday night. So it is a late night for the candidate and their families. However, a great time is to be had by all. Ultimately, my patient didn’t win the election but I was proud of him nonetheless.

So if anyone out there is thinking of running for president of the United States next year, you now know what it takes to get that all-important Dr. Alas endorsement. 

Andy Alas, DDS