Fife’s Gentle Dental Care

profile: Chris Pritchard and Gentle Dental Care

Q What does your business do?

A We provide private and NHS dentistry to St Andrews and the surrounding areas.

Q How and why did you start in business?

A After gaining valuable knowledge and experience, learning and watching how a dental practice should be run, I wanted to develop and implement some of my own ideas.

Q How did you get where you are?

A Firstly, a huge amount of studying and hard work paved the way.

When the time came to buy a practice I began to search and tried to be as pro-active as possible. I wrote speculative letters to numerous dental practice owners and, thankfully, one of them was interested in selling. Q Who has helped along the way? A Friends, family, the bank and Business Gateway Fife.

Q What do you hope to achieve?

A I’d like to grow my business and develop the practice, especially in the area of implant dentistry. We already have a visiting specialist implant surgeon from Edinburgh who comes to the practice. I would hope her visits will become more frequent as demand increases.

Q Do you want to recruit?

A Absolutely. As the practice grows, more dentists, nurses and admin staff will be needed.

Q What is hardest the thing in running your own business?

A Finding time to do everything. Being a dentist is all-encompassing in its own right.

Patient care is the number one priority but you have to make sure the business is running smoothly, too.

Q Any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?

A Be clear how you want things done, and be consistent.

Write a business plan and document procedures and protocols so all staff sing from the same hymn sheet.

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from senior colleagues, accountants, banks etc.

Contact Business Gateway at the early stage of your venture and keep in contact as your business grows.

Even as your business matures, advisers are on hand to help with all aspects of your business.

I recently benefited from Fife Council’s Town Centre Business Support Fund. My adviser Fiona Turnbull helped me apply for a Business Improvement Grant that has let me install a chair-lift to help elderly patients on the stairs.

After graduating from Dundee University, dentist Chris Pritchard gained experience working in practices in Scotland and abroad. The 42-year-old then used his knowledge to take over an existing dental practice in St Andrews when two local dentists...