Sampada J. Deshpande, DDS
“I’m passionate about bringing business education to every new dentist and dental student as well as seeing them create meaningful change in their communities with those added soft skills.”
Sampada J. Deshpande, DDS, is the founder of the New Dentist Business Club (NDBC), an organization helping dental students and new dentists foster strong leadership and communication skills.
The NDBC initially started as a fun idea to gather friends from dental school to discuss career goals, but it grew into a nonprofit organization offering biweekly business and leadership lectures to dental students and new dentists.
“By founding the NDBC, I have been able to bring together two of my personal passions: continuing education and community service,” Deshpande said. “I’m passionate about bringing business education to every new dentist and dental student as well as seeing them create meaningful change in their communities with those added soft skills.”
With a cost-conscious membership fee and an all-virtual platform, Deshpande has seen NDBC’s membership bloom from just three members in September 2019 to 50 today. The organization teaches members how to buy a practice, learn government regulations, hire staff members, budget for CE and implement business systems.
Although business skills play a central role, Deshpande said the NDBC’s “culture of camaraderie and supportive mentorship is what makes me happiest in this endeavor.”
Deshpande has her eye on two goals to accomplish over the next decade.
First, as a current trainee of the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program, Deshpande hopes to build a practice that focuses on the dental needs of patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Secondly, she’s hoping to expand the NDBC to every city in North America that has a dental school.
“Apart from teaching business know-how, we want to help new dentists build a growth mindset and begin thinking like entrepreneurs,” Deshpande said. “We want to inspire others to have big goals and stop at nothing to achieve them.”