We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nelson Lo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nelson below.

Hi Nelson, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
You know the old saying that without taking risk, there is no reward. Life is about taking “calculated” risk and there have been multiple times that I have jumped off the cliff without knowing how life is going to turn out afterwards. The first time I “jumped” was when I decided to switch careers after being a software developer for 3 years to go into dentistry. I didn’t have the prerequisites to apply to dental school and had to go to a community college from 9AM to 9PM to get the credits. I got into dental school the following year and went from making a good income to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for tuition. I knew that the risk was worth it to increase my potential income and to own my own business, but it still doesn’t guarantee that. The next big risk was to go into residency after dental school and not taking the traditional residency route. I was accepted into two programs: One was the traditional prosthodontic training with University of Illinois at Chicago and the other was a pilot program for surgery and prosthodontics at University of Chicago, the pilot program was not going to be recognized as a specialty once I was finished, but I would get world renown training as the only resident with 4 of the best prosthodontists and oral surgeons in the world. I chose the pilot program even though as a recognized specialist I would have the right to get higher reimbursement from insurance. The largest “chance” that I took in my life was opening my practice as a startup after residency. I wanted to be my own boss. My attending physicians taught me a lot on how to run a private practice and treat staff well so I could keep them for a long time. I moved from Chicago to Plano and bought my commercial space only seeing it one time. After spending over a million dollars to start a practice, I had no patients and no income. It was quite stressful. There was no secret marketing plan or outrageous funding from outside sources to get me grow. It was up to delivering ethical treatment really well. We broke even the first month and now we are a multimillion dollar practice! Now that we are established after 11 years of practice, the risks are much smaller. The point of this story is to take calculated risk and work hard toward. It is worth it!

Nelson, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I worked as a computer engineer for 3 years. It was a good paying job, but I was never excited to go to work. I did my job and got promotions, then suddenly the company closed down. It was traumatic for a recent graduate. But while I was working as an engineer, I was getting dental work. I just got engaged to my college sweetheart. I wanted photos of our wedding of me smiling. I had really bad teeth, I never fully smiled. I wanted to look good for my wedding and be able to smile for our wedding photos. I remember getting excited to see my dentist who was doing my cosmetic crowns. On our wedding, I smiled for the first time, it felt amazing. I forgot how good it felt to smile without being self-conscious. I wanted to be able to do this for others as a career, so I decided to go into cosmetic dentistry.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Organic growth takes time, but it’s the best type of marketing one can have. It typically starts with one family member coming in and we knock their socks off with our customer service. Second, we treat each patient ethically and tell them if they need work done and why. Patient education is of utmost importance. Patients have to understand if they can wait or if they need to have something done right away. Third, we provide top quality care and make sure that they get the cosmetic result that they want. There is no secret marketing strategy.

Any advice for managing a team?
We have a team mentality and each of us is an important member that is good at certain tasks. We don’t need everybody to be the average at everything. We want each person to be really good at a few things and they will be the person to turn to in case of questions. We also have a generous bonus system that will incentivize all team members to work harder.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.couturedentist.com
• Instagram: couturedentistry
• Facebook: couturedentistry
• Linkedin: Couture Dentistry
• Twitter: Couture Dentistry
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC97HR5SeCvFzakpE4j-yXhw
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/couture-dentistry-plano?osq=couture+dentistry