Mint Dental Spa, Daniele West and Jenn Davis
A spa for your teeth? That’s right! You can relax and be pampered when you visit Mint Preventative Dental Spa, a locally owned independent dental hygiene boutique located in Berwick, Maine. Mint offers luxury preventative dental and oral health care for adults and children. Owners Daniele West and Jenn Davis are passionate about taking dental care to the next level. They tailor their appointments to the customer's unique needs and include extra services like lymphatic drainage massage for the face and exfoliating sugar lip scrub treatments to wrap up everything after each cleaning.
Before opening Mint, Daniele and Jenn practiced together for 6 years at a general dental practice, caring for a variety of patients. In their everyday routine, they recognized an opportunity to make otherwise routine dental visits a form of luxury self-care. “We wanted to create an environment and level of care where patients not only enjoyed their visits but actually looked forward to their next one,” said Daniele. The two want to empower people to take care of their oral health and help reduce some of the anxiety and fear that is so common for patients when it comes to dentistry. As busy moms of young children as well as full-time employees, they quietly got to work, using their lunch breaks to write their business plans and holding meetings from their car. "We had to use any pocket of time that we could find to get things done,” said Jenn.
Time was definitely an obstacle but both women were determined to make their dream happen. Navigating through starting a new business, all while juggling their full-time work schedule and caring for their families was challenging but they were up to the test. Being their first business, they needed guidance and had heard of the services through the SBA and SCORE decided to reach out online. "We were nervous to share our idea and have someone think it was silly or unattainable," said Daniele. “Our mentors were so helpful, guiding us through the process of starting a business from opening a bank account to writing a business plan...they always encouraged us and never made us feel like our dream could not become a reality," said Jenn. Mentors Tim Heard and Rajeev Agarwal of SCORE Seacoast commented on how resilient the women were throughout the process, “These are two enterprising people, with a vision and a determination to make it work” says mentor Tim Heard.
Mint Dental Spa has been open for 6 months now, and the women are thinking ahead. “Who knows, we would love to open another one down the road but for now we are focusing on building strong relationships with our patients to best care for our community and eventually bring on some employees to expand our team,” said Jenn. “We love to help others and want to create a place where both our patients and employees can thrive.”
When asked what they would say to an entrepreneur who was on the fence about whether they should start a business? “Don’t shy away from your idea, if you are scared, there is always someone who has done this before and has the knowledge to help you on your path to success," says Jenn, “you’ll be wondering why you didn’t start sooner!”
Money was their next obstacle. The women had a dream for their new dental practice, and funding that dream required capital. The women said that asking the bank for a loan was one of the most terrifying things they'd ever done, as it can be intimidating to ask for that kind of money. “Our mentors gave us a pep talk and gave us the tools and confidence we needed," Jenn stated. They worked hard on putting a well-prepared business plan together. The women marched into the bank and presented their ideas. They were pleasantly surprised. "We walked out of the bank, looked at each other, and said, wow! This is actually happening!” said Daniele. The fact that the women would be running their own business became very real.
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