Chapter 2

Having done the unpacking and the purchasing of food and liquid provisions Brad decided to stop by the clinic to see how things were progressing. Parking his car in the freshly striped lot he noticed the signage and the sign saying when the clinic was scheduled to open.

He entered the building and a lady who looked to be in her middle forties walked up to him saying that they weren’t open but would be opening soon.

“You must be Bernice Watterman. I am Brad Crawford the dentist who will be doing my thing here. I understand you have been overseeing the readying this clinic for its opening. You have done a nice job in that it looks like the clinic is ready to go. Tell me what you have done as to staffing and give me a little tour.”

“It’s nice to me you Doctor Crawford.”

“Please, it’s Brad.”

“Okay Brad let me show how the building is set up.”

He could see that the reception and checkout area there looked to have all of the necessary furniture and equipment to include computer terminals. The individual work cubicles had dental chairs, lights, sinks and cabinets. He noticed the wall hung TV monitors for the patients. There was an office for him and a little lunch or break room with a microwave and refrigerator where they took seats.

Bernice told Brad that the computer and telephone hook ups were scheduled to be done today and tomorrow the lines would be open to take appointments.

“Tell me about staffing,” said Brad.

“Page Stillman who has three years of experience will be your assistant. Emma Corbett a recent high school graduate will be the receptionist clerk. Brenda Norman who is my niece will be the dental hygienist. I think this is a good group of people to make this clinic a success.”

“You do understand that after three months we are going to need to be a cash flow positive operation or adjustments will need to be made. Any problems in us becoming that?”

“Not if we can fill all the appointments and that’s where problem could be. Some of the local citizens have established relationships with dentists who are about an hour away. If they come here and not do the drive going there it would be a big help in achieve that goal. That is something we can only wait to see if it will happen. I have been advertising that we will be open for business not only here at Lake Lancer but also in the town of North Rivers which is about forty five minutes away and doesn’t have a dentist.”

“In order to attract patients I think we could encourage some of that through the use of word of mouth” said Brad.

“By that I mean our prices for the services we do should be a little lower than what our competition charges. An example of that is the cost of braces. If it was less than what others were charging I am sure the parents would pass the word around and that would increase our number of patients. The same concept of pricing would apply to crowns, posts, fluoride treatments and cleanings. Let’s try and become a financial success based on volume. Once we are established we can make adjustments to our charges if it becomes necessary. Offering self-funded dental insurance is something I want you to look into doing.”

Bernice was nodding her head in listening to Brad and said she understood. He told her to start making the appointments and he would be here when they opened for business. He gave her his cellphone number in case she needed to contact him.

Brad’s time before the clinic’s opening was spent improving the outside appearance of his house. In the garage he found it contained all the necessary tools to accomplish that task. The weed-whacker he found was constantly used to trim back the shrubbery. With the chain saw he cut off the low hanging tree branches and cut up the fallen branches. The larger pieces of wood were stacked for later use in the fireplace. The smaller braches were placed in the deep fire pit on his property and burned with a screen placed over this pit to prevent ashes from flying and starting a fire.

While Brad was doing this work and man walked over to him and handed Brad a cold can of beer. He introduced himself as Bob Mayer the next door neighbor. Sitting on the chairs around the fire pit that were there they told each other a little bit about themselves and said if either needed any help not to hesitate to ask. After he left Brad thought Bob who was about ten years older than him would be a good neighbor.

Now that the landscape was made presentable Brad knew his next project was to wash down the outside of his house and give it a coat of stain. He didn’t plan on getting up on a ladder to do this but thought it could safely be accomplished by using a brush attached to a long extension, a bucket of soapy water and the hose pipe. Later he could put a roller on the extension and apply the stain.

Friday morning he received a phone call from Bernice. She told him all systems were a go for the Monday opening. There were a full set of appointments for him as well has a good number of teeth cleanings. He thanked her and said he would be there. The closing on his house was scheduled for this afternoon.

On Saturday morning Brad spent some time in washing down the siding on his home. In the afternoon he went into town and purchased some food provisions. His plan for the evening was to go to Ken’s West which Bob had mentioned and see what was there and if there were any females that interested him.

Brad had spoken with his neighbor about where people his age would congregate at night. Bob said Ken’s West was a relatively new sports type bar with a small restaurant and good size lounge that on the weekends had a small band which attracted a young crowd. He said this was sort of an offshoot and copy of a place Ken owned in the town of North Rivers that was fairly successful.

That evening as he exited his parked car Brad assumed there was a good crowd at Ken’s based on the number of cars he saw parked there in the lot and on the street. He was correct in making that assumption. There was only one table in the restaurant that was unoccupied. The good size lounge was where most of the people were. He found an empty bar stool which he commandeered and order a beer.

Looking around he thought the split between male and females to be about even which was the same split for people he thought that were older or younger than him. He noticed some good looking women that were there but from what he could see they were already spoken for. Brad had a short conversation with the fellow sitting next to him who said this was the main place where the action was in Lake Lancer. After finishing his second beer and having no hopes to strike up a conversation with any of the women who he thought were good looking he called it a night.