Business growth
Why a second location starts with standard processes
Trehan Stenton on what moving from one dental practice to two taught him about documented systems, phased rollouts and honest measures.
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Video from Impact Innovation Group.
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What should a small business standardise before it opens a second location?
Standardise the everyday systems first. Trehan Stenton found that moving from one practice to two depended on documented front office and treatment room processes that staff understood, backed by simple measures and fast feedback. New services should open in phases, with marketing held back until the team is comfortable, so growth builds on routines that already work.
Trehan Stenton is known today for helping organisations adopt AI, but his view of growth was shaped earlier, while building dental practices in regional Queensland. In a small business webinar run with the Queensland Government, he described what it took to turn ideas into income without losing control of quality as the business expanded.
His central lesson came from expansion. When the business moved from one practice to two, he found that the most important step was not a new idea or a bigger marketing push. It was standardising systems and processes so every location worked the same way, with staff who understood how each routine should run.
That lesson applies to any owner planning a second site, a new service line or a new piece of technology. Growth rewards businesses that already know how their work gets done. It is much harder on businesses that rely on memory, goodwill and workarounds, because every gap is carried into each new location.
Key takeaways
- Standardise and document core processes, such as front office and treatment room routines, before adding a second location.
- Open new services in phases, one process at a time, and hold back marketing until the team is comfortable.
- Set goals, measures and reporting before investing time, money and staff in a new idea.
- Collect fast feedback from staff and customers, then decide quickly whether to kill, keep or modify an idea.
1. Standard processes come before a second location
Trehan described the move from one practice to two as the point where growth stopped being about ideas and started being about systems. He said the most important thing he recognised was the standardisation of systems and processes. Without it, each site is left to invent its own way of working, and the owner loses sight of what is really happening.
In practical terms, that meant knowing exactly what the standard processes were for the front office and for the treatment room, and having them documented. Documentation alone was not enough. Staff needed to understand the processes and how they would be rolled out, so the same standard of care reached patients at every location.
He warned that owners who skip this step end up flying blind. Without documented routines and measures, a growing business cannot tell whether it is hitting the mark. Managing growth, he said, is critical for the owner and for the business, and it starts with processes that can be repeated and checked.
2. Roll out new services one process at a time
When his team opened a new children's practice with three service offerings, Trehan did not open them all at once. The team went through phases, opening one process at a time and settling into each one. Only when staff were comfortable and ready to take on more capacity did he start marketing to attract more patients to the service.
He framed every new product or service around people, processes and technology, each working in line with the strategy. Does the business have people with the capability, willingness and expertise to do the work? Are the processes sequenced so everyone knows who does what and when? He said he could not stress the sequencing and timing enough.
Technology got a warning of its own. He called it an enabler or a disabler, depending on the team's knowledge and how it is used, and advised owners to check integration points, flexibility and local support before committing. If anything is going to let a business down, he said, it will be technology, and at the worst possible time.
3. Measure early, then kill, keep or modify
Trehan argued that nobody should invest time, money and staff in an idea without measures around it. Goals, measures and reporting tell an owner whether a change is working. He also recommended a mentor or growth program to validate ideas and numbers, because owners working inside their own business often struggle to see the wider picture.
Speed of feedback mattered as much as the measures themselves. His practices surveyed patients so problems could be caught and addressed quickly, and he tracked a small set of indicators, including patients being seen on time, overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend, which he discussed with his team every month.
When an idea is not working, he said the hard call is whether to kill it quickly, stick with it or modify it. His children's service was a case in point: early television and radio advertising missed the mark until patient feedback shaped a clearer message about second opinions, and the revised campaign began to work.
