For years, Dr. Jacquelyn Akmakjian worked as an associate — and like many dentists thinking about buying a dental practice, she kept waiting for the right moment. She moved from practice to practice. The clinical work was fine and the patients were fine, but the environments never quite fit. The culture, the way staff talked to each other, the way management handled problems. She kept hoping the next office would be different.
It never was.
“As an associate, I struggled to find what I really wanted,” she said. “A drama-free work environment.”
Then one Tuesday afternoon, sitting in her car after yet another tense staff meeting, it hit her. She stared at the steering wheel, paused for about five seconds, and said out loud, “I’m not doing this anymore.”
Not tomorrow. Not next year. Right then. The hope she’d carried for years that someone else would act like an adult and create a healthy work environment simply switched off.
Everything changed in five seconds.
In those five seconds, she went from someone who kept hoping the right environment would appear to someone who decided she would create it herself.
Buying a Dental Practice While Packing Up Her Life
She moved back to her hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado, and started as an associate at a general practice. Six months into the job, she started the process of buying it.
The timing was highly inconvenient. She was flying back to Missouri every few weeks to paint, garden, and get two properties ready to sell. She was packing up a life in one state while building one in another. On top of that, the seller needed the deal done immediately because he was trying to fund a separate building purchase.
From the day she signed with our team at Dental Buyer Advocates to the day we closed took exactly two weeks. (A record for us, as a side note.)
She was already carrying around $500,000 in dental school debt, and she was about to sign for a practice purchase valued well over a million dollars.
Before she signed the papers she remembers having a reality check chat with herself. “You’re about to owe others a million and a half dollars. Are you going to be able to pay that off?”
She did not move forward because she felt entirely certain. DBA did what we could to help, running the numbers backwards and forwards. Ultimately, she moved forward because we looked at the numbers and told her it was doable. That was enough.
“It’s really scary, but also doable. Knowing that helped.”
The numbers backed her up. The average dental practice owner takes home around $414K per year — more than double what most associates earn. The debt was real. So was the upside.
What Ownership Actually Looks Like
She has owned Open and Affordable Dental Fort Collins South for over a year now.
She works significantly more hours than she did as an associate. Some nights she stays late because something broke and she is the one who has to handle it.
But a fundamental shift happened when she became the boss. The healthy workspace she had spent years searching for was finally something she had the power to build herself.
“I can create the type of work environment that I need to thrive,” she said. “Even though I’m busier and I work more, overall I’m happier.”
No drama. Her clinic. Her culture.
A Word to the Dentist Who Is Still Waiting
When I asked her what she would say to a dentist who keeps waiting on the sidelines, she didn’t talk about how to feel ready. She talked about the cost of waiting.
“This job is hard on our bodies,” she said. “Most people probably won’t be doing this for an extremely long time. You kind of have to get as much out of it as you can. Ownership is the fastest way to accomplish that.”
After a small pause she added: “You can do it. And you should.”
Jacquelyn spent years moving from practice to practice, hoping the next office would finally feel right. It never did — until she owned one herself.
If any part of her story sounds familiar, the first step is simpler than it feels. Download the first chapter of How to Buy a Dental Practice, 5th Edition free, or book a no-pressure consultation at dentalbuyeradvocates.com.
