⏰ Masterclass | Take a month off. See what happens.
An honest evening with Smita and Arun for owners tired of being the bottleneck
Arun Mehra
August 12, 2026
Hi there,
Here's a test I like to give owners. Take a month off. No clinics, no emergencies, nothing. What does the practice earn while you're gone?
If the answer makes you wince, you haven't built a business. You've built yourself a very well paid job, one where the pay stops the moment you do. I've sat across the table from enough owners to know this isn't a rare problem. It's nearly everyone's problem, and most people never say it out loud.
The way out of that isn't complicated, but it is deliberate. You need a team that can deliver the clinical work without you standing over it, and a set of numbers you actually trust to tell you what's working. Get both right and something shifts. The practice starts earning because of how it's run, not because of how many hours you personally put in. That's the whole difference between owning a job and owning something you could sell tomorrow.
We put a number on what "right" looks like, because vague ambition doesn't help anyone. £300,000 or more in EBITDA, with the owner nowhere near the chair. I mention it not to impress you but because it's a genuine benchmark, and one that almost nobody gets shown how to reach.
So on 14 October, Smita and I are going to show you.
Why we're the two doing this
Smita has spent 25 years as a working dentist and built Neem Tree with me from the ground up. She's lived the exact tension we're talking about, being the person the patients want and the person running the rota, often in the same afternoon.
I've spent my career on the accounting side of dental practices, which mostly means I've seen where the money actually goes, and where owners assume it's going that it isn't. Between the two of us you get the clinical reality and the financial reality in the same room, which is a combination you don't often get offered.
Neither of us has done this cleanly. We'll tell you what went wrong as readily as what went right.
What we'll actually get into
THE STRUCTURE | THE NUMBERS |
|---|---|
The mechanics of an associate led model and why the maths works when it's set up properly. How to recruit associates worth keeping, and how to structure their pay so it works for them and for you. And the admin and time drain that quietly keeps owners tied to the building long after they meant to step back. | Which numbers genuinely tell you a practice is healthy, and which ones just look reassuring. The specific places profit tends to leak out unnoticed. And how growth, valuation, and exit planning connect, whether you're thinking three years ahead or thirteen. |
Wednesday 14 October, 6pm, Central London. (We'll share the exact venue once you've booked.)
£75 a seat, drinks and nibbles included. Seats are genuinely capped, not capped in the way that means we'll squeeze in a few more if you ask nicely.
One rule. Owners and principals only, no associates, no suppliers. We want a room full of people carrying the same weight, having an honest conversation about it.
If that's you, we'd like you there.
Speak soon,
Arun