Equipping your dental office is a process that never stops, and no matter when you opened your practice, chances are, you will need to stock up on goods every week or month. The expenses that go into that can easily skyrocket, and if you don’t make the right choices when purchasing the items, you may end up spending far more than your profits. Here, we are going to help you learn how to save money on dental office supplies, and we will try and teach you how to avoid the most common mistakes that come with these purchases.
Try purchasing directly from the manufacturer
The first thing that you definitely need to try if you want to lower your supply costs is contacting the manufacturer directly. More often than not, dentists use middlemen that always get a percentage of the purchase, and even though this may be just a fraction of the sum, when we put that on a large scale, we’ll see that we can save thousands of dollars per year. You can check out Art Craft Dental for cheap dental tools and equipment.
The problem that may arise with this is having to purchase large quantities. Most manufacturers will not sell you goods directly if you want to order just an item or two, and you will need to buy in bulk. In addition to this, you may be ordering from an international supplier, so you need to figure out shipping costs. Pay attention to this because the shipping can sometimes cost more than the goods themselves.
Use bulk discounts
If you choose to order dental supplies in bulk, you should know that you are making the right choice. More often than not, the things we buy in large quantities are far cheaper than when we purchase them in one or two pieces only.
When you get large quantities of goods and dental office supplies, you may be able to get a special discount, or you may just need to pay the basic fee without spending money on all the other costs. You should check if this is an option, and see how much you can drop the price by getting items that can be stored instead of buying them separately.
Get free products to test
One of the things that we lose money on is getting the wrong goods. When we are on the lookout for dental office supplies, we look for everything, starting from the scrubs and gloves, up to utility and sterilization equipment. All of these things are available from many manufacturers, and some are going to be far better than others.
If you are not sure which products and brands you want to go with, then you should contact the manufacturer or distributor and ask for samples and test products. You can get them from different suppliers and see which ones work the best for you. This way, you will spend some time using the free goods, and later on, you will never risk losing money on goods that are not working for your practice.
Consider using online supply stores
It is an unwritten rule that it is better to shop at online stores and physical ones and there are many reasons for that. First and foremost, you are saving yourself a lot of time, and you won’t have to go from one store to the other. You are just a few clicks away from seeing the inventory of the largest distributors, and you can easily compare prices, see the regulations, and warranties, and even check customer satisfaction.
You won’t have to go to the physical store to see what they have to offer, and you can order your goods with ease. In addition to this, you can see which store offers the best prices and if you can get any discounts or use coupons that will lower the amount you need to pay.
As you can see on Bttn, when you shop online for dental supplies you can find more detailed product information, prices, shipping, delivery, returns and exchanges available too. You won’t have to wait for the store to open to contact them, and you can easily check if you are okay with the price offered.
Know what you need to buy
More often than not, we tend to buy items just because they are at a discount or because we think we will use them in the future. This is a huge no-no and you don’t need to get things for your dental office just because they are at a promotion. If you don’t use them, and if they are going to collect dust in storage, then it is just wasted money, no matter how cheap they were when you got them.
Instead of hoping that you will use the supplies at some point in the future, then, start buying the supplies you only need the most each month. Make a list of your inventory, know when you usually need to update it, and start from there. You can always keep non-perishable items in your storage, but only those that you will end up using in time. However, some of them may expire too in a certain time period.
Purchase supplies when prices are lower
All suppliers offer promotions or discount codes and vouchers at some point, and there is usually a sale that you can use to get items for a fraction of the price they usually cost. So, pay attention to these things and know when it is time to stock up on your most needed dental supplies, and when it is better to only purchase the essentials.
You can follow these things by regularly checking the prices in your preferred stores (whether online or a brick and mortar location), their competitors, and you can sign up for newsletters and promotions that can help you get these supplies much cheaper. Know that there is always an offer somewhere, and chances are, you can get some codes or vouchers if you look hard enough. However, as good as promotions are, sometimes cheap can be expensive too. The dental supplies may come from low quality suppliers and use cheap materials that might not be suitable for your practice. So, you’ll want to make sure you’re procuring dental supplies from reputable suppliers whether online or offline.
There are dozens of online suppliers that can help fulfill your dental supply needs. The big thing is ensuring the supplies are in stock and come from reputable suppliers. You want to make sure that you will receive what you paid for in a timely manner too. Sometimes, you may be drawn into low price dental supplies, but find out after you order them that they cannot be delivered for 30-60 days (or more) and that may cause a whole new set of issues for your office.
