 Hello everybody Andrea here let's start let's talk about starting your own mobile dental hygiene practice i'm going to be giving you guys the basic list, so this is definitely the basics of the basics, this isn't by all means everything you need to start your own mobile dental practice dental hygiene practice. But it's going to give you a basic idea of things you should be thinking about and things you should be looking at or looking into. When either you're thinking about starting your own mobile practice where you're going into patients homes. Or if they're coming to you, so I do a little bit of both, which is why i'm discussing both of those I do not have my own standalone practice I don't have my own. Physical office space, I just have a room in my home that is dedicated to patients, I have a lab as well that I do all of my. instrument processing sterilizing, but I am primarily a mobile dental hygienist. Where I go to the patients homes, so let me give you the basic lists of things that I had needed things that I kind of thought about after the fact. So this is in no particular order but i'm going to go through them one by one, so the first thing is. Do you want it so that patients come to you in a room in your home. Or are you going to go to them, or if you're going to do the same thing as me and do a little bit of each of those. Now this matters, because if you're just going into the patients homes and you're going to need certain things that you might not need if they came into your home only. Or you'll need more things if they're coming into your home as an example. If you're going into patients homes you're going to need a portable chair for your patient to sit in, but also a stool for you to sit in. If you're seeing patients in your own home, I suggest spending more money to get a more professional. Looking chair for your patient, but of course you're going to need a chair or a stool for you so see how depending on where you want to be situated. You want to think of different things if you're primarily mobile then you're going to need to think of a portable cart. Just basically like top work containers portable storage to transport things to and from patients homes to keep things organized in your car. Or if patients are coming to you you're not going to need as many as those things, because if you forget something you can just quickly. grab it from your office if you're mobile if you forget something well you're either grabbing it from your car, which isn't the most you know infection control that's not what we want to do when we're with the patient, we don't necessarily want to leave the patient right. I talk about that more inside my course, where I teach you how to basically start your own mobile dental hygiene practice from start to. As much as you need to being successful to making a full time income, but i'm just going to skip through that now, but. Basically think do you want to see patients in your home, do you want to see them in their home or a combination of both, as I mentioned before, I do a combination of both. I honestly prefer to see patients in their home just so that's just kind of what i'm used to, but if you're seeing patients in your own home, you can obviously see more patients and make more money so that's up to you. So the next one is talking about payment, how are patients going to pay you, this is one of the first things they're going to ask is how do you like to be paid, and this is up to you. Are you going to send things directly to the insurance company, are you going to ask them for cash only, are you going to accept email money transfer, are you going to accept credit cards. These things you need to think about again I talked more about this inside the course my mobile rdh academy course i'll leave the link for you down below, if this is something you might be interested in. But i'm just going to kind of skip through it everything now, just so you know the basic so take notes and then, if you have any questions, please let me know. The third one is, of course, appointments, how are you going to keep track, how are you going to book appointments I personally use. Google calendar, but I also have a Facebook business page that's where I book appointments and that's how I keep track of all my appointments as well, so I do a little bit of both. You might choose to have your own software, you might choose to do everything on paper that's up to you. The next one would be talking about staff, are you going to be the only staff Member, or do you want to have an assistant helping you, do you want somebody to. Book appointments, do you want somebody to submit everything to the insurance for you, this is something you need to think about at the moment i'm my only staff Member, if you will. But I would love to hire somebody in the future to help me with paperwork because it's a lot, I would rather be spending my time seeing patients than spending my time doing paperwork but that's just me. And now we're going to talk about the website, are you going to have a website that is up to you as well, I have a very simple website where, at least I have a website, so patients try to look me up, they can find me. But it basically sends them right to my page on Facebook because that's kind of where I want them to stay because that's how they book appointments. And that's how I keep everything together, so a website is up to you, you don't always have to pay for one, I suggest keeping it simple because these days. You know you don't need a $5,000 website a $10,000 website unless you want one, mine is very simple, in fact, the program I use. Weebly.com I can leave a discount code for you down below, it is free to start if you want to add more pages to your website, then you do have to pay for it, but it's still a great price. What I like about it is you can update it anytime you don't have to wait for somebody to update it for you, you don't have to pay it's very easy to update it yourself. Social media, so this is a big thing I talk about inside the course where just because you're a mobile dental hygienist doesn't mean patients know you exist. And it does not mean that patients know to come to you, you need to advertise and market on social media, do you want to do Instagram, do you want to do TikTok, do you want to do. Facebook or just not do anything that's up to you, I highly recommend doing this if I didn't do this, I wouldn't have gotten any of my patients online is the way to go, you might want to pay for certain ads, you might want to pay for ads on Instagram. On Facebook, this is something you need to think about and supplies, so this is a very. vague word, but think of supplies think of things like what are you going to need to order on a regular basis, are you going to get toothbrushes masks. bibs PPE you know overall let's see what are some of the things I buy on a regular basis you're going to need some new instruments you're going to need, as I said like toothbrushes toothpaste. Profi pace you're going to need guys you're going to need micro brushes you might you might need mouth washes things and start to make a list. of things you're going to need on a regular basis, so that way you can plan it out so you're not spending too much money. But then you're also not running out of things either are you going to get a high speed handpiece. If you're a dental hygiene specialist or are you going to only need a slow speed handpiece what about the high speed suction what about the low speed section, so you need to think of all of these things. On the next side here the sterilizer are are you going to have a sterilizer in your own home. Are you going to be able to use one at another dental office, but then you need everything for that sterilizer. you're going to need your sport tests you're going to need your pouches you're going to need your indicator strips oh my goodness so many things. I do have a sterilizer in my own home, because I see patients basically all day every day I don't want to have to. Think about going to a dental office afterwards are going to a dental office before to sterilize my instruments that just doesn't work for you. For me, I prefer to know that whenever I want to sterilize my instruments, I can so I did spend the money to get that I have a statum. The larger statum it was about $10,000 so not cheap something you need to think about paper or digital are you going to be doing everything on paper. Paper charts paper claim forms paper everything to send to insurance or or even paper appointments are you going to write appointments down in a booklet. Or are you going to go digital I much prefer to be digital I am not paper some things you do still have to do on paper like the odd time when I have to print out a claim form. Then I have to sign it on paper, you know things like that, so I do still have a file folder for anything I need to keep. But i'm primarily a digital office everything is on my laptop I much prefer that it's much easier to keep things organized, you know copy and paste all of that. But you need to think of what works for you I tell my students inside the course, I would highly suggest being digital right away, if you can. Yes, you have to pay for a software, but it is worth every penny. I was paper when I first started and it took me way too long to get reorganized when I finally moved over to digital. Maybe about eight months later, so you so you can imagine you don't have that many patients after eight months. But I was doing so well that I wanted to switch to digital and i'm glad that I did but think about doing that sooner rather than later it's an investment, but I highly recommend it inside the course I kind of talk about the computer. Or the dental software that I have it's $3,000 about the price might have changed because I purchased mine several years ago, but $3,000 one time fee. Absolutely worth it, I do understand you might not have $3,000 starting out, but I would take out a loan whatever you need to do it will absolutely be worth it. The next one office supplies, yes, you need a printer do you need a fax machine I don't have one i've had to maybe send a fax twice. In my three years in business so far there's such a thing as a free fax software, if you will online I actually can't think of the name right now, because the last time I sent the fax was like a year ago. But they do have things like that, as long as you're not playing to fax every day. I think you can send a couple faxes a month actually for free, so why would I. spend more money to get a fax machine when I really don't need it, I do find I use my scanner and copier quite a bit but it's not that expensive when you're looking for a printer. To look for a scanner and copier kind of all in one, I think I may be paid $60 for my printer absolutely worth it for my mobile dental hygiene business, I do not take my printer with me. I send everything through insurance, I take all of my notes once i'm back home at the end of the day, I talk about more inside the in the course as well it takes some organizing but that's what I like to do and that's what works for me. A direct deposit, do you want payment from insurance companies to go directly to you, do you want it to go into your bank account or are they okay to send you a check. This is something you would set up while you're setting up for your electronic transfer, I had help when I signed up for my dental software. They kind of helped me through that things have changed since then it's been three years, but kind of think how you want to do things again. If your clients are paying you cash only, then you might not even have to worry about that because you wouldn't. be paid by insurance companies, but that's how I primarily get paid I personally prefer. A check i'm a little old fashioned that we not check from patients but checks from the insurance, so it sends the claim form with the check. I can see who the check is for what patients what appointment I just like to have that piece of paper personally. By it does take sometimes two to four weeks to get paid from insurance companies if you signed up for direct deposit you get paid within that week, I would say, for most cases. bank accounts is the next point, I do suggest having a separate bank account for any of your income and expenses it's much easier to keep track. You don't have to get a business account necessarily but talk to your accountant. I do think it's a good idea, just because again it's much easier to separate personal and business that way, but talk to your accountant and they can help you through that. credit cards same thing you don't necessarily need a business credit card, you know there's. Normal credit cards and then there's business credit cards, but sometimes business credit cards can offer you. More points more cash back your credit card depends on what you want to use it for, but you should have one credit card for business expenses only. Last but not least think about your budget if you need to take out a loan if you need to really budget per month, you will have more expenses let's say this month than you will next month i'm the same. Sometimes my expenses are $200 a month sometimes they're 2000 it depends on what i'm purchasing. you'll soon start to realize having your own business, the more masks let's say you purchase you might get two boxes free so so it's actually cheaper for you to buy a whole bunch of them. They might be sitting there for a year but you're going to need them anyway and Max's masks don't expire, but do you have the room for that in your home. Things you need to think about so, as I said you guys, this is a basic list if you need help any questions, I do offer a full course which i'll leave the link for you down below the mobile rdh academy. I go through everything, because I know how overwhelming this can be but having your own business is truly exciting.