We were lucky to catch up with Grace Karem recently and have shared our conversation below.

Grace, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

As a new practice owner, taking vacations has been a rarity for me. As a matter of fact, I did not even take a real maternity leave with my second child. I took two weeks off and brought her to the office with me to nurse her between patients for about 4 months after that. It was extremely challenging, but something I had to do as a new business owner. This year, however, I remembered one of the main reasons I started my business- to have the autonomy to spend time with my little family. While it is sometimes scary to think about ballooning overhead with pockets of vacation time where there is no revenue coming in, I’ve decided the cost of worrying about this is not great enough for me to miss spending time with my family. Your kids are only little once and they grow up so quickly. So the short answer is yes, I will be taking vacations in the future.

Grace, 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 grew up in the small Kentucky town I currently practice in. I never in a million years thought I would return and always thought I would live in a big city. In college I knew I wanted to be in the medical field, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. After a study partner mentioned dentistry to me, I shadowed, interned, and was quickly sold. I always knew I wanted to own my own business, but I saw value in learning the industry before jumping in. I lived in Nashville for a few years right after dental school and learned so much from associating at an established practice.
I am proud of my practice and especially grateful to those who helped me along the way. It has been a labor of love and continues to be. I purchased the practice from the kindest retiring dentist. I gutted the building and started over from scratch a few months into ownership, which was challenging. I had one employee, an assistant, and I did all of the admin work, hygiene work, dental work, managerial work, anything that needed to be done. I recommend to every business owner that they know exactly what each employee does and how to do it. Once we were able to get back into the building we worked out of one temporary chair in the front office while the remodel was finishing up. Eventually I got a second employee, then a third. Three years later and we are sitting at 6 fantastic employees. We have grown tremendously in the last couple of years and I do not do much advertising. Most of it is word of mouth and that makes it feel even more rewarding for me. I put an emphasis on building relationships with our patients and I feel SO grateful for our patients who appreciate the work I do and these relationships. I have so many people around me who support me-I’m a lucky woman.

Any advice for managing a team?

I treat my team members in a way that I would want to be treated as an employee. I appreciate them so much and make sure to compliment them on great work- especially in front of patients. We go to lunch, do team bonding activities, and offer a stress free , friendly environment for them to be a part of. My office is very laid back and while I cannot offer the monetary benefits and other types of benefits that corporate places offer, they are able to take off for their children’s activities, family obligations and vacations without any repercussions or headaches. We always find a way to make it work no matter what if it’s something important to them.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

While I lived in Nashville, I did not see my paychecks. Every cent I brought home was put towards my student loans that I aggressively paid off, coincidentally, right before COVID happened (literally within the same month). I am very lucky to have a hardworking partner who was able to support the two of us and allow me to do that. When we moved back to my hometown, I worked part time at a few offices while waiting to purchase my current practice. I saved every cent earned from these part time jobs and used that money for the initial capital for my business. I know that this isn’t possible for many and I feel fortunate that I was in a position to put a large down payment into my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.karemdental.com
• Instagram: @karem.dental
• Facebook: Karem Dental & Aesthetics