We've always wanted to put together a completely unbiased guide for STARTUPS for your first dental supplies order. I couldn't do it without my good friend Dr. Andy Tran DMD, wh opened a practice in Austin Texas in February of 2019. It's a rather short interview, so get comfortable, take notes and get ready for what could possibly save you Thousands! Interview Notes: Step 1 Gather templates, startup lists from your friends or download what Dr. Andy used below Dr. Andy Tran template is here Step 2 Know your products. Spend time on Clinicians Choice to look for product reviews and assemble a list of items that you will be using at your dental practice software. Dr. Andy's focus was on main procedures such a are Extractions, Fillings, Restorative, Endo. Since it’s your practice it makes sense to do thorough research. Use places like Dentaltown.com and Facebook Dental Group (The Making of a Dental Startup is a great resource). Step 3 Create your own initial list. Then use it to get quotes from supply reps. I usually recommend this step because we have seen (at Zen) prices varying dramatically based on your physical location. So if you are located in a rural area then you might get really good prices even from the reps. Make sure to tell reps to quote EXACTLY what’s on the spreadsheet (you will hear from Andy his story about this step). Also, do not buy into intimidation such as “well doc how are you going to practice without this little plastic that makes everyone’s life easier”. Step 4 While you waiting for supply reps to quote your list (which might take 2-4 weeks) start using a site such are Scottsdental.com Dentalcity.com. Open accounts with buying groups – Synergy group is free and offers great savings with Brand name products Step 5 Make your final decision 3-4 weeks before the opening. You don’t want earlier because construction is still in progress and products can get damaged (unless you ship them to your house). More importantly, you don’t want to wait until the actual opening. Many dental products are back-ordered and if you are purchasing items off of eBay it may be shipped from different parts of the world. You can contact Dr. Andy Tran for more information at DoctorTranDMD at Gmail dot com
As technology evolves it’s getting really hard to choose the right provider for your dental supplies and inventory needs. At Zen, we really feel we have a unique perspective on the landscape and potential bumps on the road when it comes to searching, evaluating and selecting the right software. Not to mention the needs of each specialty, type of practice (Private Practice, Emerging DSO or a large scale DSO), and not to mention sorting through the unbiased, unsponsored opinion of dental influences. So what are the scenarios or the steps? Assess Your Current situation and the needs of your practice and then choose which Scenario fits your needs the best Scenario 1 - You're looking for an inventory control system Scenario 2 - You're looking for an ordering software to consolidate all distributors into a single platform Scenario 3 - You want to get full control of the budget and bring to the industry standard of 5% Scenario 4 - You're looking to support the growing needs of your DSO (dental service organization) Bonus - what nobody wants to discuss ahead of time or hidden secrets of software subscriptions Let's get started with this long article (15-20 min read) we break down the process step by step and provide a different point of view for private practices and emerging DSOs. Assess your current situation and the needs of your practice (or a group). From my early days of business (when I started selling cell phones at the age of 14) I learned any problem should be solved from understanding what the actual pain point is. At Zen we hear all the time "I need an inventory software" but what does it really mean to your practice? It's almost as saying "I want to go on vacation" without picking where to go! Most practices start their journey into finding dental supply inventory management software due to 5 main reasons: Running out of products Budget is out of control A person who was in charge of ordering left Spend hours to count boxes and place orders Your practice (or group of practices) is growing and needs better controls When any of the above happen, next you ask yourself or the team the following 3 questions: Are we looking to solve a specific problem related to dental supply inventory management, ordering, or price comparison? Perhaps all 3? How do we currently manage inventory? Does a problem lay in physical space? Do we have centralized storage or supplies are scattered everywhere… Are we a busy practice with multiple specialties, or a startup, or a growing DSO or you simply trying to make it through the month? And that get's us to the MAIN objective of this article - 4 Scenarios How to Choose the Dental Inventory Software for YOUR Practice! Don’t have an Inventory control systems - do you use rubber bands, tags, outdated software or simply yellow sticky notes Ordering is a mess - does ordering take hours and you still forget to put items on the order. Relying on your rep to do it for you? Ordering from 10 different vendors? When products arrive you have no way of verifying and/or comparing to what has been actually ordered? Spend more than 5% on supplies- paying too much for the product? You realize your friend down the road is paying less for the same product? Or simply you like the manufacture brand but not necessarily the distributor? A growing number of locations but each office still place orders individually? The process is not consolidated nor streamlined? Do people order whatever they want without the approval of the main decision maker? Budget is not controlled since the orders are submitted to vendors without approval? After you had a discussion with your team and made the necessary assessment you’ve identified where the problem is. Now we are ready to look at different solutions! Now let’s look at each Scenario individually and with pros and cons: Scenario 1 - Looking for an Inventory control system If you determined that inventory control is an issue, then a simple solution such as airtable or smartsheet will help tech-savvy practices quickly implement inventory control system and be up and running in less than a day. These 2 solutions just like regular spreadsheets but on steroids. They allow you to quickly add products in, write custom formulas to calculate QTYs and connect barcode scanner from your phone. No technical background or knowledge of writing code is required. The only downside, most of it you will have to do manually. Pros: Easy to use Mobile app Less expensive than dental specific solutions Cons: Will have to add all products manually, No dental catalogs No Dental Support Used only for inventory, orders will have to be placed manually or through another application This is a great way to start and see if your team is ready to move inventory management to the next level without paying for setup and implementation of other solutions. A more robust and dental-specific solution in inventory management is Sowingo Dental. Our friends at Sowingo are building interesting things to control inventory, but more importantly, their implant module is gaining popularity. Things to ask during the demo - how does the ordering work, who submits orders, if chat support is available, Sterilization/Compliance record keeping, and dental catalogs availability. Book the demo directly with them to learn more. Scenario 2 - Looking for Ordering Software to consolidate all vendors in one place If ordering is a huge mess, then you need a dental platform to consolidate all of your vendors to one place, more importantly, you need the platform that will allow placing all orders in one place and with one button. It sounds strange but this is a big challenge we are all working on to find a perfect solution for. However, only a few platforms were able to tackle this issue and have a considerable number of distributors to place orders with and I don’t think anybody has a blank cover of all distributor (besides Zen). In this category, we have veterans and new upcoming companies, entering the market to solve this specific issue: Clixon Dental Pros: Place orders with multiple distributors through a single platform (During the Demo ask them what vendors they can submit orders on your behalf) Control budget in a single place Multiple users can work simultaneously on the order Control shipments and orders with a single login Cons: A limited number of distributors, depending on the platform Not able to process payments Some orders will have to be printed/emailed to be placed directly with a distributor No information on the back orders This is relatively a new concept in dental and most dental distributors can’t wrap their minds around it. Therefore most platform in this segment will have a limited number of distributors they can process orders with and will have a challenge with backorder notification. We are hoping distributors will realize soon enough they need to adjust to the needs of their customers, not the other way around. Scenario 3 - you are out of the budget and 5% seems completely impossible to achieve If you discovered that the challenge in your practice is overpaying for supplies then you really need to polish your online shopping skills. Alternatively, you can use below services that offer price comparison: Google Sheets or Airtable - basically spreadsheets where you manually enter prices for 5-6 different suppliers. Easy to operate once setup is completed Manual setup of prices No way of knowing if prices are changed Have to manually submit orders with selected distributor Dental Specific solutions are: Others - way too many Pros: Most products are sold by above marketplaces and you can get the same products for 20-40% less than traditional distributors Ability to price compare exact product before placing an order A single place for keeping a credit card to pay for the orders These marketplaces, at least our friends at SupplyClinic and CrazyDentalPrices.com, are actively fighting against grey market products and working really hard to keep only authorized products on the platform. Cons: Have to know what you are looking for, doesn’t know your order history or inventory Marketplaces usually are limited to smaller and mid-size distributors that can cause shipping, stocking and other challenges. A limited number of manufactures (Brands such as 3M, Kerr, and are not authorized on some of these platforms). Longer delivery times because of a drop-ship model this might take up to 2 weeks on certain items. Most of the marketplaces are getting really innovative with things like delivery times, easy product returns and aggressive pricing. However, the bigger challenge is you are only using this as an alternative option and still need to use your main supplier for some of your Brand items (at least at the time of writing this article), therefore you still have a need to track orders in multiple places. Scenario 4 - how to support the growth of your emerging DSO (Dental Service Organization) Scaling your group from a single location to multiple practices is a daunting task and usually, it’s all about the system. No systems no scale! This is where inventory control becomes even more important. As you are scaling you need to have 2 major controls in place: Products your practices use with an ability to approve any request for a new product from the team/ new associates. A budget that is allocated per month per each location, with the ability to review and approve orders before orders are submitted to vendors and essentially will push you over the budget. There are solutions on the market for scaling: Coupa nondental but very popular among dental groups Pros and Cons: Honestly, I really don’t feel we know enough to give our pros/cons in this scenario. However standard things that will be important: Catalog of products Multilevel control - local/regional/corporate - at least for order approval It has to be user-friendly - at the end of the day, your lead assistants will be using it, so make sure you are not adding an additional step to an already busy day of your most valuable team players. This will be very important, in any scenario listed above: When you are narrowing down your options it’s important to have a solid understanding of the following elements (perhaps even read a copy of the terms and conditions ahead of signup): Length of the commitment Implementation Plan (what’s involved, who is responsible, and what is expected of you and your team); is training provided; is it on-site or web training. Breakup clause and fees involved and detailed plan of data transfer Who owns the data and how is it transferred to you in case of a breakup How is your data being used by a software provider, for what purposes, and who is it disclosed too?
How it all started: Since we stared Zen it was very clear to me that at some point I'll have to combine both passions, organizing physical space and training our officers on how to use Zen. Before hosting any seminars I wanted to learn how supplies are managed, how dental assistants restocking each room and more importantly would a lean methodology ever work in the dental practice software. Our first attempt to help practices was with the post called "Ready, set, Get your Dental Supplies Organized with Tip Out Bins" which details how to select Tip Out bins, order, Install, and fill with dental supplies. [URIS id=2425] Then in March of 2019 my friend Dr. Michael Hardcastle, Village Dental, called and asked to come by to help set up tip out bins and organize the dental inventory system. My obvious answer was "Why Not" and after that "Awbery Dental" and then little did I know it's a separate setup all together with a big and promising name - Dental Inventory Makeover [URIS id=2435] What we are offering: We always wanted to host a seminar/workshop at some of our most organized offices, where lead dental assistants who are in charge of inventory and ordering can lead the workshop with examples, hands-on material, and a walkthrough. An office that we can all learn from how they never run out of things, keep budget below 4%, do not store more than 3 weeks worth of supplies and most importantly keep the entire team happy? Well, we found an office that is just like that, Westgate Dental Care. The team who is in charge of it all, Tracy, Michelle, Kaylee, and Dr. Kics are the best and will be hosting this workshop and will cover the following: Entire Process from treatment room to Main storage/Stocking room Checklists/inventory list Process of ZenOut How often orders are placed How to select Vendors Order Approval Process and How to get the entire team involved Bring your floor plans, images and let's discuss how to customize your storages and inventory flow. Breakfast and Lunch will be served (we promise to surprise you with special Chicago treat). ZenTeam
Sharing knowledge and creating an environment to get Dental Assistants together is at the core of our passion at Zen. We were thrilled to start 2020 with exactly that. On January 17 we hosted our 2nd inventory workshop with offices attending from Colorado, Florida, Delaware, Pennsylvania and our home state Illinois. We are grateful to all who attended and Westgate Dental Care for hosting such a great event. With 20 people attending this was an incredible event of learning, sharing, laughing, and growing as professionals. During the 8-hour workshop we covered the following topics: Hands-on Dental inventory system/ Restocking Ordering and How to select vendors Team management and getting everyone on the same page Use of Checklists Advanced Features of ZenSupplies Compliance and simple checklist to make sure your dental office systems stays compliant To Register for April 17 Workshop please RSVP here [URIS id=3307] P.S. if you are just getting started with inventory then our Dental Inventory Makeover Webinar can be a great start!
Dear ZenFamily, we are opening 2 more days in 2020 for ZenSmart Inventory Workshop, RSVP Here: Chicago - January 17th 8am - 5pm Chicago - April 17th 8am - 5pm Each workshop will only have 15 seats available. Look forward to seeing you soon!
A couple of months ago I had a call with a good friend of mine, dentist, and a fellow CEO of a dental tech company Yapi, Dr. Gina Dorfman, when she casually said: "Tiger, why don't you host something like Smart Inventory workshop?". In November with the help of several Zen clients, we did just that. Special thank you to our amazing ZenFamily Westgate Dental care and Dr. Peter Kicks for hosting us. Tracey, the lead dental assistant at Westgate, was absolutely awesome at leading the workshop. Special thank you for our offices that came to Chicago and attended: Smiles of Virginia Brooklyn Boulevard Dental Schaumburg Smile Studio We look forward to hosting our next Smart Inventory Workshop on January 17, 2020. RSVP will be open soon [URIS id=3168] Resources from the workshop: Budget Allocations Guidelines All other checklists and spreadsheets mentioned during the workshop P.S. if you are just getting started with inventory then our Dental Inventory Makeover Webinar can be a great start!
Happy Tuesday, ZenFamily! Hope everyone had a relaxing holiday weekend. As we dive into another busy week, I would like to share a recap on our live events and webinars from last week as well as provide a small update on upcoming webinars. So last week here at Zen we had a webinar on Friday, 5/22 with Tiger, Dr. Gina Dorfman, a dentist and fellow CEO of Yapi Dental and Julie Varney, CDA, RDA, COA, FAADOM, CDSO, CDSH, Mentor of Dental Assistants Rock. Both Julie and Dr. Dorfman shared their experiences, tips and advice on reopening your practice. Dr. Dorfman's practice reopened on Monday, 5/18 and she shared with us how her office went through the reopening process and what their quarantine experience was like. Julie is in New York and her office has not reopened yet. They've done a lot to train their staff on new updates, performed a systems check and stocked up on PPEs. Dr. Dorfman also talked about some protocols, changes in the dental world, how to be an effective dental offices and the reasons why and how your team runs the practice. Please find the full webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts2ivcQPGYE Please find the podcast here: https://share.transistor.fm/s/7430adac We are taking the week of Memorial Day to finalize the webinars for the week of June 1st and here's what we'd like to share with everyone thus far: On Thursday, 6/4 at 11 am CST, we will be hosting a webinar on Disinfecting With Cold Fogging? Does it Really Work for Dental? (CE) and we will answer all questions! How do we move forward with a "New Norm"? Well part of that is disinfecting the rooms and I am lucky to have a friend, Dr. Tom Larkin who introduced me to an expert in the field of Fogging - Mike Sands. Here is a short description from Dr. Larkin himself: "Mike Sands is authoritative. In fact, he holds several patents and his company Cloudburst developed the first sideline misters introduced in the NFL in 1994. They were the first misting/cooling system used in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Mike is a serial inventor and holds several patents in this space. I have no idea how I stumbled onto their website, but I am glad I did. I think cold fogging is an integral part of our come back protocol. Search the internet and you will see electrostatic sprayers and numerous fogging sprayers. Many, direct from China. I have been quoted as much as 30K for a system. Mike will break it down and introduce you to a fogger for less than 50 BUCKS! One per Op. Personal fogging protection. " Check out their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CloudburstMS To join this live event, please follow this link: https://livewebinar.com/432-742-712 And on Friday 6/5 at 11 am CST Tiger will host a "15 min Friday Supply Availability Update" for Zen Offices! Please join us Every Friday at 11am Central for a live update on what is going on on the market and availability of dental supplies. All you have to do is login to your Zen account, app.ZenSupplies.com We hope everyone is enjoying the live events and staying safe!
Working Through Change CHANGE! AHHH! I always think of Kevin from Home Alone with his hands on his face, screaming in the mirror. Yes, very few like to hear the word, “Change”. ESPECIALLY during these times of uncertainty. Change can be scary for most people. When you have worked for an office, or on a team for so long, you adapt to processes and personalities. The last thing we want to hear is “We are going to CHANGE the way we do things.” Lets discuss a few tips on how we can effectively and confidently implement changes within the dental dental practice management system 1st-What we know….. What we know is people are afraid of change. 2nd-What can we do? So, What can we do to get our team onboard? Successful change consists of Awareness, Buy-In, Skills, Desire, Proper Resources and an Action Plan. In order to achieve the necessary change we are looking for, we must have all of those in place. Or else….. Awareness-How do we keep our team aware? I would like to stop right here and remind ourselves of what we ARE in control of: Our Communication Skills. I do not believe there is such a thing as over communicating in a dental office. With all the daily whirlwind, we just cant seem to communicate enough! Keep your team in the know. We discussed in another blog about regular team meetings. IF you are not currently having these, I highly recommend them! They are a NECESSITY! In our team meetings it is important to be transparent. I don't mean you have to disclose your yearly income to the team:) However, you can be very open on what you are working on, and what is in the pipeline. Let them know. Your team is SUPER creative, and may just have that one tidbit of advice that may shoot your dreams into another world! J/K, but you know what I mean! Utilize the knowledge that they have, and keep them involved! Buy-In What if our team doesn’t have the buy-in. One thing I have learned over the years from my time in the office on different levels is: What was good for the team yesterday, may not be good for the team today. This was very powerful. Some of you will be growing and adding offices, so keep that in mind. I'm not saying go out and let your team go if you are expanding, but think clearly about where you are going, and who is going to be onboard for the new look. When implementing new systems, or programs within your office, there will always be that team member that will drag their feet. Why do we have to do this? What we were doing before was working just fine. I don’t want to change. Its not going to work”. We have heard all of these, right?!? Get a COMMITMENT from your team. Example: Implementing end of day checklists into your office. Ask your team to give you 4-8 weeks of a commitment to completing their end of day checklist. See how it goes. Schedule a follow up meeting and let the team be open about their thoughts. If the team member creates it, the team member will own it. Let the team make their own checklists. The dentist can edit/add/delete and follow up. This creates buy-in. Your team member is now in control of her own end of day tasks that SHE created. I'm telling you...IT WORKS! Always stay positive when discussing these changes with your team. Its easy to say, “You're right, we really don’t need them.” Instead try “You know what? Lets try these for the next month, every day and see how it goes.” YOU are listening to your team!! Skills One of the biggest challenges I have faced in my dental career was not having the skills needed for the position I was given. You guys, this happens EVERYDAY! There was no doubt I was capable of teaching myself, but how? Going from a Dental Hygienist to Office Manager was the biggest change for me. I quickly realized, I need to learn, and learn QUICK, and develop better skills in order to be an effective leader in my office. When we roll out an on-boarding process, hiring process, or simply a new third party dental software we are using, they don’t always come with the best training. It is our responsibility as a leader in the practice to learn those skills needed to implement, or find our right hand man to learn the skills needed, in order to reach successful implementation. Set your team up for success! NO ONE likes to fail! Figure out how you are going to learn and teach the skills necessary for the changes taking place. That could even be an assistant in your office teaching the maintenance program you have set up. OR creating the program, learning herself, then teaching the team what maintenance should be completed, and when. Desire Resources Action Plan ~Kellie Black, RDH Disclaimer: This article is the sole opinion and research of the writer and doesn’t reflect the opinions of ZenSupplies.
Dear ZenFamily, We are thrilled to announce that we launched “Live Events and Webinars” on the homepage of your Zen Account!!! As we wrap up our third week of live events, I wanted to share a recap with everyone on the week of April 6th. Tiger was joined by 5 fabulous speakers this week who all shared wonderful resources, knowledge and ideas with the ZenFamily. So here is a recap of what happened this past week: Monday April 6th: Dental Assistant Survival Guide During Quarantine with Julie Varney, CDA, RDA, COA, FAADOM, CDSO, CDSH, Mentor of Dental Assistants Rock and Ronda Holman, RDA, Educator, Podcast Guru of DA Rockstars Podcast to walk through a survival guide for dental assistants during the current times of uncertainty. Both Julie and Ronda are founders of "Dental Assistants Rock", a dental platform for support and guidance for every dental assistant! All dental assistants are currently wondering-how do we survive during the current times of quarantine? What can we expect as a result of the coronavirus? Tune in here to watch the full webinar: Tuesday, April 7th: Dental inventory workshop Marie Kondo Style with Tiger Safarov. Tiger reviewed what SPARKS JOY for each office in the Marie Kondo style! Tune in here to watch the full webinar: Wednesday, April 8th: Story from the Trenches: Seeing 7-12 true emergencies every day with Ivana Bueno, director of operations from Dental 360 and Associates in Chicago, IL to share with all of us the current situation in their office. Ivana's office has been seeing 7-12 true emergencies per day, with limited team (or almost no team at this point) and a full schedule, for the emergency only times. Tune in here to watch the full webinar: Thursday, April 9th: Mary Beth and Missy Fryer on Preparing Yourself for What Life Throws At You. We invited two special guests, Mary Beth, founder and CEO of Dental Support Specialists and Missy Fryer, co-owner of Buckeye Dental Solutions, to discuss what it means to prepare yourself for anything life throws at you. Both Mary Beth and Missy have unique stories to share with us! We hope Mary Beth will tell us more about starting Dental Support Specialists with her husband Joe and later co-founding Dental Survival Guides with Missy Fryer (one of our own ZenFamily) . Tune in here to watch the full webinar: During each webinar, we covered numerous topics on surviving through COVID-19 and staying strong during the times of the unknown! There were quite a few interesting resources, books and recommendations made during each webinar so I’d like to share them with everyone here: 4/6 Dental Assistant Survival Guide During Quarantine with Julie Varney & Ronda Holman: -Map of when States are opening back up: -DANB.org - excellent resource for assistants to be able to get educated on their state requirements. -ADA Dental Boards: https://www.ada.org/en/education-careers/licensure/licensure-dental-students/state-dental-boards -CDC Updates: https://bit.ly/cdcdentalassistant -Dental Instruments Book: https://www.amazon.com/Dental-Instruments-Linda-Bartolomucci-Boyd/dp/0323474055/ref=sr_1_2?crid=BZIEVQ2AP4QM&dchild=1&keywords=dental+instrument+book&qid=1586700392&sprefix=dental+instrument+%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-2 4/7 Inventory Workshop Marie Kondo Style with Tiger Safarov: -Our very first Article on Installing Tip out Bins: https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/ready-set-get-your-dental-supplies-organized-with-tip-out-bins/ -Our First Webinar on Inventory and Ordering: https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/dental-inventory-makeover-webinar/ 4/9 Mary Beth and Missy Fryer on Preparing Yourself for What Life Throws At You -Mary Beth’s & Missy’s website/bio: www.BuckeyeDentalProductions.com (where Zen Users can find out more about Missy and Mary Beth and their Dental Survival Guides and use the ZEN code at check out for 10% off!) -www.DentalSupportSpecialties.com is Mary Beth’s company website And here are the details on the upcoming live events for the week of April 13th: 4/13 Live 2:30 pm CST: Vivek Kinra on Collecting 30K in Insurance from Home (CE). Follow this link to join: https://livewebinar.com/959-682-600 4/15 Live 2pm CST: Zen Offices Share their Inventory and Ordering Process. Follow this link to join: https://livewebinar.com/331-404-582 4/17 Live 3 pm CST: An International Reflection on the Coronavirus. Follow this link to join: https://livewebinar.com/411-977-897 We hope everyone is enjoying Zen's live events!
Let me start with a bunch of questions that I still don’t have all the answers to. How is it possible that during a pandemic that we are left with no masks, gowns, respirators? How did we get to the point that we have to rely on another country to get us protection equipment? If we would have US manufacturing kicking in full gear would we even have to shut down dental practices across the US? How can we help turn things around to start manufacturing products in the US again? Lots of questions and I also hear a lot of excuses, “too expensive”, “Who would pay X amount for a mask made in the US”, “What’s the problem with making things overseas?”, “We don’t have the material to make the product here”, “Labor is too expensive in the US”. Remember the days when American made was a big thing, at least I do! Growing up in Russia I remember craving Levi’s jeans. It was a huge shortage and if you can get a pair, you could literally sell them on the black market for double the cost (reminds me of the current PPE struggle :). To me, Levi’s was an epiphany of the quality. When you wear American jeans it was a statement. It was Freedom! So why can’t we get back to making things here, in the US, again? In search of answers to my above questions, I frequently asked our distribution partners “Why can’t we get US-made products"? Some were even able to get the equipment but couldn’t source the raw material. We continued to ask and most of the time the answer was “It’s impossible”! Until one day, one of our Zen Members sent an email with an introduction to a nonprofit organization in Detroit, Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center, originally started as a community-driven nonprofit for apparel manufacturing, that had to change gears during the pandemic and start making gowns and masks. So as usual, I got in the car and drove to Detroit to see how in the world a nonprofit is figuring out how to solve this “impossible” challenge. After being greeted by Kimberly, who checked my temperature and asked medical-related questions, I was welcomed to the manufacturing floor. I was Wowed from the first minute: equipment, people, space, drawing boards, raw material, the meeting room, all of it makes you feel part of something special. Makes you feel you are part of the big dream! A short walk through: https://youtu.be/GQ7JxbXEXvA After a few minutes of meeting Jen Guarino, CEO of the ISAIC, I started trying different gowns, masks and kept on asking lots of questions. Curious to find out the answers? In this short interview I ask Jen Guarino, CEO of the ISAIC nonprofit organization, important questions related to US manufacturing: The cost of manufacturing products in the US and what are the drivers of cost? How to stop losing trade skills due to manufacturing moving overseas? How Manufacturing is solving a lot of the problems that our society is going through today? Is it too late to bring manufacturing back to the US before we lose trade knowledge? I really hope you find this interview informative and I ask you to pledge 20% of your ordering to the US-based manufactures. Full Interview is here: https://youtu.be/ykI5AdTaiYY Tiger Safarov CEO, ZenSupplies Inc
Happy Monday to all! As another busy week begins, I’d like to provide a recap of the live events and webinars we’ve had at Zen this past week as well as some exciting live events that we have planned for the week of June 29! So last week, on Thursday, June 25, we invited Tim Twigg to discuss the post COVID hiring challenges and Tim also provided an Update on the PPP Forgiveness. For many dental office systems across the country it's been really challenging to bring the team back, adjust the schedules to the new guidelines and hire new team members. Tim helped us better understand "the tsunamis of the coronavirus", the most recently asked HR questions and what the hiring process should look like for dental offices. Please find the full webinar here: https://youtu.be/ftdRF5OMYyY And here is the podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/0030262a On Friday, 6/26 at 11 am CST, Tiger hosted our traditional "15 min Friday Supply Availability Update" for Zen Offices! This Friday Jordan Lorenz, Director of Special Markets from Dental City joined Tiger to review the supply availability. Please join us Every Friday at 11am Central for a live update on what is going on on the market and availability of dental supplies. All you have to do is login to your Zen account, app.ZenSupplies.com For the week of June 29, we have planned the following event: Wednesday, July 1 at 12 pm CST, we invited Jen Guarino, CEO of ISAIC to discuss The Importance of Supporting US Based Manufacturers. With the 4th of July holiday coming up in a few days, we decided to host a webinar on the importance of supporting US based manufacturers. There are a lot of discussions on US made products. Some were surprised with "why we don't make masks anymore" and "Why US made PPE is as expensive as from outside of the US". These and many other questions I would like to address with Jennifer Guarino, CEO of ISAIC (Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center), a fashion non-profit that changed their direction to making Gowns and Masks during the pandemic. Please tune in on Wednesday for an exciting live discussion. Please check out ISAIC (Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center) here: www.isaic.org. If you would like to jump on the webinar and share your experience and challenges (many are concerned that US based manufacturers are more expensive), Tiger will add you in! The benefit of the LIVE Webinar is that we will be able to answer YOUR questions during this time. So please join us at 11 am CST on Wednesday 7/1! All you have to do is login to your Zen account, Or follow this link: https://livewebinar.com/353-515-414 Since the Friday supply availability event falls on Independence Day (observed) this week, we will be having our next 15 minute supply availability live event on Friday, July 10. Thank you to all for participating in our live events and we look forward to seeing everyone during this week’s webinars!
Dear ZenFamily, Happy Monday to all! We hope everyone had a phenomenal weekend. As we jump into another busy week, we’d like to share a recap of live events and webinars for last week (the week of July 20) as well as some exciting live events that we have planned for the week of July 27. So here goes! On Thursday, July 23 we invited our friends at ProEdge Dental (https://proedgedental.com/) The "Wizard of Water" Mike Rust and Kellie Thimmes to share more on launching 2 new products, to bring light to what these products are and how they can help dental offices. Once again, we discussed the issues related to water treatment within a dental practice. If you remember from the last webinar, Mike is a great guest and we can talk for hours. Here is the podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/38ba3035 By the way have you seen their awesome video clips? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSugiQTRVaxwnOIiCj3eog/videos On Friday, 7/24 at 11 am CST, Tiger hosted our traditional "15 min Friday Supply Availability Update" for Zen Offices! Please join us Every Friday at 11am Central for a live update on what is going on on the market and availability of dental supplies. All you have to do is login to your Zen account, app.ZenSupplies.com For the week of July 27, we have planned the following events: 1. On Wednesday, 7/29 at 11 am CST we will host a webinar with Mary Govoni on OSHA/CDC Updates and What are the Options if we Run Out of Gloves/Wipes? By many of your requests we invited Mary Govoni to the live webinar to discuss the new OSHA/CDC guidelines, requirements, and simply what's working and what our teams need to know about infection control. Tiger will ask Mary about the current shortage of Nitrile Gloves and Surface disinfectants (wipes). What are the options if we can't buy any more (which our team is working really hard to make sure that doesn't happen). Mary's Bio is Here: Mary Govoni is an internationally recognized speaker, author and consultant, working with dental teams for over 40 years on clinical efficiency, infection prevention, ergonomics, and team communication. Mary is a Certified OSHA Outreach Trainer and assists dental practice across the country in achieving compliance with regulatory requirements. Mary also is known for her practical approaches to implementing dental system software and protocols to enhance patient safety, privacy and data security. Mary a past president of the American Dental Assistants Association, a member of the American Dental Hygienists Association, a member of the Organization for Safety Asepsis and Prevention, the Academy of Dental Management Consultants and the Speaking and Consulting Network. She has published numerous articles in Dental Economics, The Dental Assistant Journal, RDH Magazine, Dentistry Today, Inside Dentistry and many others. Together we can PLAN in Advance! The benefit of the LIVE Webinar is that we will be able to answer YOUR questions during this time. So please join us at 11 am CST on Thursday 7/9! All you have to do is login to your Zen account, or follow this link: https://livewebinar.com/659-178-092 2. And of course, per our new Friday tradition, on Friday, July 31 at 11 am CST, Tiger will host a 15 Minute Supply Availability Update with a Special Guest. Everyone is beyond ready to get back to work in a safe environment. The ZenTeam is spending countless hours every week doing due diligence, learning about FDA approvals, learning about product shortages, and sourcing new vendors. In addition, the landscape of the supply chain is constantly changing and so are the prices of PPE products. Therefore, Tiger will host a 15 min live event EVERY Friday at 11 am CST to go over what we learn during the week. We will share EVERYTHING-good, bad and what to prepare for. Simply login to your ZenSupplies account and join us there for all live events! Thank you to all for participating in our live events and we look forward to seeing everyone during this week’s webinars!
Since we started Zen in 2016 I knew that the only way to grow and build the right solution is to say “Yes” to everything. The ability to say YES, perhaps at the expense of thinking through, is a strength and I try to lead my incredible team with this in mind. We said yes to: Can I add any distributor to Zen? Can I add a dental inventory system to Zen? Can I add an Amazon account to Zen? Can I add my budgets to Zen? Can I do a price comparison on Zen? Can I order Costco water through Zen? Can I add all of my team members to Zen? We said yes to DSOs, Private Practices, Manufactures, and anything that could help our members have a better purchasing experience. All of these questions and our default YES answer helped to shape what we built, launched, and plan for future developments. We also said YES to a lot of internal projects, especially in the last 2-3 months. From launching daily, and then weekly, live webinars, podcasts, and weekly blogs. We were quick to change the dashboard so we can stream live events to our members’ ZenDashboard. With all of these changes, we did just enough planning to get the taste and not get caught in “analysis by paralysis”. Did we lose focus at times? YES. Did we pay the price? YES. But if we are set out to build a truly unique company with a culture of doing vs planning, then why worry about small missteps. Certain projects we had to scale back and some we continue doing for a simple reason of “building a muscle”. So where does it all lead us to? Zen has grown and gained a great customer base. We’ve built so much to try different technical avenues, that the right step forward is to start pulling back from some of the “Yeses” and narrowing down our focus on what is really important. There is also something that is an absolute must for me personally: are we building something difficult and that will help to change the industry? Copying something that has been done before just simply doesn’t excite me. Perhaps Zen is in the stage of humble reassessment of “what did we learn” and “what is our focus”. Perhaps today is more important than ever to think through all that we learned and focus on one direction? So, is change the right step forward? Tiger Safarov
Angie Bachman, Director of Education at Design Ergonomics, shares her story from Dental Assistant to Supplies Sales Rep and to a role at Design Ergonomics where she helps dental office systems to truly get organized. We cover many things including my favorite topic, a career path for Dental Assistant how practices can create one to provide a path for your team. Other topics include: - Career Path for dental assistants, clinical track and business track. How to make it work - Ways to motivate the team - Becoming an Expert in the field - Empowering the team to make decisions - How to design workflow of the dental practice software for maximum efficiency - How to layout Inventory storage in the dental practice
Many of our friends have been asking "What is going on with Zen?". Well, we have been very busy and now I'm excited to share with you what's new, what's coming in the next few months and what's the format for ZenOne Podcast. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubS2BNRNyhc[/embedyt] About our YouTube Channel: Hi friends, my name is Tiger and I'm the founder and CEO of ZenSupplies, a dental inventory management and ordering dental platformfor Dental Practices across US. We focus on building a simple solution for our clients to manage inventory, place all orders in one place and customize products your way. If you like videos about efficiency, inventory process and smart ordering as much as we do, please subscribe to our channel. 🔗 LINKS ZenSupplies Blog: https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/ ZenSupplies Podcast: https://www.zensupplies.com/zenone-podcast/ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4I-NnQ8VfQ73hQS80gDB4Q Follow us on Instagram: @zen.supplies