AME: Unsustainable

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[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a production of the Very Dental Podcast Network.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Alan Mead is a dentist with too much time on his hands and too much recording equipment

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: in his basements. Armed with an obsession to bring entertaining and informative content

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: to the dental world in a way that's never been done before. I give you the Alan Mead Experience.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Well hello and welcome to another episode of the Alan Mead Experience. I'm your host Dr. Alan

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Mead. I'm a dentist, a podcaster and not a very good farmer. I am a farmer. We have a farm

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tell you all about it. I'm not a very good one I don't think but

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I've got an interesting something that's been happening here with myself and my family

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: that is interesting and just like just about everything that happens to me.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I somehow find a way to apply it to dentistry because on some level that's kind of

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: it's what I maybe know best dentistry and down practice and stuff like that. It's such a weird

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: thing but in any case let me just kind of run run down what I've been thinking about.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_01]: So I've lived on a farm, a horse farm since the year 2000. Now I bought my first house in 2000

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01]: it was before I was married actually and it turns out the house the house that I bought

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: because I was dating the woman who would become my wife at that point. I bought a house out in

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_01]: the country and it was a smaller house, an older house. It had a barn you know like it had a horse

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01]: set up you could tell and she had horses and she was boarding her horses and so

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_01]: by me buying this house she was able to put her horses at this house that I bought

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and eventually she would move into when we got married. It was a smaller house than where we

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: live now and the farm was smaller too it was decent, it was nice, what was really nice about it

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_01]: was really close to my office compared to where I live right now but so that was in 2000. In 2004

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_01]: we moved to where I live right now and it is a horse farm and really since 2004

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: my wife and I have run a horse boarding operation at that farm and it's been an interesting thing.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Horse boarding is probably in its best situation, its best representation on a small

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: farm with a smaller set up like we have not super profitable probably. I don't know that

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I could be wrong there might be people who are just killing it but it's always been sort of a

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: close to a break even. Our goal was to maybe break even if we could you know pay for our expenses

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: that sort of thing. We've had four horses or less of our own during that time, we've had

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: fed less the most we've ever owned are four and then we have a miniature donkey who came

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_01]: along actually before we even bought this new place in 2004 because miniature donkeys are

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01]: excellent pasture pals and it turns out miniature donkeys also live a very long time.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01]: But we've so we've owned several horses actually we've some some are not the same horses we originally

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_01]: had some of them have died since then we've gotten but we've never had more than four of our own.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So we have four or less of our own a miniature donkey, we have three goats right now, we have

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_01]: chickens and ducks, we've had dogs right now, we have one dog and we have had barn cats so

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_01]: we've had lots of animals of our own but the reality is any given moment on this boarding

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_01]: farm we've had somewhere between nine and 16 horses total including our own. So that's a lot

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_01]: of horses and to be to be honest it takes a bit to feed them it's it's one of the things where

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_01]: they you know they need to be fed twice a day. We've it's really interesting because

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: when you feed we have horses in what we would call a turnout stall so they have

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: they have shelter anytime they want it there's we have these barns and they have their walkout

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_01]: stalls so they can get out to the to their pasture area their paddock area anytime they want but

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_01]: they can also come in anytime they want if it's really cold sometimes we'll close them in the

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_01]: stall but usually they have these walkouts and honestly I think most horses I think if

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01]: if you could get in a horse's brain they would prefer having shelter when they want it but

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: be able to walk around stretch your legs. A lot of borders think that horses should be

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01]: installs all the time which I think is crazy because horses in the wild are not installs

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_01]: in any case that's what you'll find is honestly horse people and if there are any horse people

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: listening you can go ahead and just own it. Horse people are nuts they're all crazy

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: they're all giant bags of emotions and they have irrational they act irrationally about

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01]: their horses their horses are like are like people to them. I mean there's plenty of dog

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_01]: people and cat people that are also irrational crazy horse people might be a special brand of that

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and I it would bother my wife that I say that but also she knows that it's true.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So we've been boarding for a while and we've had we've had mostly really great borders we've

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_01]: had occasional you know kind of not so great borders and that's not really what I'm dealing

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_01]: with but so our farm it's in central Michigan it's 40 acres and it's actually it's kind of a

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: long narrow 40 acres so the front probably eight acres or so about six of those are cleared out

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_01]: that's where our barns are our arenas are our houses all that stuff so we have sort of this

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: cleared area if you turn into the driveway the first I don't know 100 yards 50 yards of

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: of the narrow plot is all wooded and you just have a dry and then it opens up into an

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: opened up area where our farm is where the building's in all that so it's pretty cool so it's very

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: sequestered from the road it's you know it's pretty neat but then the the 32 acres at the back of

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: this long narrow plot are all wooded and we have trails going through the wood these woods so 32

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: of its wooded and interestingly the property adjacent to us so almost surrounding us we have

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: one next door neighbor on the far side but the property mostly surrounding us is it's a preserve

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a land preserve and it's like 419 acres surrounding us and it's a preserve that actually

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_01]: it's got trails it's got a four-mile loop of trails I ride my mountain bike all over there

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_01]: also but our trails actually kind of connect right up to their trails and we have permission

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: for people to use their trails from our trails so it's a pretty great situation it's it's a

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_01]: if you wanted to ride your horse out in the woods we got a lot of woods they could ride in

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: but on top of that we have we have a giant indoor riding arena with lights it's it's nuts it's amazing

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and that was here when we bought the place interestingly we bought this place

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_01]: because my wife loved it I mean she's a horse fanatic and this is a horse a horse person's

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01]: dream come true it's got it's got an indoor riding arena and then actually she built

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: a regulation outdoor riding it's even bigger than the indoor riding and they're all you know

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_01]: ideal footing and drainage and all this stuff they're all sort of technical things about horse

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_01]: riding we have that we have a bunch of barns we have we have a big tractor barns a big pole

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_01]: barn that for storage we have our front barn is kind of the main horse barn that has really

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_01]: nice stalls and really really big hay storage and a lot of stuff and then we have a bunch of

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_01]: smaller barns that are there and we probably have let's say one two three or five or six

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_01]: buildings that horses the horse paddocks are in so it's it's it's pretty big we got a lot of

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: buildings the house is is kind of in the middle of it and the house the house the people who

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_01]: built this place the house was sort of an afterthought it's fine it's nice it's nothing

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01]: special what's really special is the is the property and the outbuildings and just the

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: horse situation it's really it's really nice we arguably have one of the best riding facilities

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_01]: for horses north of the metro to trady or it's really big it's really nice

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_01]: so the property is just unreal and I love living here it's nice living out in the country it's a

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: long ways from everything honestly if you want to go into town to go grocery shopping or whatever

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_01]: it's it's 15 minutes one way there's it's we're out in the sticks there's nothing real close

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_01]: so if we want to go into visit my parents or or my wife's folks or family or whatever

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_01]: it's you know it's a minimum of 15 minutes shoot when we take the boys to school it's a minimum

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_01]: of 15 minutes so we're out in the middle of nowhere which is great it's it's not not for everyone but

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_01]: we definitely don't deal with big city problems let's just say that so we have been boarding

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_01]: horses on and off at this place for like I said since 20 or since 2004 so that's 20 years and

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: my wife has sort of gone out of the way to keep the boarding reasonable because she used to

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_01]: board horses she knows what it's like you know to board a horse and that is expensive and that

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_01]: sort of thing so so we've kept the price of boarding pretty low for a long time but you know

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_01]: just like dentistry you might think your prices are low but the reality is this if you ask anyone

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01]: you know anything that they have to pay for is a lot okay so the reality is if you're

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_01]: charging if you're charging someone who's got nothing no money to pay for a crown

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're charging $500 for a crown or $1,500 for a crown kind of doesn't matter if they don't

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: if they don't have money for it they don't have money for it and on so on some level

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_01]: horse boarding people are kind of like that it's like they try and keep their their prices

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01]: you know it it's a lot of money and it's having a horse is kind of a luxury and I think that

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_01]: some people sort of forget that part of it it's like no one has to have a horse and

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_01]: you you have to you have to house your horse in a certain way so it's not it's not cost free obviously

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_01]: we've never made any real money on boarding we've always sort of kind of broken even

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_01]: account wise we it tends to if anything it tends to be a loss we'll write off most years on

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_01]: occasion we'll do better than that and it's been it's been fine actually it's been a decent

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: write off in some ways but our goal is always to kind of break even on the expenses you know

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: basically charge enough that we can we can pay for our own horses that's that's kind of what we're

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_01]: hoping for so one of the things that's interesting about that and you've probably heard me talk about

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_01]: this before we my wife and I essentially did all the care ourselves up until about the last year

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: or so we were the ones doing the care occasionally we would get someone to help us out if we were

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_01]: traveling or whatever but but one of the things when you have a horse boarding operation you can't

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_01]: go anywhere because you got you got to feed morning and night there's got to be someone there to feed

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_01]: morning and night and we basically have not had employees for most of the time that we've been

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_01]: here it's been us so there were times when I would be getting up to go to work and I'd get

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_01]: up an hour early just so I could run around and feed the horses my wife obviously feeds a lot

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_01]: too we really haven't taught the boys how to feed but so one of the things that was part of

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: owning horses is making sure that you've got you're taking care of the horses and and we always have

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: you know if we're going into town for something in town at night we got to feed the horses early

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_01]: or we're gonna feed them late if we get there later but it's always a constant

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_01]: consideration morning and evening it makes leaving and traveling kind of hard

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_01]: uh and but the other thing is is that one of the ways that we broke even is we don't you know we

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_01]: were not keeping track of our hours and paying ourselves to do that so that's I want you to put

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_01]: a pin in that point because it becomes interesting to part of our story so you know we're working

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_01]: anywhere between I mean depending on how many horses and what needs doing uh you know you

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_01]: could if you wanted to race around and feed them quickly it could be 20 or 25 minutes we have a

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_01]: utility vehicle that we can run around but you know sometimes the winter when you got to break up

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_01]: you know you got to make sure the waters are working and you got to make sure they've got water and

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_01]: you got to move hay and you got to it can add up so there are times when it take an hour to do

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_01]: two hour in the morning hour and evening so it's a two hour job first you know sometimes

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_01]: it's less sometimes it's more but it's it's a fair amount of work and we never paid ourselves

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_01]: for that there was that that was just we did the work and and that was part of the board

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_01]: a couple years ago actually two and a half years ago I I hurt my foot I've you I've talked about it

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_01]: interestingly I think the wound is completely healed now so it's it's I'm kind of past that

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: part now but for a long time I needed to be in like an orthopedic boot and it was a nightmare

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_01]: so I was a couple years ago I was kind of out of it for feeding I just didn't feed very much

[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_01]: because I had this wound that I was trying to keep off my foot and then last last year one

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_01]: year ago my wife had her hip done her hip replaced and so she really was you know during the recovery

[00:14:09] [SPEAKER_01]: phase she really had no capacity to feed whatsoever and I didn't feed very much either so

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_01]: she arranged to have other people feed and it was part of what happened was we got a lot of the

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_01]: boarders helped out and so we would trade you know the work the feeding they would come

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and feed and and we would knock that off their board and so a lot of these what happened

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_01]: was a lot of these people would come and work and and it worked out and that actually the last

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_01]: year that's what we've been doing you know it's kind of nice now I have to you know get up every

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_01]: morning to feed and do in the evening same thing it was kind of we kind of got used to it and for

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_01]: the last year that's kind of what we've been doing but you add so that all of a sudden

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_01]: we weren't having to do that work but we were paying other people to do that work essentially

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_01]: but like everything in the last you know whatever four years or so costs of everything have gone up

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: you know like food and grain that sort of thing electricity basically everything it takes to run

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_01]: a farm just like everything it takes to run a dental office is now more expensive than it was

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_01]: four or five years ago we literally just bought hay you buy hay in June typically June July

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's in per bail per bail it's gone up two dollars per bail this year so we buy thousands of

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: bales of hay I mean like to fill our barn it's a lot of hay and so the reality is when you're

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_01]: going from five dollars to seven dollars per bail of hay that's a significant increase in

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_01]: your costs and so everything is up and Deb hasn't changed the the she hasn't changed the

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_01]: what we charge people for eight or nine years like she hasn't increased her her boarding fee

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_01]: forever so she you know by the time always said and done she she finally kind of was looking at

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_01]: expenses it was very interesting because she's like man I'm well okay the reason that it

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_01]: actually happened was we had a little chat with our accountant and it came down to the fact

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that we can't you can't lose money on a business and and continue to write it off in the way that

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_01]: we have without the IRS waving a bright red flag so we we basically are no longer kind of no

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_01]: longer running it like a business where it's a it's a loss you know so I'm all of a sudden my

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_01]: my quarterlies are up significantly this year and so that was the that was kind of the flag

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_01]: that started having her take a look a little harder at these expenses

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_01]: in and the other thing is she wanted to compare with other boarding facilities around us is very

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_01]: interesting as and as it turns out so she she spent my wife is someone who can do research

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_01]: like no one else when she once she gets her head into it she kind of can't stop she'll lose sleep

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_01]: over it while she's doing this research and now she did a bunch of research and and she

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_01]: she contacted lots of boarding farms around us she knows lots of people that are in the

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_01]: business and stuff a couple things she realized first off they're way more expensive than she is

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_01]: they're like like twice as much practically like really a lot more and they're actually doing much

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_01]: less and and frankly their places are not as nice and they don't have as many features as we do

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: but on top of the fact a lot of the places that she had known for a long time as boarders

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_01]: they're not boarding anymore and they flat told her we couldn't make it work we were just

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_01]: losing money left and right so she did all this research just to get an idea what the market

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_01]: looked like and she hadn't done that for a while so what what the market looked like is she was

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01]: charging way less than everyone else for for probably a better better facility and our cost

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_01]: had gone up and all of a sudden we realized that like if we were paying ourselves since we

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_01]: started paying other people to do the work that we weren't paying for ourselves we realized

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_01]: how badly we were losing we were essentially paying to have people board in our at our farm

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_01]: we were losing money like crazy on this thing and it's something that unless you looked a little

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: closely at it just felt like the status quo except it's not the status quo everything's

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: more expensive so the reality is is the fact that we ended up having someone else come and

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01]: work for us do some of the work for us instead of us doing it ourselves basically the sweat

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_01]: equity where we get paid zero dollars we realized how badly we were doing with this thing

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_01]: so push comes to shove and she's having to have you know she's having to have this conversation

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_01]: with boarders and we suspect we're not sure what's gonna happen we either either there's gonna be

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: some kind of a compromise where we can raise the fee or we're gonna close for boarding

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and I don't know what's gonna happen she's still this is still a work in progress but

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_01]: but what I thought was interesting about this is how I mean it's not not super weird for people to

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_01]: board horses in the world right I mean like I we've obviously been doing it for a long time there's

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_01]: there's places so people that own horses they are a little crazy but they tend if they don't have

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_01]: a place of their own where they can have horses they typically board so this is a business that

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: has worked in the past and what what's interesting is as we started digging into the

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_01]: fact that we were losing our asses on this whole thing we realized that as a business model

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_01]: horse boarding on on at a smaller private farm like ours it's not a sustainable business

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_01]: it can't be like the reality is is if we wanted to cover our costs as well as paying ourselves

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: to do the work like an actual business would we would have to we'd have to charge more than

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: twice as much though as we're charging now maybe more like when you think about it for 20 years

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: we've been doing all the work and not paying ourselves so like we've subsidized all this

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_01]: thing and so the reality is is like do you run this as a business or is this a hobby you know

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_01]: is this a hobby where you have friends come and chip in to help out and and and that's

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_01]: what you're doing it's an interesting thing to think about and I think the crazy thing

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_01]: is is this business in the last few years has imploded like there are significantly less

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_01]: places around us where you can board a horse now and that is very we had noticed because we

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_01]: weren't paying attention and then when we started to pay attention we came to realize wow we we can't

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_01]: really afford to do what we're doing it doesn't like it doesn't make any sense for us to to

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_01]: subsidize other people being at the farm so I thought about this and I'm like how how does

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_01]: this relate to dentistry and I gotta say it's not a horrible analogy to being in network with

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_01]: with dental insurances now the funny thing is is that I guess being in network with

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a lot of people listening that understand what I mean being in network where where you're

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_01]: basically accepting the fees that the that the dental benefits are offering you to get

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01]: paid directly by them and but there's so many limitations and what what anyone who's paid

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_01]: attention to is that all of your costs as a dentist in a dental office have gone up like

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_01]: not not only supplies I mean I suspect maybe rent depending on what what kind of what kind

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01]: of situation you have for your real estate but supplies and let's be perfectly honest labor

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_01]: costs have gone up significantly if if you don't know that you haven't been paying attention

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean it's labor costs in dental in the dental business have gone up significantly

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_01]: when you lose when when we come out of coven and we've lost a significant percentage of the

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: hygienists that were working prior to coven all the sudden that I mean that is a supply and

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_01]: demand thing and in the supplies gotten a lot smaller so you're going to be paying more for

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_01]: those people and and I mean I'm I guess I'm okay with that but the problem is as a business

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_01]: owner especially if you're staying if you stay in network and you and you take the fees

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_01]: the insurance companies have not changed the fees that they pass and I'm sure that if you

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_01]: went they would they would show you stats saying that they have but they've not they've not increased

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_01]: they've certainly not increased as much as our costs have gone up so where does that come if you are

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're seeing more patients great and I think I think people probably strive to do that but

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_01]: the reality is is like if there's a big change between if there's a big change in costs what

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_01]: it costs you to produce dentistry to do dentistry and what you get paid to do dentistry

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_01]: like if one of those things gets bigger and the other one doesn't get bigger along with it

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: that's coming out of somewhere and it's coming out of the bottom line it's coming out of the

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_01]: profit of the business and so the reality is how long do we go as dental offices before we

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_01]: realize that that's not sustainable we can't keep doing what we were doing if if the dental

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: benefits insurance you know if the insurance companies aren't paying us more and we are

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_01]: paying out more we're I know what the answer is the answer is that the own the dentist owner walks

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_01]: away with less and I guess if that's okay with with you that's okay but I have to say what's

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_01]: really been interesting and kind of exciting okay putting my cards on the table I'd be perfectly

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_01]: happy if we never boarded another horse at my house I mean the idea of just having to feed

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_01]: our animals a couple times a day uh is so appealing to me it's it's unbelievable like

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_01]: like that would take like five minutes it would be like almost like nothing that'd be great

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I've always been that way but I'm not the guy who's a horse fanatic my wife is a horse fanatic so the

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_01]: reality is that's not really going to happen because she really loves having people around but

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_01]: she came to realize that this business is unsustainable the way that it is and so she's

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_01]: had to make some changes now what whatever happens to the business I don't know yet it's still

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_01]: not sure like she's definitely gonna she's raising her costs she's raising her fees for

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_01]: boarding and and but just like everyone no one wants to pay more for that than they

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_01]: thought they should you know like like it's it's pretty ugly honestly to be honest it's a pretty

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_01]: ugly thing and and it's been something that my poor wife has really lost some sleep over over the

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_01]: last couple weeks she's really tried to she wants to be fair but she also realizes it's like

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_01]: every time she thinks about the fact that we've been losing so much money over these years

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_01]: it makes her mad and so I think that's great personally I think she's seeing it but but then

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_01]: again I come back to my dental office and I think to myself yeah there's something similar

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_01]: sort of happening I don't take a lot of insurances I don't participate with a lot of insurances but

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean even though I don't do a lot it's enough where you're sort of like wow this

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_01]: doesn't really add up I mean at this point you're sort of you're sort of losing money on

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_01]: those people and and as a business you can't lose money that's not you can't do that

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_01]: that's not a sustainable for the long term you can't keep doing that so

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_01]: it's just funny to think that as an industry horse boarding is going is going away I mean

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_01]: the way I look at it and honestly everyone that my wife talked to has come to realize that

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_01]: like the way boarding was back you know 15 years ago is just it's not going to happen that way

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_01]: it's going to be very difficult for anyone to I think what's going to happen is people

[00:24:59] [SPEAKER_01]: middle-class people that don't own property that they can have a horse on are not going

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: to have horses I think that's what's going to come down to it's essentially

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_01]: boarding a horse has been priced right out of it it's just an interesting thing

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that and I've been sitting here you know we've lived on this farm for so

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's happened right under our noses and we just weren't even paying attention to it

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_01]: which I'm sure a lot of you are just like pulling your hair I think you dummies you should be

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_01]: you know you should know all that but but it you know it's like kids all the

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_01]: sudden they grow up and they were in front of the whole time and you didn't really notice

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_01]: you know my Sean is you know 6'2 now and bigger than me and he didn't used to be and

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_01]: it's sort of it feels like it happened at once when you look at it but it didn't it was there the

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_01]: whole time you know and I just wonder how many of these these business models that we're working

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: with are not actually sustainable over the long run we just aren't looking at we aren't looking

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_01]: at them the the right way so I don't even know that I have any words of advice for anyone

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_01]: as far as I just it's just an interesting thing that had happened to us this way

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and I guess I'll keep you posted on what happens you know like I said it wouldn't be the

[00:26:03] [SPEAKER_01]: worst thing in the world if we didn't end up having boarding people because

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_01]: the you know tens of thousands of dollars we spent on hay in our loft I guess that'll just

[00:26:13] [SPEAKER_01]: have to last a little bit longer hey it doesn't go bad too quickly so we might be just good for

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_01]: hay for a while if we don't have any horses to eat here that'd be all right too but it's

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a different it's a different animal clearly having a horse farm is a different animal now

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: than it was 20 years ago and and it's come to a point where unless you're you're charging what you're

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_01]: worth uh to people who are not very happy to pay that much it's it's interesting it's it's it's a

[00:26:40] [SPEAKER_01]: business model that may not work anymore and I just wonder if there are some of those in dentistry

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_01]: if you if you think of something that that relates to this I'd love to hear about it we

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: should go to the very dental facebook group and talk about it again if you're not a member

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: of the very dental facebook group you go there just search very dental on facebook it'll come

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_01]: up and it's going to ask you for one of five passwords to get in the passwords are Mcquethy

[00:27:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Timmerman Papa Randy Lipscomb or Hornbrook any of those five will get you in and honestly the

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_01]: people lately for the most part have had a password so that's great that that makes I don't ever

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_01]: tell the passwords anywhere but but on the podcast so that keeps it so the the people

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_01]: that are in this oh almost 800 person facebook group are all people who listen to the podcast

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_01]: so uh or that's the way I'm trying to I can't guarantee that's the case but for the most part

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't let people unless they know the password or if they've been guests before that I wanted to

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: have in there so it's it is uh it's not a shit show there it's not a fire it's not a garbage fire

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_01]: there it's pretty calm it's not as active as some groups but honestly it's it's a it's a good

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_01]: safe place to ask questions and talk about stuff and I would love I would love it if people

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: came up with some more business models that are unsustainable to talk about because this one

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_01]: sort of snuck up on us and we weren't we weren't ready for it I really appreciate you guys listening

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I have a lot of really good stuff coming up I've got a lot of interviews on the books and I've got

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I've got some that are already recorded I know I've taken a lot of time off this this summer

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't produced as much although I gotta tell you some of the some of the throwback episodes

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_01]: have gotten a lot of comments so it makes me feel like yeah we got a lot of I don't think

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: it's easy to even download download old episodes anymore I'm not sure I don't have an apple

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_01]: phone but it's it's hard I my understanding is the apple makes it not as easy to download

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_01]: old episodes so there it does make sense to get some of the good classic ones and put it back

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_01]: up there but I have a lot of good new content coming out and the very clinical guys have a bunch

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_01]: of really good interviews coming up too I hope you guys are enjoying it I would appreciate it

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_01]: if you'd give us give us a review on whatever software you're using listen to or drop me a

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01]: line on facebook let me know what you think of the podcast I appreciate you guys listening

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and we'll catch you next episode