 Hello, everybody, Andrea here. So let's talk about the secret sauce, not so secret, but it always amazes me how people ask me, so what has made you successful? And I feel like, well, that's a very simple question and a very simple answer, so let me tell you. But every time I kind of share my story and my successes with other people, they're shocked and they admit in their own businesses, oh, I never thought about doing that. I never thought about doing this. Maybe that's why I'm not getting clients, that type of thing. So I'm a mobile dental hygienist. What has made me a successful mobile dental hygienist where it's such a niche market? You, depending on who's watching this, might not have heard of a mobile dental hygienist. What is that? So what has made me successful? I also am a teacher, a tutor with my own business. So I help dental hygiene students and dental assisting students pass the board exam. So anything I kind of touch on, because I'm ambitious, motivated, has been a success. But I'm going to talk to you guys specifically about my mobile dental hygiene business and what has made me successful in such a niche market doing that, okay? So number one is truly and not to sound corny, but you have to love what you do. If you love what you do, you don't mind working at night to finalize something, to finish something up, to be doing paperwork, to be following through with clients, to be doing anything related to your business. If you plan to work nine to five, that's it. You want to shut the door after that. That's not going to make you a successful entrepreneur. When you have your own business, you run the show. You are called an entrepreneur. That's what you are. And it's not for everybody. I tell a dental hygienist all the time, if you would prefer to work at a dental office, somebody tells you what to do. They hand you the schedule, then perfect. I didn't like doing that. I wanted to start my own thing, but there's many different things you have to consider to make you a good and successful mobile dental hygienist who works on their own. I do have another video about that in my YouTube channel. If you want to watch it, I can link that down below as well. So again, you must not be afraid to work after hours. That makes me successful. If I didn't work evenings sometimes, a lot of my clients can only have evening appointments because they work from nine to six. They can't afford to take time off. They can only be seen in the evenings. I don't work every evening. I don't work a lot of evenings, but I save my evenings for those clients who absolutely cannot be seen for their appointment any other time during the day. And I don't mind doing that. That's what makes me successful. If I didn't want to work any evenings, I don't want to be flexible. I wouldn't have the business that I have. On another note, I don't mind working at night doing paperwork. I don't mind following up with clients while I'm having a coffee early in the morning. I go that extra step. I never have a client say to me, I sent you a message two days ago, you still haven't gone back to me. I'm always going to follow up. My clients come first. That's what makes me successful. If I don't respond to them, if I'm more concerned with my day off, or I'm more concerned with my Saturdays and Sundays to myself, I would have lost clients. If I didn't answer any messages on the weekend and followed up with them on Monday, I might have lost a client. So my clients come first. I'm not saying though that your business has to come before family or anything like that, absolutely not. But you have to have a balance. If you absolutely refuse to answer messages on a Saturday or Sunday because it's a weekend, you're going to lose clients. This is just the type of job where you have to be flexible. You have to work some weekends. You have to work some evenings. This is what's made me successful. Another thing that is not really something you can teach, I feel, but you have to have the ambition. You have to have the motivation. You have to have the attitude where I'm going to do whatever it takes as a mobile dental hygienist. If you have the attitude of, great, I got a new client, but it's a two-year-old for a quick dental hygiene screening, I'm not going to make a lot of money doing that because it's just me having a look. I'm not going to bother seeing them. I'm going to let them know, sorry, I only see two people or three people when I travel to a household. If you make it confusing or difficult for the client, they're not going to come to you. You need to make it as easy as possible. So for example, if I'm talking to a parent who just wants me to do a quick screening with a two-year-old, I'm not going to go out of my way to travel to that patient's house. It might take me half an hour to get there and then a quick 10-minute check away I go, I make some money, but I can't really pay the bills doing that. I'm not going to make it a full trip. I'm going to book that two-year-old client either before or after clients that I already have booked. So I'm not making a special trip and it's worth my time because of course, it's not going to be worth your time if the only clients you see are two-year-olds for a quick dental hygiene check, you might make $30, of course not. But think, critical thinking here, plan around, be the business person that you are and say, okay, wonderful. I would love to see her or him. I'm in your area next Thursday, can I come by say eight o'clock or does two o'clock work for you better? So don't say to them, oh, sorry, I just see two people. It's not worth it for me to only see a two-year-old, you know, you're losing business, okay? So you see the key differences there. You're always thinking, you're always planning and you're working smarter, not harder. The harder way to do things would be to see that one two-year-old because you don't wanna lose a patient, that's good. But you're just putting too much pressure and working too hard where you're probably doing too much traveling. And that brings me to my next point. To be a successful mobile dental hygienist, I really plan my schedule. I go to one city per day. I'm not going to go to this city and then 30 minutes out the other way and then 45 minutes out the other way in the same day. I plan my day, I go to one city per day. And what I also do is I plan times or open slots for new patients. If a new patient comes to me, they don't usually wanna be seen three months from now. They wanna be seen as soon as possible. So when a new patient comes to me, I might have a family of four or five people. I wanna see them as soon as possible so I don't lose them. I'm not going to say my only opening is three months from now. That might be true if I didn't plan accordingly and book those time slots. So what I do is typically every Wednesday or Thursday is going to be open. If I don't book in a new patient, guess what? I get the day off. Well, that sounds pretty awesome. I'm not going to complain but keep some open slots for those new patients or those patients who say, Andrea, my insurance is running out next week. Can you see me? Of course I can. Sometimes there's only so much you can do. You might be fully booked but also kind of work with your client but have them work with you as well. If they need to be seen next Friday, say, okay, the only time I have is literally 8 a.m. in the morning. Can you make that work? If not, well, I do have the Tuesday after that. I know it's not a Friday but I have a Tuesday at 10 a.m. or 5 p.m. Which one of those works better for you? Sometimes you can't be perfect. You can't make everybody happy. You might lose a client but if you try to do that, try to be flexible but also try to be firm and say, this is very last minute. I'm booked three months in advance but I want to make this work for you. How about these times? If they want to see you, they're going to make it work. I guarantee you. So these are some of the things that makes me successful. You might not have thought about them but it's very, very key. Some of the littler things that you have probably thought of is I do direct billing. So I send everything to the patients insurance company. They have no work. They just might have to sign something. The check gets sent to me. They send me, the patient sends me the money owed. Easy peasy. The patient doesn't have to do any work. That has gotten me more patients. Another thing is I love my job. I mentioned that at the beginning but patients can tell I'm nice. I'm knowledgeable. I'm going to educate them but I'm also nice. I'm not going to yell at them. Patients want to book back with me because of those specific traits. If I wasn't very friendly or if I was nervous and didn't know how to talk to patients or I just wasn't sure of myself, nobody's going to book back with me. So be confident, be knowledgeable and be friendly. The last point is follow up with your patient. After they've had their teeth cleaned, message them. Say how do the gums and teeth feel? In four months, send them a message and say you are due in a couple of months for your six month cleaning. Would you like me to hold a spot for you in May? And then you have the time slot that you want. I'm starting to book up quickly. Follow up with them. Do not be afraid. So I hope that helps you guys. Please let me know if any questions. I am more than happy to help because I want to see more successful mobile dental hygienists out there. Too often still I see on like marketplace, our CDHA website, people are sorry, people, mobile dental hygienists are selling their practices because they couldn't make it work. Mobile dental hygienists are selling their supplies and equipment because they couldn't make it work. That makes me sad. I feel like if you guys would just talk to me, I can help you. If you feel like you need one-on-one help, I do offer that as well. I do private one-on-one coaching where I work with you. Instead of these like overall general helpful tidbits, I'm going to work with you, look at what you're doing wrong, what you might be able to improve on to get you more clients, more money and you'll be happier in this amazing business, you guys. So thank you for watching and for listening. I will talk to you guys very soon.