Like most dental students, Drs. Ali and Mohamed Saad received limited training in the fundamentals of operating and growing a business.
Rather, the entrepreneurial skills they developed to acquire and manage eight dentistry practices in metro Detroit came from working at a young age in their family’s businesses — Saad Bros. Supermarket and 5 Star Distributors, both in Dearborn.
“My father worked on the assembly line for more than 20 years at Ford Motor Co. when he and his brothers opened the supermarket,” says Ali Saad, who began working at a dental practice when he was 16 years old.
“From there, they started a food distribution company for things like olive oil, rice, hummus, and other products. As kids, we worked alongside them and watched how they grew the business.”
The distribution company eventually expanded throughout the Midwest.
“We saw how important customer service is, we learned how to grow a team, and we saw how impor-tant it is to communicate with your team,” Mohamed adds. “And while we had ideas as teenagers about starting a business, our parents wanted us to get a formal education first.”
Following graduation from undergraduate and dental schools, the pair teamed up in 2011 and acquired Saad Oral Health and Beauty in Birmingham. Over time, they put everything under one business — Prime Dentistry in Birmingham — where they serve as co-CEOs.
“I learned early on that if we were going to own a dental practice, it was easier to acquire an existing one rather than try to build up a business from scratch,” Ali says.
Taking it eight steps further, the brothers say they plan to keep expanding. Adding travel and logistical challenges to operating a business with 85 employees isn’t practical at the moment, but they eventually plan to grow across Michigan.
“Our families are here and we have young children,” Mohamed says. “We plan to have a larger footprint without compromising our passion for the business. We don’t set quotas. We don’t want it to be like a factory. We take our time with each patient so we have a fuller understanding of their goals.”
Still, for all of the entrepreneurial skills they developed early on, one business principle they didn’t follow was conventional branding.
“We kept the names of the existing dental practices rather than put them all under Prime Dentistry,” Ali says. “We didn’t want to become a commodity. Right now, 30 percent of the dental industry is owned by private equity firms, and it’s rare to be an independent.”
Mohamed is quick to add patients prefer to honor neighborhood businesses. “People like working with someone local,” he says. “They know their money is staying in the community, and they know small businesses like ours support their communities.”
