How to Be a Successful Woman Entrepreneur in Dentistry and Beyond

There are three main things that motivate me every day. One is empowering dentists to become more confident with endo so they can save more teeth (and be profitable while doing it)! Two is empowering patients to take charge of their oral and whole body health. Third is a more recent initiative: teaching my fellow dentists—especially those who are women—how to become a successful entrepreneur. 

That said, even if you don’t fall into that category, keep reading! I promise, the insights I want to share today apply to everyone. Because—let’s be honest—building a streamlined, profitable practice isn’t something that happens on its own, or overnight. And it’s not like any of us got an MBA while in dental school. (If you did, wow, color me impressed!) 

I’ve had SO many hard-earned lessons on my path toward becoming a successful practice and online business owner, and if you know me, you know that I believe in paying it forward. That’s why today, I’m sharing some of the things I’ve come to learn that I think will help you become the entrepreneur you’ve always wanted to be—whether in dentistry or beyond!

5 Keys to Becoming a Successful Woman Entrepreneur

I’ve learned a LOT of things on this journey, and the lessons have never stopped. That said, if I included them all here, I’d need a novel, not a blog! So I’ve boiled them down to the top five things to focus on to become a successful woman entrepreneur, or entrepreneur of any gender!

1. Lean into Your Passion

Growing up with super high-achieving Indian immigrant parents, my brother and I had just a few options when it came to picking a career: doctor, lawyer or engineer.. On paper, the first option on the list seemed the best fit, given that my mom was an anesthesiologist. I had a lot of exposure to the medical field growing up, and my brother ended up becoming a doctor, himself. Why not continue the tradition?

The thing is, a doctor’s work schedule wasn’t at all attractive to me. As proud as I was of my mom as a kid, I also felt lonely and disappointed when she’d miss family dinners, dance recitals, and other pivotal moments because she had to take care of her patients. Being a doctor is a big job, and I admire the dedication of those who choose that profession. But I wanted to help people while also being my own boss and having control of my schedule.

That desired career path would materialize in the form of dentistry due to my fateful experience as the ultimate dental patient. As a kid, I was at the dentist’s office super frequently, since I was born without eight teeth. Then, early on in college, I discovered the power of endodontics when crippling mouth pain became the norm in my life. After dozens of specialist visits and even an extraction of the wrong tooth, it was an endodontist who finally took away my pain with a root canal. 

Being pain free after suffering for so long makes you see the world with different eyes, and so it was from that point forward that I knew I wanted to enter the world of dentistry (and later endodontics). in yourself and build some confidence of your own, I invite you to check out E-School: Everyday Endo Made Easy. I’ve seen this course change the lives of so many dentists—empowering them to take on new challenges and grow their practice. Maybe you’ll be next!  

When it comes to being a successful woman entrepreneur, I believe everything starts with your passion. Because when the going gets tough—and believe me, it will get tough—it’s your love for your career that will keep you working toward your goals.

Questions to ask yourself: What’s your passion? What drove you to become a dentist? Are you connected to your WHY on a daily basis?

2. Find Harmony Between the Different Areas of Your Life

I opened my endodontic practice in 2008… and proceeded to struggle for eight whole years womp womp). Why? Because becoming a successful woman entrepreneur requires understanding business. And let me tell you, they don’t teach that in dental school!

I wasn’t just practicing endo. I was learning about leadership, how to manage a team, and how to scale a business. I was exploring automation and efficiency, discovering what I needed in a team (and what they needed from me), and looking for an associate. And on top of that, as a referral-based practice, I was spending my off-time building relationships with dentists in the area.

In a word, it was exhausting. 

Not only that, but it was impacting my personal life. I was spending so much time working at my practice, investing in my practice, and just thinking about my practice that I was neglecting the other aspects of who I was. It wasn’t until health concerns after the birth of my first daughter had us taking frequent trips to the hospital that I thought to myself, “There is so much more to life than running a business.”

Becoming a successful woman entrepreneur isn’t built on working yourself to death. On the contrary, it’s about learning to find harmony between the different parts of who you are. Life is about the journey—not the end result! So if you don’t slow down and experience it, you’re going to look back and wish you had spent more time enjoying the ride.

So what do you do? You create an action plan that allows you to step away. You delegate, delegate, delegate. You hire a team that you trust, and you train and empower them accordingly. That, my friends, is how you create the balance that will help your business thrive. 

Questions to ask yourself: What have you built that helps you create balance? What could you build or improve to help you find harmony between the different areas of your life?

3. Empower Yourself Through Learning

Want to know something I’ve learned about people who have become successful entrepreneurs, women or otherwise? They learn. A lot. And they don’t stop, even when they’ve reached a level of success, because it’s the most powerful tool we all have to empower ourselves!

As I was building my practice, I had a lot on my plate. (And still do!) It would have been easy to use up every hour I had keeping my head down and managing the day-to-day of my practice. But I didn’t do that. Instead, I always kept my mind open and my eyes on the horizon, asking my peers for advice, finding mentors, reading books (You can find my personal recs here!), and listening to podcasts nonstop—like Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield!

And you know what happened as a result? I learned leadership and business management skills that helped me show up differently at work, in my family, and even in my community. These new skills helped me loosen up the stranglehold perfectionism had on me and confidently step into my role as a boss, freeing up time to do what’s important to me as a human and as an entrepreneur: dream, vision, and reconnect with the passion that got me to where I was in the first place. 

Questions to ask yourself: How do you stay humble and stay learning? Do you have a mentor?

4. Invest in Your Personal Development

As important as professional development is to our success as women entrepreneurs, we, as leaders, have an enormous responsibility to invest in personal development as well. I’ve talked about it before, but perfectionism and imposter syndrome held me back considerably for way too long. If you could have heard the voice inside my head as I was building my practice, you’d see I didn’t have it all together, despite the way I might have looked. It was a voice totally driven by fear, and it was debilitating.

I had to do a ton of work to develop my own confidence and kick that nagging voice to the curb. That required investing in myself through coaching, awareness, and paying attention to my behaviors and beliefs, while actively working to dispel some of my more detrimental habits. 

I committed to taking my values more seriously, too. For example, I made guidelines to help me maintain the balance I had worked so hard to achieve—like deciding that for every child I have, I have to take at least one day off per week. (Now that I have three kids, that’s three days off a week!) Spending time with my family is a priority, and the last thing I wanted was to look back and regret all the time I missed out on with them. 

Questions to ask yourself: What personal goals are you working towards? What support do you need to get there? What are your values? Are those values driving your decision making?

5. Don’t Forget About Your Team

I’ve listed this one last, but in all honesty, it should be first. Behind every great leader is an incredible team, and I would not be where I am today without the many people who work together to keep my practice and online business running smoothly.

To become a successful woman entrepreneur, you need to spend as much time developing your team as you do yourself, because an autonomous team is rocket fuel for your practice’s success. When you empower your team through consistency, clarity, accountability, and encouragement, they become pillars of support for you, your patients, and your practice.

To make that happen, though, you have to learn to trust them. Believe me, I know how scary that sounds. In my early days as an entrepreneur, I struggled to be vulnerable and truly believed I had to take on the majority of responsibilities myself. But with time, I learned how to relinquish control and let my team take the reins.

The key is to build that confidence by ensuring you have the proper SOPs (standard operating procedures) in place and actually “witnessing mastery.” In other words, don’t just assume your team knows what they’re doing. Observe them in action, provide feedback if needed, and confirm their competence with your own eyes! You’d be surprised how much easier it is to let go when you’ve seen your team thrive on their own.

Questions to ask yourself: How do you empower your team? Do you have SOPs in place at your practice? Do you “witness mastery” or assume mastery?

Transform Your Leadership and Your Practice

“How do you become a successful woman entrepreneur?” is a big question. But I think the answer is that it’s a lifelong process of learning and growing! If that kind of journey excites you rather than intimidates you, join the waitlist for my upcoming course, Heal Your Practice. It’s a vision-to-actualization course for dental providers and practice owners who want to transform their leadership and build a practice that leaves them feeling fulfilled.

– Sonia