Joshua Belof is child of God, a husband to Elizabeth, and father to 3 amazing young girls. One year ago they moved to the mountains of Franklin, NC, a very small rural town at the base of Smokey Mountain National Park, and is about to open his second FFS startup practice. Ten months ago, he sold his first startup dental practice, also FFS, after owning it for 11 years, with no commitment to return to dentistry. He has spent the last year evaluating many business opportunities but found that that dentistry is truly the best business one can own, and he will be launching his new startup practice in the next week. He believes that you don’t have to accept the current situation you are in, and that dentists are so blessed because we have so many options to reinvent our careers and rewrite our own stories. It just takes the guts to step out and make the changes. As a little boy from New Jersey, he always wanted to be an airline pilot. He and his family moved to Tampa FL in his high school years. He started working in a dental office at age 18, starting with fetching his bosses’ (and soon to become mentor’s) coffee, washing his car, cleaning out the attic, assisting chairside, filling in at the front desk, and eventually carving teeth out of soap. Dentistry was interesting, but not as much as aviation. He then went to Clearwater Christian College graduating with a BS in Pre-Medicine. However, undergrad education and the progression to dental school, was just a back up plan. While in college he earned his pilot’s license moving one step closer to his airline pilot dream. But then, everything changed. While in college, his mother received a cancer diagnosis, and passed away 6 short weeks later. There were some amazing nurses and doctors who displayed a high level of compassion and caring, and this left a big impact. He decided to turn his goal towards dentistry so that he could impact others in a manner similar to the cancer doctors. He applied to one school, and in 2007 received his DMD degree from the University of Florida College of Dentistry. Immediately after school, he went back to work for his mentor, Dr Jeff Weihe, who taught him advanced CEREC applications and that a FFS practice is a practice model worth emulating. The financial crisis hit, and Dr. Belof eventually found himself working for a large corporation- the complete opposite of a FFS practice. Needless to say, this was a poor fit and one of 3 three major career moments that motivated a big change. The only way forward was ownership. And it had to be a startup. The doors are set to open this week for Career 2.0, AKA Signature Dentistry of Franklin, a FFS startup with plans to be low overhead, high tech, high touch, in a town that is dentally underserved. The FFS aspect will help fund the Heroes program, which is meant to act almost as a second practice within the practice, that donates dentistry to local community heroes who have demonstrated selfless service to the community. Dr. Belof’s core values for his dental office are gratitude, kindness, excellence, hospitality, positivity, and difference making. These values and a renewed sense of WHY are the driving force for Signature Dentistry.
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