You are here: Home / The Wealthy Dentist / Dental Offices Most Profitable Businesses…?

Dental Offices Most Profitable Businesses…?

February 1, 2009 By 5 Comments

A new study released by Sageworks finds that dental offices had the highest net profit margin of any category of private business in 2008. (This may come as news to many of you whose dental practices are struggling in the current economy!) The study found dentists' offices had a profit margin of nearly 17%.

According to the Sageworks study, these were the most profitable industries in 2008:

  1. Offices of dentists (17% net profit margin)
  2. Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services (16% net profit margin)
  3. Legal services (13% net profit margin)
  4. Offices of other health practitioners (12% net profit margin)
  5. Support activities for mining (11.9% net profit margin)
  6. Offices of physicians (11.9% net profit margin)
  7. Outpatient care centers (11.5% net profit margin)

It's hard not to notice that half of these are related to health care. Looking at this data, a consumer might reasonably assume that health care costs have increased so that health professional can keep a healthy profit for themselves. But is that really true?

I can't help but wonder how Sageworks compiles their data. They're only looking at privately-held companies. Are dental offices really that profitable, or are these statistics misleading?

Filed Under: The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: , ,
About Julie Frey

Julie Frey is the Editor of TheWealthyDentist.com blog. She has dedicated her career to Internet marketing and communications, working side-by-side with dental marketing guru Jim Du Molin since 2006. She has a degree in Linguistics from Stanford University, has a passion for language and writing, and lives in San Francisco. Julie Frey+

  • http://www.auburnfamilydentistry.com David Painter

    Define profit.

    Many dentists incorrectly define profit as what they take home in salary.

    Corporate America defines profit as what is left after expenses and salaries (and golden parachutes).

    When I define profit as corporate America – my profit is 1-4%.

  • J R Williams

    So, why are Dental practices valued at a fraction of net when other businesses are valued at a multiple of net (3-7 times earnings)?

  • http://lasvegasbestdentist.com Dave Moore

    After inquiring where Sageworks gathered their information regarding “profitability”, it should be noted that there “study” revolves around information gathered from banks! Banks require this information for loan processing, etc. Gives one the notion that Dentists might be the biggest liars in “corporate” America afterall! Not a good feeling is it?

  • Robert J. Dornauer, DDS

    Since my practice is organized as a corporation, we typically generate a 0% profit. Where did Sageworks find their data? Did they want to report net profit before Doctor’s salary? There are always lies, damn lies, and statistics.

  • http://www.asiaprestigeidentity.com Anders blogger in marketing

    Thank you for a very informative website. You point out many good issues like being targeted and personal in your approaches. However the platform is build by you and your colleges so a lot of internal understanding and cooperation is needed and all functions concentrated on the same target; making the Online Marketing profitable. For many companies a major issue is to understand and accept that all functions are equally important from ides over production to sales. Once the strategy is established the next but very important question comes up; how do we communicate this in order to reach our target group? The scope of an Online Marketing company is to ensure the link and understanding between the visions and the realities, a very challenging job.

Disclaimer

© 2011, The Wealthy Dentist - Dental Marketing - All Rights Reserved - Dental Website Marketing Site Map

The Wealthy Dentist® - Contact by email - Privacy Policy

P.O. Box 1220, Tiburon, CA 94920

The material on this web site is offered in conjunction with MasterPlan Alliance.

Copyright 2011 Du Molin & Du Molin, Inc. All rights reserved. If you would like to use material from this site, our reports, articles, training programs
or tutorials for use in any printed or electronic media, please ask permission first by email.