Practice building

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Location takes centre stage in the second installment of Starting a Practice, as MED reviews the challenges of sourcing a site.

Once your fledgling practice has a business plan in place, it is time to turn the numbers into something real. As a developing market, the Middle Eastern market can change rapidly, so be prepared for your best-laid plans to go astray.

The second part of this series will look at the importance of the picking the right location, choosing the best design and securing the approvals that are required to get your practice off the ground.

Free for all

Real estate aficionados will always tell you that the key to choosing property is: ‘Location, location, location', and its no different for dentistry. A carefully selected location is the first challenge for any clinic.

Where you decide to settle is not only be crucial to the future success of the business, but can also influence how soon you see a return on investment.

For instance, while there are many positives to setting up in a free zone, there are also drawbacks. In the case of Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), one of the biggest pitfalls is the ongoing construction. The ongoing building work means clinics may struggle to attract patients.

As a result, returns might not be evident until two or three years down the line. On the flip side, basing your practice there can ease the start-up process, with access to approved designers and contractors who are familiar with the requirements and regulations. The result may be a much smoother experience.

Of course, there is also the added attraction of targeting clients at the higher end of the market. "In terms of implementation of the project, maybe inside a free zone is easier," Dr Mohanakrishnan, director of planning at DHCC-based consultancy firm Eurohealth Group, notes.

"However, if you decide to go outside into the wider community, you are likely to establish your business much quicker, though you would be catering for the middle to lower-end of the market."

Should you decide to go down the free zone route, you have to prove that you are needed. Using DHCC as an example, Mohanakrishnan explains that you have to get approval for the type of clinic you want to open from the zone's Centre of Planning and Quality (CPQ).

This is the body that approves services and issues the necessary licences. Once issued, these licenses restrict dentists to working only within that free zone.

On the outside

While a free zone has its advantages, setting up a clinic independently offers different gains. Within a free zone, the remit of your practice is laid out from the start, which can make it difficult to expand the clinic's range of specialist services.

For instance, if adding implantology may be a potential growth area for a clinic. Inside the free zone, the idea could easily be stonewalled due to overpopulation.

"Free zones like DHCC want to maintain a balance of services," notes Mohanakrishnan. "If there are too many other implantologists, this can lead to any plans for expanding in that direction facing refusal."

These restrictions don't apply elsewhere, he adds.

If the clinic's business plan and feasibility study are thorough, dentists should already have an idea of the type of property required; whether it is a commercial villa or space in a business tower; as well as the costs involved. However, with a property boom in full swing, real estate costs can fluctuate dramatically, so any financial planning needs to be flexible.

"For my clinic, the cost of the rent has increased around about 5% each year, but that is a four-year-old contract," claims Dr Bernard Alliot of Dubai's Smiline Dental Centre.

"If you want to start from scratch now it is vastly more expensive and the annual increases can be much higher."

According to Alliot, with such prolific development in region it is always best to keep one eye on the future when choosing a property. His clinic opened its doors in the heart of one of Dubai's busiest trading areas when it was still under development; the Fairmont Hotel on the Sheikh Zayed Road.

"That was many years ago and there wasn't much here. Now, there are so many business towers nearby," he says. "We chose the Fairmont Hotel because there were already lot of people working here and people want convenience. If they can go to a dentist near their place of work it makes their lives easier."

With the region growing at such an exponential rate, it can be difficult to imagine what the surrounding area of your plot will look like in ten years time. One thing is for certain, though,; with exponential growth comes a lot more traffic. Much of the dentistry done in the region is elective, and patients can and will can elect to visit another dentist if it's not convenient for them to get to you.

"Parking will always be an issue," laments Alliot. "Being able to provide it will be a huge boost to a clinic. You need to make sure that wherever you choose to set up, you can provide enough space for the staff and the patients to park."

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