Clayton Parker
Business Name: Savon Dental Plan
Website URL: http://www.SavonDentalPlan.com
Email Address: clayton@savondentalplan.com
Year Founded: 1992
Number of Employees: 4
What does your company do?: We are a stand alone membership discount dental plan.
Was there a specific turning point when you realized your business was moving to the next level?: About 4 years into the business, we started to realize how little attention was being paid to dental health by insurance comanies. That was the point where we realized that dental insurance was over priced for the amount of benefit that was offered and that we had a better product to offer the consumer.
What processes or procedures have you implemented that have helped grow your company?:
We have an interactive website complete with live help. By taking the company from 80% paper to 90% electronic we have been able to streamline our customer service, sales and membership fullment while reducing our staff from 14 to 4.
What is most rewarding about running your business?: Knowing that we are helping people by making dental care more affordable.
What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?: The economy and the new health care act. Like so many companies, we are still working on overcoming these challanges. After seeing so many companies going out of business, we feel blessed that we are still here.
If you were starting over today, what would you do differently?: Try to find a good funding source so we would have the abilty to advertise more.
What advice do you have for other business owners?: If you are not willing to lose everything for you business, don’t go into business. Your own business is your life, you live, sleep, eat and breath your business.
Please list any favorite books, tools or resources (software, website, etc.) you would recommend for others: Linkedin, dental related sites, and computer programming related books.
What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you?: Prior to starting Savon Dental Plan in 1992, I had no experience in the dental field. I spent 25 years prior to Savon in the floor covering industry.
