We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shukan Kanuga a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shukan, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
As a small business owner in health-care space, you find yourself wearing various hats. For example, office manager, HR manager, marketing director, an untrained accountant, insurance agent AND let’s not forget the day job- being a pediatric dentist which in itself has a subset of other roles tied into it like a family counselor, jokester, psychologist! To state that I am happier as a business owner would be oversimplifying a nuanced and multi-layered response. I would prefer to say that being a business owner is rewarding, however it does involve a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Besides the direct returns, it has helped me grow in other areas of my life and I have learnt to compartmentalize, reflect rather than react and manage to maintain my inner peace and equilibrium so I can be a better boss, dentist, wife, mom, daughter, friend and the other roles I play in the family. The tougher days make me reflect on what it would be like to have a regular job, but then I have a hard time figuring out what a “regular” job means in my area of expertise which is anything but regular. That being said, I would be open to transitions based on what stage of life I am at and what headspace I am at with careful consideration of circumstances.
Shukan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a board-certified pediatric dentist and a partner at Kidz Dental Care. I had been practising for 10 years at a few different offices in and around the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valley before I established my start-up practice in Santa Clarita in April 2018. My vision for the practice was to bridge the gap in high-quality oral health care for children in Santa Clarita and beyond and create a place where every child is treated with love, kindness, respect and receives the highest standard of dental care regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic standing and insurance status. With that in mind, the practice was built from scratch with an “Around the World” theme around the office welcoming families from far and wide. I also partnered with a fellow pediatric dentist in Porter Ranch allowing us to offer such exceptional care by pediatric dentists in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valley. We take pride in treating our patients and their families like our own and staying up to date in the latest technology, materials and education so that our patients are cared for the way we would care for our own family. There are no corners cut in our state- of-the-art locations and we are constantly reinventing systems and improvising so that our patients have the best experience and look forward to their dental visits eliminating the fear and taboo that seems to be rampant amongst kids and adults. Our team of expert doctors and trained staff help them set the tone for good oral habits and home care from as early as their first birthday and over their subsequent visits with us ensuring a life time of good oral and facial health. The focus is on the whole child, his/her growth and development as against just the teeth. So we also provide treatment for sleep-disordered breathing and help in breaking certain habits that contribute to jaw and facial discrepancies, bite issues and teeth crowding.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
I met my current business partner, Dr. Stephen Hirano at my kids’ school 5K run event on a Saturday. He was at the booth of his dental practice and I recognized the name as a local pediatric dental office and went upto him and introduced myself. We started talking since then and realized we shared similar visions about practice ownership. Eventually, I offered him partnership in my start-up practice in Santa Clarita with the understanding I would be allowed to buy in to his established practice in Porter Ranch. The rest is history!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
While we have various sources of new patients including referring general dentists, pediatricians in the area, preschools where we occasionally go and talk about oral health for the kids, word of mouth through friends and family of our patients, our biggest source seems to be Google Reviews. Parents love us on Google and spread the word and that brings us more new patients who are excited about the same high quality dental care in a safe nurturing environment.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kidzdentalcare.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidzdentalcare661/
- Facebook: @kdcscv
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shukankanugaddsmsd/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/5G966oQnLl4
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/shukankanuga/ https://www.instagram.com/carvemytrip/ (Side hustle- travel planners)