Ever wondered how a savvy entrepreneur navigates the intricate world of dental compliance? Meet Saba, the woman behind Smart Dental Compliance, who transformed her experiences as a dental nurse and practice manager into a thriving business that simplifies dental paperwork. Get ready to be inspired as she recounts her personal journey, the influence of her grandfather on her entrepreneurial spirit, and how her initial job interviews unexpectedly propelled her into the realm of entrepreneurship.
Sabah doesn't just run a business; she cultivates a family. Listen in as she discusses her unique office culture that thrives on team involvement, creativity, and transparency, and how these elements contribute to her success. She divulges how her company's financial aspects are openly discussed with her team, instilling a deeper understanding of the business. You'll also get a peek into Sabah's transition from a practice manager to a compliance consultant and how she sold her services while still on the interviewee's chair!
Get ready to uncover the intricacies of dental compliance. Sabah sheds light on why this field is crucial and how outsourcing it can relieve practices from the daunting task of compliance. She introduces her game-changing AIOM software, shares tips for dealing with CQC inspections, and how she managed to turn around a dental practice within a month. But that's not all; Saba also reveals her new venture into fitness and nutrition. So tune in and get ready to be inspired and educated on dental compliance, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Ever wondered how a savvy entrepreneur navigates the intricate world of dental compliance? Meet Saba, the woman behind Smart Dental Compliance, who transformed her experiences as a dental nurse and practice manager into a thriving business that simplifies dental paperwork. Get ready to be inspired as she recounts her personal journey, the influence of her grandfather on her entrepreneurial spirit, and how her initial job interviews unexpectedly propelled her into the realm of entrepreneurship.
Sabah doesn't just run a business; she cultivates a family. Listen in as she discusses her unique office culture that thrives on team involvement, creativity, and transparency, and how these elements contribute to her success. She divulges how her company's financial aspects are openly discussed with her team, instilling a deeper understanding of the business. You'll also get a peek into Sabah's transition from a practice manager to a compliance consultant and how she sold her services while still on the interviewee's chair!
Get ready to uncover the intricacies of dental compliance. Sabah sheds light on why this field is crucial and how outsourcing it can relieve practices from the daunting task of compliance. She introduces her game-changing AIOM software, shares tips for dealing with CQC inspections, and how she managed to turn around a dental practice within a month. But that's not all; Saba also reveals her new venture into fitness and nutrition. So tune in and get ready to be inspired and educated on dental compliance, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Hi everyone, welcome to episode 12 of the Diary of a Dental Coach. Earlier today we just had Grant McCary. He was a phenomenal, really, really inspirational guy. So this is our second one of the evening, so we've got a special guest all the way from London today. She's an entrepreneur and set up her own business and the business is called Smart Dental Compliance and it's to do with perhaps the things that dentists girls, guys find quite boring because we have to do all this paperwork and we find it as stressful and like a headache really. But Sabah here has set up this company to make life easier for dental practices and being able to manage dental practices. So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, Mr Sir. Thank you for calling me to the show.
Speaker 1:I have heard that you've been on several podcasts In fact, andrew Acton you mentioned as well as a podcast in America, so tell us about your story. I know you grew up in London, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's absolutely right. So, born and brought up in London, I grew up in London. All my education was in London as well. But after, like my primary school, I think, we started moving a lot because my dad was trying to set up businesses in different places. So then I ended up, you know, we also lived in like Manchester for a few years. We, after I'd done my GCSE, we moved back to Lahore actually that's where I done my A levels so we were there for three years while my dad had like a family owned business which he was managing, and then, after I done my A levels, I came back to the land, we came back to London and then I went to university and then my remaining education over here. So I done my dental nursing while I was doing my biomedical science degree.
Speaker 1:Did your dad inspired you in this entrepreneur journey? Because obviously I think there's a pattern here. A lot of entrepreneurs tend to be inspired by people. Do you think you helped you along in that journey of being an entrepreneur, investing in businesses and becoming successful?
Speaker 2:I think more than my dad, I'm a bit more my grandfather, so my mom's dad. He was very entrepreneurial, so he had. He came to this country when there was a war. So he came and he was like an orphan and he used to work like very long hours in the factories and literally when we were growing I mean, we never saw that because I was quite young at that, I don't even know if I was born at that age or not my mom tells me the story. Like you know, your grandfather was really hardworking he still is really hardworking and then he built himself literally while we were growing up. We saw him like literally building his empire. He bought loads of commercial properties within London, he bought properties abroad. Then he went back home and he became mayor of a city called Southcourt. That's where he was born and brought up. So he was mayor of that and I still remember like as kids we used to sit in his car and we used to have like all these six, seven security cards behind us, following us everywhere.
Speaker 3:So I think more than my dad.
Speaker 2:My grandfather was a big inspiration for me and how he grew and literally you know he had properties everywhere. He was a little tycoon. He would open businesses left-right centre. His main business was leather factory. So he had a leather factory in Seattle Court. So he used to do a lot of import and export within the UK as well and I remember we used to go to his showroom try out his leather jackets and it was really fun. And then he used to do exhibitions everywhere in the world and we used to go there as well. So I think he was, for me it was a bit inspiring.
Speaker 2:But then again, with this year, I never, ever thought of, you know, being an entrepreneur or getting into like my, or setting up my own business. For me, the highlight of my career was working in Bupa. So when I got an area clinical operation manager job at Bupa, I absolutely loved it because I was managing like multiple sites and there was multiple team and I was always doing something different. I wasn't in one department. I worked in the compliance, the integration, the acquisition management, everywhere and there was loads of courses and Bupa invested a lot into their staff members as well. So there was multiple things that I was doing and I never thought about, you know, being an entrepreneur or setting up a company on my own.
Speaker 1:So your first experience in dentistry was actually being a dental nurse, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Exactly so. My career started off as a dental nurse. While I was doing my biomedical science degree, I got approached by an agency saying would you be interested in doing dental nursing? It kind of guarantees you a job. So I was like, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:And you know, being from an Asian background, our parents think that, being a girl, you can either do you can either work in a doctor's surgery or a dental surgery, that's it, only medical. You can't do it. I really do. You know what I really wanted to do? I really wanted to work in self-reduce or heroin, because you know, when you're going through that teenager stage, being a girl, you're all into your designer bags and all this kind of stuff. So I was really into retail and I really wanted to do retail.
Speaker 2:But my dad was very strict. He was like, no, you're not doing any retail, either working in a dental practice or either working in a doctor's surgery. So I was like, okay, fine. So when I got approached by the agency saying that, okay, you can become a dental nurse and you can work as a dental nurse in a dental practice, I thought, okay, why not, let's give it a go? And I always wanted to do dentistry. Dental surgery was something that really fascinated me. So I thought, while I get my experience and when I finish my biomedical science and past track to a dental degree, so that's where it all stemmed.
Speaker 1:How did you get your job as a bit booper as a manager Very interesting.
Speaker 2:So before Boop, I was working for another corporate company called Smypod. So I was there. I started off with them as a dental nurse. Within six months I progressed into a practice manager role and then within the next three months, they progressed me onto like an area manager. So I would cover any sites that didn't have a manager and overall look at all of their five practices. So that's where I was working. And then I saw and I was one of those people right, I would apply for a very high level job Even though I didn't have a lot of experience. I was a uni student and I uni student and I was very young.
Speaker 2:I would apply for like director of a medical company or you know, really I thought you know what, what's the worst that can happen, right, let's say, even if they call me for an interview and I'm not able to answer the questions, at least I would get experience, at least I've become confident and even like very recently I was, I was reading a quote and just some books and they were saying try to act like somebody you would want to be, because eventually you would end up being that person. So that thing really inspired me and it still does, to be honest and I thought you know what I would love to be like a, you know, work for a massive corporate company and be like an area manager and manage so many practices. So, with smile for those five practices I was managing. So I thought, why not manage like ten practices, twelve practices? Why not manage a multiple, diverse team of Dental practitioners?
Speaker 2:So it was something that I always thought you know what, let me just throw myself in the deep end, and I love to do that. I just like to dive into it. Once I've dived into it, then I'm like, oh my god, where did I get myself into? But it was, that was just me. I was just willing to take on any and every single challenge. So I saw the ad and I said let me just apply to it. What's the worst that can happen? So I applied and I got a call and they said that they would like to interview you. I still remember what this is. I went to the interview right, and I thought I'm never gonna get this job. Like you know, there was these two people sitting right in front of me firing question, left-right center. I felt like I was in dragons den or something and trying to pitch myself to them. And then I thought I remember walking out and I thought forget about this.
Speaker 2:I thought let's go back to the drawing board, let's apply for some other jobs, and then I got a call literally the next day and they said oh, you've been selected and they're going to take you to stage two and I was like oh great, there's a stage two as well for this job.
Speaker 2:And and then I thought okay, fine, I think if I've done stage one I should be, and I've been selected for stage two, I'll give it a go. And then I remember I went for the second interview being even more nervous than I was in the first one, because I was like, right if I don't get this now, but it's gonna be waste of time.
Speaker 3:I've got the first one, so why am I not going to be able to do the second?
Speaker 2:one.
Speaker 2:So Thanks, fod went to the second one as well, and then after two weeks they told me you'd been selected for the job.
Speaker 2:So I was like, oh my god and believe it or not, I love the, I love the working environment, I love the culture so much that when I finished my bio med while I was working in Bupa, I was trying to get into dentistry, but I just got fed up with studying and I thought you know what I actually don't want to do Another four years in dentistry.
Speaker 2:I might as well stay in Bupa and just progress as I go along. So I just ended up doing that, and this is why I think that your working culture and the companies or wherever you work or whatever you build, is so important, because it inspires people to progress and it gives them the confidence and sometimes, especially nowadays, like you know, teenagers or even adults we don't know what we want in our life. Sometimes you're like 29, 30 years old, but you just really don't know what we want. So if you work for a company that is very inspiring and there's a good leader and there's good leadership skills, it really helps you to outline what your goals can be in life. So I think.
Speaker 1:For me, that was, as I said, that was a highlight of my career and we're really a turning point in your life as well, because it obviously set you on this journey of setting up your own company and Becoming an entrepreneur. I mean the thing that I've noticed, obviously with dental practice managers especially a lot of them, I would say there's very few that are very good at their jobs and that's because there's a lot of pressure involved and a lot of the time it's not that much more paid than a dental nurse in terms of pay wise. So there's a there's that aspect to it. And the second aspect is is more managing people, because sometimes managers May have already been dental nurses already and then they formed a Relationship with some of the team and when that happens and you you're now managing your friends or managing your people who you were Perhaps on the same level and now you're managing, that can be quite challenging.
Speaker 1:So tell us what. What do you what? What do you enjoy about managing people in particular, and how do you promote a leadership or empowering culture within your organization? I?
Speaker 2:Think one of the most important thing is that sometimes people tend to forget is coming to their level. Like one of the things that I do. Even though I've got my you know, designated private office, I never sit in my office, actually, unless I'm having a private meeting with a client or with somebody or a one-to-one. I don't. I sit amongst all my people. We have got regular team events that we do and our team events are so fun like. The last one was go apes. We went to like go apes in North London and that was really fun. We've got another one coming up this Friday where we are doing the barbecue boats on River Thames. So I think, like, really do team events for me? I think is very important because it gets you especially if you're in the office culture or the practice culture is so busy nowadays Back to act patients, so much things going on and getting your team out there to have regular team events to be is one of the most Hardest things because you know blocking a diary and not being able to see the patients a lot of dentists goes.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, our revenue is going to get affected, but because of that short-term revenue, are you really going to jeopardize not having the a star team or not building your team to the quality that you would like them to be. So I think that's another thing that's very important for me is having regular team events. And then the third thing is I involve my team with every single decision I make. So whether we're going to onboard a new client and whether we're planning to, you know, do a marketing strategy, a new marketing strategy, even if we are planning, our dentistry shows, our dentistry shows the way we plan them. We get the whole team involved. We get everybody's opinion. What is it that they want to do? We select themes and we just really make our working environment so much fun.
Speaker 2:I think making like and that's one of the most important things, especially when you are office-based Everybody's like literally in front of their computers and you know just getting on with their stuff. But we just try to make it. You know, we try to understand each other. We pay play like connection card games, as we're regularly in team meetings. So we understand each other's personalities. What are the likes, what are the dislikes? So the most important thing for me is treating everybody like they, your own family, because if we look at it, most of the time we end up spending is our work. We don't even spend that much time at home compared to how much time we spend at work and it's important to understand you know the people that we're working with and understand their needs and their goals and their Dreams and desires. So I think I haven't done like a master's degree or anything like that in leadership, but I try to make sure like my team is always happy and I treat them fairly and I always try to inspire them.
Speaker 1:I think it's really interesting that what you just described because that's basically a coaching culture and it's what top businesses use now and what I really liked about the fact that you know you as a leader, or even though you're the boss and you're the person who's in charge of this team you know, as a leader, that for people to know your worth and listen to you and be motivated, to be inspired and want to work harder for you, you need to get people on board.
Speaker 1:So the fact that you come down into mingle, talk, energize your teams, work on that creative culture, work on that positive environment, trying to build your business at the same time, I think it's really, really powerful and it's something that I feel really passionate about as well myself personally, because I haven't really seen it so being successful and my passion is more in in a dental practice and trying to Create that kind of culture within a practice where everyone's Motivated and powered, wants to do better, keep, understands the goals of the business and go and, and is involved in every In a lot of the important decisions, because a lot of the time, the bosses make the decisions without even consulting anyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know other thing I don't know about. You know how you feel. One of the things that I find out, like even A dental practice, the things like your forecast and your PNL's. Nobody discusses that with the team. I discuss all our companies PNL and forecast with my team. I'm like guys, here's our direct cause, here's our indirect cause, this is where we spent money, this is where the money's going.
Speaker 2:Obviously, you know, there's some things that you have to keep private, like staff. You know person ages, but overall I discuss this is how much we spend on wages, this is how much we spend on think I, literally I'm open and transparent with them because I think you're the one who's running the business so more than myself being what is important for you guys to understand what are the profit and losses we're making or what is our Forecast for the next 12 months. So, even, as you know, even within dental practice, I think things like that should be discussed in team meetings with the whole team. Now, some people might not agree to it and that's absolutely fine, but you know, that's just me. I, I strongly believe in that. I think we shouldn't hide the numbers because sometimes I think maybe you have the subconscious like, oh, you know, they know how much we're doing and all this kind of stuff. But even like in Newport, being such a big corporate, we never hid PNLs and forecasting how much profit and losses we had made their practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you said, I think the idea is that the people involved in the business should understand how the business operates as a minimum and understand how revenues generated. To some extent I probably do agree. To some extent I'd probably say some people may not even want to be involved in that process and not want to get involved in that process. But tell us how you transitioned from being a booper manager to setting up your own dental compliance company and how did that transition happen?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, basically, booper got taken over by another company and a lot of our roles were becoming redundant or we were offered a different role. So I was offered something. So I went for a clinical services manager and they said if you would like to do a site management role and for me that wasn't really something that I wanted. I didn't want to progress down. I always had this dream to keep on progressing up. So I just thought you know what? I've been with Booper for five years. It's been an amazing company. But now I think, or I feel like it's the right time for me to move on. And this is when I thought and I had made a lot of contacts as well with Booper and people knew me really well and there was a couple of dentists saying that, oh, we're setting up our own dental practice and I know compliance is something that you're very passionate about, so would you like to come to our practice and help us with all our compliance paperwork? So I was like, yeah, why not? So I remember that year I started freelancing as a compliance consultant, so I used to go into different, different practices and update all their compliance paperwork. So that's where it all started. And then, once these two practices passed the CCC inspection. They said, oh, I've got a friend, I can refer you to that friend and he's planning to open a practice as well. So it all started developing from word to mouth. And then, you know, it's all started growing more quickly than I ever thought.
Speaker 2:And I remember, you know, shopping. At that time I was a massive shopper. I still am a bit guilty of that retail therapy. So I was looking at a website and it was a clothing brand and the website was very nice. And I scrolled right at the bottom and it said developed by this company. And I thought you know what, let me call that company and see if they can make a website for me, because my client base is, you know, growing very fast. So I remember calling that company and said can I get a website please? I'm an independent compliance consultant and this is what I want in my website. And they said, yeah, absolutely fine. And then within a week my website was up and running and I was like smash him, this is so good. So then I started using my website to market more and I got my business card made and I designed them all by myself because I've got this insect of designing. I love designing. I always say to everyone, if I was ever to live again, I'd be an interior designer. So I started designing my cars, my leaflets, sent them all off to printing, started distributing them, and then I remember I'll tell you a very funny story I used to go to Indeed right, and there were so many jobs as a practice manager.
Speaker 2:I used to apply to all of them and then when I used to go to the interviews, they used to say, right, so you're here for a practice manager job. So this is the role in everything. And I used to reverse it. So I used to say, yeah, you know what I could do for you. What is one of the most important things, like you know, a practice manager do you think has to tackle? Or what do you really, really hate managing? And I remember the denture saying compliance. I hate compliance, I can't deal with that. So I'm looking for a manager who's going to deal with that. So I said to them okay, what if I just came in once a week and sorted all your compliance out? Right, and then what you could do is get your receptionist to do all the rest and your nurse to do all the audits and all this kind of stuff and I'll do your compliance. And I remember pitching it in such a nice streamlined way that the owner used to go all right, that sounds very interesting, tell me a bit more.
Speaker 2:So that's where it all got started and that's where I started building more and more clients. I'm literally going to these interviews and, instead of being selected as a practice manager, I ended up selling them my services. So I thought, oh, amazing, and I didn't go on to any sales course. It was just that I was so passionate and I was so motivated. So this is how you know. I ended up growing my clientele when it came to smart dental compliance and training. And then I remember, within my second year, I actually needed more help.
Speaker 2:And while I was growing smart dental compliance and training, I ended up going into teaching because teaching offered me a bit of a flexibility. So I was teaching three times a week at a Denton Learning Academy and I was doing my teaching qualifications at the same time as well. And I remember I went to assess some trainee dentines in a workplace and I found this really motivated, very happy bubbly, and she was my student as well, trainee dentines and I said to her would you like to come and work for me? And she goes OK, what do you do? And I explained everything to her. She goes oh, sounds really interesting. And I remember she said teacher. I was like, listen, I'm not that old, you don't need to call me teacher, just call me Sabah, because, oh my God, so I would be working for my teacher. I was like, oh, here we go again. And she's just like yeah, why don't you? And I remember she was only 19 when I got 19, 20 when I got her on board and she worked for me for two and a half years and I trained her in everything when it came to compliance, and then, from that day onwards, recruited more staff, even while she was there, because we were just literally growing, signing up clients, and with that I was doing this all from my parents' living room.
Speaker 2:So I used to live with my parents and it was quite a big house because we were a big family. And I remember saying to my mom so you know the living room, can I convert it into my office? So she was like OK, that's fine. And I remember putting one table. That was my table and then, when my assistant started, I put another table. And then we recruited somebody else and we put another table and by the time it came to the board table, my mom said that's it, I'm tracking you at the house. You go and get your own office space, no more tables. It just feels like this whole house is turned into an office. So I remember the first two years working off a living room, blurring backgrounds and everything. So it looked like I was working in a high spec office and then just getting all the clients on board. But it was all fun stuff.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a journey. It's very organic as well, the way it's grown. You saw the opportunities. You went, they came about. Then you started growing further and further and it's kind of a really really inspiring journey that you've been on.
Speaker 1:And what is it about dental compliance that you? Because obviously it's an area that dental practices really struggle with. There's lots of different providers, there's lots of different people out there and, to be honest with you, it's something that, especially as dentists, we find really boring doing audits and doing we prefer the clinical stuff and getting on with that. So maybe the practice manager or somebody else can sort all the paperwork out for us. So tell us about it.
Speaker 1:Because one thing I found interesting when I did my ILM in coaching, I met different types of people and the people that were in, for example, risk assessment and especially in business, what you find is the roles that they are in suits their personality type. So the people that were really particular about certain things perhaps like yourself, like risk assessment, and were in risk assessment and it wasn't like people doing things that they weren't, that wasn't something natural to them. So their personality or their way of talking and style suited their role. So tell us about why you particularly like this field of dental compliance, and what is it that you want to. What message do you want to get across to dental practices out there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the biggest things with dental compliance is everybody says things are so scary and it's so daunting and the CQC inspectors are going to come and they're going to close our practice down. So I think everybody's got this fear factor when it comes to CQC and one of the things that we do at Smart Dental Compliance is we reassure our clients that, trust me, it's not that scary. You just need to make sure that you're persistent. And that's like with anything in life as long as you are persistent, as long as you're constant, you'll be absolutely fine. But one of the things that people do because they get so busy with the day-to-day life and the finances and TCOs and the clients and all this kind of stuff, they actually totally don't have time for dental compliance or paperwork, which I totally understand. And this is why we're here as well in the first place, to be like OK, so if you're not getting time, outsource it. Outsource it to a company that will be able to come in and help you to complete the audience and the risk assessments. So we started off with the IOM software and this is what I was just explaining before, that One of the things that when I used to go out to the practices to update the compliance is there were, there was, you know, other softwares in place, but they weren't used to the full potential or they weren't user friendly or they didn't have everything in order to make sure that you know that practice would pass a CQC inspection.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to create a system that a manager. So one of the things that I really hated was having like, different systems for everything. So having a different system for your compliance, having a different system for CPDs, having a different one for HR and, you know, there was all these Suscriptions and if you look at it by it's just so time-consuming. So, again, in terms of cost, uncost-effective as well, and then, as a manager, I'm logging into three different platforms to do one job. So it just it makes sense for me and I remember telling my developers when we were creating the system I want you to create a system that's got all the features or all the things that a manager needs in order to pass the CQC inspection in one. That was my first objective of creating the IOM system, so hence why we called it the all-in-one management system, and we were we as smart center, compliance and training. Well, what was one of the first companies that actually came up with this idea and then, obviously, all our competitors followed.
Speaker 2:But we created a system that had everything all in one, so that you don't feel like, oh, because if you've done your audits but your staff are not up to date with it you know CPD certificates, you're really not going to pass your CQC inspection with flying colors. There's, you know it just all inter relates with each other and this is one of the things that people don't understand. They do things that easy for them to do, but things that are required to do, or our mandatory that gets left behind. So, yes, you know one of the. So this is why, for me, it was very, you know, I found it very soothing when it came to compliance, because I could just go into a practice, reinsure the client. That, don't worry about it, it's not scary as you think it is. Let us help you in order to get it all up to date.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what you know. That's exactly what we do, and even very recently, we've created this package because we used to get. We came to a point where a lot of our clients were saying the system is great, very user-friendly, but we're not even getting time to update the system several because as managers, we're covering reception, we're covering nursing, we're doing pretty much everything. And then we created something called the smart consult package, where we have our own independent compliance consultant who goes into the dental practice to help update all the audits, the policies, the risk assessments at the, you know, staff members make sure staff members have uploaded everything on there. And that's our smart consult package, which is like really, really popular at the moment and every single practice is upgrading to that package now because they just you know they don't have time to deal with compliance anymore.
Speaker 1:I think this is the thing like in a busy practice, as probably especially an interest, really busy practices and Nowadays the the staff are spread thin, thinly. So, like you said, the practice manager is quite often doing reception, filling in for dental nurses who haven't turned up, perhaps sometimes in surgery, managing staff, sometimes doing wages, sometimes Doing the lots of different aspects to it, and you literally don't get a second to yourself. And all, all dental practices are trying to save money and and by doing that they they neglect this very important part of you know, part of regulations and part of you know compliance, because they just don't have that time or resources and I think it's really interesting the amount of clients we get literally as soon as they get called from CQC.
Speaker 2:So I've had a call from CQC. They come in one week's time and I'm like, oh my god, please don't say that you've left it last minute. Again they're like, yeah, please, please, come and help us. But again, thanks to our team and you know all the services that we offer. So we've got, you know, our paper writers, we've got risk assessors, we've got training you know People who do medical emergency training, cross infection. So we've created this package so we're able to turn you know the practice around quite quickly because of that.
Speaker 1:We've got a Jangeer act by. He's saying create, create a compliance culture among staff. So, which is which is important, isn't it? How do you get staff to comply, because you've got so many things to think about? If you think about, you know Obviously me working as a dentist I don't envy the people that are on reception or managing the practice, because it's just too, too hectic to even think about, and probably the time when people do do all this is when Dentists are off or they've got some time they can. They can perhaps look at, look at doing some of this, and so some practice managers, you know it's just like there's a sigh of like, oh great, I've got to do this, and they don't particularly enjoy doing it as well, and I think having something Obviously like, like your, your package, would really like lift the load or take that load off them, thinking, you know why it's actually not as as daunting as it looks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the other thing is whether, so like, obviously, with compliance, you as a dentist, you don't get taught that in the university, right, and then even a manager, they as a manager, managers are just based mostly on experience.
Speaker 2:But even if they go and do a proper qualification, like I've done my level four in practice management, we don't have a module that was based around compliance.
Speaker 2:We don't get as managers, we don't get taught compliance and people think, oh yeah, you will just learn it in as you go along, but you actually don't. It is something that you need to learn more about. You need to understand how to carry out effective Audits or how to do risk assessments or what our policy is all about, because now CQC are becoming so particular, they want so much info and they want things that are personalized, especially that with some of the policies and stuff, and they question you about it as well and your policies and your audits and risk assessment. So it's really really important that you fully understand how to carry these things out. It's not about learning as you go, it's about actually doing something in there, and this is why last year, we launched a level four in compliance management for registered managers. So we launched a course which we teach every Wednesday fortnight for managers, who you know want to learn a bit more about compliance and that's again being very, very popular as well with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jung, you're actually said that developing your own CPD program as well as a suggestion, and I suppose that that obviously, like you said, it is part of what you do. Isn't it developing? Creating a CPD program for everyone to to be compliant, and I think is important, those kind of things 100%.
Speaker 2:It is very important and I think, with compliance again, you know, honest think, oh, it's managers responsibility, but I think it has to be delegated all across the team. You can't just hold you know the manager accountable for it or the registered manager accountable for it. You have to get the whole team on board because they need to make sure that they up to date with their recruitment paperwork, they up to date with their training paperwork and especially some of the clinical audits. If you've got a non-clinical practice manager, it's not fair for them to do the clinical audits. You need to get you know the the nurses to do some of the clinical audits as well. So, yes, creating a team culture and making them more aware of compliance is very important, I think.
Speaker 1:So tell us a little bit about We'll talk about CQC and how daunting is it an inspection and what kind of things? What tips would you give people with regards to staying safe and not being closed down?
Speaker 2:So I think, as I said, one of the main thing that I always tell all my clients is please, don't leave it last moment. Please don't leave it till the inspector picks up the phone and says right, you've got a CQC inspection. Try to do things on a regular basis. Let's say you've had a really, really busy week and you didn't get time to do a certain audit or a risk assessment. Schedule it for next week, but don't miss it. So you know, having a bit of consistency it definitely helps. And then, second thing again, I'm just gonna say not because it's smart dental compliance. I'm just gonna say not because it's smart dental compliance. Invest into a good compliance software. There's a lot of them out there, but could demo with everyone and see which one suits you the best, because you might like something that is super, super simple or you might want something that overlords you with lots of work. It all depends what type of work ethics you have, but definitely it's worth the investment.
Speaker 2:I always say to my clients listen, it's just the price of one filling. It's just one filling you need to replace, but your practice will stay open. So think about it that way, but definitely invest into it because you will get automated reminders. You would get all your templates and, as I said, there's so many changes that are happening in the CQC. Even like the COVID times, there was like COVID risk assessments, covid-based audits. There was policies based around COVID and people were just like literally googling stuff and they didn't know what to do. So investing in a good compliance system is very, very important. That's my second tip, and the third tip is just do regular mock inspections. So, whether you're doing it yourself or you're outsourcing it to someone, do a mock audit of your practice just to see where the practice is and create an action plan or whatever is missing. Put that all into place. So it's not actually that daunting if you've got consistency, if you've got extended help and if you're doing things as you go along rather than leaving it the last moment.
Speaker 1:So do you get involved as well in these emergency situations where? Tell us a story where you've obviously been a little bit about, where you've had to sort out someone last minute, kind of thing. How does that work?
Speaker 2:Oh, nearly, I think like 70% of my clients, I have to sort them out last minute, definitely. But there was one case that I'm really proud of where the inspectors went and they were literally going to close the practice down. They gave them three months and they themselves they tried their best to get everything up to date. They had a second inspection the things that were said in the first inspection only 50% of those things were put into place. And then they came across one of my webinars and they contacted us and then we went in and within literally four weeks time, we managed to turn the practice around. And then they had another inspection and they thought they wouldn't be able to and this time, when the inspectors will come, they would definitely close the practice down. So I kept on telling the practice owner no, don't worry, everything is all up today. And he goes no, savva, I don't know what I'm going to do, like if they close this business down. This is my only business, like I've invested a lot into it. And he actually became very emotional and I felt really emotional myself as well and I said no, don't worry, just give us a chance. I think it's going to be absolutely fine.
Speaker 2:And then I remember going into the practice on a weekly basis and just making sure everything was all up to date. I got one of my other consultants as well to go in to make sure that she thought everything was all up to date as well. And then on the day of inspection we were there. We sat down with them, with the inspectors, and went through all their paperwork, and the inspectors were so proud they said if we were allowed to give a video testimony of right now, we actually would. We cannot believe how you guys have managed to help this practice turn it around literally within four weeks, going from no paperwork to like audit, risk assessment, staff files, policies, all customized, everything all up to date is absolutely amazing. So I think that for me was a big achievement and I've had lots of people like that, even where we've helped lots of squat practices.
Speaker 2:So me personally, I get involved. I love squat practices and that's my favorite area. So now I'm more involved with clients who are planning to open a squat practice and they get their CQC application done with us and sign up to our squat practice package as well. So even squat practices the day they say, yes, you can open, it's just like, oh, my God, it's like my own practice and they're allowed to open and I really, really enjoy it and I absolutely love it. And then they call you and say, oh, it's not gonna be fast. And I'm like, yes, that day we have like this little dance in our office. We're all dancing. And you say, yay. So, yeah, there's been loads of highlights.
Speaker 1:Do you help like? Obviously, you know, when you're setting up your own practice, you have an interview with the CQC, don't you?
Speaker 2:I actually did, I actually did because I was the registered manager and, believe it or not, I was so nervous I literally was so, even though I knew everything.
Speaker 3:I think I was more nervous from the fact that, being a compliance consultant, if I had my registered manager interview, that's gonna be a big embarrassment, you know when you have this unconscious thing in your head. So I think that was my main thing. So I was a bit nervous. I was like, oh no, I can't, I have to make sure. But the inspector was so lovely. She was like, sam, don't worry about it, you've passed and everything is all fine. So, yeah, that was again. That was a funny story as well, because I was in the office with all my staff and they were like come on, sam, but you have to do this. I don't know why you're getting nervous. You've sat on so many. You know exactly what to do. And I was like, yeah, I've sat in them, but I haven't done them. So but it was all good, all passed.
Speaker 1:So do you want to become a CQC inspector? That's important.
Speaker 3:No, I don't think so. I think I'm all right. I'm all right at helping people to pass their CQC inspector.
Speaker 1:You like being on the other side.
Speaker 3:Put them down? No, no, I wouldn't want to be there.
Speaker 1:So it's not just dental compliance. Obviously you do. You've got multiple businesses, haven't you Tell us about your other businesses as well?
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we have got a dental nursing academy which is called Enamel Learning. And again, one year after smart dental compliance and training, there was a massive demand raise. Some of our clients were saying there's a massive shortage of dental nurses. So do you have any training nurses? And again, before opening smart dental compliance, I done my level three, my level four in teaching. I also done an IQA course and I'm currently enrolled into an EQA course as well. So I had a lot of teaching qualifications and a part of me enjoyed teaching. I don't know how I got into it with this, I really don't know, but I remember being six years old or seven years old, wearing my mom's heel and going on the kitchen walls and pretending that there were students sitting in front of me and literally getting chalk and writing on the walls. So my mom says that's where your teaching habits stemmed from as well.
Speaker 1:So so you've got a dental nursing academy, is that right?
Speaker 2:It's called Enamel Learning, so we have got 48 dental students enrolled to training dental nurses in that as well. I was very heavily involved in teaching, so I used to teach.
Speaker 1:Is that an online thing or is that Is it?
Speaker 2:online. Yes, it is online, so it's, and we're registered with any median as well. So I do the EQA for Enamel Learning and a bit of business development management as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jangi you're at by saying Sabah, you should become a CQC inspector. It will take your work to the next level and will widen your strategy.
Speaker 3:No, as I said, I don't think that's something that I would want to do. I'm not like a bad cop, I'm a good cop, so it wouldn't be. It wouldn't be.
Speaker 1:So you've got that dental nursing. You mentioned some other businesses as well at the start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so very recently. I am a bit of a fitness freak. My mom's a nutritionist, so she's always been telling me to eat healthy and stay healthy and exercise. So it's been about one and a half year. I've been very heavily involved in nutrition, fitness, personal training and I saw this commercial shop and I really liked it and I said, okay, do you know what? I'm gonna open my own fitness studio, obviously wearing the hijab and sometimes, like going to the gym, we don't feel confident. It's just you feel a bit shy, even though I was going to the gym and stuff, but I wasn't feeling as comfortable as I wanted to.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, especially nowadays, the purposes people use to pour sometimes is like okay, why are you even here?
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I saw that opportunity, so I managed to grab it and I created a personal training studio and a gym in the basement and at the top I opened like a nutrition cap where we do like organic coffees, organic juices, organic smoothies. So it's more of a pleasure type of a business rather than something that you know I thought about getting into. So, again, you know I just love the place and I thought, oh my God, let me try it.
Speaker 1:So I know Donald saying it's a great podcast and information. Did you know her, anne O'Donnell? No, no, no, no. And then you've got Raz Raz Razmah. He said Bravo, inspirational. I think you've got quite a few people who are liking this podcast and enjoying the content of it.
Speaker 3:It's quite different, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It definitely is, because what you can tell is that enthusiasm that oozes from you about this particular area and, like I said, for a lot of people it is kind of daunting and difficult and it's the stresses of all practice owners and the stresses of practice managers and keeping on top of the paperwork. And, as time's going on, there's increased compliance, increased documentation, increased everything and you've got to find a way to make life easier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, definitely 100% and optimize everything. I know people still love the paper folders. Trust me, cqc Arm Living Into Digital. They want things digital. They want as much as you can to digitalize stuff because they do like DMA calls now, where they don't come in but they do the call over the phone and they want you to present all your documents. So the more things you have digitally, the more easy it will be to send out all to them. And again, having a good digital platform where you can share it with all the teams, like with the ION, we've got this really cool feature when you have practice meetings, you can upload the minutes under all your staff profiles and you can read and sign it. So, for example, if you've got a nurse who's on a maternity leave or they're not at the practice, they can still read the meeting minutes and they can read and sign it. So also, you are communicating with all your team members on there as well Exactly anything to make life easier.
Speaker 1:I think there's so much advances, even with AI and using of technology, and it's probably something that you probably will integrate into your business to try and help you do things quickly.
Speaker 2:We have, you know, and another good thing with us about the system is like because we're not like a massive, massive corporate company, if a client comes to us, we've actually got a request, a feature. So on our website, if you go, there's a tab that says you can request your own feature. So if there's anything particularly you wanted, add it onto the system. And I think this has been like such a great business innovation or a model, and it actually developed our system and got to where we are, based on our client feedback. So every time we get a request that we want this feature added, we would have like a small teams meeting and then we would go to our developers and say can you add that feature? So this system, I always say it's not even developed by me, it's actually developed by my clients. So I'm so grateful to them for coming up with these ideas. Even like some of our corporates, they've said oh, you know, this is our pain point, so can you make the system in a way that it can deal with this pain point? So I think we're so lucky because we are the only compliance company that could do that, because all the others they're big companies and in order to make change they have to go through different divisions and different departments, whereas we've got our own in-house developers who are able to make those changes very quickly. So you know, literally within one week we would add a new feature on there.
Speaker 2:Very recently there was a practice and they said we're using lab books. So a lot of practices use lab books and the lab books goes missing. Or somebody's ripped a page out, or somebody's left it somewhere, or the locom came in and forgot to put her stuff on there, or they literally just can't find it. So one of the practices requested a lab management feature on there. So what we again, within two weeks time, we were able to do like a calendar where you can log which lab work has gone out and when it's coming back and actually update it, and everybody gets a notification saying this lab work was sent to this lab at this time and we're going to do that. So when the lab work was sent to this lab at this time and by this person, so when the person is logging in you can see that as well. So these are some of the things that I just get so excited about and so proud of.
Speaker 3:I'm like oh my God, this is so cool. Now, all the managers are going to love this feature.
Speaker 2:They don't have to have lab books anymore. So I think that is one of our biggest strengths compared to all our competitors out there.
Speaker 1:I think it's great as well. You actually listen to the feedback of what your clients are telling you and make it happen as well. If it's something that you can change or you can add to it and just make it better and better the more you do that. It's a brilliant system because it's a bit like you just keep learning and learning and learning and eventually people just run out of things that they want eventually and it'll just keep getting better and better the more input you get and the more usage people get. I think it's really invaluable, like Jangia says, your client feedback listening to what people want because once you do that, you know that it's going to be better for everyone and it's going to be better for all your customers and client base.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they're the ones who are going to use it. So for us it's very important. Feedback is we've always even like within one month, we will send out at least three surveys to get feedback on the system, and then we will go back to the development team and have a meeting with them and make sure that they're able to keep up to date. Sometimes you do get those requests and they're able to make it to them. Look, this is the timeline. We'll do it. But give us this Because I want them to feel like this is their system and they've customized it according to their needs and standards.
Speaker 2:It's not like a staggered system that can't be changed. Because that's one of the feedback we used to get when people were coming to us and they still do from another compliance provider. I always ask them, what is it? And they say that we feel that we need this, but that system wasn't able to do that. So again, again, for us it's really good because we learn about that and we're able to do it. So then the customer satisfaction automatically goes up.
Speaker 1:It's brilliant and I think it's been a really really exciting and inspirational podcast. But just listening to you, I can imagine you when you're around your team trying to inspire them, trying to empower them. I can tell that even your client base would be really, really happy, because that enthusiasm, that wanting to improve things, that desire to be the best provider in this field is fantastic and it's refreshing to see, and for you to do this is really, really special.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1:Are there any lasting thoughts that you want to give the viewers?
Speaker 2:Not really. If any of you are struggling with your compliance or need any help, please feel free to get in contact smartdentocompliancecom. You can always reach out to us and we're more than happy to help you with any of your compliance dilemmas.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Thanks for watching, guys. That's it for episode 12. Thanks guys for watching. Really appreciate it. I'll be back next week with the interim CDO, jason Wong. I'm really really proud to get him on the show and get your questions in. It's going to be really really interesting. I think what he feels important about is actually defining and getting people to understand what the CDO actually does, because there's a lot of confusion within dentistry and a lot of blame perhaps on the previous CDO and what they don't realise is the CDO actually answers to the government and the ministers. So I think it'll be really interesting to define what the CDO does and his role in dentistry. Thanks, aber, once again, I wish you all the best. I'll see you for the next one, guys. Thanks, take care, enjoy the rest of the evening. Thanks bye, thank you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you you.