Trying to Grow My Laboratory Too Quickly

By Felix Silva, Vice President, YDL Concert, Carrollton, TX

My biggest mistake was implementing a large marketing plan for immediate growth and not having a game plan on how to scale the business. In 2007, I co-owned American Dental Lab in Garland, TX, and business was hurting due to the tanking economy and crowns going overseas. I knew I had to figure something out so, within my laboratory, I started another lab—Advantage Dental Lab—geared toward PPO dentists and mainstream bread-and-butter type of work. 

I marketed it aggressively through email, direct mail and sales reps and within the first six months business really took off—but we couldn’t keep up. I hadn’t anticipated that much growth and didn’t know how to manage it. I couldn’t find enough technicians to do the work, we missed...