Planning leads to project success

Three weeks into the construction of their new office at 3424 S. Culpepper Court, Dr. Graham and his wife, Robbin, business administrator for the practice, were riding their motorcycle when it crashed into a van – at 60 mph. George Graham was trapped between the van and the bike for some distance, and his left leg was crushed from the knee down. Robbin Graham suffered a broken spine and a fractured tailbone, and her right foot was nearly severed from her body.

The accident occurred the day after the couple closed on their new location and ordered new equipment and furnishings for the office.

However, the Grahams had spent nearly a year planning all of the details for the new office before the project began – and that’s what helped the move to proceed on schedule.

“Without the planning, it would’ve been a total nightmare,” George Graham said.

Though the injured couple was limited in terms of hands-on participation during the June to August 2004 construction of the new location, Graham said planning helped to get the $1.25 million project finished on time and on budget, enabling him to move his practice from 1,500 square feet at 1715 E. Cherokee, Ste. 104, to 5,500 square feet where he works now.

“When we went into this, we had a very clear vision of what we wanted to accomplish,” Graham said. “It made it easy to recognize the right opportunity and it made it easy for us to put together that which we wanted.”

Graham’s new building has five treatment rooms, and there are networked computers in each of the rooms, plus computers in other areas of the office. Stereo One installed monitors and equipment in each treatment room so that patients can listen to satellite radio or watch movies during lengthy procedures. The patient chairs have memory foam padding for comfort.

Graham said revenues are up 30 percent, though he declined to give specific amounts, and he and his six employees are able to more efficiently and more completely serve their patients with cutting-edge technology, such as intraoral photography, digital X-rays and solely electronic patient records.

Graham said that all small-business owners should have a clear vision of what they want before talking to a contractor.

“It’s kind of like buying an airplane ticket,” he said. “If you haven’t decided where you want to go and when you want to be there, how are they going to help you?”

Contractor Jeff Julich of Southwest Builders Inc. said planning meetings with the Grahams allowed all parties – architect Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc., interior designer Buxton-Kubik-Dodd Inc. and equipment dealer Patterson Dental Supply – to coordinate their efforts. No broker was used when the Grahams bought the building and land from Terry Winkler.

“(We were able to) eliminate a lot of problems early on that we would have had to deal with while the project was going on,” Julich said.