Kaitlyn Cole 0:00
Hello and welcome to the dental education podcast with class solutions. This podcast is a community of dental professionals who share their knowledge and experience in order to provide value to you and your dental practice. I'm your host, Caitlin cool, also known as the K in class. In this episode, I sit down with Dave Borthwick from Apex, we discuss how apex is conducting business during this time, things in this can do right now to take advantage of their downtime and how Dave thinks COVID-19 will affect dental practices moving forward. All right, Dave, Hi, how you doing? How are you doing? Good, good. So for those of you don't know, we have de Bourgh to wick with us. He works for apex. And in case someone doesn't know who you are, or what apex is, can you just explain yourself a little bit? And the company? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 0:49
thank you. So I'll start I guess with myself. I've been in the dental business for going on about 14 years now. I spent the last 13 years on the distribution side, working for a couple of distribution companies from Chicago for a while Los Angeles. And then the last six or so years, I've been in Michigan here, excuse me. And the last 10 of those years, I was doing equipment, sales and installation in office design and stuff like that. So that's kind of my background on the dental side. So apex is a fourth generation family owned company. And we are a healthcare specific design build firm. And we specialize in building dental offices along with medical and veterinary. And our team consists of interior design, architecture and construction. Myself, I'm on the business development side. And so I handle the whole state of Michigan, and represent us on the sales side. And so we also do development projects where we'll purchase the land or the building, and then lease it back or sell it back to the dentist. This is really nice in situations where they're not able to come up with a down payment, or they want to own in more of a gradual process. So yeah, our team consists, like I said, of interior design, architecture and construction. So we're able to offer a turnkey solution from concept to completion, whether that's a piece of land that we have to develop, or an existing building, that needs to be retrofit. And so the nice thing is it's a one, one point of contact through the whole process.
Kaitlyn Cole 2:30
Alright, so as you know, the COVID 19 virus is still pretty big here in Michigan, we're stuck in our homes. Still, it's a crazy time, no doubt. But how are you conducting business during this pandemic?
Unknown Speaker 2:43
Yeah, that's kind of exactly what's on everybody's mind these days. We've definitely made adjustments just like everybody has. And we're definitely still conducting business as usual as possible, or unusual. We're definitely still doing design and still doing the building process of the projects. As far as the adjustments that we've made to that we're able to do like we're doing right now, Zoom meetings with clients, I just did one earlier this week, where we were doing a concept presentation for a dentist going over the materials and the design for her space. It was the first time we've ever done that. And so it was a little unusual for everybody. But everybody's kind of adapting to the new situation that we're in. And so with that, we actually sent out the design sample, or sorry, the material samples to the doctor. So she was able to sit there and hold them in her hand and look at them. And as we were kind of going through the space and talking her through it. And so on the design side, we're able to actually be pretty effective and efficient on our meetings. And we're also still able to have meetings with our doctors at our design studio. We do that on a very limited basis. Obviously, we don't have our whole staff in there. Everybody's been working from home. And so when a doctor would need to come to the design studio, it would just be more of a one on one kind of contact, obviously trying to minimize the group gatherings.
Kaitlyn Cole 4:21
co located.
Unknown Speaker 4:22
We're located in Rosemont, which is right by Chicago right by the airport.
Kaitlyn Cole 4:26
Nice.
Unknown Speaker 4:29
And so yeah, we I didn't mention that earlier, by the way that we're we're headquartered in Chicago, and we kind of covered the whole upper Midwest. And so like I said, I'm in Michigan covering the whole state. We also have, excuse me, we also have somebody who represents Wisconsin, and Indiana and Illinois. And so we've kind of got the Upper Midwest covered and slowly been growing throughout there. So as far as our job sites, what we've done is we've limited the number trades that will have in at a very low amount of time. So we don't have people overlapping. And we'll make sure that we get in there with our site super, and sanitize it before and after limiting the spread of viruses. And so kind of on that subject, what we've also done kind of adjusting and adapting with the times that we're in right now is we've, we've actually been able to partner up and connect with a medical supplier who was able to get some, the PPE items that are in need, as well as like bulk hand sanitizer. And we've been able to provide that to some hospitals. In fact, we had a hospital in California, that got a shipment of like 200,000 masks, they needed it for the front line, and we also have been getting bulk sanitizer, it's not really a part of APEX, but it's just kind of our way of connecting and helping with people who are in need. And since we deal specifically with the medical in the dental community, that's kind of what we've been getting involved with.
Kaitlyn Cole 6:04
So obviously, with COVID-19, we're not allowed to go out, we're kind of stuck in our homes. So we have a lot of extra free time, I guess you could say, so instead of watching Netflix, you know, for 24 hours a day, what are some things that dentists can do right now to take advantage of their downtime?
Unknown Speaker 6:21
Definitely. Well, the first thing is connecting with family, you know, everybody's kind of focusing on business right now. And that's important. But one thing that I think is really important that we kind of as a company think is important is taking care of yourself. So connecting with your family, like exercising, finding a hobby, you know, doing something to stay mentally and physically, in good shape during this time. Because, yeah, sitting around and watching Netflix is great, but it's not going to do anything for our physical or mental health. And so obviously, I'm going to be a little biased in saying that, it's a good time to work on your design as well. Which it actually really is because of the fact that people do have a little downtime right now, a lot of downtime actually. And so as opposed to just sit around and not doing anything or worrying about what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day. For people who do have projects that are planning to happen later this year, or next year, or even sometime further in the future, it's actually a really good time to have conversations and think about the design, think about materials and start doing some of that work that you'd have to do eventually, and will take time out of your schedule. And you'd have to go and make selections or pick out samples of different materials. You know, you can start a Pinterest board, even if you're if you're kind of further down the road. And just start kind of visualizing what you might want your office to look like in the future. Understandably, people are being a little conservative, and in some cases, holding back on any sort of unnecessary spending, that makes a whole lot of sense. But eventually, when the time does come, if you've got a little bit of planning, and you've put some thought into it, it goes a long way. Because honestly the clients that we meet with who will sit down and they have no idea what they want, it takes a lot longer for them to kind of figure those decisions out. And they kind of almost had to start from scratch. Whereas I've had a lot of actors where I've met with, on the contrary, who they've got a Pinterest board, they've got a vision, they know what they want. And they've put a lot of time and thought into, and they might not even have the building other spaces, the land in mind, but they just know the style of the office that they want to create. And so it's kind of like creating and defining your brand for the practice. Yeah, it's a good time to start just putting your head on that and, and some other things too, would be if you didn't want to freshen up the office, you know, obviously since you can't have patients in there, and you can't really conduct business, it's a good time, if you were going to do any sort of minor updates like painting a wall, updating some light fixtures, simple things that you might even be able to do on your own or just have a handyman come in there and freshen up the office a little bit so that when things are back to normal, you got a nice kind of new looking place to walk into.
Kaitlyn Cole 9:26
Alright, so yeah, you've you talked about freshening up the office, are there any materials, or lighting or paint colors that you may be suggesting away from or colors or materials that you, you know, promote or advise your dentists to implement into their practice?
Unknown Speaker 9:43
Yeah. So first of all, I usually defer all of that to the interior design team because that's their specialty, and I don't want to step on their toes, but yes, most definitely. They do have certain colors that are more appealing and more soothing. As far as the materials you know solid surface countertops, something that's more easily sanitized, obviously. And avoiding that they have too many seams and, and the flooring and on the counters is definitely advantageous. And then as far as the colors, and the lighting, you know, the lighting is something that's put a lot of focus on as far as how you want to lead and guide the patients through the practice and where you want them to be. And where you don't want them to be can be very effectively controlled through the use of good lighting. And so that's kind of what they they focus on with those things. And things have changed a lot as I mean, as everything changes, the style and the design, you know, one thing I have to compare it to is, you know, when you even when you look at houses from you know how they were back in the 50s, and the 60s to how they are and now today much more wide and open. With dental offices, they're honestly becoming one the best comparison is to say, more like a Panera Bread or a Starbucks. It's really kind of a user experience. When people go to Panera Bread, or a Starbucks, they know what they're getting, they have different seating options, there's not just one type of seat through the whole place. There's different types of tables, high tops, and low tops, there's places to plug in your phone. So all of those kinds of things that people have come from accustomed to. They're expecting other dental offices now as well. And so when we do reception areas and stuff like that, we take that into consideration multiple different seating options, and making it feel more like you're walking into a Starbucks essentially. Yeah, and a couple other last things that doctors can do right now, if they want to take advantage of this downtime is to talk with their CPA, talk with a financial advisor, get some advice on what they should be doing with their business and, and how they can make things better for one thing, start backup, and then having kind of a team around them to help get them through it. And so as far as like the lease, if they're renting the place, if they haven't done so already, it'd be a great time for them to reach out and talk to the landlord about renegotiating the terms and possibly getting a better lease rate going forward. If they own the building, you know, talking to the mortgage company about getting a forbearance or any sort of break on the mortgage that's due right now just to give a little bit of relief on their cash flow. Those are just a couple of good things down the side that they could be thinking about doing.
Kaitlyn Cole 12:30
Alrighty, so when we are all done with this craziness of COVID-19, how do you personally think that, you know, the dental practices are gonna are gonna perform moving forward.
Unknown Speaker 12:42
So the dental markets definitely gonna bounce back, just like every other market will. It's not a matter of if just when, and how quickly that does happen. We've gone through this before, back in 2008. And we got through it. In fact, it's funny side story is that's the year that I actually started doing capital equipment sales in general. And so it was the worst economic time at that point, and we got through it, and we thrive and so the same thing is gonna happen here. It's just a matter of people being patient and, and knowing that it's gonna, it's gonna happen. I think also two people are going to definitely be very cautious after all this for a period of time. Which makes sense, I mean, myself, and I think everybody else is also going to be very cautious about excessive spending, and just how they're spending and, and, and kind of being a little bit more conservative. But, you know, this, like I said, this isn't the first economic setback that we've seen in our lifetime, and it won't be the last, you know, it's safe to say that you can almost guarantee that something like this not necessarily a pandemic like this with a virus. But something, again, will be happening, you know, in most of these dentists lifetime. And so the lessons, I guess, kind of think about and learn from it are, how can you best be prepared for when this does happen again, and don't, don't assume that it's not going, I would almost say, assume and plan that stuff like this will happen again. You know, hopefully, it doesn't happen again for a long time. But if and when it does, you can at least have good systems in place. You can, you can have a plan of action so that you're not caught completely off guard. You know, one thing to mention, obviously, is working with a company like class solutions, you know, and give you guys a little plug for what you're able to do to help the team and prepare them and have good systems and have the practice in a good healthy place so that when this does happen, they're not panicking. They're not closing business. They're not laying people off and they're able to get through it with a little bit more peace of mind. The last point I was gonna make was just as far as setting goals for the practice and knowing where you want the practice to be Um, you know, you guys do a great job of helping code, the practices on covering their assets and preparing themselves. For these types of things. If you set the goal, your long term goal, from there, you can set a series of short term goals to get you where you want to be. And so stuff like this is just kind of a little bump in the road, and we'll all gonna get through it together. And the great thing I've seen through all this, you know, isn't the last point is everybody really has come together? You know, people have really reached out people have gone above and beyond and, you know, it's, it's, it's gonna be alright, in the end, it's just a matter of time. Amen. So, so yeah, basically, in summary, you know, it's a tough time everybody's going through it, we're all gonna make it through it. And like I mentioned, it's nice to see that everybody's kind of reached out and supporting each other. It's, it's the most awkward thing for a lot of us that, you know, we're so used to being in front of people and seeing each other every day. And so now conduct business virtually through our screens is kind of become the new norm. But we'll get back to a more regular norm soon enough. And, you know, the biggest thing, I think the overall thing is just to really take this time to focus on yourself and your practice. And know that we're gonna get through it together.
Kaitlyn Cole 16:20
Like Dave said, spend time on your spend time with your family, spend time on yourself and spend time on your business. And we'll get through this all together. So, Dave, thanks so much. Again, we really appreciate the time and for sharing your expertise and knowledge. So yeah, thanks.
